Leaderboard

did a drain and refill on front and rear diffs, transfer case, and transmission. diffs were still good, transmission was pretty dark, and the transfer case was black... yikes. still haven’t gotten around to the wheel bearings because i still don’t have a jack since our old one broke [emoji1475]. Just btw, I post on this thread more than@buttercup because i’m on the forum more frequently than her. plus i’m the one who does the work on the truck. weirdly enough, her 195k pathfinder runs better than my 135k did [emoji848]

Last Missouri photo @Buttercup for the camera work

AARGH! I pulled out the front differential, pulled the oil pan, partially loosened ALL the bearing bolts and took off the timing belt. Everything spun freely so I started putting things back. I set the time and went through several revolutions so I figured it was ok and started putting things back. I put on the fuel rails (only took that off because I expected to have to remove the heads), the starter, the distributor, and the imitation Mr.510 pulley adapter without checking and now it's stuck again. I guess I narrowed down the possible issue but this is massively frustrating. I swear those two little coolant lines on the very back of the engine (from the weird octopus thing bolted to the bottom of the upper intake to the back of the block that T from the heater core lines are the most irritating part of working on the top end besides lining up the EGR tube with Pacesetter headers when most of the stuff on my 33 is from the 30. Complaints aside, I realized that if you have the differential and the oil pan off it's really easy to get to the torque converter bolts. If i ever pull the motor out again in putting it back in without the oil pan. Going through the starter slot is a pain, especially when your dad is right there talking about inspection plates on mopars. I typed that several days ago and evidently forgot to hit post. Anyways, earlier i pulled off the starter, the distributor, and the pulley adapter and it spun freely again. I put the distributor back, it spun, and then I put the starter back and it was like dragging on the flexplate. Granted I lost one of the bolts so I have an old head bolt with two inches of washers on the bottom, but it shouldn't be interfering with the flexplate. I bought the starter new last year and it's only been engaged a couple of times but I have a warranty on it so I'll probably go have it tested. I'm starting to think I'll need some sort of shim to keep it out far enough to clear but still engage the bendix when I need to start the truck. If anyone has any ideas, advice, or previous experience with this issue I'd like to hear it. Thanks for everything guys, I never would have made it this far without support from the community.

Alright, we've been busy. Big batch of parts finally cut and cleaned up, ready for drilling and bending. Couple tweaks on parts from the last sets, most notably changes to the motor mount spacers. Same footprint, but more efficient piece with tons more tool access. In other news...I ordered another CNC plasma table last week. This one will increase cutting sizes to 48" x 33" (my current is 25" x 23", though I've not installed the kit that bumps it to 25" x 33"). This gets us a step closer to making bumpers and skids a reality. Still tons of things to think about in that regard, but since the table won't ship until January, we have some time to plan.