mws

In figuring out the luggage rack for my '87, I noticed the little 4x4 emblem on the side behind the doors is in a pretty good spot to mount the crossbar. It would be cool if I could use that emblem as a cover over the mount holes when the rack is not in place. How is that emblem attached?

Before you install a K&N or any other cotton gauze knock offs, you owe it to yourself to read this: http://home.usadatanet.net/~jbplock/ISO5011/SPICER.htm The Reader's Digest version: They do flow more. A little more air, and a lot more dirt. And they plug up a lot faster. Up to you to decide if the frequent servicing and dirt ingestion (and resulting shortened engine life) is worth the (possible) performance improvement. I used them on my track bike as it made a tiny little improvement and I only put a few hundred miles per year on it. Never in vehicles I plan to keep over 100K miles. Expecially where I live - the dirt is mostly decomposing granite from the sierras - which is very hard and very abrasive. I just change the paper filter frequently.

Thanks, all! Since I am buying new wheels (the old ones have a lot of rust), I can get the optimal backspacing. So what do you think would be the optimal backspacing for the Kumho 31x11.5"? I'm thinking 3.5" to prevent rubbing on the inside, but will that lead to more problems rubbing on the outer fenders and flares?

I did a search, but this seems to be the one question I didn't see answered! So I'm getting closer to buying a set of serious off road tires to be used on adventures only. I had it pretty much narrowed down to the "new" Cooper STT in 31x10.5-15 with a 4" backspace 15x8 steely. '87 XE. And then I noticed that Kumho offers the Venture MT in a 31x11.5-15.... A little wider would be better for flotation in the Nevada desert, no? But will they fit without a body or more extreme suspension lift? I cranked the T-Bars a little and lifted the rear suspension an inch or two, but that's as high as I would like to go (for a number of reasons). 31x10.5-15's fit fine but were close. Can I squeeze one more inch of width or will I get fender rub in tight turns? Will a simple plastic trim fix it, or is it metal whacking time?

Reviving an older thread here... So has anyone actually tried the new Cooper STT? Impressions?

It's a little annoying. I replaced the clutch slave cylinder in Feb, and the master cylinder in April. I put a dab of grease on the end of the MC pushrod, and greased as much of the pivots as I could while I was in there. A couple months later, a noise started abruptly. When depressing the clutch pedal, it emits a creaking pop sound when about 1" from the bottom. And as I release the clutch, it does the same about 1" from the top. So it happens at different parts of the travel on the way up and the way down. Sounds like it is coming from up under the dash. And moderately loud, as well. Can easily hear it over road noise, and need to crank the stereo very loud to not hear it. I sprayed the pivots and helper spring with a spray lubricant to see if it would quiet down, but no change. I suspect the helper spring may have slipped or broken, but I can't see anything obviously amiss. And of course, sounds travel so the source could be in the MC itself... Any ideas??

Hmmm.... Maybe Nissan transmissions are better designed than GM? Well, duh... No surprise there! How do you know there is no air? I tested mine after another guy advised me I should. I ran cold water over the cooler for about 5 minutes after a long drive. Then I started it back up and put my hand on the cooler. The top 1/2 remained cool for quite a bit longer than the lower half because the lower half had hot fluid pumping through it whereas nothing was flowing in the top due to all the air trapped in there. I drilled and tapped a new outlet fitting in the top and tried the same experiment. The whole thing heated up evenly.

I ordered 2.5" core Dynomax muffler and cat from Summit for under $150. Local guy had no problem installing it all for me and bent up 2.5" pipe to complete it. But some shops won't 'cuz they're greedy. So use this as a great filter for selecting the shop to do the install. If they won't do it, consider yourself warned that they're greedy buggers and thank them for telling you so! And thank you for running the cat. Although a lot of clueless folks say they hinder performance, a good cat will NOT hurt performance. Some of the really poorly designed ones put out in the 70's and 80's were restrictive, but competition has corrected that. No cat WILL hurt the environment and you. Without a cat, the tailpipe emissions are far more stinky and hazardous to your health.

Umm, err, she would have to have a LOT of personality....

To try to fix it, soak it down with PB Blaster and let it sit in the sun a few hours. Or just go to a junkyard and find a similar jack, but one that will lift higher. Most yards effectively give them away...

Don't know... with the tall tires, I found the stock jack could barely lift enough to do any good. So I hucked it and carry a Hi-Lift.

I would, but I have additional brackets attached to it to hold stereo amps and it ends up being horribly hard to see anything meaningful. It does have quite a few interesting bend and angles to it. I'm not sure I would want to try to reproduce it... I would spend a little more time perusing wrecking yards first.

And hear is yet another theory: I like to put an auxiliary trans cooler BEFORE the one in the radiator on vehicles that tend to have engine overheating problems. Since the amount of heat removed is dependent on the differential in temp between the fluid and the air, the cooler does the most when the fluid is hotter. By pre-cooling the fluid before it hits the radiator, the radiator water does not get as heated up by the trans and the engine is less likely to overheat. Also, if you drive in cold areas, running the coolant through the radiator cooler after the auxiliary cooler "rewarms" the fluid back to nearer the ideal temp. In my tow van, I have 3 aux coolers, two before the radiator, 1 after. 1) Big plate style mounted alongside the radiator since there is room there on a full size van. 2) Big tube and fin style in front of condenser. Yes, this pre-heats the air a little bit, but really not that much... 3) Through the radiator cooler 4) Through the biggest plate style I could find, mounted under the truck with an 8" electrical radiator fan. The fan is manually switched on when going slow and tranny is getting hot. 5) Ultra high flow filter with 1 quart reservoir Of course, if you want to try to add this much stuff in line, you have to worry about fluid restriction and loss of flow. I used massively big coolers with oversize passages, fittings, and hoses, and checked the flow rate before and after installation (temporarily put a piece of clear hose in line to watch) to assure I still had adequate circulation. The engine coolant temp used to get dangerously high about the same time as the transmission. Now, neither one gets even close to too hot - even on 15% grades on 110 degree days with trailer in tow... To purge air, always mount the cooler so the outlet is as high as possible. Then they are self purging. Most trannies occaisionally whip up the fluid a bit and get some air bubbles in stream. If the inlet and outlet are both on the bottom of the cooler, the air bubbles will settle at the top of the cooler. I had to drill and tap a second outlet on one of my B&M plate coolers and plug off the original outlet because the only way to mount it meant both the inlet and outlet were at the bottom. Within 6 mos, the cooler was over 1/2 full of air.

* enlisting really bad impression of Rod Stewart * "If you like my pathy and you think I'm sexy, come on baby let me know...." I've matured to the point where "sexiness" has a lot less to do with simple physical beauty and more to do with personality and soul. I mean, there are beautiful women that are quite unsexy, and some less "traditionally beautiful" women that are unbearably sexy...

what. What? Well?

It's like when we go dirt biking.... We used to amp up on Metallica and the like before we hit the trail, but then I got tired of endoing and faceplanting within 5 minutes... :furious: Now I like a bit of good vintge reggae to set a fun loving but mellower rhythm in my brain. I crash a lot less often now!

Similar to Duffman, I pick the music based on how many parts I want to break!

You see what I see? Oh yeah, a whole new forum for OFF TOPIC stuff! See you over there!

A whole forum for meaningless verbal musings and mutterings! Nice job 88! * quickly departs to sell property in the soon to be deserted General Forums neighborhood *

Oh, and as far as brand of cooler, I've heard there are basically only two manufacturers in north america - one that makes the tube and thin fin style, and one that makes the plate style. And then many companies buy from them and private label them. I greatly prefer the plate style. Much more durable, and seem to work better as well. B&M is the most popular company to buy from. Summit Racing is where I got mine. When you install, make sure the outlet is near the top so any air that gets in the system self purges.

HEAT is the number one enemy of automatics! While you have the tranny out, install a temp gage sending unit in the pan (braze, weld, or JB weld a bung if there is not one)and install a gage. I used an Autometer electric gage and am impressed. If you see temps over 250 in the pan on a regular basis or ever over 275 or so, do something quickly or start saving for another tranny. I ended up with 3 (yup, 3!) auxiliary coolers on my tow van to keep temps under control while pulling our travel trailer and motorcycles up the steeper grades on the way to some of our favorite playgrounds. The engine puts out over 450 lb-ft, which really works the tranny hard. $300 worth of coolers hurt, but that is much better than $3000 worth of tranny... This is an extreme example, but it illustrates that different applications may require equipment beyond what the factory installed.

"Rebuilding" an automatic seems to be one of the less predictable repairs. Sometimes they come out great and run for years, way too often they don't. Very complex little buggers that are asked to do a lot under tough conditions. Some designs are more successfully "rebuildable" than others. IMHO, the best bet is to find a relatively low mileage wrecked truck that had a great functioning transmission at the time of it's death and swap it. You can usually find complete trucks for less than a rebuilt tranny... Personally, I still prefer sticks (since I do not live in a city with traffic jams!) Right now, my nephew and I are in the middle of converting his VW Eurovan from auto to 5 speed. The auto died, and the history of rebuild reliability on these trannies is horrible. He had it rebuilt once, died again 20K later. Got all of the necessary parts (we hope) from a low mileage wrecked 5 speed for less than another rebuild.

Maybe it's just me, but I swear my LSD MT Pathy loves to try to spin out on wet roads. If I go straight, turn the wheel and step on the gas, I get a nice panoramic view of the area... Driver to the right, house to the right, guy that just went by, guy behind me (Hello !! please step on the brakes and give me some room while I get this bastage under control), house on the other side of the street, parked car on the (old) left, and so forth... It has significantly modified my wet weather driving, I try not to use the gas Not against the LSD though, just suprised how well it hooks up sometimes (or lack there of). B This is one of the downsides of LSD or lockers... The intent of them is to prevent one wheel from spinning while the other doesn't. Unfortunately, on snow or wet roads, this has a negative ramification. With an open diff, if you overcome available traction with throttle, one wheel will start spinning and lose all grip. However, the other tire has very little power being applied to it so it is not spinning. So you still have one tire providing resistance to side to side movement. Apply more power, the spinning tire spins faster, but the other is still not spinning - so you still have lateral stability. If you have an LSD or locker, as soon as the one tire starts to spin, the LSD or locker will try to apply the power to the other tire. If you are trying to apply more power than the two tires can apply, then BOTH start spinning. And you now have no lateral stability at all, and any side loading results in spin outs. I have an Eaton Gov-Lock in my tow van. It is a self activating locker. In normal operation, it is a true open diff. If one tire starts spinning significantly faster than the other, a governer spins up and activates a mechanism to lock the diff (a true lock up). This can result in interesting fun on slippery surfaces with a side slope! Fortunately, it makes a pretty noticeable noise when it locks, which warns me to be verrrry judicious with the loud pedal. Bottom line: LSD or locker will help you move forward when traction is scarce, but it is also far more prone to resulting in sideways skidding.

May I suggest a forum where we can schedule time to borrow his truck? I have a few REALLY technical trails I'd like to try....

I be thinking you won't have ANY problems getting someone to swap diffs with! An LSD for an open carrier - no brainer. Since I never use 4WD on road, my optimal setup would be an LSD in the rear, locker in the front. Call it a 3.5 wheel drive set up when off-roading, but still real nice to drive in 2WD on dry or damp pavement.