Couldn't have asked for a nicer day and a basically otherwise empty park than Sunday at the Gulches with CORE. Hooked the sami up to the burb and took my middle son Luke with me for the first wheelin trip with me, just the two of us.
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He's been with the whole fam to Uwharrie in the trooper before, but we don't usually get a lot of just us time. I figured it would be a great opportunity since I would be taking it easy regardless since it's a shakedown run.
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We had a great mixed group with 4-5 guys that were hitting all the crazy lines and the moderate rigs able to sit back and watch.
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Unfortunately the fuel issues reemerged. I must have rust and gunk in the top half of the tank. Every time I fill it past half full, the sputtering hesitating BS comes back. So anytime I had to give it some beans up hill or through an obstacle, if it put a load on the engine, it would try to die. So like the first little gulch section we hit, I almost didn't make it out. Had to back out and clutch dump in low 2nd and use momentum. Needless to say, I had to avoid most obstacles, and had to pray it would make it up even fairly easy hills. It wouldn't stay running very well without staying on the gas, but I tried to keep it running to burn off the fuel so maybe it would improve. Also discovered a small coolant leak at the lower rad hose, so I have some more stuff to buy.
I can't find a good EFI tank new in stock (yet) except out of India, which I'm not interested in waiting on and potentially discovering issues. I may give low range or petroworks a call and ask about actual lead times on one of the extended range tanks that come with a skid as well. It's more than I want to spend, but if it's a viable option, I want to get this done sooner than later.
I have a gas tank in a chassis im selling if your interested. Not sure of the condition of the insides though but i can look at it.
In the meantime, I have plenty of other stuff to get knocked out:
-Cut door hinges to make the doors easily removable
-Cage & sliders in process
-Front shafts, locker, knuckle rebuild, wheel bearings
-Rear locker, backing plate, wheel bearings, brakes
-Petroworks fuel tank
-Elec power steering
-Rear bumper
-Front turn signals & rear lights
-Half doors
Pimpin! Any sidetracks are A-OK in here. Otherwise it will be mediocre progress pics every few weeks type boring.So good !
I know, big sidetrack but the current owner of my old samurai sent me a pic of it from last weekend.
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I ran the Track/Kick power steering setup on my old Sami with 34" LTB's and a locked front. It wasn't perfect, but it worked fine for many years. The biggest thing that helped was adding twin sticks to the T-case. Put it in 2-Low, and the Lock Right in the front would unlock and I could turn super tight. It shifted from 2 to 4 and back to 2 easy all day long.No major updates lately - I did however drive it about 25 miles into town for an appt today. Hit the highway for about 10 mins doing 65+ and while it did ok, I'm just gonna say it's a little unnerving in highway traffic to involuntarily begin to draft a passing box truck.
Spindle nut socket showed up in the mail, so I can starting putting things back together on the spare axle with the RCVs and spartan.
Other stuff - I bought into the hype of the electric power steering conversion that a lot of samurai dudes seem to be doing. Got a nissan versa column that should work fine but haven't installed yet. I have the voltage for it and I like the idea that it's not going to need a PS pump to leach power off the motor, but I do worry that I'd to eventually break my steering box. I have a spare box, but it doesn't strike me as an enjoyable trailside fix. I think the electric setup would be fine for something I'm not going to beat on, and I don't plan to completely destroy this thing, but I don't want to worry about it. I really wish I could find an electric ram with enough travel, speed, and strength to get the best of both worlds - no pump needed and no box, but to my knowledge I don't think anything like that exists.