Money Badger part 2

[REDONE]

I almost revived my original build thread from page 6, but it's already 99 post long and what I've done isn't relevant to what I'm doing.

Here's what's already been ordered!:
MSD dizzy gears
Comp Cams roller timing chain
BJs timing gasket set
BJs wiring harness (21 circuit)
Jegs weatherpack terminal set
Dolphin "Shark" 5gauge mechanical set


Smittybilt standard bucket seats (Black, vinyl)


And some three point DOT approved harnesses. Ok, they're really seatbelts, but not auto retract push button wussy seatbelts.


The plan of attack is:
Get the truck back in the garage (now that I HAVE a garage again!)
Pull the power steering and get my big bore box and pump rebuilt (mcparts three ear replacement leaked within a month of install)
Gut all the wiring, including my mcparts gauge cluster and previous engine bay rewire
Pull the timing cover and replace the dizzy gears and timing chain while looking for and sealing up leaks
Rewire with all new harness and weatherpack terminals with provisions for TBI in the near future
Rebuild dash with easy access to new fuse block and future ECM
Carpet and build seat mounts with cooler holder between seats
Figure out how to piece together a JY TBI

If time and money allow before Ouray, Regear to 4.10s and dutchman rear shafts.

But it all starts with stuffing the truck back in the garage, which I will hopefully get to this afternoon, after my nieces birthday party.

[REDONE]

Step one, check!

[Stuka]

Let me know how those seats work. My seats are too thick in the base and make getting in and out a major pain.

[REDONE]

Let me know how those seats work. My seats are too thick in the base and make getting in and out a major pain.

Will do. There's quite a few unknowns here for me. First time PAYING for NEW seats instead of junkyard scavenging, Sunpro is gone, fuel injection, and such.

When you get to Ouray this summer I'll let you take it around the block and judge for yourself, since opinions are worth what you pay for them.

[Gumby]

Where the neck is the ladder rack? Get to work man need someone to tow me back to camp.

[REDONE]

Don't worry, the ladder rack will be back on shortly. I'll need it to haul around a canoe.

[REDONE]

Alright, the goodies are pouring in! Got the timing chain, dizzy gears, gaskets and harness from BJs, the weatherpack set just showed up from Jegs and the seats and seatbelts from Amazon (Smittybilt seats and Seatbelt Solutions belts) are here too. At this point I think I'm just waiting on the Dolphin Gauges to show up. Also decided that I'm going to do a weatherpack firewall bulkhead connector too, instead of trying to salvage the old one (I remember that it's slap up slathered in monkey poo from the factory, and I drilled a hole in it for a new main lead when the old one burnt up) or using the grommet included with the kit because that's just cheesy. A 22-wire weatherpack bulkead fitting is $30-$40 depending on where you order it, so I need to count the wires in the harness to see if that will work.

Another thought I'm having is in regards to the bezel. Mine is toast and has been for a while. It burnt up right before Ouray '12 so I cobbled together a Pepboys special with Sunpro stuff. Sunpro is now out of business, bought and killed by Bosch, but whatcha gonna do. So anyways, I'm going to make a new bezel out of aluminum, but rather than polish it I'm probably just going to paint it. More over is the climate controls, I hate them. I mean, I like HAVING climate controls, I just hate the ones I have. I think I'm going to run the flapper doors with choke cables and get rid of the vacuum switch. I just need hot/cold and defrost/floor, then off/low/high for the fan. I think I can mount them on the lower edge of the dash where there's already a plethora of holes drilled for pull knobs and switches both at the factory and by previous owners. The floor vents have been defunct since I bought it, but if I bring them back to life I will probably use morse cables instead of choke cables just to keep it all working smooth. I'll edit this with some pics later but right now the woman becons!

[REDONE]

Here's the goodie pile!



That "extra" thing there is there because it's cheaper than heater for my freezing garage.

Got the main portion of the interior wiring harness ruthlessly removed today and started cutting out a whole new gauge bezel but that will get photographed once it looks like something more than 1st year welding school plasma cutter practice.

[csuengr]

I hope you got crimpers for those Weather Pack connectors. If you need any extras, just PM me. I work for the company that builds those kits.

[REDONE]

Hardy har har, I'm stupid. Yanked the intake to fix a coolant leak, it's just the heater hose.

[csuengr]

Never hurts to practice.

[ClovisMan]

Although that dad-gum valley gasket is money. 28 bucks for gasket!!!
I stripped 2 spark plug holes after I already had everything together the first time. that means I had to buy valley and head gaskets. DOH!

[memo43]

is that an EZ wiring harness kit you have.
keep up the work and keep us posted on the wiring

[REDONE]

It is an EZ wiring harness! I like that the gauges (dolphin) are the same company. While I thought I ordered mechanical gauges, the only mechanical one is the speedo, so I'm pretty happy about that.

I'm about to head into work so I can use my TIG to weld in my O2 bung to the y-pipe and use the parts cleaner to clean my timing cover. I'm going to add an oil sprayer to keep my dizzy gears safe. After i finish my weekend thrash-fest I'll post up some pics and updates.

[memo43]

I got the same harness and gauges, although my speedo does have the trip ohmmeter
the seat belts are for the front or rear seats.

[REDONE]

It's a truck, so it's only got fronts.

[csuengr]

Not doing the Subaru Brat thing?

[REDONE]

Maybe when my daughter is out of diapers I'll look into that, but for now it's just gonna be a two-seater.

[REDONE]

Alright, weekend update. Busted my butt and my knuckles. I work hard at work and that's probably the main reason I don't want to work on my own junk. That said, I'm pretty sure having a baby is the main reason it's taken a year to get back on the Money Badger. I have to get it emissions ready since I officially moved from Park County to Jefferson County. Official or not I do care about the environment as much as I care about fuel efficiency and reliability so fuel injection is happening. BUT that opens the door to fixing all the other stuff too.

This engine has lunched two sets of dizzy gears. It's always had good oil pressure. At least reading at hot idle. Not great but not engine killing bad either (stock and mechanical aftermarket gauges). SO: With the FI upgrade I pulled all the tin to look at the guts. Here's some wisedom or foolery, depending on your politics. First is the blameless. Chinese manifolds don't fit. Holy Cow! stop the presses! Masses riot! The world is in shambles! No...nevermind, nobody is surprised. The dorman/Omix-ida replacement manifolds are too thick at the center two ports to clear the head bolt. I ground mine already knowing this, but I didn't grind them enough:

Once I ground them enough to fit they look fancy:


Now for the timing cover, let me start by saying I'm NOT PROUD of this. If I had more time and money I would have been the engineer I am instead of the shadetree hack that would pull this stunt. I would have used 316 and swagelok fittings. Time necessitated that I use copper and lowes chincy fittings. I wanted an oil sprayer directed at the distributor gears and I'm confident this will work. My placement of the sprayer is based on logistics and physics instead of youtube videos. I need oil supplied at the point of friction. On the plus side, in my world, copper is usually considered a lubricant in itself:



Also, I opened up the oil discharge side of my oil pump:


It's been too long since the Money Badger graced my work parking lot:

When we moved into this neighborhood, the kids that lived here called it the "Terminator Truck" mostly on account of the tailights. I miss those kids coming around.
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Wholy crud. I'm about to turn 37. Is this my midlife crisis? Should I just scrap it and take up the sax and buy a miata?

[GaJeep94YJ]

It could be worse. Like I tell my wife, I'm going to have a mid life crisis. Would she rather me have it in my garage with the jeep? Or at the office with my Secretary?

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