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It’s up to you on what is first. If it runs better than it drives, suspension if it drives better than it runs, engine lol.
With the 5.3 installed and the DD swapped out, you can connect the DD via OBDII to collect everything except oil pressure from the ECM. Whoever removes the VATS can plug in the tire size and gear ratio so the Speedo is pre calibrated. Mine is that way if I ever do the DD swap. Which I would have done had I not got into a daily driver rehash for my wife lol.
The entire reason I went with Old Air Products over Vintage was the ability to keep my glove box.
The bus I ride is so short it is a yellow Smart Car full of squirrels, monkeys and clowns.
Funny how a glove box is trivial until you don't have one. For instance, I've got the registration stuck to the DS of the dash with some rare earth magnets because there's nowhere else to securely store it.
Looks like Copper/brass radiators are nearly unobtainium? Someone in the past replaced the OEM radiator with a chinesium universal POS, and made a mess of mounting it.
I see an LS specific AL radiator at BJ's but it says '72-'91. Anyone know what the difference is in how the radiator fits or mounts?
Irate's Group buy sucked me in. Wasn't money that I should be spending right now, but the pricing was hard to pass up. On the way are some PRP DailyDriver front seats and a matching rear bench. I'm not expecting them for another 5+ weeks as I ordered them a little custom. Pockets on the backs of the front seats (we store Benchmark atlas' in the pockets on the CTD's front seats) and seat heaters because Ms. ntsqd really likes those in her Sube.
If anyone local is interested in the existing recovered in tan/Buckskin bench seats let me know. Otherwise I'll likely have to take them to the dump.
Love the daily drivers in my bronco and J Truck. Not perfect for getting in and out of but certainly worth it once in. Would put a set of PRP Enduro recliners in the Explorer if it didn’t have the riccaro seats in it. Seating is something I never regret spending money on once they are installed.
The bus I ride is so short it is a yellow Smart Car full of squirrels, monkeys and clowns.
If I've measured correctly it looks like I can fit the 12.5" Tuffy between them. Those don't seem to be hard to get, so I'm thinking to wait until I have the seats in place before placing that order. Just need to decide on stereo or no stereo version. Am not thinking to have a typical front-end in this vehicle. I'll source audio from a thumb dive, BlueTooth or by USB cable. Need to figure out what that set of parts is going to look like.
I found for proper seat placement that 10” to 10-1/2” to be about right. I did an 8” and mounted the dual band radio, winch controls, trailer brake controler, and a small auxiliary fuse panel between it and the seat. I also lowered the height of the box 4” to get the arm rest at the correct height. I felt dirty buying a knock off box but I cut it up so much that I just couldn’t bring myself to spend the dollars on an original, I cut it enough to almost justify making my own.
The bus I ride is so short it is a yellow Smart Car full of squirrels, monkeys and clowns.
The two knock-offs that I've found only come in the 8"-9" wide range, where Tuffy makes three different widths (roughly 8-10-12). I'd really like something a little more cosmetic, but all of those that I've found are made from wood. In the past I have considered making one from something like Starboard or similar, but at this point I think buying something close and modifying it makes more sense. Only thing is, after the shifter extension for the front of a Tuffy exercise for Lars I'm thinking that is an option..... I'll be running the same Winters shifter
Your height comment caught my eye as I've been wondering if they all aren't going to be a bit too tall to work well as an armrest. Most likely I can't design one and have SCS cut it out for less than a Tuffy, much less one of the knock-off's, but I could give it the dims and features that I want w/o cutting up a finished console. I really need those seats now!
The knock off I used looks identical to a Tuffy with the radio box. A friend 3d printed an insert for the radio box that works great for smalls that you want handy or in broken, lip balm, spare reading glasses, etc. I also removed the lock and moved the pad forward, I never lock it anyway.
Been working on a storage solution for the Explorer I need to post about, It has potential.
The bus I ride is so short it is a yellow Smart Car full of squirrels, monkeys and clowns.
Srdayflyer wrote: ↑Sun Feb 02, 2025 10:45 pm
JEEP FSJ
code word for money, money , money ,money , MONEY
for the love of looking cooler than anybody else.
Ah, Ah, too funny and true.... sadly not too many FSJ here in the SF money bay area.... unwinding after another day of wrenching on restarting the 74... too much body rust... but the engine purrs... at 349K... thermostat looks like it freezed closed... and the radiator hoses are coated with rust
Upper
UpperHose.jpg
Lower
LowerHose.jpg
I might do the heater hose as well, they feel crunchy
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Michel
74 wag (349 Kmiles... parked, next step is a rust free body)
85 Gwag (229 Kmiles... the running test lab)
Some point soon I'll need to start trying to find a new home for the TH400 (Chevy cased) & D20 (reportedly has TerraLow 3.15 gears). I'm thinking to try to sell them together. Anyone interested within reasonable range of 93004 might want to come drive it while it's still in the Wagon.
if its that bad in the hoses run evapo-rust thermo cure in your cooling system ,i did a cooling system article about a year ago going thru my issues , i can absolutely say with no doubt your block is loaded with that crud . the evapo-rust is a bit pricy but it works unbelievably well, and there are numerous you-tube vids showing the results, just a very very very good recommendation.
if its that bad in the hoses run evapo-rust thermo cure in your cooling system ,i did a cooling system article about a year ago going thru my issues , i can absolutely say with no doubt your block is loaded with that crud . the evapo-rust is a bit pricy but it works unbelievably well, and there are numerous you-tube vids showing the results, just a very very very good recommendation.
Learned me something today. The '04 Avalanche LM7 (5.3L iron block 'LS') donor uses a Saginaw 'P' PS pump, not the later pump with a plastic reservoir. I'd never really looked at that until today when I had it up in the air while wrestling with removing the converter from the flex-plate.
That's kind of a bummer because the TBI 350 in the Wagon now has one of those later pumps on it's aftermarket front dress . I had it rebuilt by Lee PS expecting that I could just swap it over to the LM7. Now I'll need to have them rebuild a P pump and put one of their remote reservoir housings on it. Maybe I can find a conversion kit set of brackets?
Should be able to, https://goatbuilt.com/ should have something. I had forgotten about them, had I remembered, I would have used their kit on mine to move the alternator to the passenger side rather than moving the battery for an air box, so I could have put my ecm where the battery is currently.
The bus I ride is so short it is a yellow Smart Car full of squirrels, monkeys and clowns.
Air filter, was pondering that yesterday while working on the converter. Config of this 5.3L wants the battery on the DS and the air filter and the coolant surge tank on the PS.
Update on the 4L65E; it has done what 4L65E's apparently do and needs a full rebuild. I was worried about it when I saw how dark the ATF spilling on my driveway looked. Good news is that the trans guy has the OEM t/c adapter and 4wd output shaft. No need to buy AA parts, and especially no need to use AA's adapter to go down to the puny 700R4 4 bolt pattern and then back up to t/c's 6 bolt pattern. The OEM 4L65 adapter is far more robust than that.
Good news is he's doing all the right fixes. They really are a good trans other than a few issues that I never understood why they were never done from the factory, guess they lasted "long enough".
The bus I ride is so short it is a yellow Smart Car full of squirrels, monkeys and clowns.