1st Gen. Lunch Table - General Discussion

Added some more track yesterday. Haha. Found a super cheap older track set so I scooped it up. 24ft long! That first corner is death though!

 

I’ve got a dude wanting me to make an offer on a rhd keep Cherokee. My mom ran the mail out of it, she sold it to another carrier when she went back to work for the state of Tn forestry division, and then he sold it to his replacement when he retired. Ole Jeep’s pretty solid just got a lot of miles on it and I’m not really sure what I’d do with it

 

I can't remember if it's the Lebanon or the Lavergne location. This is where I usually go.

https://www.expresspullnsave.com/

They both are about two hours from me. I didn't make it today. Maybe next time.

 

How many starters you guys go thru? Or maybe a more reasonable question would be; how often did they need starters replaced? I always kinda tripped out on that. The carriers here, shut down and restart the truck every time it stops. I figured they must have some special high duty starters, or at least be placed on the motor where they're simple to swap out, with a couple extra on board, IDK...... It's gotta be a couple thousand times a day, they turn that key. I'm sure they go thru a fair amount of ignitions as well. They take alot of abuse. The trucks I mean

 

All the personal carrier vehicles here just let them run, but on the I6 Jeeps the starter is pretty simple to replace and you can pick up a new one for less than $100.

The Grumman LLVs 'mail trucks' were designed to be stupid simple to service and share a lot of parts with the Chevy S10 of the late 80s early 90s.

 

Color me impressed @Mr.bee. The cracked housing on the top is the starter that split in half. The balancer was involved, yes. It did not come apart tho.........

 

Yeah I don't know if it's protocol, but it must be. Even if they pull right up to a place and are able to stuff the box without exiting the vehicle, they still shut er down. For literally seconds and restart. It's as if they're unable to idle, but I know that's not the case, cuz I see em sitting at red lights idling. Soon enough they'll all be electric anyways, surprised they weren't one of the first fleets to change over. Shit, that just gave me an epiphany. Cops are gonna be upgraded to ninja status. I already see em jammin thru neighborhoods late at night with all their lights off.

 

To Aussies, Ute is short for "utility" if I understand right. They have "utility" vehicles, we have "sport utility vehicles" aka SUV.

I was looking at the Monaro like 20-something years ago because it was LS-packed and looked awesome.

I'm seeing sheared teeth, which means something jumped our from where it should've been. I'd guess either due to poor timing, something not being torqued properly, or something else moving that wasn't supposed to.

 

So the outer ring of the HB didn't come unglued or something, and it was also torqued down properly? Wasn't installed backwards or something stupid, was it?

 

Everything torqued and lubed as should be

 

I edited just after you replied, I think. Did they install the HB backwards? Not super familiar with guts of motorcycle engines, so not sure what a typical motorcycle HB looks like and if that's possible.

 

In between doing some engine work and cleaning up the inside of my truck, I put some of the Mother's black plastic restoring stuff on my grayed out fender flares... wow! I'm pretty impressed, says it may take multiple coats, and I can see some uneven spots on a first quick coat, but damn...

you can see the comparison between the bottom mud flap for what it was before I put it on.

 

Okay, so up until this incident, the bottom end was still factory sealed. This is a big single cylinder engine, (hence the 'thumper' nickname) and the balancer is basically a shaft with an arm out to a large weight, all cast as 1 piece. Not much can go wrong with it. It is however, and interference design, with the balance weight and con-rod sharing a space at alternating times. As you know timing is crucial with an interference motor. Anyways, upon investigation, I found that it was a sheared woodruff key on the crankshaft that nearly cost me my life. (I was going around 70 mph on a busy freeway at night) Connecting rod and balancer met. I believe the piston was on it's upstroke, and balancer came down on the crank end of the connecting rod, and blew the case but they locked up together as well, obviously seizing the motor. First instinct for any experienced rider when you hear or feel anything wrong, is to pull the clutch. Alot of times it'll save you. This particular time, as you can see in the pic, the blown out balancer, jammed into the back of the clutch basket, so the back tire was seized just the same. What happened next is a whole other story, but I didn't die. Why would the woodruff key shear like that? I credit it to alot of miles at a high rate of speed for extended durations made it soft. Think solid 95 mph for straight 1 hour, twice a day, 5 days a week for 3 months. I went to a bunch of shops, talked to a dozen bike mechanics, nobody has ever seen or heard of this happening

 

Another goldie. Nice. You should drop this in the 'What did you do to your 1st gen today' thread. Welcome to the group

 

I believe it might have something to do with people trying to steal the trucks. Sad, but it's happened. Also with identity theft progressively getting worse, a mail truck is a goldmine for those dirtbags

 

@RUSTYNUTS

dads xr650 will do 80, but i usually cruise at 55 when hes following me. It gets rough above that.

i thought it might had overrevved from dropping a gear (or finding a neutral) at the wrong time.

 

This is the only UTE I know…

https://youtu.be/Hu8tX2BAD1k

 

I was cruising with little to no throttle when it happened, I was actually slowing down to exit the fwy. Matter of fact, it was probably fractured and the reverse torque of engine braking finished the job. That's why I was so puzzled, I wasn't on the gas at the time

 

Also I did regear for the highway, but at 95 it was still singin'. Regardless of the gearing, anything over 60 on a dirtbike starts to get rough. You're so high off the ground and you catch all the wind out there. Aerodynamic level-zero. When I'd load it down with tools, it was much more stable, but less responsive, of course

 

Glad you're having a good experience with it, show us a picture in 3 months.

I tried out the Meguair's 'Ultimate Black' and it's hot garbage. The Griot's Garage 'Black Shine Trim Restorer' stuff on the other hand, that stuff was really impressive. One heavy coat, and it lasted for a good year+ with minimal fading.

I'm use the crap out of Meguair's polishing products for consumer-grade polishing at home religiously, so I was really let down. I use Mother's pretty exclusively for polishing alloys, I might have to do a little comparison of the mothers on one side, and the Griot's on the other just for shits n giggles.

I mean, at least there's a good side, you were slowing down to exit, how fast you reckon you were going when it locked up out back?

 

Gonna fix it?

https://brcracing.ca/

 

Then you may like Ted Cassidy who played Lurch on the original Addams Family in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid…

https://youtu.be/G-rAHpRbrkE

 

@shifty` say it aint so.
That's a special hell.

https://youtu.be/CS-qcNoazuM?t=323

 

That maneuver with everyone letting go of their brake at once doesn’t work anywhere around here.

People are only paying attention to the people in front of them. Even more so when they think if the guy before them goes through a red light, it’s legit to follow on their bumper.

 

That harness is pretty easy to come by. Not OEM though. If you order an aftermarket taillight from Amazon it comes with a new harness, bulbs and everything.

I put some of the Maguire's back to black stuff on mine every once in a while. Doesn't last too long but works good for a bit. What shifty is recommending is the real good stuff. I need to pick some up one day.