The Black Hole

[gmanpaint]

I used some thick leather gloves with a 2nd pair of cloth gloves inside. No burns, cuts or bruises today. Miracles do happen!

 

[vroomzoomboom]

how about this? unscrew the pocket from it and grind the tabs off on the underside. then take epoxy on the the back side and put the acrylic in from the bottom? looks like you have it formed pretty close, and would look more finished

 

[gmanpaint]

Pocket is gone already. I guess I could cut off those 4 pocket tabs, and cut some off, all the way around it, to make it work like that. It is molded pretty tight to it as is. Hmmm.....

 

[Turdle]

That is pretty slick. would a heat gun work for that ?

 

[gmanpaint]

Heat gun could possibly work for 1/8" acrylic, but for this 1/4", the oven was best. I used the heat gun on high, to help with the edges while it was still warm.

I went 1/4" because of all the drilling it needed. Thinner acrylic tends to chip & crack easily when drilling. I started with a 1/8" bit, for a pilot hole, then used a step bit for the rest. The winch control power switch took a 1" hole, and the Gauge took a 3/4".

I did away with the alum plate for the winch switches, as the acrylic was too thick for it's threaded post.

Tim really has me thinking of changing it up, and putting it under for a cleaner install.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

Tim really has me thinking of changing it up, and putting it under for a cleaner install.

Sweet! I can be a bad infuance even thousands of miles away

 

[WormsExplorer]

That looks awesome. Can't wait to see it mounted.

 

[ghosttrain2]

You have been very busy!! Looking good!

 

[gmanpaint]

Thanks Dave !
Where have you been lately???

 

[ghosttrain2]

Thanks Dave !
Where have you been lately???

between work, and travelling on days off to be with the wife, doesn't leave much time for anything else. Sold off most of the car projects I had, and kept the trucks. I have been lurking here from time to time, and posted my most recent purchase last night. Bought a clean 1986 Bronco 2, needing a transfer case. Keep up the good work!!

 

[gmanpaint]

So much for that nice new pump installed last spring. Had to install a new (cheapo china knockoff) sender assembly w/pump the other day.

Seems the wire to the fuel Gauge was shorter than the other 3 on the sending unit, and the wight of the modified harness must have caused it to break. Not enough to solder back together, so out it went. I zip tied the harness to make sure it doesn't happen again. Amazing what a cheap zip tie will do in prevention. The flooring door, sure made it easier to do the 2nd time around.

The only thing that has me concerned is the new unit's hard lines are clocked differently. The Nylon line that was repaired, is a bit short now, and it has made a slight bend at the fitting. If it acts like the engine is starving, I will know why. Time will tell. I have to get the brakes working again, in order to test this @ WOT under load, & the new mods out.

The old upper vent tube looks like it is cracked, but hard to tell for sure if it went all the way thru or not. I did not see that when I did this job last spring, and it is something new.

New

 

[CDW6212R]

That looks good, I like all of it but the fuel line. My Mercury was twisted up like that when I did the pump the first time. The last time I had to drop the tank, I bought a used feed line from here and swapped that in. Those tiny internal clip/fingers catch some times, and pulling on them makes them worse. Mine was not fixable when I first got it off, I think the used line was about #35 or so shipped, in a three foot box(line folded in half, worked great).

 

[ghosttrain2]

I bought a Dorman fuel line repair kit, when I built my Explorer, and made my fuel lines. It worked great! If you are careful, some of the ends can be reused.

 

[gmanpaint]

Yeah, I have the smaller Dorman line / connector, for the good side. Lol

I had replaced the line connector on the side that is bent a little. If it turns out to be a problem, that is what I will do.

 

[gmanpaint]

Rant on:
I have been having the toughest time with vendors & purchasing items lately.

Waited 3 months for an item that was supposed to take less than 1 month. Arrived in a destroyed package. I "think" it survived.
After waiting 3 months on another set of parts, and had to open a paypal claim to get reimbursed on that one.
Been waiting on another item for a month, that was supposed to take 3 days, and just got an update that it won't arrive for another 2 months. Cancelled that order. Now looking elsewhere.
Farmed some work out on the rig that had a 90 day agreed upon time frame, and gave an extra 2 weeks on top of that, and it came back about 80% done. Having to finish up, clean up, and re-do a lot of that work to get it up to snuff, was not in the game plan. Figures, the first time I trust someone to work on this rig, and this crap happens. Had to cancel a trip over it.
Ordered some parts for another project, and they arrived not the same as I ordered. Special order from a shop, and they can't return them. They are considering trading them for something different for me tho. Crossing fingers on that one.
Need a few more big ticket items, but I am now gun shy about ordering anything online. I might be able to get some of them locally, but will have to pay the crazy mark ups on them.

The way we have transitioned to shopping online, the automated recordings, the emails, the texts, and the lack of personal communications, just irritates me. I walk into stores, and the shelves are bare, or stocked with items that seem to have no relevance. I am instructed to go online, and order/pay there, then come back and pick it up, or pay to be shipped to my home. WTF? You younger folk aren't bothered that much by this, as it seems normal to you. I grew up in a completely different era, and have watched as the times have changed, and for me, this isn't for the better. I still like a handshake and speaking to a real person when conducting business. Texting & Facebook for conducting business is about the most idiotic form of communications there is. People would rather text, than actually speak, or leave a voicemail. C'mon, really? Seems pretty chickenshit to me.

Rant off..... Have a nice day!

 

[boominXplorer]

I know the feeling. I just recently stopped purchasing parts for my business online over spending a bunch of wasted time trying to return a cv axle for credit that they wouldn't approve. In the end rockauto did me wrong and now I pay extra just to keep my business local. I spent over 15k with them just last year and they wouldn't take back a $63 cv axle that was damaged because I "took it out the damaged box". Since then I've made a bunch of orders on their website but printed off the cart page and took it to one of my close auto parts stores I deal with. They come as close as they can on their pricing and get me the parts within 24 hours. Since December I estimate they have lost about $4500 in sales just from me. Probably not even noticeable to them but someone has to keep the local stores open. Since then I've redirected my spending to try to keep as much local even if it's 20% more just so ups and usps don't use my parts to make Hail Mary passes around the place.

 

[CDW6212R]

I agree, mail order used to be a dreaded thing, or call long distance to order was almost as bad. Now nobody orders anything that way, it's an instant order by machine and hope it works out.

I've stopped calling a TX place to get a set of used rims refinished. I talked with three people during about 15 calls, over 2-3 months. I got it to where they were to email me a shipping label, but they never did. I wasn't worried until they supposedly moved the business, and then calls were harder to get through. I think insuring the wheels would be smart if I still have to go that route, pay for it both ways. They've got a set on eBay similar to mine, they want $2300 for($1k more than I gave), I don't want to lose these.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

FWIW, rock auto no longer has a customer service call number. you have to do everything on line now. cores, problem with order, parts return, warranty. i found this out earlier last week AFTER i placed a order. the better part, one part is coming DHL. they lover to jam us up the ass in charges. so with the tracking number i called them to as if there was any. they gave a option of me leaving my number and they would call back because of high volume of calls at the moment. well, that was over 9 hours ago...

 

[gmanpaint]

RockAuto is also no longer an EF vendor. I think, they got too big for us here. Going fully automated, is a bad thing IMO. I seen the commercial they made, play on Discovery Channel during all the car shows. They used automated characters.

They save $$ by not having real people to pay for customer service or marketing.

 

[gmanpaint]

Got the brakes bled, thanks to the help of a friend, and took the rig for another small test ride. Seems good for today.

So afterwards, we found the brake lights was stuck on, and when wiggling the pedal they flash at the same time it is manhandled. We also discovered my neon 3rd brake light no longer works. It worked perfectly, before I sent it to the shop. Just had it inspected and new tags right before it was sent off to them. Ok... wtf?

Wait a second....Let's back up a bit here. I need to get this thread fixed, and back on track.

A little back ground first, to put things into perspective. This post is for the sake of this thread, and the rigs history. People have been wanting to know what the hell has been going on these past months. This is the only post made about any of this, and anywhere to date. I was trying to avoid doing this, but it seems I have come up against some issues, that I will need the forums help with. Here it is in the open, and once this is said, I do not want to continue it any further. It is part of this rigs history, and everything to date has been documented this far. I felt this thread would not work correctly, with this info missing. Like ripping out a few chapters in a book. I will provide some details, and the ones that will matter for future work & posts only. It's long, and bad enough as it is. If you don't want to read about stupid drama, I don't blame you, just change the channel.

So....What was done?

The rig is now OBDII with a 98 5.0L, and fully rebuilt auto trans. Atlas had the spline shaft and adapter ring swapped. Trans output shaft was shortened by 3/4" for the Atlas. I didn't want to deal or even try to deal with the electrical headaches that this job required. I can swap engines & transmissions in my sleep, and the occasional wiring work, but this EEC swap, was more then I wanted to handle. I knew of a small home shop elsewhere, that said they are the best in the bizz at this work. I contacted them, told them all that I wanted done, and asked for a price. We came upon an agreement for parts, labor, & a time frame. A few months later, and I gave them the rig, money, and a bunch of brand new parts. I have talked and met them in the past, and they seemed trust worthy enough. If you know me, that is saying something.

Facts, not *****ing, just the facts...

Communications from here on out was nothing short of terrible. Questions asked was ignored, or half answers, and vague at that. Parts sent for install was no not being done, for one reason or another. I gave them 3/4 of the agreed upon price and a few days before it was scheduled to be picked up, I asked for the total balance owed. They gave it, and I paid it that day. I wanted to make sure they had it before the trailer arrived for pickup. All good. During that call, I was told they have a few things to do still, but will be done with days left to road test everything for any bugs to fix. Cool, sounds good so far.

So 14 weeks later, and the (extended) deadline for the pickup had come. A few hours before the driver showed, I called and asked if all was good, if a test ride was performed, and anything I need to know about. I was told everything was done, and no issues, and ready to load and go. Cool. Driver showed late that day, but he showed. He called me, and said it's loaded, but there was something wrong with the truck. When he asked them, they told him, they informed me of the issue already, and all was good, so he left. Hmm...

So that issue was the fuel gauge wasn't working, and they had sent me a FB message, after the delivery driver loaded up and left, that there was an issue. Later that night, when I seen it, I responded and asked about the mystery issue. I was informed the wire broke on the sender the day it was loaded to leave, and nothing they could do about it. ( see a few posts back as to why it broke) Ok, hmm...

Truck makes it back home.

When we took it off the trailer, it was puking coolant. The front right wheel locked up all the way off onto the road. Then the brake pedal went to the floor. It was in 4low to get on/off the trailer, but wouldn't go back into 2H. After fighting the shifter for an hour, we got it back into 2Low, and into the driveway. It was then we noticed the brake lights was stuck on, but the delivery guy didn't mention the 3rd light at that time.

So I sent a message to the shop that had it for 14 weeks, and let them know what had just happened. They said the brake switch was bad, would send a new one, along with parts to fix the fuel gauge. I found the coolant leak was from the new upper hose not fastened. Easy fix, no biggie. They did offer to pay to have a shop do the fuel repair, but I declined, as I knew how to do it. That was as far as the niceties went. All downhill from here.

As the initial inspection resumed, I slowly found a bunch of things wrong, missing, or non existent. (I will post these as I fix them, one at a time.) I have never seen a job done by anybody claiming to be the best in the bizz, look so amateurish. It was blatantly obvious, they ran out of time, and didn't finish. If I knew they needed a longer extension ahead of time, I could have asked my driver if he could handle it or not. After 14 weeks, I wouldn't have minded another week.

I tried to contact them by phone to just talk about this stuff, no luck. They prefer doing bizz by FB messenger over actually speaking on the phone, and I had to send a message. The response was rude & ignorant as far as I am concerned. Being told I do not give credit & praise, for the good work done, and only complain about the bad stuff, made me a bad guy. Well, hang on a minute, I have to have a chance to test the rig first, don't I? Can't do that, when it was returned inoperable.

The agreed up on time frame was even extended by 2 weeks, as the delivery driver managed to manipulate his schedule with his normal day job. He was a trusted friend, that took the side job for this. I then asked for my parts they forgot/neglected to send me with the rig. I asked what the warranties are, and how to handle that, if needed. They ignored me. I never got an answer, or the parts. Hmm... I checked FB again, and read another name calling hateful message. I responded by telling them, calling me names, will not end well for them. The response was them playing dumb. I wasn't going to argue and be as immature, and give response again.

Eventually a package arrived with a Chinese knock off sending unit, and a used brake switch. I installed both. A short trip around the block, revealed the brakes was still soft, and needed more attention. Upon this down time, more issues and stupid **** was found. At this point, all I can do is shake my head, and figure out, how I will ever be able to trust this rig again? So there it is, you pretty much up to speed now. Time to move forward, and get this rig fixed, and trip ready.

Back to today's work, and these damn bloody brakes.

Nothing works for bleeding this thing, except a good old foot pump bleed. I don't know why, it is, what it is. Rig has sat ever since, until today, when I finally got someone to help bleed them.

So now, I can see the used brake switch they sent as a replacement not working right, but the 3rd brake light? Something is up, as I don't see how the Neon ballast can go bad just sitting since last October. The only thing I know what to do with that, is to disconnect the gray round tow harness connector, and clean it real good. Other than that, I'm stumped. Battery is disconnected now. I will get a new pedal switch, and if the same thing happens again, I know it is the wiring going to the switch. Hmm.... Great.

So while the bleed was done, we found the dr side 02 was loose, and the wires up against the exhaust. Fixed that and added some zipties to the wires.
We found the A/C accumulator mount was not on, and the bolt bracket laying on top of the exhaust manifold. Need to find the right bolt for that still.

While looking around that area, we discovered that the relay box for the CAD function was hanging by a single 16ga wire, and made it's way towards the fan shroud. It is just flopping loose. I have to remove the filter duct work to be able to get in there and mount it back to the core, where it will stay put. I couldn't imagine what could have happened if I didn't see this, and it got chewed up by the fan, and thrown into 4wd with a locker at hwy speeds. Scary **** to think about. Just glad we seen it, when we did.

Upon the test ride, the new drive train was finally put under the pressure of the skinny pedal, and gone thru the 1st-3rd. It has a slight stumble upon launch, but recovers. There is absolutely no feeling of the TransGo shift kit (supposedly) installed in the rebuilt Auto trans. If this is what it feels like with one, I hate to feel it without one. Sheesh, it must be a lazy shifting slug. A manual is instantly responsive to the skinny pedal. Such a difference to get used to in this rig.

Been raining for a couple days, and at least 5 days in a row in the forecast, so when I do get time from work, & nature allows, I will get more done, and share previous work, and upcoming work. There is a lot to share, and document.

It has been a heck of a stressful few months for me with this rig, and I can't wait to get it back on the trails. Wheeling season is already here, and I am late to the dance!