Sams Zuk

Here's a pic of what my bro has been working on...

Zookmeld 2009

Howdy! I posted this on my other blog, so here it is again. Just to keep up with the consistencies of the blog. All posts Mr T are here!

The beginning of the End

Mr T blew up... more to come in 5 minutes...












Well,

I can't say it was unexpected. We had a great time out 4 wheelin' by Rocky Mountain House here in Alberta. All kinds of terrain, water crossings, rocks, hills, straddling deep washouts, and muskeg. The Last mudpit of muskeg did Mr T in. We had been riding trails for hours and were deep in the woods when Mr T started making a fuss. A ticking. It was at about this point that we decided to turn back, mostly a coincidence. That and over the next hill the trail faded away. It was more like we decided to turn back, as it was getting late in the day, and the trail faded away over next hill THEN unstuck from the muskeg, Mr T started ticking. Savy?

We had planned on wheeling for a good part of Sunday, but now that the ticking had started, getting home was top priority. As I drove the few hundred kilometers back to Edmonton, the ticking got less intermittant and more obvious. So loud, in fact, that anyone outside their vehicle turned to see what the racket was as I drove by. Even a guy on his horse, off the side of the busy highway was startled by the sound.

I have had this type of an experience before...a few years ago with a 1985 S15 Jimmy. I drove it for two weeks with a very loud ticking before it reached catastrophic failure using a connecting rod as a battering ram with the side of the engine block.

I remembered the sound vividly as it re-occured 15 minutes South of Edmonton by a small manufacturing community known as Nisku. "KNOCK-KNOCK-KNOCK-CLUNK-TA-CLUNK-POP-CUD!" The horrible noise ended, but unlike before I knew it didn't fix itself. I quickly popped it into neutral and coasted off the highway on the exit ramp into Nisku.

Mr T - Lift

So I've lifted Mr T...using a neat technique...I cut out the ball joint pocket and made a new one, approximately 2 inches forward 1.5 inches down, and 1/2 inch out. Then to bring the back up I cut a 3/4" spacer with our laser and added those to the rear coils. The original frame to ground clearance was: 8.5" front, 9.5" rear. After the lift: 10.5" front, 11" rear. Woohoo more clearance for more fun!

Bad Gas

I got the Beast running well one day...the next time I start it, it runs like garbage! So I decided it has to do with the fuel pump. It ran fine at ~30psi fuel pressure, then the day it ran poorly it was at ~15-20psi. Today I dropped the fuel tank. Man this thing is RUSTY EVERYWHERE! Some of the lines returning to the tank were rusted right through. Nothing a little two part plastic weld to heal rust too bad to weld. I'm glad I decided to keep it for offroad only. The prefilter (before the fuel pump) was covered in very fine rusty colored silt. No wonder it couldn't pressure up the system! It needs fuel flow to do that. I cleaned the filter, dumped out the gas:
and cleaned the tank. I regapped the plugs, put $3.40 of gas in it and away she goes! I think I just need to tweak the timing and I'll be ready to move on to other mods...
Evidence of the drive today:

The Beast - Progress

Well, Here are some pics of the progress I've made (mostly today). I put a new bumper on the front, new bumper on the back, relocated the spare tire, and ripped out the carpet.

Below: a little bit of a suprise under the carpet!

The Green Beast Lives!

I've been trying for weeks to get that durn thing running well. The short of it is I checked everything multiple times, I replaced the throttle body, finally I replaced spark plugs and wires. That helped tons. It was still running like garbage so I pulled the fuel injector. As I was about to swap over the injector from the original throttle body I realized I plugged the wrong wires into the wrong connector when I installed the spare TB. DOH! So I reinstalled the injector and voila! It now runs great. Man - I'm kicking myself for messing that up. But really...it's all good now!

Now that I know it runs decent it's time to do a little metal fabrication. I'll keep you posted.