1991 Snow Tracker Build

[FleshEater]

Little bit of semi-gloss black goes a long ways. I always jazz up parts a little when its apart and I have some downtime.

I think that might be satin. All I know is it looks better than black paint and rust.

There’s like 3 decent looking parts under the hood. Look at all the greasy dirty shit around the engine. I had it undercoated (guy used used motor oil under the hood) and then off roaded it. Gunk fest!

 

[FleshEater]

So, does anyone have a trick to bleed out a cooling system without starting an engine? It’s fawking cold and I don’t want to keep the doors open while running this.

Only thing I can think of is pulling the thermostat and putting and impact on the water pump and cycle all the coolant that way. Would that work?

 

[JR4X]

So, does anyone have a trick to bleed out a cooling system without starting an engine? It’s fawking cold and I don’t want to keep the doors open while running this.

Only thing I can think of is pulling the thermostat and putting and impact on the water pump and cycle all the coolant that way. Would that work?

Except you lose everything you gained by pulling the thermostat when you have to put the thermostat back in. Some thermostats have a little hole punched in them for bleeding air before it opens. You can drill a 3/16 hole in the plate on that thermostat and not hurt anything.

 

[JR4X]

 

[FleshEater]

I’ll open it up and see if it has one. If not I’ll drill it out and try to get out as much as I can by hand before starting it up.

 

[JR4X]

I’ll open it up and see if it has one. If not I’ll drill it out and try to get out as much as I can by hand before starting it up.

If you have the hole in it, you don’t even really need to spin the pump to get the engine full of coolant. I just did my Jeep the other day. Put a brand new radiator in it and the block was basically dry from sitting with no radiator in it for a over year. I filled it and got all the air out without running the engine. No air burp or having the coolant level disappear when the thermostat opened. Once it got up to temp the expansion of the fluid had to go to the surge bottle and then sucked it back when it cooled off. The trackers do better than most because the thermostat housings are at the top of the head.

 

[FleshEater]

Sometimes

I don’t know how to tag someone in a post, so did it this way.

Do you think I could scathe by with an antique plate on this?

Registration is due and inspection is up in March.

 

[DMG]

I don’t know how to tag someone in a post, so did it this way.

Do you think I could scathe by with an antique plate on this?

Registration is due and inspection is up in March.

Probably. They do t require pictures anymore and you have other vehicles to commute in.

 

[FleshEater]

IT’S ALIVE!!!!!

Valves need fine tuned. 170psi compression in each cylinder. This is a whole new beast with all 4 cylinders running.

 

[YotaAtieToo]

IT’S ALIVE!!!!!

Valves need fine tuned. 170psi compression in each cylinder. This is a whole new beast with all 4 cylinders running.

25% power increase is no joke!

Reminds me of a car I bought at ~18. 87 mr2. Seemed peppy to me, a week or so after I bought it a buddy said it sounded wierd and started pulling plug wires. Sure enough 1 wire was bad. We swapped a wire from his truck and all of a sudden it was a ripper.

Have you gotten a chance to drive it much yet?

 

[FleshEater]

25% power increase is no joke!

Reminds me of a car I bought at ~18. 87 mr2. Seemed peppy to me, a week or so after I bought it a buddy said it sounded wierd and started pulling plug wires. Sure enough 1 wire was bad. We swapped a wire from his truck and all of a sudden it was a ripper.

Have you gotten a chance to drive it much yet?

I did a loop last night with it. I was pulling hills in 3rd gear and half throttle. I could easily gain speed uphill in 2nd gear. It’s like a whole different animal. I don’t have to wind the gears out as hard as before. It’s glorious.

The valve train is just a bit noiser than I’d like, which leads me to believe the valves need adjusted after seating a little better.

 

[FleshEater]

Started it up to drive to work today. Am I just being too particular, or does this sound fine?

*It was flipping cold this morning! Hot idle is 1,200 RPM’s for off roading.

 

[Covecrawler]

Started it up to drive to work today. Am I just being too particular, or does this sound fine?

*It was flipping cold this morning! Hot idle is 1,200 RPM’s for off roading.

Somethings a little loose.

 

[FleshEater]

Somethings a little loose.

That’s what I figured. Going to adjust them all tonight and make sure they’re adjusted properly. I was in a rush last night.

 

[FleshEater]

I think I got it. A compression test could confirm if any are too tight, right?

 

[crispins]

I think I got it. A compression test could confirm if any are too tight, right?

they are better a little loose than a little tight.

Too tight can stretch the valves, fuck the seats up, break a spring, or even drop a valve.

The valves on this are some of the easiest to adjust, you should be getting the hang of it after doing it twice now.

 

[FleshEater]

they are better a little loose than a little tight.

Too tight can stretch the valves, fuck the seats up, break a spring, or even drop a valve.

The valves on this are some of the easiest to adjust, you should be getting the hang of it after doing it twice now.

They kept coming loose on me. I think I forgot to hold the screw down TIGHT as I tightened down the jamb nut. It’s pretty sensitive and easily moves during adjustment.

Or it’s just all that good Amsoil making it slick.

 

[FleshEater]

Today the wife said she didn’t feel like having anyone over or doing anything, so I knocked out the Painless disconnect switch.

Mind you, when this started I pictured a nice, clean install. As soon as I tried to drill a piece of plastic it smashed all to hell and it just went downhill from there.

This is what I ended up with. It works. It ain’t pretty. But it’s a fawkin Tracker.

Original idea was to just install the switch in that part of the factory plastic and then only I would know off and on. Well, once I fuckered it all up I had to commit.

They also better not be teasing me about tomorrow. Mother Nature BETTER deliver! If she does, I’ll have this out all afternoon, into the darkness.

 

[Byro]

Whatever sort of plastic them center bezels are made out of crack and break if you look at them wrong.

Took mine off the trailer today to make sure she is operational if we do get some snow, it’s been sitting on the trailer since Thanksgiving.

Also cut and hauled some wood up to the house. Great little Track-tor.

 

[JR4X]

My dad melted the dash in my 2 door. Transfer case got stuck in low range in Fallon NV in 110° temp. He drove it 42 miles at 15 mph in 3rd and low. Was running the heater on full blast to help keep it cooler. The vents for the heater ducts turned to putty and melted like the face of a stroke patient.

 

[FleshEater]

My buddy got a 3D printer and said all the dash parts are on his CAD programs.

 

[FleshEater]

Well that was a stupid and crazy night.

I drove over to my buddy’s place, which is 22 miles away (39 minute drive) as the blizzard was starting.

I filled up gas, place was so dead, and most people stayed home.

We hit some back roads, and then decided to hit the trails. We went down a steep hill and me and my buddy stopped for a tree down. This is where I realized I need a Milwaukee chainsaw. We tried to winch the tree out of the way, but had no traction to pull.

When trying to turn around and go back, I blew apart the passenger axle shaft.

I got winched up out, coasted over a mud hole that was so deep it would swallow my Geo. Thankfully it was fully frozen! I made it back to his house in 2WD. He offered to take me home, But I want to ride tomorrow as well. So I made the trek home in 2WD.

Man, that was a freaking nail biter. Had about 6” of snow on the road, no plow trucks and only one tire spinning up those hills. If it wasn’t for that 25% power gain from the head job, I never would’ve made it.

Going to rob the axle shaft from Little Red tomorrow morning and go back out and have some fun.

Mother Nature did not disappoint!

 

[crispins]

You are running a spacer lift?

It really puts the front CVs at a bad angle esp when they are drooped down.

The diff rotation kit from Russia that I installed seems to really put them at a better angle.

I beat the shit out of mine yesterday for 9 hours and had no issues, I feel like the kit helped me a lot.

 

[JR4X]

Helps when all 4 hamsters are pulling their weight in the wheel

 

[FleshEater]

I’ll check out a drop to get the CV’s down. I have off roaded this a lot, but first time with all 4 cylinders.

 

[FleshEater]

Damn it. 1996 axle shafts are different.

26 splines on the inboard as opposed to 22. Maybe I’ll just swap the whole front housing out of the Zuk and then rob Little Red’s axle shaft.

Lot of work for a minimal upgrade.

 

[Byro]

I’ve been waiting for this topic to come up in either of the Tracker threads.

The parts house replacement front shafts I’ve encountered are a true CV (ball and cage) at the hub and a tri-pot style at the diff.

If you’re running the 3” spacer lift and aftermarket axles they will bind and full droop and grenade themselves real quick.

Factory shafts are CV (ball and cage) at both sides and give way more angle than the parts house replacements. I’ve yet to find aftermarket replacements that are OR style (CVs at both sides) I’ve rebuilt my OEs once already, cleaned, greased and rebooted because I don’t wanna run the junk parts house shafts.

The trick to run aftermarket shafts is to take the strut spacer out and lose some down travel, or try and source a diff drop of some sort.

My buddies tracker kept breaking the passenger side shaft we couldn’t figure it out for the longest time. I finally got it when I went to replace mine and had it on stands and spun the wheel for shits and giggles, made half a rotation and locked up. I took them out and returned them. Told my buddy, he pulled his strut spacer and hasn’t had an issue.

 

[YotaAtieToo]

Damn it. 1996 axle shafts are different.

26 splines on the inboard as opposed to 22. Maybe I’ll just swap the whole front housing out of the Zuk and then rob Little Red’s axle shaft.

Lot of work for a minimal upgrade.

I didn't realize they did that early. I thought it was in 99 or so.

Just be weary of ratio. Typically auto and 5 spd will be different.

You still open in the rear?

 

[FleshEater]

So basically the stuff from Rock Auto is junk, which is what I was running.

I’ll see if I break another one (hopefully I don’t) as we don’t do a lot of flexing off road. Just ruts. Trails are tame.

I’ve been running it a year and it just broke so...

Still open in the rear. A locker would’ve really helped tonight.

96 Zuk is a 5 speed. Should be the same ratio.

 

[Byro]

The ones he kept breaking were from Oreillys, that’s where I got mine from when I figured it out, I got a set from Vatozone to see if they were the same and they are the tri-pot as well. I assume it’s a shaft that fits something else that doesn’t need the travel, aftermarket company makes one shaft that fits a few different vehicles.

I would love to find where to get the OEM style shafts.

I even went as far as taking apart an aftermarket and seeing if a little work with the die grinder on the cup would yield a little more droop. The issue is the shaft itself is almost too short and at full droop it pulls one of the bearings almost all the way out of the cup.