The "Az Crew" Thread

[Senor Carey]

14th St?!?! I live quite near there.

 

[JohnnyBfromPeoria]

14th St?!?! I live quite near there.

It's about time we got some central Phoenix representation. There's a hive of members out in the Mesa area, but besides Jorge, Jose and myself, I only knew of Matt Castleberry, a.k.a. CastleRock who was nearby. Shovel lives straight south of me about 8 or 10 miles. I'm just south of Highland. Stop by.

John B.

 

[Senor Carey]

Very near you, up by Northern. PM incoming.

 

[AKClay]

It's about time we got some central Phoenix representation. There's a hive of members out in the Mesa area, but besides Jorge, Jose and myself, I only knew of Matt Castleberry, a.k.a. CastleRock who was nearby. Shovel lives straight south of me about 8 or 10 miles. I'm just south of Highland. Stop by.

John B.

I live near you :-(

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[AKClay]

I have no idea what you're talking about, Clay.

Anyway, here's the updates from the 14th St Club:

Jorge's 86 passed emissions this evening. The final prep-step was for him to have a universal cat from Auto Zone installed by his favorite shop, which might have cost him $30 for the welding and another $80 for the cat. Over the weekend, I pulled the gas tank and made sure there was nothing in the strainer or in the tank itself, replaced the supply-side soft lines with fuel injection hose to prevent collapse under high-demand conditions and to replace all the vapor lines on the top of the tank and in the surrounding areas up to where it connects to the hard line leading to the charcoal canister (one of the points of failure last year when we tried to get it through). If anybody reading this replaces those lines, about 11 feet of hose is needed and the outside diameter will be bigger than the original stuff, but fear not, you can still reuse the stock pinch clamps by spraying the outside of the new hose with silicone spray and working them into place. That saves money, naturally. The blue SWB made us proud by sailing through the test at emissions with stellar numbers and upon returning home, I raised the hood to check the exhaust manifold for the previously-noted cherry-red-overheat-condition it had exhibited last year and I'm happy to report that was not evident. Big thanks to IncorpoRatedX for supplying a new distributor to cure what apparently was a wildly advancing timing with the centrifugal and or vacuum mechanism(s). This vehicle is ready for the next steps: insurance, tags, tires, tint, stereo, etc. Good thing I'm not paying for any of that, either.

Jorge attempted to take his 89 SWB in for an alignment yesterday, but was told and shown that the brand new idler arm hadn't held up to one stinking off-road trip through the violence of Hackberry Creek. So, it's back to Auto Zone to present the goods for a replacement...cheap crap...

My 95 managed to destroy another front-of-the-rear-trailing-arm bushings on the same trip. I whanged the mount for the front of the passenger side rear trailing arm some years ago and it continues to eat those doughnut shaped bushings, but that's all right, they're cheap. It would be nearly impossible to bend the metal that's making it happen back to stock form, as it took quite a force to bend it like it did in the first place. Next set will be from Auto Zone and I'll make them give me new ones from here on out. I probably have other steering stuff that needs replacement on this truck, too. Resetting the wheel bearings helped, but it's not like it should be. I'll find it.

We're going to switch both Jorge's 86 and his 83 Mighty Max over to Rotella conventional 15W-40, the first for leaking and the second for burning. It's worth a shot and a cheap Band-Aid for now. The Max needs a re-ring and a new head, at least. Since its odometer doesn't go into six digits, there's no way of knowing how many miles it has on it from a casual glance. I'll bet it's been around the clock a few times.

John B.

Were you using poly or factory rubber on your trailing arms?

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[Toasty]

IIRC JBFP your trailing arm mount needs to be replaced? Also i still have a motor for Jorge...

 

[JohnnyBfromPeoria]

Clay, your girlfriend lives near me; you don't live even close, dude, as far as I remember. Last I heard you were west of I-17 and up around Thunderbird or something, right?

The trailing arm front mount bushings are stock material. It doesn't matter what they are because the passenger side took a mighty hit and is bent. It will continue to eat bushings of whatever material until it is repaired. Yes, that side should be cut out and replaced, provided there was something to replace it with and provided the weld was as strong as OE, but I don't question Toasty's skillz.

Jorge and I welcome your engine donation. He needs a narrow block, right? What all else does it need? We can give it all the external loving-long-time to make-pretty and eliminate leaks, etc, but I'd rather not have to mess with the lower end of an engine about now. Does it have balance shafts? Two valve head or three? Mechanical or hydraulic head?

John B.

 

[Toasty]

It's exactly the same as the one he has, came out of my Mighty Max. I have an experiment for your mounts if you'd like to be a test rat, otherwise we need a cordless sawzall and cut us a donor at the yard.

 

[Toasty]

The idea is to swap to Sport trailing arms provided that they are the same bushing separation at the axle end.

 

[Toasty]

That allows us to run a bracket like this one and inboard it on the frame so it never gets crushed again, plus it flat bottoms the back of the breakover on the truck

 

[JohnnyBfromPeoria]

I like those ideas, Toast.

John B.

 

[Amphibeast]

That allows us to run a bracket like this one and inboard it on the frame so it never gets crushed again, plus it flat bottoms the back of the breakover on the truck

Toast… looks like you got some mad fab skills & cool tools & stuff…… You do any mobile weld/torch work? Im getting ready to lift the bus.. I need some master monster ninja uber shackle action mods…. I pay with beer, steak & cash (not always in that order)….. I can hack & tack but I have zero cutting torch skills and the nastiest bugger welds known to man!

 

[Toasty]

I don't and all my **** is at IncorporatedX shop now. When we have room for a bus yeah, probably. Maybe.

 

[RyanY]

Very near you, up by Northern.

Sounds like you're about halfway between JBFP and I - I'm around Bell Rd/SR51.

 

[RyanY]

That allows us to run a bracket like this one and inboard it on the frame so it never gets crushed again, plus it flat bottoms the back of the breakover on the truck

You're my hero! Someday I just wanna drop my SR off with you and have you work your magic on the rear suspension.