A couple weeks ago I was out at the barn and a guy who rented space for his trailer who hadn't paid in months finally came to pick it up. When I pulled in he was running about 40' of straps to his conversion van to the trailer tounge and was about to attempt to pull it 90 degrees thru a gate. Knowing that this wouldn't work I immediate offered to tow it up to solid ground, my mistake for being a nice guy.
He was supposed to be spotting me in the tall grass and obviously wasn't paying attention or didn't care, guessing the latter, as he failed to point out some fence wire that had got caught on the rear part of the exhaust. As I continued backwards the tire caught the wire and proceeded to bend the bosal down and pinch it right at the top of the rear diff......AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARG!
So after getting it out for him I offered to fire up my compressor and air up a flat tire on each side and top off the ones that looked like they had air, only to have him chide my old beast of a compressor.
Not even an appreciated thank-you as he left or offer to help me sawzall the muffler off at the pinch, what a douchebag.
Anyhow I had bought the rear most part a while back off another Ih8mud member so I thought in an easy job to do but after further investigation realized it wouldn't be so easy. I needed a gasket and three new mounts, off to Beno to order. The job should have been fairly straight forward, replace rear part and install new gasket and mounts, or so it would seem.
After I got the rest of the old rear off I noticed that the old gasket had not come all the way out, this lead to several hours with small drifts and chisels to clean out the recess in which the new gasket sat.
With that done I started to see how everything was going to line up with the new mounts, it was about an inch off before the main muffler, 2 inches past the main, and nearly 3 at the bosal rear mount.
Several more hours after jacking and bending it was close enough to line back up properly.
The next morning my alternator started the "I'm dying replace me soon" by flashing the low volts light on the dash several times on a cold start before going away but over the week the length of time it would stay one just got longer.
Pricing out a cheap chinacom alternator was around $150, not my first choice, a factory was north of $400, not really a second choice, so back to Ih8mud.com to search the forums. Found Photoman Bill had been making a kit that allowed a 03-07 Sequoia alternator to be used for $90, found used factory alternator off ebay for $80, new brush kit from Beno $20, parts ordered.
Now why would you do that you ask? Well the stock alternator on the 80's are underpowered IMHO, the Sequoia puts out nearly double the power, 150 amps worth to be exact. With the dual batteries, winch, 2000+ watts of amps it just made sense to go this way seeing that it was a Denso and not a chinacom refurb and at nearly the same cost.
That install was actually straight forward, Bill's instructions were flawless and the entire thing from beginning to end was about 3 hours.
Here are some pictures in prep for the liner, removing the fender flares.
The grinder and pads worked like a champ
Roof rack hole solution simple, plastic plugs and rtv
Bumper finally installed the day after I lined it
Bills Kit
I hope to have an IPOR rear bumper by end of January and will then begin the OME springs and be ready for 285's. Currently working on the rear door system and trying to button of the rear interior.
