TeamCF

Some beautiful pics there Austin. Really like the night time camp ones.

Yeah they proly are. Cause I know mine came with replaceable joints (held in with C-clips) that have grease fittings. (and I have also replaced them due to neglecting to grease them regularly.... ) I'm glad the 2-piece I have sitting in the garage to go with my 5-speed has nice smooth joints in it. I know guys that replace their own "non replaceable" ones. A bit more of a pain but it can be done. HA! I just noticed how old this is as well. So much for skimming........

I'm stuck with no WCSS either. But I WILL make it to WCSS 13! And whats with the former high school stuff getting in the way??? I couldn't even tell you if ANYONE I went to highschool with is even still alive!

My 83 GL is at 326,468 at the moment.

When I did mine I used the ones made by Pilot. They are also the multi-reflector with a smooth lens. Only thing I didn't like was Pilot stopped using the little "cap" over the end of the bulb (I thought I got a bad set, they said no, they just stopped putting them in altogether). Beam pattern still cuts off nice and sharp. But they projected a bit to much straight up. (not glaring to others but made a "wall" of light for me in fog/rain/snow/ect.) A strip of electrical tape over the top edge of the lens fixed it without affecting the beam on the road, but gave it the "eyebrow" look. So yeah mine work great but turned out all rice looking.... But they were only like $35 for a set of two. I'm gonna switch to the Hella's one day when I feel rich, they are all over around here in the Baxters for like $50 or so each. Or I've noticed they now have a 4656 that uses a projector inside. And it's HID. WAAAYYY ultra rice, but if it rocks a good beam pattern, I could give a rat what others think (They are putting them on the TriMet buses around town I noticed.....). Living where I do bright well controlled beams are a must, practically live in a cloud all winter up here in the foothills.

Ahh I forgot. Airshow is that weekend. Plus I have a BMX event thatt saturday afternoon. (yes I still fling myself out of ramps on little bikes) No WCSS for me. Was feeling a bit far anyway being as my Soob is the DD right now (tacoed a wheel on the main vehicle) and pukes out the font seals of both the engine and tranny.... You guys have a blast.

Your gonna love the upgrade. Just get yourself a voltmeter that shows +/- voltage so you can figure out which is which on the wiring. I ended up scraping ALL the stock wiring pretty much all the way to the switch in the end when I did mine and redoing it all with 30amp relays and 10 & 12 ga. wire. (I know, overkill, but on electrical overkill is fine in my book) That right there upped the brightness alot. The stock wiring was pretty crap after almost 30 years and was sucking some of the power. Headlights themselves are powered direct from the battery now. And the relays don't care about +/-. If you go the wiring route. Remember to fuse it at the battery. I forget but I used a 10 amp low beam, 15 high beam I think....... Been awhile. With the sylvainia xtravision H4 bulbs. I can be on the freeway next to a luxury car, and my conversion throws down as much light as their HIDs. So remember to properly adjust them. Or you'll blow out the retinas of others.

I noticed tonight that the old western store with the anatomically correct horse in the parking lot in Troutdale is all closed off. I know it was mentioned as a meeting spot. Can't use it now. Just a heads up.

Aww come on! I don't smell too bad........ I promise, no spooning. No, if I can make it, it's with my Soob or nothing. I wont camp without it. It's become the central part of my camp spots. Almost more important to have it than a sleeping bag or tent. There was a family reunion with my Fiancee's family down in AZ the WCSS weekend. It was a camping trip. I said if we don't take the Soob I'm not going. Thought she'd kill me but she understood. She ended up not getting the time off for it anyway. So my pickyness became a non issue. Thanks for the offer though. (and I would have brought my own tent)

The biggest "maybe" in the history of mankind. I might get in on this. I have nowhere near the $$$ to go. But I was told I could (I think I only got an OK cause she knows I can't afford it....). Lots of things happened this summer (good bad whatever) that sucked up the cash, so I gave up on WCSS this year. If I skip a car payment on the daily driver I can go.

When I painted my GL I went and bought 2 cases (8 cans in each if I remember right) of flat black from home depot. It was a bargain name made by Rustolium (spelling?). Called "Americas Finest" or something like that. Cost about $0.99 a can in the end. (this was about 3-4 years ago) I ended up only going through about 9 cans. Sanded the crap out of the old paint, masked stuff off, ect. (I didn't paint in the doors or anything. Only what shows from the outside. Proly why it only took 9 cans.) Heres the thing with flat paint on a wheeler. With black after awhile it turns gray. I've even hit it with the powerwasher but it just absorbs the grime and mud. I can still see the ripples from the wave that came over the hood on it's first deep water crossing after the painting. Will not be as noticeable on lighter colors you are looking at. But flat is like a roadgrime sponge. I'd go with a satin for washability on those days you don't want it covered in mud. (but why would you want that? )

Search out the local forest service websites. Search out the local DNR websites. Scour local 4x4 club websites. Then search for any info on those websites pertaining to the area you wish to travel. Alot of closed/open info gets buried in PDF files as reports, press releases, and land use planning. A local area to me had me searching for a few nights online for the reports I was looking for that stated what was open and not. (turns out most of it was, but just in the past few months is no longer) It's alot of reading, some of it is pages and pages. But I've found many times that an area that was unmarked in the real world turned out to be off limits after reading what seemed to be a book on the plans for an area. I then quit even going near the area. Remember. These days the law is "If it's not marked as "open", then its to be considered closed." As in: Trails you are allowed on will have some sort of trail marker. If not you run the risk of punishment ranging from a warning, to a vehicle impound. There are a few open OHV areas I do know of. At those you can drive on any trail within the area boundaries marked or not. But it is very rare. Just how it is. I don't make the rules. Just try to follow as many as I can find. Only way we are gonna have any trails tomorrow, is if we respect the trails today. If the majority had it their way. There would be no such thing as wheeling. Up to us to show them we can enjoy the forests responsibly in our 4WDs. Sorry for a rant. But I've seen areas near me that had a few trails the rangers said they didn't care that we used get totally shut down due to a few new and abused user made trails in the area. Or abuse of a sensitive area like a meadow or stream.

hehe maybe I'll pass you guys going the other way down to Tuscon. (Family thing happening the same weekend as WCSS. :-\ )

+1 on checking the wheel bearing. I know mine are due for replacement and and everytime I turn the rotor rubs the shield. Guess I should just go bend the shield out a bit until I come up with bearing $$$. Jack up the car, grab the tire top and bottom and see if you can wiggle it. there with be a definite small *clunk clunk* back and forth. Now, slop could be a ball joint as well so inspect good. Also note if there is any growling when going down the freeway. Mine just started that up last time I drove it. I'd then start with checking the torque of the axle nut. I'm not sure on the Loyale, but on mine (EA81), the bearings are not adjustable. They are sloppy or they are not. My axle nuts are properly torqued and still the bearings are loose. So in my case I just need new ones. Your results may vary.

Can always take the easy way out and go to the manufacturers web site and look up exact dimensions of your stock tires and the ones you want to run. Most have the specs of all their tires available. Then just compare.

Gonna add a few pics. The journey. I put in about 739 miles according to the GPS. With 131 of those being on Saturday. All dunes with a run into town for fresh brew. The Soob half of the camp. (Rest are in some other trees just to the right of the pic) Wall ride time. At the first sand wall we came across that was good for it. I got the high mark on this second wall which Gregg is heading for and promptly matched with his EJ22. Bad pic of the "light test". Though none of us could match the Land Rover with his several HID off road lights. Looked like a 747 coming in to land on the dunes. Sight seeing on the way home. Took China Hat rd back up to Bend and went off on some spurs to poke around at lookout towers and caves. Arnold Ice Cave. Those are mine cart tracks coming up out of the dirty ice The lava tube goes down at an angle, that "floor" is the ice plug which is constantly advancing. I was told about every 16 years it melts out and you can go down several hundred yards to the next ice plug. Bend mined all it's ice out of there back in the days before refrigeration. A lizard butt and a snake just because.

That was a fun trip. I'm already stoked for next year. Last year was a blast as well though we only did the dunes Friday night. Saturday was a 13 1/2 hour 120+ mile tour of the desert. Way less dust this year.......

Cool. Yeah I looked around on the net and found a description of how it works. I'll have to pick one up. Hopefully NV Zeno finds this info helpful as well to make things easy.

I'll have to look at that fancy funnel a bit more. What the problem seems to be is that the heater hoses where they go through the firewall, are a high point on the EA81, other than the top of the radiator, it's the next highest point. And the core goes down inside, the hoses go down to the engine on the outside. And air gets trapped there. At least on mine it looks that way. So it makes kind of a ^ that traps air.

When I did my engine swap I replaced the hoses as well. Mine were stuck on there pretty good. If I remember right I was able to just twist and break free a couple connections and I also just cut a couple like rpholz said. Plain old heater hose is usually cheap from an auto parts store and you can buy it in whatever lengths you want. I bought a few feet and some new clamps and just cut the sizes I needed. But almost a year later and I STILL haven't quite gotten all the air out of the system. Can hear the bubbles come through the hoses at the firewall every so often. I was told (from someone here) to raise the front way up high with a forklift and run it with the rad cap off..... I don't have a forklift!

Ahh cool, I'll take a good look at that route.

It's been a work in progress. But I took some parts from an AX10 and some steel and welded myself up a Jeep. It's all waterproofed so I can go nuts. Working headlights, tail lights, rocklights in all four wheelwells. Still not done, but they never are.

That looks like the fun route! (last time I drove to AZ I took the I-5 way...... I loath LA) Got a family thing (on my Fiancee's side) in Aug. (I think it conflicts with WCSS.... ) Down in Alpine AZ. Proly gonna take the GL as it's a camping type thing. Here's to hoping my rattlebox makes it.

205/75/14 is what I have. No lift. There was a bit of hammering in the front wheel wells though.

hehe wish I would have seen this before I rewired my "works only when the car is cold,.... sometimes" high beams.... Oh well at least I'm running all new wire under there now and they work better than ever, I just didn't feel like tracing wires and I already had the wiring at the headlights relayed to straight battery power. Just gotta go reconnect the dashlight. Still gonna check that plug you mentioned.