TomRhere

14.6xx gallons was put in the tank yesterday morning, for the cost of $60.01. OUCH! We shall see how far this tank fill gets me.

Pulled the Wagon into the driveway tonight with 444.5 miles showing on the trip odo, gas gauge is at/slightly below the "E" mark. Plan is top off tank in the AM, reset the trip odo, and go from there. Mileage on it then,, will be 445.2x. I like this greatly............................ But it definitely seems that MPG has improved. Gotta love that..........

Dang It !!! I want my BRAT back........................................... J/K.

Wife is guilty of slamming the shifter into the next gear. Been waiting for the shifter to break. A flush of the trans will definitely aide the synchro's. Rislone Engine Flush is highly recommended, but ATF works also. The FT4WD 5-speed I have in my Wagon was difficult to shift into 2nd, (either up or down shifting), and getting into 1st was impossible unless it was at a stop. Quart of ATF added and drove around for some time. Drained and refilled with proper lube, and 2nd has improved greatly, and 1st will happen if I slowly select it.

I don't have links to any of the sites, but I've bought a few radiators from on-line stores. All EA81 radiators selling now are dual core and come with the cooling coils for the auto trans. One size fits all. Last one I bought was around $130.00 to my door. Be sure to swap the short grounding wire over to the new radiator. It's located right on top of the radiator near the left mount bolt in your pic.

Yep, gallons. Over the 300 mile mark now and nearing the 1/4 mark. Guess I'll find out if the mileage really did improve, or if the gauge is just being silly. Prior to replacing all of the wheel bearings, I drove 395 - 399 miles on a tank before I topped it off again. Never have put more than 13.9xx gallons in it though. Close to 14 gallons, but never actually saw 14 on the pump. I've averaged out the mileage over 5 -6 tanks and was getting low to upper 29 MPG. We shall see if that improves.

Happy to report that the Wagon is real happy with the new bearings on all 4 corners. Not sure of actual mileage yet, but I surpassed the 225-230 miles driven mark today as gas gauge passed the 1/2 mark from last Saturdays fill up. Thinking I be happy camper for the moment. Gas prices here are $4.10 to $4.20 depending on what station you go by.

Pretty sure I put new cone/spring washers on it the last time I had it apart to do axle boots. 145 plus on the torque for the nut, always go tighter if need be to get cotter pin in. Recommended to recheck torque after driving 100 miles or so. You shouldn't have any issues pulling the pinch bolts for the ball-joints. I have always popped the ball-joints out of the knuckles to do axles. Anti-seize has always been used on any bolts I've removed also. Front calipers/pads were new around 2 years ago, so you should be good on those for a while. Really wish I could remember if I did do new ball-joints and tie-rod ends on it.

Once you get the bearings out you'll see it. But there is a lip inside the knuckle that the bearings outer race seat against. The spacer between the inner races is to set the preload on the bearings, once the axle is installed and properly torqued.

A Gates 28466 hose is a "cut to fit" replacement for the 90* hose off the pump for the heater line. I would replace that also. That hose works for both the EA81 and EA82 engines.

Hammer and drift punch is all you really need to remove/install bearings. Done a few that way now, with both the knuckle removed from the vehicle, or still mounted. Tried one bearing swap using a press, it was a pain. Not easy to get the knuckle set right to do a clean straight press on the bearing. Hammer/punch is much easier in my opinion.

With Key On-Engine Off, you should have voltage on both sides of the coil. Test light hooked to coil - and battery - should pulse while cranking.

Had issue with the O-ring on the supply pipe sealing correctly. Would leak while running, until engine warmed up. Drained coolant, pulled the pipe, O-ring was good. Put it all back together and filled system. Still leaked. Wound up actually bending the bracket where the pipe bolts to the engine to get it to seal.

The drive to/from work was good as in "no issues" to worry about. Do have a rattle coming from the console area that wasn't there before. I can stop it by holding onto the shifter. So I need to pull that up and look things over. Really felt good to drive it down the road again. Worked on dissecting the rear half of the driveshaft during lunch, it really wanted to argue with me about coming apart, but I won that battle. Once I have the new u-joints in, I'll get it over to the driveline shop for balancing.

Back on the road, Finally..... Spent the last week trying to get the retainer nut out of the swing arm. Been applying P B Blaster and hammer/punch twice daily, in the AM before work then when I get back here. It finally let loose yesterday morning. So, I got out all the play toys needed to remove paint and rust, got it all cleaned up for paint, then applied some Black paint to it. Once it dried, I installed the new bearings which came with both seals, so I did not need to go spend the money I did on the seals. Oh well, I have another set of rear seals if needed. Put the arm back where it belongs along with all the other goodies under there, torqued everything down, went for a drive. Noise from rear is goned... YES!!!! However, that whole car vibration was still there. So up on ramps it goes, pulled front of driveshaft out, zip-tied a paint can top over the trans output, down off ramps and another run was made. No more vibration !!!!!!!!!! Guess I'll be taking the whole driveshaft to a driveline shop for balancing. Been without the Wagon for far to long. Looking forward to driving it to work in the AM.

The Desert Fox and Tdodge was here yesterday, brought me a replacement swing arm. We all jumped in the Wagon and went for a drive, James drove. All were in agreement that there is definitely a noise and their thoughts were it's from the rear. I was sitting in the back and still couldn't pinpoint it. Ears must be going. Sent them on their way home with some goodies for both. Be heading out to the garage to see what I can accomplish today.

Well, it's back together and out of the garage. Only have the front half of driveshaft in right now. Not to sure I did that u-joint right. Feels free and all with no binding going on, but now the whole Wagon has a vibration that wasn't there before. Still have the noise that started all of this too. So it looks like I get to swap the PS swing arm out.

Got the front half of the driveshaft done yesterday during lunch. Need to take one of the flanges off the other rear section into work. Seems that someone used a cutting torch to remove the bolts and washed away a good portion of the one flange on the one I have at work. Glad I had another driveshaft here. Haven't worked on the Wagon yet, been busy doing other chores Since Christopher and the Grandsons moved out, I has lots more on my "Do it" list.

Picked up the new inner seals last night. Opted to mow the yard instead of wrenching on Wagon. Spent lunch break yesterday finding needed fixtures to at least get one bearing cup pushed out of the yoke on each u-joint. Thinking I can get my cut-off wheel in there and do some slicing on them, then get the rest of the old ones out. The angle on the outside of the yokes don't make it easy to get things properly set in the press. Auughhh!

Be sure to run new cable under the steering column and heater hoses in the engine compartment.

I have ran EA82 flywheels on EA81 engines many times. Timing marks are not that far off once flywheel is bolted on. Running EA82 flywheel on the EA81 engine moves the marks 6* further BTDC. What is actually 0*TDC on the EA81 engine, now reads as 6*BTDC on the EA82 flywheel. With a carbed engine, timing would be set to 14* SPFI engine, timing would be set to 26*. Currently running an EA81 engine in my '88 Wagon. SPFI swap done, XT6 flywheel (same timing marks as EA82), timing set at 26* and it's happy. Ran a Webered EA81 in another '88 Wagon with Auto trans, timing was set at 14* to 16* depending on summer/winter.

Nice looking B'day present!!!!! Even with the mangled door. I'm surprised the window glass is still intact. That's a hard hit. Former co-workers in-laws were auto body repair specialists. I've seen them restore things like that. Seeing as you have the door split, you should be able to get it back close to where it should be. The side impact beam is going to be a little tricky, but it can be corrected. Sure wish I had spent more time around them, maybe learned some things.... edit; Ok... So why did the type go bold all on it's own?????

Ok. I be done wrenching on it until I get the driveshaft rebuilt and seals for the knuckles in. Interior is all back together. Gotta remember to put the cloth filter on the vac when I vac out the carpet. Made one heck of a dust storm inside of the Wagon. Everything under the hood is connected, shifter hooked back up. Old spring for it was stretched some, so located another spring for it out of the stash tub. Believe it to be a T-belt tensioner spring, but it is the right length, maybe a tad to much on the tension though. Oh well.... Need to set up a screen/filter system to strain the "new lube" I drained out of the D/R so I can use it in the FT4WD trans. Can't see no reason not to use it seeing as it is new, just been ran thru the D/R trans, maybe 15 minutes run time with trans in neutral and wheels off the ground.

Yeah, well,,, 2nd set of axles arrived and they won't work either. I'm returning them. SO, I'm in the process of putting the FT4WD 5-speed back in. Trans is in now, just need to reinstall the shifter, y-pipe. Hook up the speedometer, and put interior back together. Didn't feel like pulling the engine again, so dropped trans out the bottom. Getting it out wasn't to bad, getting it back in was a bit of a chore. But I managed. Proper inner seals for the front hubs won't be here until Monday, so I have to wait on axle install. Going to take driveshaft into work to do u-joints. Got more of the proper tools there to do so. And I was able to return the wrong ball-joints and tie-rod ends to the locale O'Reilly outlet. Took the ones off the Wagon with me, and had a few words with the counterperson. Nicely though. It was agreed that they were not the correct parts. So getting close to $200.00 back into my pocket was nice.

Just got email confirming shipment of axles. No info yet as to arrival date, guess they just got packed up and ready to go as of that email. Had them sent to my work place, cheaper shipping charges. Hope they get here before the weekend. Wasn't in the mood to pay "extra" to get them here sooner.