Varg In Jeep's Clothing

I've thought about a drawer like that for a long time...did you totally fab that or was it made with off the shelf parts?

 

It was a custom deal. Started here:
Varg In Jeep's Clothing

Finished here:
Varg In Jeep's Clothing

 

Along the same venue, old socks work well for smaller items. And you can use the outside faucet insulated covers for small, fragile stuff like dial tire pressure gauges.

 

I’ve got nearly 2000 miles on this thing, and it’s time for an update.

I’m 99.6% pleased with this thing. I set out to build a jeep that is more car-like than had been previously conceived while still fully capable of doing jeep things, and I feel that I succeeded in that. I have to admit, it almost feels silly and selfish to hop out during a trail ride to try to find a new, single, almost inaudible rattle or squeak. Jeeps are supposed to rattle and squeak. But this one doesn’t. At all. And when one starts, you know something moved, came loose, or broke.

I have a small list of things I’d like to address in the future. None of them are urgent, but they are there.

- On the way back from riding the St Joe Forest with Fireball, I was pushing it pretty hard. Coming over 4th of July Pass, rather than constantly shifting from 3rd to 4th over and over again, I just held it in 3rd at around 4000 rpm for about 4 miles. Near the top of the pass, it SLAMMED out of third gear, and by the time I got my foot off the pedal, the engine probably hit 10k rpm.

This really bummed me out. I trusted the transmission totally up to this point, and now I find myself holding it in gear just in case. It hasn’t done it since, and I’ve read on Volvo forums that this can be an issue if the trans is overheated or low on oil.

- Another small complaint I have with this transmission is that first gear is sometimes hard to engage. It doesn’t grind; it just doesn’t go into gear. Like hitting a wall. I have to flip it from 3rd to 1st to get it to go in at a dead stop, and even then it feels like mud.

Granted, this is an unknown junkyard transmission that should’ve been rebuilt before I used it, but rebuild kits are $605, plus shipping from Sweden. I’d almost sooner redesign this with a stronger transmission than go through that hassle and expense.

This morning...



...I tore the floor out and removed the top cover to see what I could see, and to replace the last t-case adapter bolt that we couldn’t reach in Moab.



It was low on oil from back when the top cover was loose and was leaking, so that could have contributed to the 1st and 3rd gear issues, and not only was the shifter missing one of the two bolts that attach it to the t-case, but the other bolt was loose. I’m wondering if the loose shifter was allowing the mechanism to bottom, keeping the linkage from fully engaging into 3rd gear.

Besides the low oil, this transmission is super clean. Reverse gear has rounded teeth, but everything else looks new, and 2nd through 4th snap right into gear. Even engaging it like this, 1st gear feels like mud.



- Another small issue is how low the front end sits. I only have about 1” of uptravel before the axle contacts the short, stiff bumpstops. Really rough trails at speed are a bit harsh on the kidneys. There is a bolt-in replacement XJ coil spring that has a stiffer spring rate, but I like the spring rate of these springs. Some day I’ll get around to making new (or altering these) spring buckets to give another inch of adjustment.

- Power. If this had another 20hp, it would be perfect. There are a few hills around here where it just flat-out suffers, and it would be great to have the boost on the freeway. I have been staring at a Volvo turbo and manifold on my bench for a few weeks. I was totally ready to pull the trigger on the install, then I changed my mind. I don’t think that’s a rabbit hole I’m prepared to go down with a standard N/A engine. I’m going to continue to watch for a 93-95 Volvo 940 turbo donor, and if I find one cheap enough, I’ll do the swap next winter. It would require a complete change of wiring, intake routing, exhaust, coil relocation....
Basically a body-off job again, but the extra power, best of the best red block engines, better wiring and engine management, cruise control, and OBDII would be worth it in the long run.

- Cooling. Long slow climbs at low RPMs will make the temp climb. The clutch fan only covers about 60% of the radiator area, and sometimes I have to run a lower gear to get the clutch to engage and cool it down. Cooling is not an issue as long as there is airflow. An electric fan will be in its future.

These sound like issues that add up to more than .04% of displeasure, but they really aren’t. They are just idiosyncrasies that any older car will have and we adjust our habits to cater to. This is newly assembled, but it’s parts are nothing newer than 20 years old, and as old as 72. The engine is 34 years old, the transmission is 39. I didn’t expect it to be perfect right out of the gate, and all things considered, I think it’s doing pretty darn well.




One interesting thing to note, as much as I’ve driven this over the past few months, it’s still a couple hundred miles short of the distance Mighty Mouse traveled in 3-ish days.

 

I recall jumping up and down on the bumper looking for a new squeak.

 

Poly shock bushing!!!

 

I never like polybushing for that exact reason

 

[QUOTE="ITLKSEZ, post: 1667092, member: 89976"

I’m 99.6% pleased with this thing. I set out to build a jeep that is more car-like than had been previously conceived while still fully capable of doing jeep things, and I feel that I succeeded in that. I have to admit, it almost feels silly and selfish to hop out during a trail ride to try to find a new, single, almost inaudible rattle or squeak. Jeeps are supposed to rattle and squeak. But this one doesn’t. At all. And when one starts, you know something moved, came loose, or broke.

[/QUOTE]

I would say....i know what are the normal rattle en squeak, so when a unknow one get's in i know something going wrong.

Also electric fan is a good avenue. But make sure you have a good alternator.


And i know about the extra power, with my amc360 i was struggling with 3 and 4 gear when going up hill. Now with the 5.3 it's stay on the last speed and getting speed without so much pedal travel

 

It’s buttoned back up.



I put a little extra fluid in the transmission. We’ll see if it helps things, or just pukes out somewhere. Filling it from the top, I could see that ~3/4 of a quart (ATF) takes the level to the bottom of the fill plug. I put the whole quart in, and it put it just below the top of the plug.

I also drained the sandy gear oil from Moab out of the D300 and replaced it with clean fluid.

One other thing I forgot in yesterday’s list; I’m going to eventually add a steering stabilizer. I’ve got a hint of occasional wobble in the front end that I just can’t... shake. (Sorry, I’m a dad.) It never goes into full-on death wobble, but its enough to notice. There’s no reasonable explanation for it besides a perfect storm of moving parts resonating after a bump. Fitting one will be tight, but I think it’s possible behind the drag link with a strap around the 3rd member.

 

You have something loose in the steering component. I had to take out my ram assist last year for a cylinder rebuilt. I just plug out the steering box and ran the jeep 3 week without it. Never experience any wobble.

if you're about to put a damper better upgrade for a ram assist. if you ever want to lock the front axle it will make a huge difference.

 

Trust me when I say NOTHING is loose.
I’ve gone over it many times. There is zero play anywhere, and I really do believe that everything is so tight, there is no allowance for play, so any resonating that would normally be taken up in bushing play or axle sway is being transferred directly to the frame, and is resonating at a certain frequency.

I have noticed that it happens more when I’m hard on the brakes, which will increase the caster with my setup. Too much caster can contribute to wobble, like a shopping cart’s shaky wheel. With my suspension sitting lower than planned, my caster is pushing 7°. I’m wondering if lifting the front by an inch will make the shakes disappear by lessening the caster a bit.

 

Having worked as an automotive engineer in a past life, this is not necessarily true. One of the things I worked on was steering shimmy. We're not talking about death wobble here, just a little shimmy in the wheel. Every system has a resonant frequency and if it gets excited at the frequency it will vibrate. Things like variation in drag on the brake rotors, tire imbalance, a large king pin offset on an uneven road, excessive caster, ...etc can lead to inputs into the steering system. If they match the resonant frequency of the system it can cause steering shimmy.

Manufacturers combat this in various and usually multiple ways:

• Base design minimizing king pin offset and having appropriate caster reduces the magnitude of the inputs.
• Adding/removing mass to the system can change the resonant frequency to a range that doesn't get excited. This is one reason a lot of cars have very heavy steering wheels. Mass has been added.
• Adding damping to the system to reduce the amplitude of any resonance. This can be done with tires, bushings, and dampers.
• Since my time, sensor driven electric power steering has taken over. I'm sure they can do active cancellation with those.

The one thing ITLKSEZ has easy control over in that list is adding a damper.

 

I tought about one thing last night, you could have a tire that a little un-balanced. It can create shaking at a certain speed.

 

Is it an illusion, or is the pivot for the shifter cracked? The bushed sleeve at the forward slot in the transfer case adapter. Those Volvo gearboxes are known for being both tough and decent shifting. I might try to change the lube (ATF?) to a modern syncromesh fluid that still meets the specs. I've tried several different brands in my Triumph 5 speed with very noticable differences between brands. I've settled on RedLine brand as having the best feel in my case.
If you end up with a turbo redblock, they have amazing power compared to NA. My dad had an '89 740 turbo intercooled wagon for a number of years. It always suprised me how refined and seamless the power delivery was.
Finally, shroud your radiator to fit the fan. That way the whole radiator will be cooling rather than just adjacent to the fan blade. I'd do this before trying to go electric, which would need a shroud too.
-Donny

 

This is true, but I have swapped the front/rear tires and the feeling was identical. So either the tires have the same amount of imbalance, or that’s not it.

I just want to elaborate; I’m nit picking to the nth degree. It’s so subtle that most people wouldn’t even feel it. But I know it shouldn’t be there, and it bothers me that it’s there at all.

That sleeve you see is there to hold the pivot pins in place, like a u-joint. It is made from like a spring steel, and the split is where it opens for removal. Everything in the shifting mechanism feels great, and I have no other complaints with the transmission. It’s a dream to row through the gears. It’s just the 1st gear synchro ring and/or key/spring engagement is sluggish at a stand-still. Moving, it’s better, but not perfect. I had it out around the property with the new/extra fluid yesterday, and it does feel a bit better. I haven’t had it out on the road yet though. I’ll flush this out in a few thousand miles and try a full synthetic.

I’ve been holding out for one from a 93-95 940. They had sodium filled valves, oil squirters for the pistons, and the wiring quality and engine management is worlds better than the decaying fossil I’m dealing with. But the high-performance guys snatch them up as soon as they go up for sale. I have to be ready with cash.

That’s a tough one. The center point of my fan is at the lower left corner of my radiator. A shroud wouldn’t do much because most of it would be open ended, and a good part of it would just be blocking the upper right quarter and inhibiting air flow while moving. The only issue I’m having is moving air when I need it to. The actual amount of air flow going through the radiator when the fan is spinning at engine rpm isn’t an issue at all; it cools beautifully 98% of the time, just not ideally for a low rpm trail rig that doesn’t spin up the clutch fan enough.

This one is easy because it’s an aftermarket radiator for a Honda Civic, and there are a billion options out there that just bolt right up to the mounts that are already on the radiator.

I almost added a helper fan in between the grill and radiator a few weeks ago, but, vanity got the best of me… it looked awful and I backed out of it.

 

ok if you have checked that....i dont know what could go bad.

As for the up travel, is not a bid deal to try a coil spacer to see if the trouble goes away.

 

I wish it were that easy.

The springs are clamped in place in order have a negative spring rate on down travel.

The upper bucket and lower mount were literally built around these springs. If I’d move the spring out of place even 1/16” the setup won’t work. The only “easy” option is to move the whole upper mount down, and I’m out of room to add another hole in the adjustable section, so something will need to be seriously altered or rebuilt to achieve any more lift. Which is fine, it’s just part of the fine tuning process. I underestimated the amount of squat these coils would have in real life.

It’ll give me a chance to rebuild it so my adjustable coil mounts are back into the center of their adjustment range, rather than maxed out one way or the other.

 

From what i read from you're built thread, you have done amazing thing, more an artist than a fabricator in my opinion. I was thinking that i made a good set-up on mine but you bring it way further than me in design and space work. Pretty sure you will solve this thing easily