Recent content by Jonathan

Even welding to the frame or stiffeners wouldn't do much, unless the stiffeners were sufficient to resist a lot of torsion. The cross member failed in compression because it has no real support along the inner edge in response to applied force from below. I'm guessing it was jacked there, or...

I had an extended discussion about this topic with two of my uncles, with almost 100 years of experience between them: one is an engineer that designed engines, and the other a mechanic responsible for testing at the factory. Both agreed that the standard oil ratings failed to account for...

Birfields, my friend.

The manufacturer cares about fuel mileage, but you can be sure it's not at the top of their list: performance, reliability, cost, and a host of other issues matter a lot more to them than mpg. As for "tricking" the ECU into closed-loop, I think it's safe to say that it's effectively impossible...

The two-weeks relearn period isn't always required: it's just pretty much a sure thing if it goes that long. I know that one of my vehicles has an accelerated relearn protocol you can follow to complete it nearly immediately. Unfortunately, I can't recall if I saw it in my Renix FSM, '93 OBD1...

Well, the jack with be pretty much useless if you're not on a hard flat surface, and a wood board under the jack will be pretty much the absolute minimum as far as a surface. You're going to need to maneuver it around a little, so some left-right spacing will be required. Regardless, without...

Get the rear end of the vehicle up on jackstands, but leave the front on the ground. Lower the transmission (carefull not to go too far, keep an eye on fan etc) until level, and slide it straight back. Doing it with the vehicle level and the transmission/engine tilted isn't impossible, but...

No, the two ends hold the center halves together. You'll have to take the whole thing apart. Honestly though, it's not really that much trouble. Cleaning it up and figuring out the lockout balls, bars, and springs (without any manual!) after they fell out was the hardest part.

I'm continuing to post here rather than PM since other people might find it useful. First, if you don't have a FSM I would recommend finding a copy of this book: You might want to see if you can find a copy of one of these around, it should help a lot (although I did my transmission before I...

Keep in mind any knowledge I have on this is strictly from secondhand research. From what I've seen, people say that gas welding gives very good control of the heat application, especially on this materials. Combined with the large HAZ, there's less localized stress immediately surrounding the...

If you have a mechanical speedometer cable then you would need the adapter which mounts on the transfercase and provides both mechanical and digital (or just digital if you want to swap out some of your dash). If you've already done that in the course of some transfercase swap etc then you're set.

The MPGuino project is perfect for the RENIX. You tap into the injectors and speed sensor and the chip calculates mpg, displaying it live on an LCD: http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthread.php/mpguino-release-one-workspace-2115.html Of course it would work on an OBD1 or 2, but there are better...

Has anyone seen any examples of gas welding on the uniframe? I don't have any experience using it in such situations, but ignoring the inconvenience, it seems like it might have some advantages.

For what it's worth, shipping might be a substantial portion of the cost, if that's important to you. JC Whitney does free shipping every once in a while (I think I have an email code from them right now).

I tore mine down quite a while ago. I have additional pictures and possibly advice if you're interested.