The Nail Salon

[Icemans]

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Also, I pulled the trigger on the final purchase for Phase1.

[/QUOTE]

So your going to keep us in the dark?? Im curious to see what you bought because i expect them to be different. Just to see what the master has in store.

 

[NW-ZJ-SCOTT]

Also, I pulled the trigger on the final purchase for Phase1.

[/QUOTE]

So your going to keep us in the dark?? Im curious to see what you bought because i expect them to be different. Just to see what the master has in store.[/QUOTE]

I bet they are Toyo T1R's

:guitar:

 

[TORX]

Gotta love new rubbers.

Tread looks promising.

Tiny by today's standards.

I could go on and on for my reasoning behind them, but in the end it came down to the following...

Something Different: Everyone is either on the KM2 or Kevlar bandwagon. I wanted to run something different.
Mileage: I wanted something that would last a few years of daily driving. I don't think 30K is asking too much out of a radial MT. I hope the next tires I buy are because of Phase2 and not because I wore them out.
Road Manners: It's all about comfort these days. I want to be able to cruise down I5, AC on, and be able to listen to Jason Ellis without having to tune out tire howl, or white knuckle it because my tires won't balance right (bias swamper).
Year Round Traction: I wanted a tire that offered a tread design that would do good year round in the PNW. For me this includes rocks, trails, snow, and ice. I considered both the General Grabbers and TTC Claw's, but I just couldn't see either doing well in the packed or fresh snow.

So with that being said, Cooper STT's it was.


My wheels should be here next week. Once they arrive I'll be spending an evening mounting them up.

 

[jonesinxj]

Nice Dustin, are going to have them siped? In running mine, I think these tires would really awaken with some additional siping

 

[ruger81]

Gotta love new rubbers.

Tread looks promising.

Tiny by today's standards.

I could go on and on for my reasoning behind them, but in the end it came down to the following...

Something Different: Everyone is either on the KM2 or Kevlar bandwagon. I wanted to run something different.
Mileage: I wanted something that would last a few years of daily driving. I don't think 30K is asking too much out of a radial MT. I hope the next tires I buy are because of Phase2 and not because I wore them out.
Road Manners: It's all about comfort these days. I want to be able to cruise down I5, AC on, and be able to listen to Jason Ellis without having to tune out tire howl, or white knuckle it because my tires won't balance right (bias swamper).
Year Round Traction: I wanted a tire that offered a tread design that would do good year round in the PNW. For me this includes rocks, trails, snow, and ice. I considered both the General Grabbers and TTC Claw's, but I just couldn't see either doing well in the packed or fresh snow.

So with that being said, Cooper STT's it was.


My wheels should be here next week. Once they arrive I'll be spending an evening mounting them up.

toyo mt then we could be on the same band wagon!

 

[Shorty]

Gotta love new rubbers.
it came down to the following...

Something Different: Everyone is either on the KM2 or Kevlar bandwagon. I wanted to run something different.
Mileage: I wanted something that would last a few years of daily driving. I don't think 30K is asking too much out of a radial MT. I hope the next tires I buy are because of Phase2 and not because I wore them out.
Road Manners: It's all about comfort these days. I want to be able to cruise down I5, AC on, and be able to listen to Jason Ellis without having to tune out tire howl, or white knuckle it because my tires won't balance right (bias swamper).
Year Round Traction: I wanted a tire that offered a tread design that would do good year round in the PNW. For me this includes rocks, trails, snow, and ice. I considered both the General Grabbers and TTC Claw's, but I just couldn't see either doing well in the packed or fresh snow.

So with that being said, Cooper STT's it was.


My wheels should be here next week. Once they arrive I'll be spending an evening mounting them up.

I've been running the STT's for almost 2 yrs (same size as yours)and still have a good bit of tread remaining-- they'll hold up pretty well if you've got an alignment that's even close.

Be careful the first time out in snow, though. I found them to be a little skittish in the white stuff. Not dangerous, just a little unpredictable as to where they were gonna grab and where they were gonna slip.

 

[BoringDave]

I use to sell stt's back in the day. We nick named them the meltomatics. But they do great off road. My choice is down to them or the Dynapro.

 

[dick.breakey]

so when are we building this thing?

 

[TORX]

Nice Dustin, are going to have them siped? In running mine, I think these tires would really awaken with some additional siping

I want to see how they do first uncut. I'll run them in the remaining snow for this winter, and in the rocks through summer, and then make up my mind.

I know the siping sure helped my KM2's, so I'm well aware of the benefits. If I do decide to sipe them, I'll do it myself. America's Tire did a hack job on my KM2's.

 

[TORX]

Roadied back to Boring, and picked up my 30. Quick visit of only two and a half hours this time.

Darrell was very happy with how the 4.56's set up. He said he got gorgeous pattern with .007" backlash (tighter the backlash the less gear deflection under torque). Works for me!

Drive side (what you run on going forward in a high pinion front).

Coast side (weaker side of the ring gear, and what you run on when reversing).

Tomorrow I'll get the 30 put back together, and the mini skids burned on.

 

[crazymoose1990]

Havent you learned anything, if your going to Darrels and you want it to be a quick trip get to his house at 11:30. The guy is religious about taking his lunch at 12:00.
I like shooting the shit with Darrel but sometimes I have things to do.
The HP 30 looks good Dustin.

 

[TORX]

so when are we building this thing?

Build week officially starts this Sunday, and will go all through next week. I thought about trying to do it all in a weekend, it's totally doable. However, I'd rather take my time on it, and do it all myself. I'm kind of OCD when it comes to wrenching on my Jeep.

Expect major updates next week.

I'll be cranking out a little bit each day. Front lift/axle swap, t-case overhaul, 8.8 mock up, rear lift, 8.8 final welding, wheel/tire mounting. If any of the local peeps want to lend a hand, you got my number. Doesn't mean I'll take you up on it though.

If all goes to plan, I might be finding some snow next weekend. :greensmok

 

[BoringDave]

I wish you weren't so far away, I would like to watch the transfer case overhaul. I've never had one a part, well one that I had to put back together. All the places I've ever worked they would just have me troubleshoot what's wrong. Then throw it in a box and send them to six states for exchange. I guess this way they get a warranty and lower labor costs.

And I agree with you about not having a party of drinkers working on the car that you need to drive everyday.

 

[hards91xj]

I`ve been running those tires in a 32 x 11.5 for 5 years [ not on a DD ] they have worked fine for me , there is some road noise . No problems with them .I had to replace 1 when a root went through the side ,running the Shoestring Trail . Nice work on the rest of you project.

 

[sheffeyva]

Havent you learned anything, if your going to Darrels and you want it to be a quick trip get to his house at 11:30. The guy is religious about taking his lunch at 12:00.
I like shooting the shit with Darrel but sometimes I have things to do.
The HP 30 looks good Dustin.

Who is this Darrel you speak of? Boring is in my back yard and would love to know someone else to work on some things if I need something done!

 

[BoringDave]

Who is this Darrel you speak of? Boring is in my back yard and would love to know someone else to work on some things if I need something done!

http://www.knaoffroad.com/

 

[NW99XJ]

...wow, he's like 5min from my house. Pass right by there often on my way to the in-laws house.

 

[TORX]

Today my goal was to pretty much tie up all the loose ends leading into Build Week.

Had a few things to tackle on the 30. First I tapped a 5/16-18 hole in the center of the coil buckets. This way in the future I can run a bolt to hold down my bump stops.

Next up was the sway bar mounts. I have no idea when the cut off was, but on this 97 axle, the sway bar link mounts are a pressed in deal. Older models use just a standard nut and bolt.

Knowing I'll probably run some sort of disconnect on the lower portion, I cut the bolt off at the splines. Not sure why I did this but it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Then I fired up the torch blaster.

After getting the surrounding area around the bolt red hot, I took a center punch and BFH and knocked the bolt right out.

Third task was welding on my mini skids. I cleaned up the weld surfaces.

Burned them on. I'd suggest these for anyone building their 30. They box in the LCA brakcets, strengthen the mounts, and provide a good skid surface.

Another issue I wanted to address was the weak UCA mount on the passenger side. It's pretty wimpy. Best solution would be truss the axle. Too much work, and I didn't want to tackle that kind of project right now. So instead I cut out a simple gusset out of some scrap 1/8".

Burned it on. It boxes in the mount, and should provide some more resistance if the mount decides to delete itself.

Last project for the 30 was reinforcing the track bar bolt. My RE track bar uses a 1/2 bolt on the lower end. A lot of times the bolt can start to oval out the hole (I've never had this issue in the past). To prevent this and provide some reinforcement, I found a standard 1/2 SAE washer and burned it over the hole.

 

[TORX]

One thing I wasn't able to get to today was addressing the axle vent hole. OEM uses a goofy plastic press in fitting at the chunk. I've had water get in there in the past. To prevent that, I was going to tap it out to a NPT size, and run a barbed fitting. I borrowed a 1/4NPT tap for this, but quickly realized 1/4NPT was too big. I'd have to hog out the hole to a 7/16, and even then I don't think I could have got a socket on it to tighten. Ideally, I think a 1/8NPT would work best. Fail. Guess I'll get to it next time I have the axle apart.

At this point I started putting the axle back together. I was pleased to see the tubes had been cleaned, and new inner axle seals installed. One thing I like about the Detroit is lack of cross pin. In the event of an axle break at the splines, you can hammer the broken piece out from the other side.

I like to put a bit of grease on the splines, and seal surface. This eases the shaft through the seal, and gives some lube for the seal.

Before installing the axles, I wire brushed the hub mating surface. Then applied a good coating of Never Seez to it. This will make future tear downs go much easier.

Got the hub installed. I made sure to Never Seez the hub nut and hub to knuckle bolts. Hub nut gets torqued to 175ft/lbs, and hub to knuckle bolts get 75ft/lbs. I also ditched the dust shields.

Cleaned up the housing a bit, and shot some paint at it. Once it's under the Jeep, I'll install the brakes and Ruff Stuff cover.

 

[FiveNdime]

So done in a week huh.....sounds like plenty of time for a shakedown run to Moab! Looking Sharp Dustin.