Been kinda busy...

Since when does a third member come in styofoam?

It must be a Huey thing... For being Huey, he gets a special treatment.

What the He$$$k did you do?
Oh I remember now... you are installing your rock crawler gears right?

Huey gets to join the "3rd members only" club.

I'm jealous.

But I've been a little busy too... I now have 20% stiffer Billsteins all around and Calmini add-a leafs and no more rear sway bar. I'm on the not-as-fast-as-Huey track.

He's already installed his gears... Now, it looks like he's moving on to "let's-mess-with-rear-diff club."

Yeah, now he'll have selectable 3-wheel drive! I still don't get the styrofoam thing though. :p

It was just packaged for transport to Rearend Specialties. The styrofoam was from something else and I decided to use it to cushion the diff. That's all, nothing special. :p

BTW, the diff isn't what's been keeping me busy (I'm busy with freelance work ontop of work), but I thought it would be fun to post a 3rd member in a styrofoam container to confuse Dean.

It is kinda funny how it looks like it was designed to contain the diff, but I swear it was from a box for a KitchenAid mixer.

Here's a shot of the lovely wrap job that Matt and I did to keep dirt out of the housing.

Hey Huey, don't be gettin' all domestic on us now!... unless you want to bring some baked goods with you next In 'N Out!

Speaking of In N Out, I only just noticed there's one at Mercado in Santa Clara (101 and Great America Parkway). I guess it opened in the last couple months because I sure don't remember it the last time I went to see a movie there.

So, where'd you get the new one from? Is it aftermarket or from Nissan? Maybe you guys talked about it at the last In N Out which I didn't get to, so I don't know anything about this new purchase.

I think it's too late...He has become domestic... How in the world could he tell that the box was for a KitchenAid mixer if he hadn't? (Not only he can tell what kind of item it should be in the box, but also he knows which brand...)

Yep, I guess so... I only had 1 dent that looks like yours on the bottom section of the skid, but that was still enough to dent the gas tank itself (not that bad, though).

...And, I am happy that I have a gas tank skid since it's already scratched up pretty good. :rolleyes:

Here's some background info for those that were confused by my post.

The 1st image is of my diff off of my X waiting to be taken to the shop to have an ARB locker installed. It's still at the shop and should hopefully be done tomorrow and then back in the X this Sat.

You suck!

Ah, I got it now. Can you say what shop is doing the install?

Rearend Specialties

They did Dean's locker and seem to know what they are doing.

They installed my LSD too. Fast service.

....

Woo Woo!



Btw, woo woo=locker installed.

They did mine as well, while I waited, and they removed and installed the 3rd member, and it was dirt inexpensive, and I still billed for time at work...wait, don't tell anyone about that part. One tip...run a coiled piece of air line from the ARB switch to the rear end as long as possible to prevent gear oil from being discharged out the ARB switch. If the line is long enough, the gear oil, or most anyway, will drain back into the rear end.

Too late. but i think I used just about all but 3 feet of it. Anyways good to hear that they did another. BTW, how long have you had your's Gary? I knew you had an air compressor, but never noticed the locker.

Here's another tip to eliminate gear oil spray when disengaging the locker:

Cut a small length of tube from the stem of an empty Windex bottle (or equiv.) and thread it into the solenoid on the compressor. Attach some 1/4" plastic tube (like the kind used in aquarium air lines; I found some at Home Depot) to the Windex bottle stem and route the tube to a convenient location where the spray will not make a mess, preferrably into a small container such as an empty Aquafina water bottle.

BTW Huey, how's the new Locker? Did you get a chance to test it? Notice ANY difference? So, now the Dude has the gears and the locker....look out 'con. I keep hearing faint interest in doing the Rubicon. Is anyone thinking this year? I would be up for a support run this year in a FJ40 or next year in the X. Are there others who would like to give this a go? If so, maybe we can start a thread planning such a trip. Just a thought!
PS I recall seeing a thread by a group of Subarus who were intending to do the 'Con, and, I have a reliable report (Danno) they did, in fact make it through. Intel didn't reveal the carnage, only the success.

Well I tested the locker on Monday at Hollister (I can't tell you how much i hate that place) and it was SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET!

Because I ended up going by myself I didn't do anything spectacular, so instead I just didn't air down, went up stuff till I could go any further, then locked the rear and kept going up!

I think I'm going to wait till next year for the Rubicon, I've got one more mod to go before I will attempt it. BTW, I would really like to tag along with you Gary since you know your way around that trail and if you're going to do it in your X all the better!

BTW, I want to hear more about the Subarus! I remember reading about them wanting to give it a try at the begining of summer. Can't believe they made it all the way through!!!

Do you think it'd be possible to get all the way up that big hill climb (Five Fingers?) at Hollister? Had anyone even tried it in an X without any tranny mods?

Hehehehehehe...

I've been down 5 fingers (almost rolled for being dumb) and then watched as Dean and a few others (I think Scooter) go up it. I've also seen an Xterra go up truck hill and then a Toyota do it backwards. I think those hill climbs really depend on the time of year becuase they do get greaded and slowly get worse. In general they can become quite sacry when they get very rutted. When graded, a stock Xterra could easily go up it, but when they get tough it takes a fully locked and lifted Jeep quite a bit of work to "try" to make it up.

Subies on the Con!

another thread

If they can do it, so can we!

Hey, did you try that "White Rocks" trail w/the locker? (it's not on the trail map, but I think you take Fremontia grade to get to it; the beginning of the trail is full of large quartz ("white") rocks)
I followed this subaru-rubicon thing a bit; it's a bit confusing, but it looks like they did a fairly small part of it, then had to leave because they ran out of spare parts or something.
Here's a couple Pirate 4x4 threads:
Thread 1
Thread 2