Did a little bit of work to the Scrambler last night, nothing too exciting.
I changed the thermostat from a 195 degree unit to a 180 degree unit. The engine is running around 190 degrees, so I am happy with that. I do have an "issue" where the gauge will climb to around 220 before immediately dropping to the normal temperature, not sure if the gauge is malfunctioning, or the engine is getting hot. The heater core is not getting hot, so I may need to burp the system?? The gauge only gets hot upon start up, once it drops to normal temperature it will not read high again, until you shut it down and then restart the engine. I might check out the clutch fan, too. When I had a scan tool hooked to the engine it never got above 195, so it might be a gauge/sender unit problem. But, the heater not getting hot is not normal.
I filled it up with gas and took it on the highway for the first time. Got it up to an indicated 75 mph, but the unbalance tires were kind of "bumpy".
So, quick stop off at a tire store for a balance job.
The tires balanced out without any issues. However, I do have one problem with these tires - they have some very small cracks in a few places between the tread blocks. The tiny cracks are in just a few places, not everywhere. But, I know this is not the best situation. However, I have a buddy with some 1 year old BFG Crawlers that already have these cracks, so
I will just keep a close eye on them for now. These tires have a three digit date code, so they were made before the year 2000. So, even though the tires are new in regards to miles, they are old. Sitting out west in the dry climate did not help them. The side walls are perfect, so the tiny tread cracks might not be anything to worry about
I need an excuse for mud tires anyway
After balancing the tires, I drove the Scrambler a bit more. It drives really smooth, a bit "firm" with the Superlift 4" springs, but all in all, very nice. It is very stable, and the steering is tight. The engine/transmission seem to be operating great, I was able to effortlessly peg the speedo, and still had way too much pedal
The transmission temperature gauge stayed around 170 the entire time, but I am still going to install the B&M Super Cooler.
I also finally hooked up the PCV fresh air line, the rubber line that runs from the valve cover to the back of the TBI air cleaner spacer thing. Not a "big deal", but now the engine is sucking in filtered air instead of just unfiltered under hood air.
I need to try to fix my headlight (one of them only works on high beam), and fix the same side front turn signal (turn signal works, but no running light). After that, I can get an inspection sticker.
I am going to take it to the exhaust shop to get the catalytic converter "fixed" this Friday, the current cat's internal parts broke apart, with some of the pieces shooting out the tail pipe like flaming meteorites
While it's there, I am also going to get the transfer case shifter lever bent into a better shape.
That's it for now
