Los_Control

Why I was saying borrow a set ... If you were anywhere near west Texas and stopped by, I could pull the set of radials off of my project truck in 10 min and we could put them on yours and go take it for a drive. Then you would have peace of mind and quit chasing ghost in the front end. Now your talking .... what bolt pattern are your jeep wheels ... pull all 4 off and try it

Welcome to the forum and nice car .... I wonder if it could be the bias ply tires causing the wandering? They are known to follow every divot and line in the road. I wonder how well it would drive with a set of radials, maybe you have a set or can borrow some just for a test?

One thing you do not mention, is your motor/trans. Are you running stock? 218 with manual 3 speed? or is it a bigger engine with a overdrive trans ... depends on what gear ratio you want to look for. I have read some users opinions, one person owned 2 different 218 flathead with T-5 trans, one had 3:55 gears and other 3:73 gears. The 3:55 cruised well on the freeway, but at a mild hill it was out of torque had to downshift to 4th all the time. While the 3:73 had plenty of torque and could pull same hill in 5th gear. See where I am going? Picking the right gear ratio for a enjoyable driving experience is important also. It depends on what you have. I have no idea, I know the 3/4 ton trucks have the 5 on 5 bolt pattern ... do the big Chrysler's have same? Are they the same axle width as the other cars and trucks? I dunno. A guy on Facebook I have been chatting with, just installed a rear end from a 90's chevy pickup 3:73 ratio, 5 on 5 bolt pattern and over all width is 1" wider then his stock 1949 3/4 ton truck. I always assumed the chevy was too wide, until I measured ... they are really close. I need a seat for my dodge and my chevy seat is 1" wider then the dodge.

Also if you have any glass in full pieces, you can bring to local glass shop and they can use as a pattern and cut new for you. Or make a cardboard template and they can use that. ... Is just flat laminated safety glass. Not expensive. Some shops may offer to create the glass then send it off to be tempered for more safety. Cost a little more, might be a 2 week turn around ... is a option. I am sure ordering glass online works fine, I know some offer every piece in a package deal for a decent price, what if a piece breaks during shipping? Just seems like a potential can of worms, when you have the opportunity to support a local business.

Explorer is a common swap, newer ones 1996 or so and up have disk brakes. You do need to cut of the spring perches and weld new ones on where needed. Tractor supply sells spring perches that will work .... The explorer has several gear ratio options. Is a 8.8 and a very strong rear end. Has right bolt pattern. Also Jeep Cherokee is a common swap and same reasons as with the explorer. I measured a rear end from a late 80's Bronco II, Think is same platform as a ranger, at the time and it was a few inches narrower, would need wheel spacers, and a smaller weaker rear end ...Maybe newer ranger is different? One thing to keep in mind when doing the swap, when you grab the rear end from donor vehicle, grab all the emergency brake cables and brackets to go with rear end. Would be possible to add to your car and keep original E-brake handle, and adapt cable to use E-brakes from modern rear end.

I never thought of zirks as a problem. I had some bad ones and pulled one, took it to local Car Quest auto parts store, bought 10 of them. Then later went back and bought a couple with a 90 degree head on them. Simply a non issue I thought.

Hrrrm I looked at it and completed the questions it was asking .... nothing important. Since then, I kinda feel the update went awry. The color is different, the response of switching pages is slow, Only way to describe it ... the site was much better before this update. I have been through many past updates ... this one is different.

I just wanted to thank @P15-D24 for the extended update today .... I actually got some work done....

vulcanizing is a rubber process, do you mean apply the rubber material on top? Not familiar with these cars but have seen some that appear to have a rubber mat on them. Just seems like a whole different question then buying new running boards, so I may be wrong.

Seems that would be your answer, get them repaired and be better then any re-pops available.

I have to admit that I have no real plan myself today. I am 58 years old and while I have a bad back, I am pretty healthy and take care of myself .... but we never know when the day will come. While on the other hand, my wife is 60, she refuses to take care of herself, copd, diabetes, high blood pressure, over weight, taking 9 different medications daily .... If I go first, all goes to wife and will help prepare if have time, then later will go to her 2 sons when she is gone. If she goes first, I would probably set something up with a local charity to take over when I am gone. I already know her sons would not be interested in anything we own. We do not talk now, we would not talk after their mother passes. If I live to be 80, then 22 years is a lot of time for things to change ... not getting excited about preparations just yet.

My habits are to change my oil, when finished I pour gasoline in the drain pan and use the dirty oily rag to wash it out. Past week or two been using a lot of lacquer thinner. still 1 rag at a time, and it does dissipate pretty quickly. I just treat all rags as a potential fire hazard, probably a good habit to get into. When was younger and worked in tire retread shops, we used several different solvents, glues, chemicals ... By code we had to have a fire proof can to store dirty rags in for cleaners to pickup. Since I do not have a fire proof can to store them, why I set them outside in a safe spot ... even if they did catch fire would not hurt anything.

Rags do scare me, I put all my old rags outside as I get them oily. is only 1 or 2 at a time. I let them air dry in the sun for several days, .then dispose of them.

I just wanted to add. I waited a few days while life got in the way. And tried sanding again and worked perfect. I needed to allow it more cure time then 18 hours. While in the back of my mind, I was thinking about flash times and windows to apply a second coat etc ... First time paint jobs are fun. You can see in photo what am using the primer for. Filling low spots. I know this photo looks bad ... I accept that. And I am moving forward. Is rust scale ... just years of rust layers building up on top of solid metal in the West Texas sun. I have tried every way I have to remove it, I can not. I suspect sandblast is only way, not going to happen any year soon. The white is acid where the rust has all been treated and ready for paint. It has had ospho on it, it has phosphoric at one time and muriatic first time. Ospho you put on, let it dry and is ready to paint over. I either move forward and paint it as is, my only goal is to make a daily driver and maybe a 20 footer, that would be fine. Haul lumber materials and groceries. Will never be for sale unless I no longer drive. I could just park it in the sun and get the patina affect. Or I could just give up and park it out back and forget about it. I figure 80% of paint will be fine, and the other 20% deal with it as it comes back to bite me.

This thread is perfect for those that are satisfied with PB and to step up and say which selection they chose. Crickets ....

Thats what I would do .... still a mystery to what or how the material got in there ... I personally was thinking mice but dismissed that because of the space available ... never thought about ants. Would not surprise me.

Years ago I posted a photo from photobucket on a forum. Some troll was able to use the link from that photo and post the whole album. The goal was to embarrass me, by posting this photo of me ... I just laughed at that. They also posted photos of my family and saying untrue things about them, that pissed me off. So I removed my photos and closed the account. ... Technically what Hotrod tractor is trying to do, because you can do it is why I left .... before photobucket went to pay accounts. This photo I was actually very annoyed. I was installing exterior lighting on a customers home after new stucco, Their daughters were in 4H and raising a chicken, the dog was chasing it and found me as a safe space. I really want the homeowner to put the chicken back in the cage, Oh just wait til I get my camera I got to have a photo ?

Is there some sort of nylon bushing that maybe grenaded and chewed up? Other then that possibility, looks like foreign material to me, possibly re builder was careless and left something in it. From your first post I pictured too much grease and a little oozing out .... the photo just looks wrong. A mystery.

No! A little grease on the bushing and gear ... almost looks like something got caught in there and chewed up. I would be tempted to disassemble and clean it ... and for the price of the kit PA listed might install it if needed. Thats my opinion, see what the correct answer turns out to be

When you do pull the hub, put axle nut back on and leave it loose. You will use a hammer to work the puller. I used a 3 pound sledge and did not swing it, just let the weight do the work tap tap tap. When it does pop lose, it will have great force behind it. The nut will prevent the drum from landing on the floor. When mine came loose in the photo above, the dog bone handle flew off and hit the side of my house. If I was sitting on the tire in front of it, would have hit me in the ribs. I also suggest standing to the side When installing it, I asked for some advice here in forum. clean the taper on the axle, light film of grease, and the nut goes tight. Think the torque specs is 165 pounds .... or as tight as your impact gun will get it. I could not find anything on torque specs in the manual and why I asked here. So wanted to pass that info to you.

This thread reminds me, my phone is sitting in the shop with a dead battery. If anyone called me and I not reply ... do not take it personal. I will go out and plug it in in the next day or so.

They are not to bad with the correct tool. These old vehicles have a tapered axle. You need a decent Hub puller to get them off easy ... while there are other home made tricks. Here is a photo of pulling my hub, I bought the puller off of ebay for about $80 and with shipping came to about $110 or so. But I pulled each hub in just a few min ... one of those tools you just need when you have a old car to maintain.

Yes the reds turned pink and the blacks turned gray. The directions do not say to add hardener, but somewhere along the way people decided it was better to add it.. I trust these peoples opinion because they have actually been there and done that. Even though the directions do not suggest to add the hardener. People just know better and do it anyways. I guess that is why I asked the question about primer and what others like to do. Read the directions is never a bad idea, but not always a complete idea.

I certainly respect your opinion for that. If Don could not do it, then no reason to bother Lisa. My wife would have no idea about a photobucket account, But if you told her you needed a password ... she knows we have 4 different passwords for everything and she knows them all. So it would be possible to figure it out if I were gone., But if Don could not ... I agree. Again just tossing ideas out there and I see my ideas wont work.