Before I get to the brakes, this past Friday Ann's mother Rosemary decided to buy a motorhome. Well, not that she'd decided on Friday, but rather earlier in the week she caught the motorhome bug. After plowing through websites, stats and prices over a period of several days, she learned there was a local motorhome show happening. On Friday she and Ann went down to the show and found a 28' Sunseeker. On Saturday, we brought it home.
I bring this story up because I'd already been planning to head to Seattle for a few days to taken advantage of the nice weather and work on Biscuit. On Saturday I left with the understanding that Ann, her mother, and Ann's aunt Kathy planned leave on Saturday as well. They were going to drive the motorhome (Apparently nicknamed 'Abby' at this point) to Spokane, then head to Seattle to drop off Ann with me. Next, Rosemary would head south to Vancouver, before turning back toward Pasco.
They spent the night Saturday night in Spokane, but instead of going to Seattle, I got word on Sunday that Rosemary hijacked the plans and decided to head to Montana (with Ann and the wheel). Over the next few days they camped in several spots (Walmarts on two occasions -- which offers free camping) in Montana and Wyoming. After staying Thursday night in Yellowstone, they finally arrived late Thursday night back home in good spirits.
So, now we have a vehicle that will allow us to stay for longer times at remote locations (camping and computer/website work much less compatible for long periods) that can also tow a jeep. Even better, we can more easily bring along Ann's PTSD companion dog Zollie. So, we are excited about this development. Perhaps the only downside is that it appears I will be handling the waste disposal. But, in this case, I'll take the good with the bad.
Now on to Biscuit:
Drivetrain Installation: I'd hoped to install the drivetrain and replace the old junkyard springs with new ones. However, both plans were foiled due to a lack of parts. In regards to the drive train, I had everything but the pilot bushing to mount the T-18 to the Buick V6. I thought this would be a standard bushing available at any automotive market, but I was wrong. Fortunately, John at R&P 4WD knew what I needed, so I'll be getting one in the mail. So, the drive train installation was delayed.
Rear Spring Replacement: Next on my list was the rear springs replacement. Part of my build strategy to save money was to use some cheap 'pick-n-pull' junkyard springs from a standard vehicle so that down-the-line if I liked what I'd built I could easily update with better equipment. I chose the rear springs from a 1990 Cherokee and beefed them up a bit with an extra leaf.
My strategy seemed successful, as it was easy to procure a set of new springs (Old Man Emu) from ARB, thanks to Mitch. What I didn't anticipate was how difficult it was to find the bushings. Without retracing all the phone calls I made, let's just say I had no success finding them in the Seattle area. I had to order some from the internet and am still waiting for them to be delivered.
Front Disc Brakes: With no bushing in hand, I turned to my back up, back up plan: the new front brake installation. While visiting R&P 4WD this past May, John Vahey offered a set of front disc brakes for installation on Biscuit. I jumped at the chance.
R&P has made the process of swapping discs pretty easy. For me, the most difficult part of the process was hunting down my hub nut wrench (took a couple hours of hunting -- not that it was absolutely needed, but I just had to KNOW where it had gone). Total installation was a couple hours for both and that included stopping to take photos.
After installing the new bolts onto the hub, I installed the new caliper plate, the disc, and the caliper. Below you can learn from my mistake. I installed the wrong caliper on the passenger side. Ooops. See the next photo for the correct installation.
The only issue I encountered was inability of the inner balancing weights of my 15" rims to pass by the caliper. I asked John about this and he said that a variety of Jeepers use an alternative weighting system. After some research, I learned what he meant. BBs, airsoft balls, and even golf balls have been used in tires to 'balance' or reduce the impact of an unbalance jeep wheel and tire. There's some debate on the science of how and why this works. And, in some cases (all anecdotal) it works better in some tires (taller thinner) than others (flatter, wider). There's much more to this topic that I'll cover in a later post (I haven't decided how I'll solve the problem).
After I finished the brakes, I turned to the engine. I removed parts from the old one and installed them on the new one. There are lots of good signs that the 'new' motor was rebuilt by someone who knew what they were doing. Allen bolts are used, the gaskets are neatly installed, the new oil filter was greased and more. It sat for a while, but looks like it will be a winner. I guess we'll find out!
In July I return to Seattle. I should have all I need to get quite a bit installed.
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