The Grand Tracker (Retard TT)

[84projectFORD]

most of the parts for the beams have showed up. probably run stock steering for a while. Got 5.13 gears, new carrier so the 5.13's work, spartan locker, mile marker stainless hubs (currently has auto hubs), new mevotech ttx ball joints (lets see how these hold up compared to napa blue boots), new seals for the diff and wheel bearings, and some other odds and ends.


in the mean time, headed to Moab this week so brought the tracker in for some prep.

Changed the oil/filter
Cleaned/oiled air filter
New control arm bushings (because why not when you are gunna cut this front end out anyhow lmao)
New fuel filter
And changed the 3500 mile old oil pressure sensor that’s leaking for another new one

The bushings were a chore and were flat wore out lol

Couldn’t use my ball joint press to push them out due to the flange on one side being the same size as the arm. Found the air hammer with a chisel end made quick work of cutting the flange off. Then I could use the ball joint press to get them out. To put the new ones in, I had to heat up the arm before pressing them in. Fuckers were tight!

Had my helper out there with me today too. He helped tighten up the air filter, get me dropped tools and worked on his “dump truck” lol. yes, this child has no shoes on, hes also the same one that will continue to run around with a god damn cholla in his foot as well.

 

[84projectFORD]

Oh fuck yeah boys! So i threw a post up on my local suzuki club forum, looking for the specific montero trans. it was a 1 in a million shot but figured it was worth asking. My buddy ted pipes up "i actually got a montero buddy i can ask". moments later, i get a text with a pic of the exact trans i need and he says "its yours if you want it, free.99 but has no reverse so needs a rebuild". holy mother fucking shit balls, i hit the jackpot!

Picked up the trans and that jeep input slipped right on nice and tight (like your mother use to be)!

Now to order a rebuild kit for the trans, get the right output seal, maybe up the stall of the converter and swap bell housings/pans/shift linkage. This is gunna save me a fuckton of work BUT i gotta see how the VB works. hopefully its semi manual meaning, shifter in 2nd, its in 2nd no matter what, shifter in 3rd - stays in 3rd but i doubt it. ill need to dig docs up about it.

 

[84projectFORD]

Some update on this shitbox.

Did a run in mid May and 3 days before, my chinee pressure bomb…. Bombed. Fuckin thing bent the shaft and put the compressor wheel into the cover. Only choice at that point…. Order another China special off Amazon . 168 bucks 2 day shipped to my door. Sum bitch went the whole trip with 0 issues and still rockin.

In the mean time, I acquired a Garrett gt2860rs from my buddy. Brand new unit he wasn’t going to use. So I’ll put that in at some point but requires me running coolant through it and might cause exhaust pipe issues, we will see.

I’m also fuckin tired of the stock computer fuckery I have going on with the turbo. So I bought a microsquirt and will have it handle the engine while the stock computer will just tag in enough to run my transmission. Not going to run that full manual trans ASSuming the rear output from the montero drops in.

So let’s see what’s on the list of “to do’s”:

• Swap output shafts and rebuild trans, possibly restall converter (need a shop that will
• Get a np231 or atlas
• New crossmember mount
• New driveshaft
• Rebuild ttb
• Swap in ttb
• Make adapters from bronco steering box to my power steering pump
• New front bumper and mount winch, oil cooler, radiator
• More random shit for ttb swap
• Microsquirt swap in
• New turbo.

Faaaaack I got a lot to get done. Guess I should get these transmissions apart!

 

[85Yota]

In for the TTB swap. Winning right there.

 

[84projectFORD]

TTB update:




Ha! None, fooled you fuckers. It will get goin but ain’t happening yet. Might be the fact I got the thing working so well… or the fact I don’t wanna tie up my 2 post lift and it stays that way… indefinitely.

Anyhow. I don’t daily this thing anymore so before silverton, I decided to straight pipe it. Turbos love that shit. In doing so, I realized the god damn muffler the shop put in years ago necked down to like 1.75” and had this massive restrictive baffle in it. Wtf! Went out and drove it and sum bitch holds boost damn near all the way through the rpm range unlike before. Fuck yeah!

Rolling on to this past week, I decided to cut the bow tie bar out of the front grill. It’s blocking a lot of air flow to the intercooler. Removing it dropped air temps about 20* which is a good measure for az temps. All this in prep for a weekend trip.

 

[84projectFORD]

Muhahahaha… and so it starts. My wife actually helped pushed this to happen sooner than later. More on that fuckery later in the post.

Got both transmissions down from my storage rack and pulled them apart. Output shafts will swap over without issue but I do need to plug 2 ports.

The montero trans is fuckin shot. Clutches and steels are burnt like a gayzer in glamis but this gv trans must have been recently rebuilt. Clutches still have writing on them and steels look great. I figure I’ll just stab it in and try it. Didn’t check applys but I’m not too worried about it.

Needed to get the speed sensor reluctor on the output shaft, surprisingly it lined up close to a bolt hole the montero gov was bolted to. Little notching on the mill and it will bolt down. Doesn’t need to be super tight, just snug. Will one edge of the bolt be the only thing tightening against the reluctor? Fuckin right it will be. Will it come out and destroy all that jap aluminum? Maybe. Will be hard to do with the copious amount of red loctite and possible miller loctite.

Started putting it all back together, got all the clutches and drums in, then chipped a gasket for the valve body, FUCK!. Waiting on new gaskets to show before finishing it up. Then I need to find me a jeep tcase and the tracker will probably go 2wd for a while. I’ll swap the transmission in with the jeep tcase, get a driveshaft built and drive it to make sure the transmission works right. If all its good, cutting the front end off. (This is just foreshadowing…)

Also ordered up my front shocks. King 3.0 12” stroke internal bypass shocks with remote resi’s and clickers on the resi. Not cheap by a long shot but it’s more shock than this thing needs and will do what a coilover and external bypass normally do. Besides, who the hell doesn’t throw ungodly amounts of money into shocks for a 700 dollar shit box? Bought them through Accutune and I’m having them setup the initial valving. Should get me real close, then I can play with it from there. Probably going to do their spring exchange too.

Now heres the good part where my loving wife made such a great financial decision in both time and money.

Went on a run right behind my house from i17 to 7 springs (table Mesa rd east). Close buddy wanted to take his taco out and gain more wheeling experience. This road is a good mix of that. We motored along all day with the kids and wives. Stopped for lunch, spotted the taco through a rock garden and proceeded to hit the now smoothish roads all the way around to 7 springs. I ask the wife “you wanna drive?” She thinks about it and says “sure!” We do a rapid Chinese fire drill and swap spots. I’m like SWEET! Put some tunes one, get the seat set right and start kickin back while she motors along at 10-15mph. Not maybe 5 min in, we crest a sharp hill not knowing the depths of hell are on the other side. My inexperienced German wife is just beeboping over the crest and I’m lost in pollack land looking for deer up the mountains. Little did we know, hitler himself was lurking on the other side of this crest, luring his German soldier into a washout that would swallow a 33” tire like no tomorrow. We smash into this ditch at 15 mph and it stops us dead. Whole tracker kicks sideways, the pollack protecting seat belts hold me from allowing hitlers grasp to take hold and drag me to hell with him. Now durning all this, my loving wife has not taken her foot off the nazi smashing go pedal. This causes the front end to pop up and out of said washout and puts us 90* to the road, sealing hitler in his hellish grave. Fuck you bitch!! Children are unscathed, I’m still in one piece and I see my wife look at me like “wtf just happened”.

Anyhow, we are all fine and I tell her to shut the rig down so I can assess damages. Sure as fuck, we got power steering fluid everywhere and tires that are pointed out further from each other than a democrate trying not to make eye contact with trump. Fuuuuuuck. Give the wheel a shake, tie rods are still attached where they should and rack is moving as it should. We do a quick look over and determine the leak is from the rack and I’m not about to just waste fluid in there. I can’t see where the hell things are bent but we could get tires back in line by completely bottoming out the tie rods in adjustment. After hazing the hell out of my wife between us and our friends, I proceeded to armstrong the fucker back home. May or may not have burned up the pump but I don’t give a shit. “If it dies, it dies”

So now, tracker is perma-parked till I’m ready to start tear down. That means, for our Parker trip, I’ll be getting off road wheels and tires on the sand car to take that. Assuming no rain.



This ain’t no camera fish eye affect. That fucker has 6-8” of toe OUT. Got to drive the the steering wheel clocked 90* from where it should be all the way home.

 

[Motiracer38]

What a roller coaster of emotions. Goes from "Yay, he is working on it!" to "Bummer, the wife drove it" to "Hell yeah it is getting cut up!!" It's great that the output swap went so well, I'm elbows deep in that right now too.

 

[85Yota]

How's the TTB swap coming.

 

[84projectFORD]

What a roller coaster of emotions. Goes from "Yay, he is working on it!" to "Bummer, the wife drove it" to "Hell yeah it is getting cut up!!" It's great that the output swap went so well, I'm elbows deep in that right now too.

Welcome to my world, buddy

Also, fuck you Tommy

 

[85Yota]

My goal is to drive my ford before you start the TTB swap on this thing. So you got till next desert season.

 

[84projectFORD]

My goal is to drive my ford before you start the TTB swap on this thing. So you got till next desert season.

Ha! You better chop chop. And I don’t mean cutting your truck up again after building a whole nother back half

 

[85Yota]

Haha I gotta chop chop and finish the 2 other truck projects I have for customers. Then back on mine till it's driving. Not gonna rebuild anything on current truck I'll just build another one once this one is done and driving.

 

[84projectFORD]

Let’s see, where’d I leave off.

Between then and now I’ve acquired a rebuilt 231j tcase with sye and electronic output speed sensor. After aquiring said tcase, I found the tcase input was too short to hit the seal on the trans adapter. Instead of getting a long input and machining it down, just took a piece of 2” DOM and machined it into a sleeve to use. .002 press fit and a little green sleeve retainer to seal it.






Today, yanked the old trans and tcase, swapped my converter over and started seeing how shit would fit. Needed a little BFH persuading on the driver side but should work. Waiting on a clock ring now so I can bolt the trans and tcase together. Not sure that tcase vent will like being where it is but we shall see.

Need to build a crossmember, wire in two sensors, adjust the exhaust, change the driveshaft end to a 1310 DC, and get a cable shifter setup for the tcase.

 

[Motiracer38]

Not to many people have to clock their case down, that's an odd setup.

 

[84projectFORD]

Not to many people have to clock their case down, that's an odd setup.

lol no shit. Most are trying to clock up and get clearance. Suzuki jammed these transmissions/transfer cases way up into the center tunnel. The stock one was clocked very similar but the pass side. Toyota’s aren’t too far off from this either but it’s odd seeing an NP/NV style tcase this way.

 

[84projectFORD]

I need to get my ass out in the shop during the week to pick the pace up but family time usually take precedence.

Anyhow, last weekend and this weekend, I got a day each to work on this thing. Got the clocking ring on the tcase, verified its final resting place and started building the cross member. Yes, this sumbitch has part of a trailer hitch for a trans mount. Fuck off. We need clearance Clarance.

trans mount is:

2.5x2.5x.250 square tube with a 2”x.250 tube for a bushing. Supports are 1/8” plate. Poly bushings will be used for a mount. Center bolt/sleeve is 9/16”.

Crossmember is:

1.5”X.120 chromoly tube, 1/4” plate for mounts and 1/8” for bracing. 1/4” thick tabs with 1”x.095 hrew and 1/8” plate was used for the mount from crossmember to trans mount. Threw a dimple die in there for cool super dick bro status… and as a drain.











Finished that today and then finished up putting the trans/transfer case in. It was temp in there incase shit had to come back out. Also wired the speed sensor into the stock wiring but need to put the Dakota digital box in still to make the speedo read right.

Crossmember will get through bolted to the frame as well but need to see where radius arm mounts land first

Driveshaft is out and going down to get changed to a 1310 DC joint from the Toy DC joint it has.

Needs fluids, driveshaft, and figure out the down pipe from the turbo, then she can go on a test drive.

 

[84projectFORD]

More updates:

My shaft done and in her… also, my driveshaft is done and in. Fluids are in and hacked the end of the down pipe and the sum bitch has movement! Got her to shift through all the gears on the lift but speedo is about double its speed it should show.




Yesterday I had an hour before family stuff so wired in the Dakota digital speedo deal that corrects the jeep speed sensor to what ever I need it to. Couldn’t get it to change on the dash till I looked over wiring diagrams. Realized Suzuki decided to splice/split the speed signal wire to the ecm and to the cluster.

So today I spliced in the cluster wire to the Dakota and bam mutha fucka, we got speed correction! Took her for a rip and all gears hold, tc locks up, and speedo is dialed. Have not had that shit read correct since I’ve owned it, gunna be weird. No leaks anywhere so my half ass fab must be decent enough for seals

Once back on the lift, the god damn sawzall slipped off my cart and hit the tracker. Fucked shit up royally

 

[85Yota]

Time for the best easily obtainable 4wd front end ti get in there. Can't wait

 

[Turboyota]

More updates:

My shaft done and in her… also, my driveshaft is done and in. Fluids are in and hacked the end of the down pipe and the sum bitch has movement! Got her to shift through all the gears on the lift but speedo is about double its speed it should show.

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Yesterday I had an hour before family stuff so wired in the Dakota digital speedo deal that corrects the jeep speed sensor to what ever I need it to. Couldn’t get it to change on the dash till I looked over wiring diagrams. Realized Suzuki decided to splice/split the speed signal wire to the ecm and to the cluster.

So today I spliced in the cluster wire to the Dakota and bam mutha fucka, we got speed correction! Took her for a rip and all gears hold, tc locks up, and speedo is dialed. Have not had that shit read correct since I’ve owned it, gunna be weird. No leaks anywhere so my half ass fab must be decent enough for seals

Once back on the lift, the god damn sawzall slipped off my cart and hit the tracker. Fucked shit up royally

View attachment 22736
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Fuck yeah James!!

 

[84projectFORD]

Didn’t get full days in yesterday and today but still managed to make progress!

Yesterday I tore down the stock front end frame section. It’s about ready for the scrapper. Need motor mounts and rad mounts off it still. Might cut the bumper off too if I can use it on the new frame section.

Today the plan was to drill out the bronco hubs for the 5/8 studs I had in the tracker. That was a bust. Need a 3/4” shank on the stud because the bronco uses the studs to hold the rotor to the back of the hub. These studs have 3/8” shanks. Ordered 10 of them and decided to tear the front end down from ball joints outward. Figured I’d do something to not waste the day. Only got half way through the driverside before we had to go to the county fair BUT resurfaced the rotor, disassembled the hub and found the bearing races were pitted, cleaned the hub, knuckle and spindle, put new non-greasable spicer ujoints in the axle and painted up the knuckle and hub. Need to get bearings/studs and I can put it back together. Still gotta do the other side