I'm going to try to post a couple of pics for you by way of introduction:





Assuming those pics work, my name is Chris. This is Dadtero. Back several years ago, my wife & I had a 1990 Montero. It was 4 door 3.0 with auto trans. We loved it. It gave us some fun trips on the Colorado jeep trails. Since it was my wife's primary wheels, the kids called it Momtero.

We hit a deer with it & screwed up the front clip. I bought one on eBay to steal the front clip. I had no idea the value of the donor vehicle. It was a 90 2-door with 3.0 & 5-speed. I swapped clips & pasted it together to drive. I registered it, drove it, & listed it for sale. The kids logically dubbed it Dadtero.

I fell in love with it. I didn't have the money to keep it, so had to go ahead and sell it. I've wished to have it back ever since.

Several weeks ago, I traded for the beauty you see in the pics above. It is an 89 Raider 3.0 5-speed. Someone had already put 31" tires on it. I'm in love!

My brothers have Jeep Cherokees that are trailer queens. We all went to Hogan's Off-road Park in Disney, OK a couple of weeks ago. I was the only only one who didn't break, but I had no trouble keeping up with the modified Jeeps.

The second pic is of the custom emblem my brothers (both work at a body shop) came up with for me. I plan to completely remove all Dodge badges and replace with custom.

The third pic shows my roof basket in progress. We are all making custom roof baskets out of 1/2" conduit. I'm keeping mine pretty low profile so I can still park in the garage.

OK, now for the questions. When I sit and idle for a bit, I begin to smoke. I'm assuming that's likely the valve seals. Am I on the right track? I hope to do the timing belt soon since I don't know its history. I plan to do valve seals and water pump at the same time. Anything else I should do at the same time?

I have a lot of bushings in the front end that need replaced. I'm thinking that this would be a good time to do some sort of swaybar disconnect. Is there one that works well?

I'm hoping some day to do the rearend swap to get a locker. If my research on this site is right, I need the 94 SR as a donor. I'm looking at options for the front end. Someone told me to install manual hubs and weld the front end. Does this work? (keep in mind this is a daily driver)

Last question: My rear springs are shot! Most bumps slam the bumpstop. I want to keep the stock height. I've seen differing opinions here on rear springs. Is it OK if I re-open that discussion briefly?

Thanks for all your help. I'm excited to be a part of the forum!

Dadtero

are you sure its the springs and not the shocks? If you do needs some springs, I have extra set of SR springs. Direct bolt up.

If you are doing water pump do timing belt as well.

Keep ahold of the dodge emblem stuff to sell later. That stuff is getting hard to find

Wish the pictures would show up.

Welcome! Nice story. It's nice to find people who love Mitsus!

I can't see the pictures, but I'm sure they are cool. You are on the right track concerning the smoke. I'd also change the valve cover gaskets, plugs, wires, thermostat, inspect hoses for cracking while you are in there. I like to install a new fuel filter to around this time. That's not in the area though so you can do that anytime. Have fun!

Yeah. Those pics didn't show. I was trying my dropbox external links. I think if you right click the broken icon and tell it to view in another page it will show them to you. I need to work on my pic posting.

As far as the springs: I'm pretty sure it's the springs. I was told that the shocks are new. I bounce on the bumper and the shocks to appear to regain control after the first bounce. You say you have some springs. Where are you located?

As far as the valve seals: Previous owner said he did the valve cover gaskets. I believe him since there is no leaking. I hate to break a good seal, but...

Thanks for all the good info!

It's amazing how often this same sentiment is expressed by new Montero owners - I think everybody on this forum has experienced it, that's why we're all still here.

Welcome to the Wire - you've come to the right place to get your questions answered.

Since you're not driving a Jeep, there aren't any bolt-on sway-bar disconnects available for your vehicle. There are kits available that can work but will require fabrication. It's common to remove the rear sway bar entirely, but it will negatively affect your on-road handling. I will remove both of mine before a significant wheeling trip - I can remove or reinstall the front bar in about 5 minutes, but the rear takes more like 45 minutes since the shocks have to be pulled out of the way.

Replacing your rear springs may help with your bottoming issue, but you likely need to replace the shocks also. The KYB Gas-a-Justs are generally considered to be the best reasonably priced shocks, the Old Man Emu (OME) shocks work very well also but are more expensive.

Installing manual hubs is a good upgrade - they will reduce the wear and tear on your front axles and driveshaft (which would otherwise be turning at all times when the vehicle is moving), improve your fuel mileage slightly, and enable you to continue to drive your vehicle if you were to break a CV joint or something in the front end while 4-wheeling. Welding your front diff may not be the best idea if you plan to use your 4 wheel drive for anything other than serious off-roading.

Most questions about your Montero have been asked, discussed, and answered here before, so the search feature is a very useful tool.

Finally, fix your pics - we want to see what you're driving!

Do all the timing stuff first. The valve seals and gaskets is a separate job. Don't forget timing tensioner, idler pulley, crank and cam seals, in addition to the belt and water pump. Make sure you have the latest crank bolt version in there.

No one has come up with a decent sway bar disconnect for these trucks, as I recall.

Manual hubs are good, but personally, I wouldn't weld the diff, especially if you're going to drop in a locker in back. It'll really show up those Jeeps with that in there.

Bushings in the front end are just a ton of fun (not really). The likely culprits for replacement are idler arm, Pitman arm (steering, obviously) and control arm bushings. Upper control arms usually come as a shaft set, whereas the lowers are individual, two in the lower arm and two in the frame, but the lowers tend to last a while. The ones in the frame are huge and are real work to get in/out.

Welcome to the Wire.

John B.

Ryany, remember that the Gen 1's had auto hubs, so as long as they work, he's only going to improve reliability and emergency single wheel lock, but he won't gain any free wheeling.

John B.

Would that recalled bolt show up on the Dodge website? I found that my seatbelts had not been replaced on the recall. They were not working. I took them into the dodge dealer. They looked at me like I had just stepped off a spaceship. Since it was a safety recall. They had no choice but to go ahead and replace it. It took them about three weeks to find the parts. I have new seatbelts though!

It wasn't a recall, they just "updated" or "superseded" the part with a new one, so no. The newest bolt does not have a long neck on it, if that helps. Or just order a new one with a washer and you'll get the latest version, as the others are no longer available. Might cost you ten or twenty bucks.

John B.

Spent some time on my back under the Dadtero today. I do have the old crank bolt, so I'll be replacing that. I have a leaking front seal on my rear diff. I'll be replacing that.

The big question I'm wrestling with is the auto lock hubs. This is my inexperience with performance off-road. With the hubs unlocked, I spin the wheels by hand. The axles & CVs don't spin. If that's the case, why would it be a problem to weld the front diff? Please understand, I'm asking to learn not to challenge experience.

I'm still working on the pic thing.