I got "some" of those things done. I got the heater hoses and the hoses from the throttle body on. I "fabbed" up my special bracket for the transmission kickdown cable. I reinstalled the throttle body with my fancy new bracket and discovered...it pulls the trans cable too tight, even when adjusted all the way out, so I'll sleep on a solution to make it better. I think an "L" shaped piece of metal will shorten the distance sufficiently and will be simple to attach.

Haven't seated the seals yet. Haven't made any progress on the front of the engine. Did diagnose my neighbor's VW bus's steering problem. It's the difficult-to-replace (billable hours though) pivot pin bushings and pin that are worn as sh!t. Ordered parts, placed deposit on special 24mm reamer tool to hone bushings after install. Fortunately, the parts won't be here until the weekend so I can get back to Montero-ism.

John B.

O.K. Fixed the trans kick-down by adding a piece of perforated metal to shorten the distance to the cable connection. Redid one of the heater hoses, the thermostat to throttle body one because I tried to use straight tubing and it was kinking. Total length of the hose is probably only 3" and I had to buy the curved one made for the truck (grrrr...) and hack a bunch off since it's cut-to-fit and way too long.

Got the seals seated with a 1-1/2" piece of PVC with an end cap on it for the cam and a 2" for the front crank. I think I got them right...we'll see when I get some oil pressure.

Put the timing belts on, but I am off by a tooth on the timing one. Ran out of daylight so I just painted a couple of things like the exhaust manifold nuts and washers and the bolts that hold the exhaust sections together.

Putting stuff back together rocks better than taking them apart, I think. Everything's cleaner.

John B.

You painted your exhaust hardware? Jeez, I thought I was anal about working on vehicles but you just put me to shame!

Well, yeah, of course. Hi temp flat black for exhaust, including the washers, nuts, bolts, manifold and collector tube; engine enamel gloss black for things like the power steering pump, brackets, valve cover, etc. Basically anything I take off I wash/degrease and then paint. Not always very well, but I try. The upper timing cover didn't turn out so hot...

John B.

I'm usually the same way, but generally only clean and paint parts, hardware gets cleaned and wire brushed but not painted.

I don't like to wire brush hardware in case they are galvanized as it would knock the coating off and they'd rust.

It's a losing battle painting fasteners anyway. If you have to really torque on them or if you have to dis-assemble something and put it back together they get chipped anyway. Oh well. It's something to do instead of listening to my renter's and neighbor's mindless chatter. On the exhaust parts, it slows down the rust...as if things rust here, ha ha ha.

Ryan, you going to be able to make the Saturday run? Hackberry.

John B.

I got everything timed right today. I was one tooth behind on the crank and right balancer. Hung the exhaust on and bolted it in with new gaskets. It tucks up nicely, like it was made for a Montero, but it doesn't line up anywhere near where my existing exhaust was, so that's going to get done at a muffler shop, I guess, since Toasty doesn't like to weld exhausts.

Next, I have a ground or two to extend/change connectors on so they'll be good, and I have to extend the connection for the oil pressure sensor. Not sure if the donor vehicle had a gauge or just a light, so we'll see what happens when I hook up the sender.

Still haven't done anything with the alternator pulley but that's coming real soon. At least with my fancy caliper I can tell counter people what size things I need instead of just grunting and pointing.

Need to unhook the Montero's power steering lines and connect the pump I'm going to use after I mount it's bracket. Then belts (new), fan, radiator (rodded), shroud (painted) and hoses (also new).

I have some interior things left to tidy up and new door lock cylinders to install as it looks like somewhere along the line somebody tried unsuccessfully to jimmy the locks and messed up both door's cylinders.

LordTrunks, I'm about ready for you to give it the ol' Billy-Baroo on the electrical and let's see if we can get this thing out of the driveway!

Oh, '95 update: I put in my new transmission mount this afternoon. Man, did it need that. The old one was completely thrashed and I'm willing to bet it makes a big difference with the harsh vibration I've had from the rear at highway speeds for years. (EDIT: It didn't. I'm ordering u-joints and taking the driveshaft in to be balanced.)I have to get to the engine mounts soon.

I put the front two skid plates back on. What a pain because they're so deformed. The transfer case skid doesn't want to cooperate, but I'll try to get it on in the morning before I leave for Hackberry Creek, my first four wheeling in over a year! Gotta find all my gear and get loaded up, too.

John B.

Can't make this one, I've got a weekend full of automotive projects including trying to get my Miata back together and driving again.

I've got torn cv boots on both axles on my Montero, with replacement axles sitting here waiting to go in - gotta get them in before any serious wheeling takes place. I'm definitely planning on the Crown King trip on the 14th though.

'95 made it fine, even though I needed and didn't have, my transmission and transfer case skids on. Gee, what's the trick to getting the little bolts back in for the little torque converter inspection plate? They're tucked way up in there and I ended up leaving it off.

I am through with the alternator swap try-out for the '86. I went to NAPA with no luck today, trying for a v-groove pulley. Unless anybody has any better ideas, I'm going to return this alternator back to Mesa Pull-A-Part for credit. I need to keep moving forward so I'll just put the stock alt back on for now, since no one has a V-6 Gen 1 in their yards right now that I can tell.

Today's project was getting rid of the ten, yes 10, buckets lined up alongside my block wall out front. I ended up with five nearly full buckets of used oil (that's about 20-22 gallons), three buckets of really smelly water/light oil mix and a bunch of eroded and cracked old buckets. That was a long time coming. I spread kitty litter down to soak up the crap that was left behind. I really let this one go and the recent rain filled up a couple of buckets and got used oil over into a small part of the lawn, so it forced my hand. Big thanks to HoseB for his pick-up and driving me and the used crap to O'Reilly's to dispose of that stuff.

Guess I'll work on the '67 VW bus tomorrow...

John B.

You have a size on the pully ...???? We have a old school alt and starter shop up the hill here... I'll bet they would have a pully...