IncorporatedX gave me an early MPI ECU for a spare for my '89 Van. It runs the van, if it has the correct plugs for your truck you can borrow it to make it a runner until you have your old one rebuilt (Mr.X knows a guy that might be his brother)

yup, have pat give that ecu a try and i'll send some pics of the damage to my bro, if he can't fix it, you'll just be better off without it.

Jorge's '86 Montero almost logged a year before it got to run the mean streets of our neighborhood. Jorge decided to have his Dad's mech friend look at it and he determined that the gas tank was full of crud, cleaned it out, fixed a brake line leak and charged him $120. It runs. It runs really well. I have not driven a 5-speed SWB in a long time, and I can say that's it's a lot of fun.

It's going onto the trail on Sunday. Anybody want to do that trail out past Superior...what's it called...out at Oak Flat campground? Jorge will be in his locked '89 SWB on 31's and I'll show him what's up in his open/open '86 5-speed on 33's. Let's get some!

John B.

Well, last weekend we decided it would be a good idea to take Jorge's '86 on a run, backed up by his '89 in case parts fell off. We headed up to Prescott, then south on the Senator Highway. First, the bushing in the idler arm fell out completely, then I took a wrong turn, then the exhaust on the ol' '86 got so hot it started glowing red and wouldn't stay running. Next thing you know, we had to leave it at the north end of Lake Pleasant until Monday after work. We're still so pissed at that thing we don't even want to look at it to figure it out.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, LordTrunks delivered my super-deluxe '86 back to me after extensive rework action. Yesterday, in glorious late June weather in the driveway, the water pump was removed and re-gasketed, since its gasket decided to blow out on LT during its highway shake-down run. Since this is the 2.4 truck, the timing belt has to come off, etc, so it's not as easy as it sounds. But it's up and going again, and the saga continues. More repairing will ensue.

To be continued...

John B.

was it just the gasket leaking or was there a o ring leaking?

It was the gasket. Seems to me that maybe the water pump bolts weren't quite tight...that would be on me...

John B.

Awesome, sucky about Jorge's rig though.

On the 2.4 the ALT and P/S bracket go under one bolt on the water pump ...You have to get them in the right order (W/P-ALT-P/S..) or the gasket will leak.. Been there done that.... <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/zombie.gif" alt="" />

Two times myself...

I had and have the brackets on in that order. No worries. Nothing got hurt and I'm only out a tube of Permatex that I needed anyway. Had a new gasket in 'inventory.'

It's got a bottle of Prestone Super Flush in it with plain water for a few days before I flush it and throw in some coolant and distilled water.

John B.

Recent updates from the Mitsubishi Central Phoenix Corral:

My 86: The headliner keeps falling down on top of me and needs to be removed and replaced. It's annoying. Aside from that, the cooling system repair worked great and it runs fine. Pa_Jero stopped by Sunday and gave Jorge and I a live demo on how to re-boot CV's, since neither of us had ever done it and we have more of them to do in the near future. The ones that got new boots are going into this 86 when it gets torn down for a front end rebuild, for which I have all the parts ready.

My 95 is currently visiting Mesa over at IncorporatedX's facility. Top-secret repairs and maintenance will be undertaken to put it back on the road for the next trouble-free 60,000 miles!

My 87...no updates. It sleeps. It watches. It waits.

Jorge's 83 Power Ram. This needs one a/c hose to be fabricated, for which I have located an appropriate shop, then a flush, vacuum and refill should get the a/c back to running. Aside from some interior work, this truck is downright excellent. I took the choke plate back off, since it runs fine without it and it smokes like a chimney with it on until fully warmed up.

Jorge's 86 went wheeling, that is, until it started making the exhaust cherry red and we had to stop every few miles to let it cool off before we could drive it any further. At first, I thought it had every sign of a plugged exhaust, but today IncorporatedX suggested broken springs in the distributor advance mechanism had given him the same results on another Mitsu vehicle. Removing the funky 86 exhaust manifold revealed no blockages, and that was the only part left connected to the engine after we removed the pre-cat that WAS plugged, without improvement. Jury-rigged compressor and fan made the a/c on this truck work great. Needs a new catalytic converter to pass emissions. The window tint also sucks badly and needs to be redone. We have a guy for that.

Jorge's 89. Flunked emissions. NOX was W-A-Y high. No vacuum leaks that we can find. May need a new catalytic converter and O-2 sensor for starters. All other systems are fine and he drives it daily.

Updated? Good.

John B.