WCSIB - Beater 4x4 edition

**basinbeater** · 12-31-2016, 10:25 PM

Those old runners have steel stops on the knuckle and a arm that cause the grinding at full lock any time there is ANY suspension movement. Either direction. No problem. You can apply grease to the contact surfaces to make it go away for a few days. It will come back. No problem.

**stfu&gbtw** · 12-31-2016, 10:30 PM

Originally Posted by basinbeater

Those old runners have steel stops on the knuckle and a arm that cause the grinding at full lock any time there is ANY suspension movement. Either direction. No problem. You can apply grease to the contact surfaces to make it go away for a few days. It will come back. No problem.

The grinding noise wasn't so concerning, but the repeated BANG as whatever was binding up broke loose seemed pretty violent. I demo'd it for the sales guy and the look on his face was priceless.

**basinbeater** · 12-31-2016, 10:54 PM

**stfu&gbtw** · 12-31-2016, 11:19 PM

Originally Posted by basinbeater

I wish I had a pic of the cv boot and assembly from this truck. We had it up. The "good" side had about 1/2" of play in the CV/hub assembly. That pic is the best argument I've yet seen for passing on this one. And if that weren't a good argument, you'd have liked the volume of oil/fluid leaking from literally every gasket between the RMS and the rear dif. I know all this stuff can be fixed... I'll undoubtedly swap the front diff on the tahoe... But that 4 runner was no good.

**basinbeater** · 01-01-2017, 12:11 AM

Point taken. May the new year get you a good vehicle.

**stfu&gbtw** · 01-01-2017, 12:51 AM

Originally Posted by basinbeater

Point taken. May the new year get you a good vehicle.

Thanks. Happy new year to you too. I'm still struggling to come to terms with the fact that I just spent nearly $5k on a vehicle that's already on its return trip from the moon... Fucking cars. I fucking love them... But man, do I fucking hate them.

**billyk** · 01-01-2017, 09:26 AM

Originally Posted by stfu&gbtw

Ended up taking the Tahoe out for a few hours this afternoon and the thing seems to be essentially perfect. Wrote the dealer a check for $4,500 and we're out the door. Car seems to be in beautiful shape. Apparently it spent its last eight years of life being owned by a couple in their sixties. Things got a fucking DVD player in it. Pretty sure this doesn't qualify as a beater

Congrats on joining the ho club! I'm writing this from the back of my 02 LT after spending the night in it somewhere in New Mexico. Telluride later today!

There have been a few expensive issues. Fuel pump, transmission... but other than that, it's been a real solid ride. Got it mainly to tow a travel trailer, which it does very nicely. Almost can't tell the trailer is back there (except for the fuel bill).

**bodywhomper** · 01-01-2017, 05:20 PM

Originally Posted by basinbeater

Those old runners have steel stops on the knuckle and a arm that cause the grinding at full lock any time there is ANY suspension movement. Either direction. No problem. You can apply grease to the contact surfaces to make it go away for a few days. It will come back. No problem.

For reference and affirmation, this ^^^. On my 88 4Runner, it always happened. Was never a problem over the 180k miles and and 14 years that I owned the truck.

Op, is that Tahoe just a holding place until you find the short wheel base beater? Or are you gonna stick with it until the body is beat to hell? Don't you already own a 7/8 passenger SUV?

I thought you'd take the bait of that stock military g wagon that I posted. It's above your budget, but..... weren't you questing a g wagon at one point?

My mechanics is an off-road Motörhead and tells me the 85 4Runner is the unicorn, solid axles, efi, lots of mod-ability, ability to roll up windows and blast heater, etc. I think he has 2 of them, one for crawling that he tows to point of use and one that he can legally drive to the trails.

**stfu&gbtw** · 01-01-2017, 09:10 PM

That g wagen looked sick, but $14k would have started to impinge on other projects... I had leased a '16 pilot this time last year, but had the opportunity to get out of it with some equity when the dealers ran out of stock this summer and traded in on a Golf R. I also have a 2500, but I try to leave that with the chains and plow on for the winter... I can do 90% of everything I need to do in either the Golf, or my Suzuki SX4 (awesome car, btw), but the remaining 10% has come up about 6 times in the last two weeks, and borrowing friend's suvs and trucks has been inconvenient - so I bought another car. I was going to buy something smaller, but nothing came together. Stumbled upon this Tahoe and couldn't pass it up. It'll need a front diff at some point, like apparently every other full size vehicle GM has ever manufactured, but used diffs are cheap and relatively easy to install. Everything else has been good so far... When that appears to be coming to an end, I'll trade this in on a new car for my wife, and buy some other whatever.

**stfu&gbtw** · 01-01-2017, 09:48 PM

Just saw an '86 Trooper 2.3/5sp pop up with 116k... This Tahoe might not last any longer than the last one.

**bodywhomper** · 01-01-2017, 11:43 PM

Thanks for the breakdown. Get the trooper!

**stfu&gbtw** · 01-02-2017, 09:26 PM

Talked to the trooper guy this AM. He makes it sound like the pink flying unicorn... Garage kept, one owner, perfect condition. We'll see. I told him I'd take a look this week and would consider taking it for the Tahoe + $3000. He didn't say no... No pics yet though. Looked at an old subie gl over the weekend that was <200k/1 owner... That one owner must have been a prick... Holy shit... I've seen tent stakes that weren't as beat into the ground as that car.

**riser4** · 01-12-2017, 10:32 AM

Want. This. http://bringatrailer.com/2015/12/15/...-karmann-ghia/

**bodywhomper** · 01-12-2017, 12:53 PM

I live near to this town and drive through it several times a day, down the street shown in the townie photo. I've never seen that car. However, I have seen somebody selling other heavily modded vw's on the local fb sites. Curious if it is the same dude

**Bobcat Sig** · 01-12-2017, 02:46 PM

Originally Posted by riser3

Want. This. http://bringatrailer.com/2015/12/15/...-karmann-ghia/

That is fucking fantastic!

**bodywhomper** · 01-17-2017, 02:38 PM

http://m.ebay.com/itm/1989-Toyota-La....c100408.m2460

**Jong Lafitte** · 01-17-2017, 02:42 PM

Originally Posted by bodywhomper

http://m.ebay.com/itm/1989-Toyota-La....c100408.m2460

Pretty awesome but wooof! that rust on the pillar ain't "minor"

**bodywhomper** · 01-17-2017, 03:21 PM

Shit'll buff out

**powpig** · 01-19-2017, 12:31 AM

Nice looking Trooper here. Talked to the guy and it sounded good, opted for a 93 Toyota RE instead, need a truck more than I need an SUV.

http://reno.craigslist.org/cto/5963910278.html

Someone was talking Pathfinders a few pages back, this one's not too pretty but can't beat the price, especially if you live somewhere like I do where you don't need to smog.
http://sacramento.craigslist.org/cto/5956304625.html

**bodywhomper** · 03-04-2017, 09:24 PM

Input in the gen1 RAV4? It'd be my everything vehicle when not needing to transport all 5 of us (or six with the 85lb dog).

**stfu&gbtw** · 03-04-2017, 10:02 PM

Originally Posted by bodywhomper

Input in the gen1 RAV4? It'd be my everything vehicle when not needing to transport all 5 of us (or six with the 85lb dog).

A neighbor had one and got nickle and dimed to death on it... Of course, any other person would have shitcanned the thing before all that, but this dude's not a quitter. Beat the shit out of it, and it didn't like it.