Well, it's been a few highway rides now and luckily everything, so far, (knock on wood) is staying together pretty well. No leaks or weird noises.
I had to readjust the parking brake a few times. Got it super tight as the drum to the point where I could barely spin the rotor, and was getting break smell from driving, but it would not hold the car still, even in neutral.. come to find out we also have a parking brake cable tension adjustment in the center console. After backing the shoe adjustment some and tensioning the cable I am finally at a point where they'll hold it still. Great success! Live and learn as they say.
Glad to report that the CV Axle boot clamp has been holding great, no issues so far. Hopefully it stays that way and doesn't start burping up grease like the worm gear clamp did.
After getting my tires balanced out last time but a fairly good shop with a good track record, I still have a highway vibration that comes and goes. Has to be tire related for sure... so I decided to give balancing beads a shot to see if it will help. Some folks swear by them, while others laugh at the idea. For the money they cost I'm willing to give it a shot. Going to shoot for 10-12 oz of beads into each tire and see if it helps. I got the ones that go in through the valve stem, I know it can be a pain, but I'm willing to try it out so I don't have to pull all 4 wheels off and pop the bead to stick them in. They should be here tomorrow so I'll give it a shot. My biggest worry is what my tire guy will have to deal with next time
And onto my last rambling update... the last piece to my overlanding/offroading rig puzzle is finally putting together a trail tool kit. I finally acquired a set of tools that should take care of the more urgent repairs and am working through a way to organize them to carry them with me.. I quickly got away from a tool bag idea... packed it up.. and its HUGE and heavy and awkward and I just don't want to take up the limited space that I have left.. so my current idea is to utilize some of the unused/poorly used space in the right hand slide out drawer. My current plan is to use a trap mat to line the entire bottom section of the drawer to lay the tools down into, and then cut a wooden cover piece that will sit right on top and sandwich everything down. It will keep everything from moving around, and also still leave me with nice flat space for the remainder of the gear that will go on top of it.
The only downside, or two, to this is that I would need to have access to the drawer to get the tools out, vs just reaching in a grabbing my bag, and also would need to pull whatever is on top out first. But it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make to keep the out of sight and out of mind while leaving me with space for larger gear outside the drawer.
Everything should be here by Wednesday so I'm excited to get everything together and hopefully FINALLY get out and do some camping.
Edit.. here is a pic of the size of my tool bag bs what my vision is .. can’t forget the 4 stub shafts
I had to readjust the parking brake a few times. Got it super tight as the drum to the point where I could barely spin the rotor, and was getting break smell from driving, but it would not hold the car still, even in neutral.. come to find out we also have a parking brake cable tension adjustment in the center console. After backing the shoe adjustment some and tensioning the cable I am finally at a point where they'll hold it still. Great success! Live and learn as they say.
Glad to report that the CV Axle boot clamp has been holding great, no issues so far. Hopefully it stays that way and doesn't start burping up grease like the worm gear clamp did.
After getting my tires balanced out last time but a fairly good shop with a good track record, I still have a highway vibration that comes and goes. Has to be tire related for sure... so I decided to give balancing beads a shot to see if it will help. Some folks swear by them, while others laugh at the idea. For the money they cost I'm willing to give it a shot. Going to shoot for 10-12 oz of beads into each tire and see if it helps. I got the ones that go in through the valve stem, I know it can be a pain, but I'm willing to try it out so I don't have to pull all 4 wheels off and pop the bead to stick them in. They should be here tomorrow so I'll give it a shot. My biggest worry is what my tire guy will have to deal with next time
And onto my last rambling update... the last piece to my overlanding/offroading rig puzzle is finally putting together a trail tool kit. I finally acquired a set of tools that should take care of the more urgent repairs and am working through a way to organize them to carry them with me.. I quickly got away from a tool bag idea... packed it up.. and its HUGE and heavy and awkward and I just don't want to take up the limited space that I have left.. so my current idea is to utilize some of the unused/poorly used space in the right hand slide out drawer. My current plan is to use a trap mat to line the entire bottom section of the drawer to lay the tools down into, and then cut a wooden cover piece that will sit right on top and sandwich everything down. It will keep everything from moving around, and also still leave me with nice flat space for the remainder of the gear that will go on top of it.
The only downside, or two, to this is that I would need to have access to the drawer to get the tools out, vs just reaching in a grabbing my bag, and also would need to pull whatever is on top out first. But it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make to keep the out of sight and out of mind while leaving me with space for larger gear outside the drawer.
Everything should be here by Wednesday so I'm excited to get everything together and hopefully FINALLY get out and do some camping.
Edit.. here is a pic of the size of my tool bag bs what my vision is .. can’t forget the 4 stub shafts
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