The Beginning is the End is the Beginning (The continuing journey of the “Adventure Machine”)

[M Rose]

Wow I haven’t updated this in a coons age.

I had the Adventure Machine all buttoned up, running (kinda), and loaded up for my annual Memorial Day Weekend Trip. As I was leaving town I started burning a lot of oil, the engine lacked power, and the ZF5 was shifting hard. I made it 1/4 mile from the summit when the transmission made an awful whine and then froze up solid stalling out the engine. Luckily @St0ll3n and @KRose were in front of me in their F-150 and 4Runner (perspectively) and I was able to get towed to a safe place at the top of the summit.

From there I called the tow truck, unloaded all my gear and loaded it into @St0ll3n camp trailer and @KRose 4Runner and we continued on to Brothers, Oregon. Meanwhile the Adventure Machine spent the night in the woods waiting for help to come the fallowing morning.

Help arrived in the way of a roll-back tow truck which carted the old beast back into La Grande where it was dropped off at La Grande Auto Repair. Joe and his team quickly diagnosed what I had already confirmed that the transmission was seized and there was no hope for it. When I got back home after the trip I called up my salvage yard buddy and got another 5 speed transmission under warranty . Unfortunately this time around it is a light duty M5OD so I’m missing the granny low.

While the Bronco was getting the transmission replaced for the second time I had @18163.175 (whom works for La Grande Auto Repair) check out the drivability issues. He found a couple of problems. Most notably that my distributor was installed wrong, and To make it run I had messed up the firing order.

So after sitting at the shop all summer (mostly due to me not having the funds to pull it out of the shop) the Adventure Machine came back home.

 

[M Rose]

After getting the Adventure Machine back home, I still had a couple of issues to fix before she was ready to hit the road.

In my hurry to get the beast ready for the Memorial Day Trip, I left a few small projects to be fixed at camp. First was adding the vacuum line for the heater blend doors. After that I still needed to install the front drive shaft, skid plates, and put the interior trim back on. So the past two weeks that’s partly what I have been doing.

I also found out that the “new” transmission shift tower was messed up and under inspection I found the upper and lower shift collar bushings to be non existent. A new bushing kit made it shift like a brand new transmission.

I still have a problem at idle, but have it narrowed down to the throttle body or coolant temperature sensor, or both. For right now I’m going to live with it.

Finally some progress on the interior. I had ordered Lido Mounts for my iPad, iPhone, HT, and my mobile radios. Yesterday I got them all installed. Today I’m going to work on installing the mobile radios and clean out the back of the beast.

 

[M Rose]

Wow been a long time since an update… well, the idle issue was more than I could bare… and it was actually quite dangerous on wet/icy pavement. The idle issue led me to replace every sensor, my battery cables, battery, vacuum lines, and almost scrapped the whole EFI to go with an aftermarket stand alone system… fortunately persistence paid off and she is idling correctly now.

Since the idle issue was such a huge deal I have yet to install the skid plates and front drive shaft. I’m still holding off on those because I need to drop my oil pan to either patch it or replace it. Then I need to look into a new cat forward exhaust system…I think I tweaked something pulling the transmission with the engine, as now I have an exhaust leak I can’t find.

Next week I’m cleaning out the back end where all my spare parts and tools have been sitting for the past two years and start working on some of the more fun projects like installing a swing away tire carrier, refrigerator slide, bed, and a hidden radio/battery box. Ohh and somewhere in that list is to make a new linkage for my transfer case… somehow I lost low range during my transmission conversion.

 

[OTH Overland]

Wow been a long time since an update… well, the idle issue was more than I could bare… and it was actually quite dangerous on wet/icy pavement. The idle issue led me to replace every sensor, my battery cables, battery, vacuum lines, and almost scrapped the whole EFI to go with an aftermarket stand alone system… fortunately persistence paid off and she is idling correctly now.

Since the idle issue was such a huge deal I have yet to install the skid plates and front drive shaft. I’m still holding off on those because I need to drop my oil pan to either patch it or replace it. Then I need to look into a new cat forward exhaust system…I think I tweaked something pulling the transmission with the engine, as now I have an exhaust leak I can’t find.

Next week I’m cleaning out the back end where all my spare parts and tools have been sitting for the past two years and start working on some of the more fun projects like installing a swing away tire carrier, refrigerator slide, bed, and a hidden radio/battery box. Ohh and somewhere in that list is to make a new linkage for my transfer case… somehow I lost low range during my transmission conversion.

Glad you got the idle problem figured out finally, I know thats been frustrating you for a while now:) I have a swing away tire carrier on my list for the WJ also, not going to pay well over a grand for a ready made one (hard to find for the WJ), so time to break out the welder. Just bought some steel for a traction board holder on the JK, and had some serious sticker shock at the price of steel... See you found a better use of the stock radio hole in the dash then the old cassette player...

 

[M Rose]

Glad you got the idle problem figured out finally, I know thats been frustrating you for a while now:) I have a swing away tire carrier on my list for the WJ also, not going to pay well over a grand for a ready made one (hard to find for the WJ), so time to break out the welder. Just bought some steel for a traction board holder on the JK, and had some serious sticker shock at the price of steel... See you found a better use of the stock radio hole in the dash then the old cassette player...

The old cassette player worked but like many the led backlight had failed… besides I use my phone for tunes so I have a mp3 head unit mounted over head… but that going to change when I start the center console build, which I hope to start here shortly. I have almost everything gathered up for it…

 

[M Rose]

Long time no update.

the idle issue persists still, without a confirmed solution in sight, so the “Adventure Machine” is on hold; possibly permanently.

In other news; this fallowed me home today.


I’m going to let the suspense build as I figure out the direction she goes over the next few weeks. A lot of parts from the Adventure Machine are going to swap over. Be looking for a new build page soon.

 

[OTH Overland]

Long time no update.

the idle issue persists still, without a confirmed solution in sight, so the “Adventure Machine” is on hold; possibly permanently.

In other news; this fallowed me home today.

View attachment 259740
I’m going to let the suspense build as I figure out the direction she goes over the next few weeks. A lot of parts from the Adventure Machine are going to swap over. Be looking for a new build page soon.

Awesome Mike, looking forward to seeing what you do with it. We will find time to head over and help you break it in when you get it ready for adventure!

 

[M Rose]

Awesome Mike, looking forward to seeing what you do with it. We will find time to head over and help you break it in when you get it ready for adventure!

It has to be ready to go by July 27th. Got invited by the Boise peeps to do a 24 day trip

 

[El-Dracho]

Long time no update.

the idle issue persists still, without a confirmed solution in sight, so the “Adventure Machine” is on hold; possibly permanently.

In other news; this fallowed me home today.

View attachment 259740
I’m going to let the suspense build as I figure out the direction she goes over the next few weeks. A lot of parts from the Adventure Machine are going to swap over. Be looking for a new build page soon.

Awesome, Mike. Looking forward to see how the new built continues. Enjoy!

 

[reaver]

It has to be ready to go by July 27th. Got invited by the Boise peeps to do a 24 day trip

It's 14 days, thank you very much.... Though 24 days sounds pretty amazing....

 

[M Rose]

It's 14 days, thank you very much.... Though 24 days sounds pretty amazing....

My stupid dumb phone types it’s own things at times… yes your trip is 14 days, but we may or may not stop and return with you all… we are thinking about extending our trip to do some mountain biking and hiking (possibly fishing as well) in Glacier National Park and return through Yellowstone.

 

[M Rose]

Awesome, Mike. Looking forward to see how the new built continues. Enjoy!

Build will commence next week