Walter, an okay daily and an okay offroader

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cjpett

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When I got my crew cab, it had been sitting for a while and not driven much. So it had icky gas in it when I got it! Ran great when on the throttle, but all ants in its pants on idle. I ran a few cans of B12 Berrymans chemtool through it, the first few tanks, and changed the fuel filter. That helped tremendously, and new cap, rotor and plugs helped a lot too.
Good advice! I am having pretty much the same problem, so I will definitely try that. I let it run for about an hour and it seems alright.
 

cjpett

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Alright, a lot of posts in one day! Sorry about that. To sum up the day's events: We poured 5-6 gallons of bad gas into Walter. On my way to school today it died and I had to pull into a parking lot. I got a jump and limped my way home. I ran the engine for about an hour and it seems to be doing alright. There is definitely gunk still in there so I am going to take @HotWheelsBurban advice and put some cleaner through there for the next few tanks.

I finally got the KC lights all hooked up, and man do they look good. They are also really bright, especially considering the fact that they're halogens. I'm really happy with them, even with the 170-dollar price tag. I hooked it up to the fog light switch but I don't really know the wiring so I only have the switch part set up, no center light or illumination.
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My brakes are not great. I finally gave in and decided to go to a shop. I'm going to schedule it tomorrow. I'm really hoping it's something simple that I missed or did wrong, and not something expensive.

Okay, that is all for today. I promise.
 

Erik the Awful

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If your truck stalled out due to low voltage, the problem is not your battery. An old school trick for checking the alternator is to take the positive terminal loose while the engine's running. If the engine stalls, the alternator is bad.
 

cjpett

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Well, it's been a minute. Not much has happened, but I figured I'd update the page. I finally wore down and got a new battery. I realized it was time when I drove to school, then tried to change to parking spots, and the truck wouldn't start. It cost me 220 dollars! Geez batteries have gotten expensive. I went offroading with a couple of friends. I decided not to take Walter and boy I am glad I didn't. The first obstacle was a massive downhill that took a ton of brakes, which I currently don't have. I instead rode in my buddy's 2013 Dodge and had a lot of fun.

A guy I met helping tow out the Ford had an old set of lights he was no longer using on his Jeep so I bought them for 60 bucks. I'm gonna put them on the headache rack when I build it. It's 4 Hellas and a mounting system so I'm pretty happy.
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If your looking at my bed and thinking, "Man, that guy needs to clean out his truck," then I agree. I am planning out cleaning out everything tomorrow and cleaning up the undercarriage to make the mechanic's life a little easier.

That's it. Like I said, not much has happened. Walter is headed for the shop on Tuesday, hopefully all goes well there.
 

cjpett

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I got a lot done today, but not much to show for it. I decided to spend my day cleaning out Walter, which was a lot. I didn't actually detail or hose or anything, I just got rid of junk, and ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh boy was there a lot of junk. I actually found part of an arm from a skid steer. I've never been near a skid steer so I have no idea where it came from, but it was back there. The pic on the left is just the stuff underneath my toolbox, and on the right is it all cleaned out.
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I also cleaned out the interior, but didn't get a picture of it clean. It didn't make a massive difference, because there's still a ton of stuff in there that needs to go in the truck in other places. I had a little spending money so I bought myself a HiLift Jack mount. I was going to mount it on the side of the bed but I realized that my bed liner was kind of in the way of putting it there, so I decided to put it on the toolbox. I think it looks pretty damn good, and more importantly, it holds the HiLift. I'm thinking about getting a bar isolator and a cover so it doesn't get covered in mud again, not that matters. The jack's from 1982 I'm guessing the work it'll be doing with Walter will be far from the worst it's seen.
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$60? That’s a Hella good deal…

It’s ok, I’ll see myself out :rotflmao:
I pulled the light bar, light mount? I don't know what to call it so I'm gonna go light thing. Anyway, I pulled the light thing apart and put it on the roof to get an idea of what it looks like, and I gotta say, they look Hella good. Now I just have to build a headache rack so I can mount the lights for real! I think that's gotta be the next project.
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Walter goes into the shop tomorrow, so in the meantime I'm going to be working on the radio project, and wrapping up some other unrelated things.
Alrighty, that's all I got. I will be sure to let you guys know what the mechanics find.
 

cjpett

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Walter is out of the shop, and I am out of money. I got a call from the mechanic Tuesday evening and he basically told me that my front suspension, along with a few other things, was f***ed. I told him to do the things that would keep me alive, and I can handle the rest. He said it would be about 700 for the brakes and probably 700 for everything else. I forgot to ask him to do the ABS sensor, like an idiot, so I guess I'm going to have to put that off for another few weeks. Anyways, I got to the shop this morning and was handed a bill for 3200 dollars. Now I don't know if you guys keep up with the KBB and NADA guides, but that's about how much my truck is worth. So I talked with the guy and he agreed to cut the price in half. Which was incredible. I don't know how it happened or what I did but I only had to pay 1700 bucks. But that is still a lot, so I'm easing off on my spending for a while. It was worth it though. Walter actually drives like a car now, and it still doesn't stop on a dime, but maybe like a nickel or a quarter, but that's about as good as you can get with these trucks so that's fine. It turns great and handles better than it ever has.

Immediately after leaving the shop, I helped pull a bathroom onto some friend's trailer so they could haul it to their cabin in Wyoming. I really put all the new stuff to the test because we had to use all the brakes and the winch to get it up. I really wish I grabbed some photos because it was sketchy from beginning to end.

I have officially begun work on the headache rack, and I will not be spending any money on it. I have only spent 60 dollars and that was for the light thing, and that is the only money I am going to spend on it. Today I tore apart an old welding curtain stand to make the frame, I bent it up using my Dad's pipe bender and my hitch receiver. Tomorrow I'm going to grind, measure and cut the pieces to size and maybe weld them together.
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I have got to get better at taking pictures of stuff. I always hate reading walls of text and here I am making them.
Well, that's all I have for now. I feel like I've used "that's all for now" quite a bit. I should come up with better conclusions.
 

cjpett

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Fffffffffff bro. I would’ve cried lol.

Did they give you a work order stating what they fixed and why?
I did man. Right there in the shop. I think that's part of the reason they discounted it so much.

They did give me a work order. Most of the stuff was related to the lift kit and the stress that comes with offroading and being an idiot. Some of the prices were a little ridiculous so I called them out on it and they cut the price.
 

cjpett

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Tomorrow I am going camping, which means today I wrapped up a couple of little things so I was ready to go. One of those things was fixing the problem with my shifter. After the shop and pulling the shed it started locking up and not letting me shift out of park. It turns out it was the brake lockout thing. I just pulled it out and it works fine. I might replace it, might not.

The other thing was adding an external speaker to the CB radio. Where it's at pretty well blocks the internal speaker so I figure it'd be a good idea. I planned on using the junkyard one, which was a mistake. I plugged it in and my CB no longer works. I could probably fix it but I need time, which I don't have. So I went down to the truck stop and bought the cheapest one they had. It's kinda badass. If I wind up liking it more than the one I broke I might stick with it. I mounted it on my crappy amp that was hidden under my crappy center console. Double-sided tape is pretty awesome.

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