Isuzu SUV Forum banner

1988 2.6 5 spd Rebuild

80K views 596 replies 18 participants last post by  hessmess 
#1 ·
Still have not had time to go through it or start the cleanup. I am sure I will have a million questions. I noticed the fuse box did not have a cover and I know the cover tells what the fuses and relays etc. are for. I have a few empty slots and it may be for stuff this vehicle never had. Manual door locks and windows. Anyone know where I can source this missing cover?

BTW I think this is the original paint, does anyone know what it was? Beige? Yellow?

Thanks
Alan
 

Attachments

See less See more
2
#527 ·
giusedtobe said:
Ed Mc. said:
Looks sharp; Huge improvement.
Thanks for all the help along the way Ed & the compliment.

BTW I sold the boat with that Johnson 150 on it. Happy day! :D
2 happiest days of a boater's life: when they buy a boat, and when they sell it!! :drunken: :mrgreen:
 
#529 ·
gruff54 said:
Ed Mc. said:
2 happiest days of a boater's life: when they buy a boat, and when they sell it!! :drunken: :mrgreen:
Agreed!
For me, the "boat" could easily be swapped with "Mercedes Benz". I owned one, and in that regard, it was exactly like having a boat ("a hole in the water that you throw money into") -- except no water.

Jack
 
#530 ·
Ed Mc. said:
giusedtobe said:
Ed Mc. said:
Looks sharp; Huge improvement.
Thanks for all the help along the way Ed & the compliment.

BTW I sold the boat with that Johnson 150 on it. Happy day! :D
2 happiest days of a boater's life: when they buy a boat, and when they sell it!! :drunken: :mrgreen:
Sadly I still have one boat & it will be harder to move.
 
#531 ·
giusedtobe said:
BTW I sold the boat with that Johnson 150 on it. Happy day! :D
2 happiest days of a boater's life: when they buy a boat, and when they sell it!! :drunken: :mrgreen:[/quote]
Sadly I still have one boat & it will be harder to move.[/quote]

You're doing better than I am, I have (3) boats I need to fix or sell! Just spent 2 weeks doing nothing but vehicle maint on 5 rigs and getting one of those detailed-out to sell this coming Monday. Not busy at all!! :roll: :mrgreen: Maybe once I get all the other projects done I'll be freed-up to work on the boats!

Not to mention a guy wanting to bring in an 85hp Force with triple carbs that might need some work. Hopefully the carbs are OK, of course they're Tillotsons with the big float bowl on the bottom, totally Stone Age and the gasket kit is Dirt Cheap.

And my Daughter is coming back tomorrow morning from a trip to TX. Never a dull moment!!
 
#532 ·
Anybody know where I can source some correct front wheel studs? The ones I got from Rock auto were wrong when I did the back. Got luck and found a few at O'Reilly. Sent an E-mail to Jerry but have not heard back. Also need ~4 of the lug nuts for these rims shown below. The ones for the standard steel wheels are too big.

Thanks
Alan
 

Attachments

#533 ·
gruff54 said:
Ed Mc. said:
2 happiest days of a boater's life: when they buy a boat, and when they sell it!! :drunken: :mrgreen:
Agreed!
Yep, had quite a few throughout my life. Last one strictly a fishing rig as I lived on the lake. See if the others might jog a memory, First was a Dorsett, No. 2 a Glasspar, and no. 3 a Mark Twain.
 
#534 ·
itsmehb said:
gruff54 said:
Ed Mc. said:
2 happiest days of a boater's life: when they buy a boat, and when they sell it!! :drunken: :mrgreen:
Agreed!
Yep, had quite a few throughout my life. Last one strictly a fishing rig as I lived on the lake. See if the others might jog a memory, First was a Dorsett, No. 2 a Glasspar, and no. 3 a Mark Twain.
All familiar names! Have also bought and sold too many to count over the years. Plus 45+ years of working on outboards as a hobby+.

You'd probably like the Fiberglassics site, if you haven't already been:

https://fiberglassics.com/
 
#535 ·
I remember Glasspar but not the others. How about "Jolly Roger"? We had a Jolly Roger Tri-hull runabout when I was a kid.

Took leave of my senses a few years ago and bought an old cabin cruiser project. Its a behemoth and sadly I really did not realize that most of the cost of these things is in the upkeep and not the initial purchase price. Still a project and draining me like dracula every month Lol.
 
#536 ·
giusedtobe said:
I remember Glasspar but not the others. How about "Jolly Roger"? We had a Jolly Roger Tri-hull runabout when I was a kid.

Took leave of my senses a few years ago and bought an old cabin cruiser project. Its a behemoth and sadly I really did not realize that most of the cost of these things is in the upkeep and not the initial purchase price. Still a project and draining me like dracula every month Lol.
Even a fiberglass boat has a fair amount of upkeep. But if the cabin cruiser is wood, you might as well make it a life-long task! Always some paint to scrape & renew, screws to renew, trim to scrape/strip/sand/varnish, caulking, etc etc etc. Plus the annual ritual of "wetting the hull" so the planks would swell and seal off the leaks! Not so much of a problem with boats build with marine plywood and fiberglassed bottoms.

Glasspar is a very-well-known name in WA, since they had a boat-building factory in Olympia. My Dad bought a brand-new Glasspar Avalon (about 16') runabout from the local dealer back in '64 and I have very fond memories of riding in that boat. Including one time fishing when the Selectric lower unit on the Evil JohnRude V4 busted a Fwd Gear spring and we had to go in Reverse all the way to the boat ramp! My Uncle and I had to sit on the bow, so we wouldn't be swamped with water over the transom.

One hull you might recognize is the very popular G3, a performance-oriented 14-foot ski boat. They sold JILLIONS of them. A good buddy of mine works almost exclusively with Mercs, and he built a super-high-performance Inline Six (probably well over 150hp), and put it on a G3 (which he named "Wild Thanggg"). You can imagine the performance! I think his top-speed was around 72 or so. I went for a ride in it once, and it was white-knuckle the whole way. Too rough for top speed, but he had it over 60 a few times and it was a bit Scary! :shock: He regained his senses after the reinforced transom broke, and bought a bigger Hydrostream, designed to go fast. A much safer hull for 70+.

The Jolly Roger was a "California Ski Boat" primarily, although I think they had a few other models like your Tri-Hull. Their most famous is the typical low-profile ski boat, with or without a windshield. I can't remember if the Tahiti brand was first, then copied by Jolly Roger, or the other way around. So many of that type of ski boat were "splashed" (copied by using the boat's hull as the fiberglass mold) and there are probably a dozen different mfr's with very similar configuration. I had a Sidewinder 15'-9" ski boat with windshield and a 1350 Merc. It was pretty fast, and could rip any slalom skier out of the water without breathing hard. That boat lived up to its name; my daughter, who was quite young at the time, has vivid memories of the boat going up on its side during hard turns!

Another good boating buddy had a 16' Jolly Roger V-drive with a Ford 302. Man that was a screamer. When the throttle was mashed, you better be holding on, or you'll probably be thrown back, over the transom!. So much weight in the back that when the boat was coming off plane, a huge wall of water would appear behind the boat, and he had to gas it to avoid the cockpit being doused! Loads of fun!!

Those were the days; gas, boats, and motors were cheap. Not anymore, that's for sure! :|
 

Attachments

#537 ·
No nothing is cheap anymore! A gal I work with and her husband bought a wake boat last year for about 15K (around 20 years old) This year they could not find a slip for it and their dealer told them that these boats cannot be kept in stock right now and they should sell. Apparently someone sold the exact boat for 28K. So among other stupid things with covid, in some locations at least some boats are actually appreciating in value for the first time in history! They live in MN.

As for my hole in the water, it is fiberglass but with a massive amount of wood trim that needs to be redone etc. The wooden ones are beautiful........when they aren't sinking. :shock:

On the speed boat thing my memory from my youth (born in 65 for reference) I remember at the boat slip there would always be a couple of guys monkeying with their mercury motors trying to get the temperamental beasts to run. 20 dudes with their OMC motors would launch and be on their way while the merc guys are still there trying to start; half with the cowl off. Once running they were fast though. I am sure the years make me exaggerate but that was my memory of the old smokers.
 
#538 ·
Went to some family land in AL for some fun in the woods and managed to fail my first mud hole Lol. Roads were mostly dry but as always there were some mudholes. I did not think it looked bad and went into it on 2WD :oops: Found out otherwise but too late, right side got down in a rut and this mud is that grey slippery *** clay stuff. Had to use a come along and chain to pull it out old style. Went back through no problem in 4WD with some momentum. All in all a lot of fun even with the impromptu recovery. Troop ran like a top all weekend and added ~800 miles
 

Attachments

#539 ·
Looks like maybe a winch would have been handy in all that mud. Glad to see she held up through all that
 
#540 ·
Cleaning it off is the worst part.

I recently tried a method I heard about where you just set a sprinkler under the truck and move it around every few minutes while you go about cleaning the rest of the truck. It worked alright with the easy Moab mud, but I've been in some stuff where I had to go to the pressure washer. That clay mud is the worst.
 
#541 ·
itsmehb said:
Looks like maybe a winch would have been handy in all that mud. Glad to see she held up through all that
Yeah a winch is on my list but my list is expensive! Had to do it the old fashioned way.

That clay was bad. I think I brought at least an acre of mud on the undercarriage. Reminded me of the wash rack when we used to bring in our tanks from the field back in my Army days.
 
#542 ·
It's good to see it isn't a total street queen. Have you looked into a G80 rearend? That made a big difference on how mine performed off-road.
Looks like alot of us older guys have made runs in our Troopers, I ran almost 1900 miles on mine with a trip to Green River UT and Montrose CO a few weeks ago and BoiseTrooper ran his to his cabin and put miles on his build. Good to see them out in their natural environment!
 
#543 ·
hessmess said:
It's good to see it isn't a total street queen. Have you looked into a G80 rearend? That made a big difference on how mine performed off-road.
Looks like alot of us older guys have made runs in our Troopers, I ran almost 1900 miles on mine with a trip to Green River UT and Montrose CO a few weeks ago and BoiseTrooper ran his to his cabin and put miles on his build. Good to see them out in their natural environment!
Dick my daughter just got back from a medical trip to Guatemala and now she's already talking about Costa Rica in December. I told her I would drive her there in the trooper! Would be an interesting journey.

Seriously though I have thought about an extended road trip to Alaska. Never been before and what better way to go Lol.

On the G80 is that the "Aussie Lok" thing? Definitely want to make improvements to the suspension and 4x4 parts as I have not touched any of that yet.
 
#544 ·
The trip up to Alaska sound really interesting to me. I have been there numerous times but only the water side of it. Many decades ago I was a Coastie on a ship that did Bearing Sea and Gulf of Alaska Patrols. We were based out of Seattle but didn't spend much time there. I have only walked on land there in Juneau, Kodiak and further out on the Aleutian chain, so while I have been there I haven't seen much either.
The G80 I mentioned is the limited slip that is in many 2nd gen rear diffs. It is easily found by looking at the options codes on the second gens. It will say G80 right on it. I believe up to about 98 or so it is a simple swap, the gears are all the same, drop your rear diff out and bolt the other one back in. The anti locks will be there either on the diff or right at the rear brake hubs. Disconnect them and don't hook it back up. I have put them on my 91 Trooper and the 89 SpaceCab.
Simple mod that works well.
 
#546 ·
I'm pretty ignorant on the whole gearing/4x4 stuff so I will have to educate myself. Is the G80 kind of like posi-trac? Both rear wheels turn the same regardless of traction? What does the aussie lokker do?

Assume you have to find a G80 rear end from another Isuzu?

What about the front diff?
 
#548 ·
Positraction was (is) GM's name for a Limited Slip Differential (clutch-type). Same principle function as the Isuzu LSD, with spring pressure determining when the clutches would slip to provide differential action in turns, etc.

I found a pretty good explanation here: https://www.autolist.com/guides/what-is-positraction
 
#549 ·
G80 is a torsen limited slip. So yeah, similar to a posi-trac. Tries its best to put the power down to both rear wheels. Lockers *fully* lock the two wheels together, and are usually manually toggleable. Lunchbox lockers have no manual toggle and try to go back to open when not needed but constantly engage and disengage, potentially ruining the streetability of the rig. The G80 has no issues on the street, and if anything make it handle better on the street.

To summarize, if money isn't an option then proper lockers are best. For pure performance and not caring about dragging tires and clunking noises, then an aussie in the rear could work. For a decent off road boost and no ill manners on the street, then a g80.

For me the optimum budget streetable setup is a G80 in the rear and an aussie in the front. Those are my plans hopefully by the end of summer.
 
#550 ·
G80 in rear and Lokka in front is what I have in my Trooper. That same combo would probably be terrifying in my Amigo though, in the snow.

To add to what Tentin said, if money is no object then *sectible lockers are the way to go. That way you can leave the diffs open when you don't need to be locked and maintain all the streetability and control for most of the time. There are plenty of YouTube videos explaining the difference between the locker styles. EngineeringExplained is probably a pretty good resource for such a video.
 
#551 ·
So I changed the O-ring on the speedo cable housing and wondered at the time how this would stop the oil migration up the cable. After that my foot got completely oil soaked on my trip. I looked at the blown up view of the trans and realized there was a small o-ring down in there. I replaced that one with a slightly thicker o-ring so hopefully this is the end of the oily foot!

We shall see.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top