Gary Lewis

Interesting. I've not seen those before, but they should work fine. And the price is great - I wouldn't make 4 of those for $59. Bill? What are your thoughts?

Yes, that's for the little Ranger.

Not a bad price, but it does have some rot. (But so does Big Blue.) Still, if it runs and drives it should be worth that.

Yes, it does clip over the old mirror, and I really don't like that. But, if I can get the other bits worked out then I think I could make a plate that would replace the old mirror and have the new one attach to that. Having said that, I'm not getting the "other bits" worked out quite yet. After having several exchanges with Mia at Wolfbox I've found that the "front" camera isn't weatherproof so shouldn't be put on the front bumper. And when I asked about replacing it with a rear camera I learned that the cameras each have their own connectors, so you cannot swap a rear camera in place of the in-car or front camera. So I asked about either cutting their connectors off of a 2nd rear camera as well as their 3 in 1 cable and grafting my own on. Or having their engineers come up with something. She said she'd submit my request to the technical department and let me know "in time" if there is any news. As for availability, she said "next week". And for price she said "We can give you discounts based on coupons. That is (269.99-30 coupon)*60%=143.99 (I hope you can write us a good review, thank you very much.)" And on the Image Switch she said "The switch button can be switched to the front camera, the rear camera and the car camera, as well as the split-screen mode where 3 cameras are displayed at the same time." So while everything hasn't come together, I'm thinking it might. I doubt their technical department is going to come up with a solution, but I think I could graft connectors on and use a 2nd rear camera on the front in place of the in-car camera. I suspect they have power, ground, and video in the connector, so would put the video and ground through RCA connectors and power through a separate 3.5mm audio connector. But I'll wait and see what they say.

Well, hold on a minute, the consultant from Wolfbox just got back with me and said they have a new mirror coming out that has three cameras: a rear camera that can be mounted on the rear bumper, and two in-vehicle cameras, one of which is the front view and the other is the "room view" showing the inside of the vehicle. And she sent me the prelim owner's manual. I've gone back to her asking a slew of questions, but two are key: If the "front view" camera isn't weatherproof can I buy a 2nd rear camera? (If so then I'd put it on the bumper or grille to see the bumper and the trail directly ahead. It would take the place of the "room view" camera.) The buttons show one that is said to be the "Image Switch", as shown below. Does that mean I can rotate through front, in-car, and rear cameras to view on the mirror? (Man, that would be slick as it would mean I won't have to have the outboard switch and can just touch the button on the mirror to bring up whatever view I want.) And yes, it has a GPS receiver and not only shows speed and direction, but also records the lat and long so you can tell exactly where you've gone. We may have a winner!

Time for an update. This is a REALLY frustrating quest as there's no where near enough info on what is available. And the vendors aren't helping either: The manufacturer of the Voxx RVM740SM unit hasn't returned my email in two business days Nate from Crutchfield hasn't returned my email in three business days But, I think I've found something, and that is an Intelligent Car Video Switcher 3-way Input 1-way Output for the Car Camera. It is only $26 and would allow me to have up to three cameras connected to it and then it would connect to the mirror. So now I just need to find a nice mirror that has a reasonable cost, attaches to the mirror bracket on the windshield, and is a large as possible, and has an RCA connector for the camera. And one I'm looking at is the Wolfbox 12", but I haven't yet figured out if it has RCA connectors or if it attaches to the windshield and not the existing mirror. Sure would be nice if they provided copies of the owner's/installation manuals to prospective customers.

Yes, I'm surprised that the lower hose clamps weren't TIGHT. They were when I put the truck together, so I'm not sure why they were tight when I checked before the trip and weren't after the trip. But it looks like that may have been the source of the dribbles I've been seeing. I think the lower hose/radiator connection leaked just enough to load up the weather stripping and put some in the radiator support. And those two places have been dribbling a little bit as I move the truck around with the lift.

Got that, John?

Glad you are making progress. As for the cables, you should have two sets of cables: Battery positive to the front terminal on the starter relay, and one from the back terminal on the relay to the starter. Battery negative to the block and then to the starter's mounting bolt. I think where you say it is clipped to the block you should find that "clip" is actually a terminal.

I put sound and video on Youtube and then get the embed code. Tick the "Message is in HTML Format" box in your post and paste the embed code in.

I'm not in favor of exhaust wraps as they can hold moisture in. But maybe not at those temps! 182C = 360F. As for the exhaust noise, that can be a major problem. And 45 - 55 MPH is a speed you'll be at frequently. So I fully understand wanting to kill the noise. Glad pulling the tip helped. But you may find that over time the tone changes. Or the speed at which it comes in may vary. Big Blue's exhaust was loud at ~1800 RPM when it was new, and that RPM is 65 MPH in 5th. But now that I have maybe 3000 miles on it the sound has mellowed a bit and it doesn't bother me at 65. Maybe yours will change as well?

Ok, I have Plan B: I think the lower radiator hose was leaking at the radiator and it saturated the foam. The clamp wasn't quite as tight as it could/should have been. You can see the coolant marks all over the hose in the pic on the left. And the pic on the right shows that the foam above that corner isn't saturated, and there's been some spray - which would happen if the hose was leaking. Thoughts? What am I missing?

I didn't notice any movement, but it is possible the bottom moves in the rubber supports. I really wasn't looking at that. The top can't because it is bolted to the core support. Can't check it out at the moment as I have everything loose.

Well, I'm kinda thinking I may have found the source of the "leak". As described in the thread Possible Coolant "Leak"? it may be that there is no leak but that the coolant I've spilled filling the radiator up has saturated the weather stripping and it is slowly dripping out. I'm still puzzling on what my next step is, but I thought I'd document what I've done. First, on the left is the radiator cap I modified and on the right is the system in use. By pulling the brass disk off, which serves as a check valve, the pressure that comes in via the overflow goes through the hole and up to the seal on the top. And in reality I didn't need to pull the rubber off. And as soon as I put it on, and air started leaking out of the cap, I got some more coolant on the floor, which is what is making me think the coolant was hiding in the open-cell foam and the air just pushed it out. Here's what I found at the bottom. So I think I'll pull the shroud and replace the foam. Thoughts?

Guys - I know y'all are tired of my ramblings in Big Blue's Transformation, but I need some creative thinking and I believe I'll get more help in a new thread than buried 288 pages down in that thread. I've been chasing a coolant leak and this morning I was greeted with another small puddle under the truck. So I modified a radiator cap such that it would keep the air in when I pressurize the overflow fitting. What I did was to remove the little check valve and the seal that fits down into the neck. That means that the air will be held in with the seal at the top of the neck. It works fairly well, but that top seal wasn't designed to hold pressure so it leaks some - which is important to this story. I put 9 psi to it and suddenly got quite a few drops out of the radiator support. But I've pulled the shroud and radiator loose so I can see the front and back of the radiator and I can't find a leak. And the drops have pretty well stopped. But then I noticed that the open cell weather stripping I put on the edge of the shroud is wet, as shown below. And it occurred to me that I've spilled coolant as I've been filling the radiator and that foam is right below the neck of the radiator. QUESTION: Is it possible that the foam is the source of the "leak"? That I'd saturated it with coolant and it has been flowing down and dripping into the core support, which is normally right below it. And then when I put air to the system the leak pushed more coolant out of the foam?

Did you get my suggestions on how to contact me?

Nice price! And lots of digits.

I would think so as the floor pan didn't really change. The only issue might be that these would be intended for use with the tall transmission cover and our trucks came with the short one. So there might be too much material over the hump.

Cool story! Did I ask where you are from? We have a map (Bullnose Forum/Member's Map in the menu) and could add you with a city/state or zip.

Did you leave the ground wire off from the back of the engine to the cab? Frequently that wire comes from the valve cover to the firewall, but not always. And if you don't have ground to the cab then a lot of things won't work. As for the wiring, if it is "factory" you'll have a cable from the battery's positive post to the front terminal on the starter relay, another cable from the back terminal on the relay to the starter, and a small red/blue wire that pushes on to the small front terminal on the relay. And then there will be a cable from the negative terminal to the engine and then on to one of the starter's retaining bolts. That little wire is what triggers the starter and it comes from the ignition switch. So one test is to pull that wire off the relay and use a screwdriver or pliers to jump from the front big terminal down to the little terminal. That should pull the relay in and crank the engine. BUT, if you have a manual transmission make sure it is neutral and the brakes are set. But you may have a bad cable some where that is preventing it from cranking. Sometimes they look good on the outside and are bad inside, so you can check that to some extent by pulling on them to see if they'll come apart - which they shouldn't do. So you probably should pull all of the connections apart and clean them. And while doing that check to see that the terminal appears to be well attached to the wire/cable.

Welcome! Glad you joined! You didn't really have to do another intro. Just tell us you've read the guidelines. But the intro adds quite a bit of info, so glad you did. Yes, the trailer looks like a toy. Are you going to tow it with The General? And, by the way, how did it get that name? The last The General I read about was stolen in the Civil War. Anyway, you've made good progress. Have you been driving it?

Is one step forward and one back progress? Tested the washer pump today and initially had a problem. There was apparently some RTV preventing the pump from turning. But I reached in the outlet with a small piece of wire and turned the impeller a bit. Then hit it with 12v, then hit it with -12v, and back and forth until it spun. (Don't be looking down the outlet when it finally spins. ) Then I ran water in it and let it sit for a while to test the seal, and it appears to be holding. So I installed the reservoir. Here's how it turned out: But, I was greeted with another puddle under the truck this morning, so it appears I still have a coolant leak. I'm thinking I'll put some pressure on the system and see if I can spot the leak. IIRC the last time I used the pre-heat connection to pressurize things, but that's full of Water Weld now. So I may modify a radiator cap. We shall see.

Glad you got the right part, and that it passed testing! As for the introduction, I said in part: Yes, you did introduce yourself. But not in the NMSH folder. That's not a big issue at all, but I just want to make sure you've had a chance to see the guidelines, and we keep them in the NMSH folder - among other places. So, have you read them?

Amen! I've had two engines, that others put together, which had horrible leaks there. And it'll look like a rear main leak.

Andre - Good luck on your sale. My experience here in the States is that I've always gotten about 1/2 of the money I've put into a project. It may be very different in Europe, and I hope you get everything you've put in and then some.