New Trooper Member!!!

AZTrooper

Adventurer
Hey guys!!! I live in Flagstaff, AZ. I'll tell you a little about myself. I'm 27, almost 28 in November. I just got married to the most amazing woman on the planet about a month ago, Sept. 9th. We are expecting our first child(our son) on feb. 17th. I'm the materials manager at an orthopedic outpatient clinic/surgery center actually bought my 1999 Trooper about 6 months ago. Let me tell you guys, I LOVE IT!!! I've never been so satisfied with an SUV. I've been totally diggin' on the Expeditions West web site. Honestly the only parts I really check out have to do with the Trooper.

So far all I've done to is put on 4 new 265/75/16 Yokahama Geolander AT-IIs. I love them. Also yesterday via UPS I received my new Old Man Emu coil springs that will be installed tonght.:luxhello: Part # OME919. They should lift the rear about 1 1/2", and I'll adjust the torsion bars for the front lift. That about sums up my modifications thus far.

I've been reading about the manual hubs and I think those might just be my next addition.

I have a lot of questions about my Trooper and I have a lot of good info to give. i hope that this forum will be a good place to learn. Thanks guys.
 

articulate

Expedition Leader
Well this should be cool to watch. Emu stuff is fantastic. Congrats on getting hitched, the baby, and the suspension. :) And I see you'll almost be 28 in November. :xxrotflma
I'll almost be 31 in January. Then in February, it'll really happen.
I'm 27, almost 28 in November.

:beer:
 

AZTrooper

Adventurer
Well, I'll take some before and after pictures. Until I get some pictures up, I'll give a brief explanation of how it looks.

Overall this baby is in great condition, inside and out.:drool: I have the beige paint on the exterior with very minor dents. The guy that owned it before me somehow side-swiped the barrier on the freeway. So on the driver side of the front bumper are minor scratches and it's bent in a little. (somehow I need to bend it back out) My tire has worn down the plastic a bit where it's bent in. Like I said, I put on new 265/75/16 Yokahama Geolanders complimented by MB Motoring Overdrive aluminum wheels. I think they look fantastic. That's about it. I'll get pictures up tomorrow.

Oh yeah!!! I forgot I put on new Rancho RS5000s about two months ago. They seem fine to me.

Underneath is very clean and very dry. I have a few very minor leaks, but nothing to facilitate and labor on my part.

Gas mileage sucks though. i can't figure out why it gets such terrible mileage. It got bad mileage even before the upgraded tires. Oh well, I still love this thing to death.:smiley_drive:
 

datrupr

Expedition Leader
Welcome, and you have a great truck there, and are off to a great start. Troopers are not known for their fantastic fuel mileage, but a few things you might want to consider checking. If you have over 100K on the odometer change your plugs. Also, you could have a leaking IMG that will decrease your mileage. Change that along with your PCV and give your EGR a good cleaning and it will help. I typically get about 16/17 mpg in the city and 19/20 on the highway running Firestone Destination M/T's 265/75/16's. Also, be sure to check your oil level at every fill up until you have a good idea of your trucks consumption. It will go through what you will think is a lot of oil. Then, at your next change go to 5W30 synthetic and your consumption should go down quite a bit. I go through about a quart every 1500 miles city driving, and a bit more with more freeway driving or towing or loaded. Otherwise, you a have a great truck, and a very capable truck. Show us some pics when you get a chance, and again, welcome to ExPo!
 

AZTrooper

Adventurer
Ok, it's been a while since I've posted pictures on a forum. Let me see if I can get this right.
P1010102.jpg
 

AZTrooper

Adventurer
SWEET!!! Sorry for the double post, I wanted to make sure I still got it.

I took these pictures this morning at work.
P1010104.jpg

P1010105.jpg


I tried to put my new OME 919 springs on last night but the damn coil spring compressor that I used would not stop sliding on the coil.:confused: The two hooks on the top kept wanting to slide down the coil, and the fork on the bottom of the spring kept wanting to slide up the spring.:mad: It was pissing me off, so I went back to AutoZone and got the strut compressors. I suppose I could put the new springs in with the strut compressors, but it looks like I'll have to take my shocks off so I can get to both sides of the spring.

Any ideas?
 

bigreen505

Expedition Leader
Hey, looks a lot like my Trooper, minus the cool wheels. Take it to a shop. Some have these really cool spring compressor things that look like giant channel lock pliers. Put the truck on a lift, grab the spring, pull it out, new one in -- super fast.

For what it's worth, my T-bars are cranked to 18.75" measured from the top of the stock hub to the bottom of the fender flare and it seems to be a reasonable compromise between height and travel. I rub some with 285/75's, but not much and the truck sits pretty level with a reasonable load in the back.
 

datrupr

Expedition Leader
bigreen505 said:
A what? Where is it, what does it do and how would I know?


Bill, IMG is your Intake Manifold Gasket. They are notorious for failing on the 3.5 Troopers. Basically it will throw a "Bank Too Lean" code, and if you open your hood with the engine running it will sound like you have a really nasty vacuum leak. Nothing really major or serious, and with a few hours of free time can be done by a relative amature. The gaskets usually cost about $35-40. If you take it into a shop it will probably run you around $350-$500. It will cause a slightly rough idle, slight loss of power, increase in fuel consumption, and in AZ it will cause you to fail emmissions if you CEL is on. Mine is currently on, but since I do not have to worry about emmissions this year I will let it go for a little while longer.
 

AZTrooper

Adventurer
Since I live in Flagstaff @ 7000 feet elevation, I don't have to worry about smog control at all. Even if I lived in Phoenix, as long as the Trooper is registered in Coconino county, I wouldn't have to worry about smog control. Trooper seems to be pretty peppy, although I'm sure it's time for a minor tune-up. The chassis has approx. 137k miles, and the previous owner blew the original engine, so I think it has about 90k on the used motor. Not exactly sure though. He couldn't be very specific as to when it was replaced and how many miles the used motor has. I'm not worried though because it all sounds and runs great. There seems to be excessive ticking under the hood. It may be time for a valve lash adjustment. But from what I've heard Isuzu motors tend to be on the slightly noisy side. I don't know anyone up here who has one, so I have nothing to compare it to.

Since I couldn't get the springs on last night, i'm going over to a buddies house tomorrow night to install the new springs. He seems to think that we can possibly lift one corner at a time and hopefully get the axle to drop enough that the springs will kinda "fall out." He has a super sweet Toyota p/u that he has completely built for extreme trail use. So we'll see hwat he has in store and go from there.

I'm gonna post up some more pictures this afternoon of my Trooper, so stay tuned.
 

AZTrooper

Adventurer
Ok, so I said I was gonna post more pictures. Lemme know when you guys get tired fo my pictures. I think pictures are RAD!!! I decided to take a break and roam into the nearby woods. Oh well... I'm a dork. I saw some deer while I was out there too, but forgot I had my camera.

P1010110.jpg

P1010111.jpg

P1010112.jpg
 

datrupr

Expedition Leader
Great pics. You will be amazed at how much travel the rear axle has on the Troopers with stock suspension. As far as your spring swap goes, lifting the corners should do the trick. And, since you are going to be cranking the torsion bars up front, you may want to flip your upper ball joints at the same time. It will give you increased wheel travel at the front corners, and since you will be having to get an alignment done anyway, this is the time to do it. The upper ball joints are about $30 each at BAP, and they should have them in stock. Scott has a step by step write up on how to do the flip on his web site in the Trooper section somewhere. As far as the ticking goes, leave it alone. These motors are known to start ticking at about 15K miles. If you try to fix it it will just cause you headaches and a lot of $$$$. And, you can only hear it when you are outside and the motor is running. Also, it is not damaging anything. Keep us posted on your sping replacement surgery and good luck with it. Also, be sure to stay on the trails and tread lightly. When I head up to Flag this winter for my annual play in the snow day we should hook up and hit the trails together.
 

AZTrooper

Adventurer
That would be awesome!!! I haven't been on many good trails up here, well, not with the Trooper. One of my favorite things to do in the winter is to go out and cruise the forest service roads while it's snowing or just after a big snow. It's so beautiful.

As for my springs, I had a friend of mine bring in his big floor jack to work. I'll take it home tonigh, disconnect the bottom end of the shocks and lift one corner at a time and see if that helps at all. I suppose I could even cheat and take off the wheel at which ever corner I am. I don't really know what to expect. I don't know if the axle will fall enough that the spring will literally fall out, or if I might need to compress it a little bit. I'll have to keep an eye out for my brake lines too, so I don't stretch them so far that they break. We'll find out.

I saw the thread for the ball joint flip. Is it much better if I don't have smaller bump stops? Also, by cranking my t-bars up around 1 1/2", does it throw off my camber enough to really merit an alignment?
 

BCJC

Adventurer
as for cranking the tb's, yes get an allignment. mine was way off after cranking 1.5". nice trooper too!
 

datrupr

Expedition Leader
Yes, after the T-Bar crank an alignment will be required. But, what you want to do is crank your t-bars, drive araound for a day or two. Your t-bars may settle a bit so you may need to re-crank them, and then get the alignment done. But, I would still recommend doing your ball joints at this time as well. It will only take you a couple of hours and then you only have to worry about doing the alignment once, because after you do the ball joint flip you have to get an alignment done again.
 

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