Yay!
Thanks for the tip on the cardboard, Phil. I have a lot of empty boxes lying around. (And it was pretty hard turning lock-to-lock and back last night with the engine off. Good workout, though!
I’ll probably just do it when I have the front up in the air on stands to get after that other O2S, replace the front diff/tcase fluid, and pressure wash the undercarriage before the ADD skid plates go on.
Here’s to keeping things cleaner this year.
If you’re wanting to give the engine bay a good washing but want to protect your sensitive bits, tinfoil is a good option. It molds around things and stays in place despite a good spray. Depending on what you’re wrapping, you may wanna disco your negative terminal first… 
But otherwise, it’s great if you want to take your underhood cleaning up a notch…
That is a good idea. I’d love to steam clean it from top to bottom. Might have to try the foil trick.
Curious, what would you recommend to remove vinyl decal residue (that Goo-B-Gone couldn’t handle)?
I’ve had good results with Rapid Remover:
Thank you, sir.
Goof Off, and heat (low setting in heat gun) to warm that shit up first…
Barring that, depending on how deep it’s gone, rubbing compound is my next phase, followed by a rewax…
https://goofoffproducts.com/product/gunk-adhesive-remover-12-oz/
Yeah, I’ve tried Goofoff and Goo-B-Gone. They both kinda worked, but not really. Definitely going to need something stronger. I want to clean up the truck this summer.
I found a chasm of difference between B-Gone and -OFF. Former felt like lightweight, latter was industrial strength. Were you using the goof-off in the small can? That one took adhesive off Tanya’s 100 that had been put on when George Dubya was still counting his Florida chickens… Lol.
@PajEvo I randomly happened upon this stuff at AutoZone. It worked a treat!
Added bonus, the old sock I used, and then used with the other, mostly orange oil stuff, showed me what those headlight adjustment ports are supposed to look like.
Before & After:
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Not that you’d notice another quart of PS fluid in my driveway at this point, I hung a plastic bag (one of them newfangled, supposedly biodegradable jobbers, lest anyone think I’m a total bastard) under the power steering pump to hopefully mitigate any leakage issues.
Pro-Tip: Keep old newspapers, junk mail, or those big sheets of brown paper they sometimes use to ship you stuff to help soak up oil. (Stuff it into bags like this.) I guess you could use pages out of one of those damn phone books they keep leaving on your porch, too. Hey! A use for those things! Orale!
Here’s the fitting in question. It don’t look like much, but that’s only because I wiped it down real good to check for leaks—and then didn’t drive anywhere before it was time to start. Just as well. I’ve got oily mist all over the valve cover, intake tube, and down the inside of the fender.
I was thinking maybe it should have a copper washer a la most banjo-type fittings, but all it had were these two o-rings. According to the FSM, they are non-reusable. (So that’s what the little ‘N’ in the box means next to a part on the diagram. Fortunately, this was explained in the first few pages of Volume 1, whereas the exploded diagram for the pump was on page 405 of Volume 2.) 
Here we see the old o-rings next to the new ones. Notice how the old ones snapped like brittle, plastic bastards, while the fresh, VITRON jobbers look plump and luscious. MEOW! 
Also notice how, while the top ones look pretty. much identical, the bottoms aren’t so precise. I just grabbed a mixed kit from the Help! section at the back of AutoZone. (Josh suggested a metric replacement kits should do okay, but they didn’t have metric kits, so I chose VITRON over the usual, black rubber ones.)
No. I’m not a biggot. I just figured VITRON is designed for fuel, which is made from oil, so they might stand up better. Besides, at less than US$2 per package either way, it felt nice splurging on a real brand name. Like VITRON. And lemme just tell you. When these o-rings come together and form a mechanized space robot, those Zentradi bastids will FINALLY leave us alone!
New VITRON rings in place. Top fit perfectly; nice and snug. Bottom was free spinning.
I buttoned everything up, topped off the fluid, raised the front wheels—and then used my knees to turn the wheels while looking right over the reservoir. After making a dozen trips back and forth from the steering wheel to the reservoir to check the level. As of today, I’ve put six miles on the truck and everything that wasn’t already covered in PS fluid is nice and dry.
Brought to you by VITRON.
Oh, and did I mention I found some really good stuff to finally remove the last of the Adventurist Life decals? Believe it or not, the paint actually looks better after doing this. I might just do the whole truck for shits and giggles.
Maybe I’ll wait a couple weeks and see if all the paint on the rear fenders bubbles up and flakes away first…
Here’s a picture of a new PCV. The hose is kinda hard. The gasket in the valve cover is really hard. The whole thing is a little cockeyed. I’m sure it’s got blowby. Whatever.
Oh yeah, and Amazon delivered my Deep Creep (recommended by @racedinanger and @BradD on the Auto Off Topic podcast). I soaked the O2 first thing and let it soak while I did all the above. Then I let the engine idle for 20 minutes. Then I hit it again. And then I put everything I had into an open end, 22mm box wrench on that sucker.
The bruise on the back of my left elbow still hurts, but I got it out. And good thing, too. It looked like it was starting to round off. That could have got real expensive real quick.
And having seen how nice they looked in @Todd’s truck a few weekends back, I got myself a set of trim-to-fit WeatherTech mats. They’re really great.
Should I be concerned about the O2 sensor, though? This doesn’t exactly seem right to me…
I mean, it started out looking great!
But then it went to this…
I also immediately got another P120 (TPS) and cleared everything. Not sure if I should request a refund? Or for which one?
I’m thinking 1x1 is passenger side, 1x2 is driver. Is that right? @Rob.E.Thirty any advice? This is a CA-spec vehicle.
I’ve played a little with o2 sensors the last few days. From what I saw on the 100, there were 4 of them: 1x1 and 1x2 plus 2x1 and 2x2 o2 sensors, with the 1st number denoting side, and second number in the sequence denoting position: 1 fore, 2 aft of the cat. This may or may not translate over to Montero. Before this Toyo, I had never ever had to play with them before… And it’s been a while since I’ve worked on a non diesel too so…
1/1 is Bank 1 sensor 1. So whatever bank cylinder one is on and the sensor before the cat. 1/2 Is Bank 1 sensor 2, post cat sensor on bank one cylinder. This is, of course, if you have catalytic converters on both banks of the engine.
Are you also getting a P0420 code? What do your long term fuel trims look like? The very first picture I’m assuming was on cold start and are both at idle? If the rear 02 is correct there a lot of oxygen left over after the cat, which means you could have a lean run condition which would explain the slightly low pre cat sensor numbers.
Time to make your head spin with an irrelevant to your thread and mildly annoying fact:
For an isuzu with auto trans it floored the normal convention of rob.e.thirty describes, but for an isuzu with manual trans, the aft bank 2 sensor is labeled b1s3, instead of b2s2 like it should be. 
Ay chihuahua. So confusing.
I wonder if it was a case of not being fully up to operating temp yet. How important is it that both sensors cycle nearly identically all the time?
From this morning. Right after start-up. Low 50°F, still hadn’t dropped idle yet.
I left the app running and watched as I drove P to Obi’s. Most of the time, they were both cycling just about the same–maybe even 90% of the time–but 1x2 (confirmed, the one I just installed) still dropped out love this here and there.
Fuel trim stayed almost flat most of the time. If it varied more than 3-5%, it was a lot.
These aren’t complicated sensors, right? Do we think this one is defective?
LOL, oops
Yeah, that looks like a normal pre-cat oxygen sensor reading.
I was on my way to a haircut when I realized what I’d done. Rollin’ up to a red light like Tommy Boy…
Thanks, y’all. Fez is idling noticeably smoother, feels like he’s pulling a bit more crisply, and the fuel gauge needle is still well into the top quarter after something like 30 miles. Historically, “good” fuel economy saw me getting at least 50 miles out of the first quarter, while I was lucky to get 30-40 recently.
Next up: driveline fluids and greasing whatever is creaking and clunking in the front end under weight transfer. I’ve been meaning to pick up my ADD CrMo ball joints for a week, but Josh is laid out sick right now. (Checking to see if it’s covid-19. I hope it isn’t.)
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Having crossed two streams in as many weeks, ol’ Fez has developed something of a nasty creaking/popping noise in the front end. It’s apparently related to weight transfer, forward to rear, specifically when the front suspension is unloading.
Shaking the truck side to side does nothing. Bouncing the front bumper does nothing. But every time I come to a stop, there’s 3-5 very loud creaking/pops from the front end, and then another 5-7 when I start accelerating.
Sounds like it’s coming from the passenger side, but when I went to raise the front end to pull the wheels so I could inspect/grease everything, the driver side did it as soon as the jack began lifting the weight.
Josh has a set of ADD ball joints for me—whenever it’s safe to collect them—but it looks like I’ll need to order a few more items. I mean, it looks like these Mevotechs are shot to shit. (Less than 3 years old and I take the truck off-road maybe twice a year.)
And did I order the upper ball joints or lowers? Or both? Either way, my lowers look okay, but the tops are another pair of less than 3 year old Mevotechs and they’re absolute garbage. I will never buy these ever again. Ever.
LCA bushings are looking a bit ragged these days, too. I am SO not ready to replace all the front end bushings on any front; budget, time, or effort.
In any case, I greased every zerk I could find, and sprayed other things with WD40. (Why not?) Guess what—it made absolutely ZERO difference in the creaking and popping. Currently thinking I might want to check/spray the lower strut mounts and sway bar bushings next time I’m under the truck.
(Would be nice to have some of this “free time” I see in all the coronavirus memes these days.)
This is a Diode Dynamics SS18. It set me back about $250 shipped with harness.
We’re taking P to Obi’s (Grandma’s) house every other day. This meant I had almost an entire Sunday to do whatever I wanted. I could have started my taxes. I could have cleaned up more of the garage. Instead, I decided it had been too long since I’d installed a mod and set out to install my fancy light bar.
Being out in the boonies after dark a few weeks back reminded me how inadequate the factory high beams can be in the field. Also, a better man than I would have washed the truck before installing a new mod. Something something maintenance before mods.
This omelette required a couple eggs.
But we’ll come back to that.
Check out these classic stylings. My battery tie-down is a victim of so many old school, lead acid batteries. So are the embarrassing terminals. Once the quarantine is lifted, I hope to take a few bits to the shop for media blasting so I can bring them home and paint them. This battery tie-down will be the first to get some love.
Note the tidy ring terminals on the end of the harness from Diode Dynamics. I cut them both off.
I had to extend the positive about 8" to reach the new terminal. This is when I realized my crimping tool sucks ass big time. And since this was the only piece of heat shrink I would need for the entire project this time out, I opted to go old school instead of sourcing an extension cord for the new heat gun (I am legitimately excited to use).
Sorry, Chazz. (At least I’m using the butt terminals, heat shrink, and battery terminals you suggested!)
The terminals Chazz recommended were excellent. Beefy. Elegant. I was stoked to use them. And after I had the negative terminal sorted, I took my wire cutters to the positive side.
Got everything wired up and ready to go. Put the key in the ignition, turned it to ON, and connected the positive terminal. And nothing happened.
Touched the ABS fuse bracket to the terminal. Everything woke up. FUCK.
I’d cut ring terminal off that wire and stuck it in the new post. The original terminal sheared when I took it off. I couldn’t even go back to where I’d started—and it’s not like I want to be running to multiple parts stores these days.
Now I was truly stuck. I remembered a kitty litter tote full of old DSM wire harness sections and desperately dug in. Found the last “DR. UBER” ground wire kit from my 2GNT days. (Read: 15 years old.)
I must have stood there, staring at this situation for a good 20 minutes before I got another bright idea.
Turned out, before I ordered the terminals Chazz recommended, I’d picked up a set of the Toyota ones Shovel mentioned some time ago. For the Montero owners in the audience, here’s the positive one and here’s the negative one. Oh, and since they’re excellent and worth knowing about, here’s the Install Gear terminals Chazz mentioned earlier in this thread.
Yes, I know the light bar positive lead is crudely wrapped around a battery post. From the Yeah-We-Heard-THAT-One-Before Department comes the simple excuse that I was running out of time and will be re-doing part of this in the near future, as I want my auxiliary lights on the high beam switch and will be going back to the drawing board on that front.
(I could use a relay to energize a bus bar that feeds the aux lights when the high beams are on, right?)
I ran the wire for the switch into the fender and into the cabin through the grommet in the door for the time being. The light bar works. It just works any time you hit the switch.
Having a few hours before dark, when I could test and aim the light, I changed the front diff fluid. For the first time, in the five years and 73,000 miles I’ve owned the truck.
Do 98 Monteros have magnetic diff drain bolts from the factory? Mine had them. The front was fully covered, but not caked, in black soot-like material, but the old oil drained mostly clear. I refilled with 2+ quarts of Redline 75W90 GL-5.
The rear also had a magnetic drain bolt. This one was covered in so much black goo it was as thick as the threaded section. Old fluid came out red? I refilled with the rest of the 75w90, which was a hair over 2.5qts. It didn’t drip out of the fill hole, but I also had the rear end raised above level.
Now, I thought this would eliminate the gear whine I hear when driving down the highway, but much like my efforts with the front end creaking and popping, it did not. It’s a subtle whine audible at highway speeds, related to slight changes in load on the driveline. Easing on/off the throttle changes it.
Interestingly, though, taking the truck for a late night spin to aim the light bar found me noticing the sound might actually be coming from the front driver side hub under cornering loads. If I do a wide, almost-slalom (barely leaving my lane), there’s definitely a whine coming from the front left corner when I load it up under cornering.
Not pictured: Cleaned/inspected 4WD actuator assembly.
Before I cracked the front diff drain, I took a closer look at the 4WD actuator assembly. Peeling back the accordion boot, water poured out both ends. Not a lot, but at least a table spoon. Probably not ideal.
That said, the rod inside looked spotlessly clean. So clean, in fact, I wondered why I’ve heard so many people talk about greasing these things up. It doesn’t look like mine’s EVER been coated in grease. In fact, it might be the cleanest thing under the truck.
I wiped all the power steering fluid (remember that leak) and mud and grime off the vac lines and made sure everything in that area was clean and tidy. Then I sprayed the rod with WD40. You know, to displace the water.
Wouldn’t you know it? Shifting into 4H (AWD) did nothing. No lights blinking at all. Oh, but the ABS light came on, because something was telling something else the axle was engaged, but not engaged?
Later that night, I got it to engage AWD and made a point of engaging, disengaging, engaging, disengaging at least a dozen times to work the rod back and forth. Seems like it’s mostly working now. Once in a while it almost engages instantly. 
Finally, it got dark, the girls went to bed, and I found myself driving…
These pictures were taken with my brand new Pixel 4 in Night Mode (auto), resting on the steering wheel, looking through the windshield.
Stock headlights with new Osram Nightbreaker bulbs & amber fogs.
Light bar solo.
Light bar + high beams.
Pictures don’t really do this thing justice. I drove over 60 miles that night trying to find someplace without streetlights or traffic. Ended up on the 303 loop between I-17 and Lake Pleasant Parkway. Let’s just say I’m super impressed and looking forward to having this bar wired up right on the high beams. Damn thing’s so bright I almost need sunglasses due to the reflection of street signs a quarter mile away. (I’m also running 3x driving lenses on the bar right now. Probably going to swap out two with flood lenses to widen the beam up close.)
/end update
You know what, I think I might have got a couple of those shots mixed up. Too much ambient light out there and the dirt pile in the foreground kinda makes it hard to tell. I’ll get some better shots on a dark road one of these days.
In the meantime, here’s a few angles of the install so far.
I like it a lot.
Might repaint the grille and wrap the badge with some blaze red 3M vinyl. Might.
