Petersen

Wow, 280 miles in nothing.

My fan stopped working a short while after I bought it. I read on here to upgrade from a 10 amp fuse to a 15 amp--no problems since.

The direct switch to the fan does not sound factory. Is there a fuse between the switch & the fan? I would add one if there is not (15 amp). I believe all Trooper fans run constantly if the engine is running. So, your set up should work as long as you don't forget to switch it on.

Well, we all have reasons for buying our Troopers. Mine was potential & price. My friend has $19k into his RZR S and there is only 1 thing his machine clearly exceeds mine in. That is accelleration while climbing a hill since he has a CVT, and I have to downshift and keep my machine at high RPM's. We are pretty much stuck in our powerband. One nice thing about ours over CVT's is that when he approaches a steep obstical he has to completely stop & shift into low, where we can keep momentum & down shift. If I ever get around to adding a supercharger, then the only thing the RZR S will be better at is gas mileage. I hope to even give the RZR XP a run for its money. Unless I put the Trooper on a serious diet, I estimate I will need about 120 hp to do that.

The manual switch is not factory. It was added in because where the wiring plugs into the relay it had melted a bit, and did not work any more so a switch to run the fan manually was added in. My dad's friend fixed the shorted out wiring for the factory stuff and it worked good for us about twenty miles into the trip and we noticed the trooper heating up and sure enough the fan had quit working on us. The relay was super hot and melting the plug again. We unplugged it and went back to the manual switch.

Thanks 2scoops.

Yeah, it was a good price and we knew there would be issues, but the only thing we were told was it had problems overheating (which after getting the air lock fixed we have not had issues with).

I do believe it was in storage for a while. It only had 280 miles on it and I know the odometer works because we put about 70 on it Friday.

One issue I have not mentioned yet is that the relay for the fan is also toast but there is a direct switch for the fan to turn it on and off. Is this unique to the first 50 or all troopers?

The trooper is definitely going to be an ongoing project for a while. The shocks are definitely an expensive upgrade but it sounds like all that have done it have positive things to say.

You have one of the first 50 T2s as I do, 2008 model. They had the fuel tank up front and are a pain to fill with fuel. I turned my filler tube on the bolt mount at the tank so the filler tube comes up thu the top of the dash. Long-term I am going to cap the existing filler tube at the tank and put a new filler tube at the location of the sending unit. The sending unit will last you a couple of years if you are lucky. The sending unit is different from the later T2s, longer, and are not inter-changeable. BUT eye have never had the fuel issues the tank under the seat have. My tank has never cracked or leaked, lucky eye guess. I have been putting rubber washers in a lot of locations including the diff mounts to remove some of the vibration & stress cracking. There was a lot of upgrades that occurred after the first 50. Most important is make sure your driveline was changed out from u-joint to CV joint. If not failure WILL occur. Also the rear frame mount for the rear diff WILL fail, needs to be replaced with better steel, design & weld. More later.

rocmoc n AZ

It still has the u-joint driveline. I assume that these are no longer under the warranty with joyner with all the changes. I will start looking around for one. I defintiely don't want to end up walking out of somewhere because of u-joints failing. Thanks.

Thanks for the input.

I believe the tires on it are the general grabbers. Will these work at the low psi without having issues with the beed staying set?

I was also wondering if anyone has had issues with the coil on a shock rubbing on the body of the shock. Three of them have plenty of clearance, but the right rear is rubbing and makes a loud squeak when it does so. Nothing looks noticeably bent but ??? Is it possible to loosen the coil and try rotating it a little before tightening back down that may correct it?

I can also add, the fuel tank on this t2 is definitely not factory. The fill spout is in the side of the dash and the tank goes under the hood with kind of a sideways "L" shape so part of it sits right in the middle under the hood. I think it holds about seven gallons. A couple of cracks were patched in it and there is still a little leak coming out the top from where the wire goes into the sending unit. It was not mounted with any rubber material and just metal bolted to the tank. With this, was it vibrations that caused stress cracks??

Thanks again.

After going through both differentials and patching some cracks in the gas tank, the t2 finally made it out for its first trip. This was the first time ever being in a joyner and I was impressed with some things and found quite a few areas to address.

First is the noise which I expected from what I had heard. Lots of rattles to track down and correct. I think this will be fairly easy and just take time. I wanted to see if any of you had comments on the steering box cover that Lenny sells. I assume this will take out quite a bit of noise in the front end, and will it also improve how responsive the steering is?

Brakes??? Holy cats. Very disappointed here. Are they just this bad or I am missing something on how to fix/adjust? The pedal does not move at all when you push it and it takes its time coming to a stop. Or are they designed this way to prevent them from locking up?

I also have a question on tires. I assume some tires are 'softer' and make for a nicer ride in rocky terrain. Ours has radials on it and make for a super smooth ride on graded roads but have no cushion in them when you go over little rocks. Any comments on favorite tires for rocky high desert terrain?

How much do you play with the adjustment in the shocks? I think these are cranked down too much as well.

We are also going to move the air filter up using the shop vac hose and wand set up; lots of dust and heat in the engine area.

Any suggestions on the correct model of muffler to add on to reduce noise? Should I just search for what is compatible with a small vehicle with a 4 cyl. or is there more to it than that? I think the harley set up sounds cool, but I would prefer a quiet ride for how we use it.

Thanks again for everyones advice on my earlier posts. This board is essential for new joyner owners.

So, after a bit of work on the trooper, it was finally time to get it out and run it, WRONG! Went to fill it up with gas and there is about a 6 inch crack towards the top of the tank.

So far, the front diff has been rebuilt and a new diff put in the rear. Now the tank is out and my dad will see if someone can fix it this week.

My question is, I read somewhere a long time ago about Joyner upgrading tanks or gas tank issues??? Is this correct and were there faulty tanks in the past? Is there a better direction to take this rather than patching the tank and putting it back in?

Any feedback is appreciated. Thanks.

You sort of have to get a diff where you can. Sillverbullet has them and No Limit Motorsports in TX. might have them, other then that, they are a bit hard to find. When you do get one, I would open it up before installation to see if it actually has been upgraded. There are a lot of people out there that think they have upgraded diffs but actually don't. The only way to tell is to open it up. Your diff problems are what can happen if they are not upgraded or upgraded properly. Sounds like you had ring and pinion gear mis-alignment which will break off teeth. Teeth running around loose inside the diff can tear up everything else. A proper upgrade aligns the gears amongst other things. I've looked for alternative diffs but the problem is that most don't lock out and if you change the rear, you have to change the front because of the diffs gear ratios. the other problem is that the Trooper diff is geared very high compaired to normal diff gearing so you would almost for sure end up with much lower gearing, too low IMHO, except for rock crawling. Then it would be nice.

Lenny

Thanks Lenny. I came by your place last summer and picked up a couple of kits from you. I knew this differential had issues but was hoping we would be alright when it was disassembled. No such luck. Hopefully the front one should be in good enough shape to be upgraded.

In the diff it sounds like the pin/set screw came apart and it all went downhill from there. The guy my dad bought it from would only run it with the rear diff locked. When you unlocked the diff is when you would hear all the issues.

Thanks for the opinion on the upgraded diffs. I did read some older posts explaining that even the upgraded diffs from joyner had some issues.

My dad finally broke down the rear differential in the trooper he picked up over a year ago. He let me know there isn't anything worth salvaging. teeth sheared, housing inside trashed, various other busted pieces. I might post some pics of it when I get to his house.

What is the best way to get a new diff? I see that silverbulletmotorsports has two different options selling on ebay and I will get in touch with them tomorrow. I just wanted to know if anyone has experience with putting in a new or rebuilt replacement with upgrades, and what the best option might be. Thanks.

Hi I have a couple of 2008 with heating problems. I found that the fans were running backwards from what I believe is correct. I changed both of them to flow out the back of the Trooper instead of sucking air towards the engine. I also spaced the fan out about 3/4 of a inch. which changed the amount of air flow about ten times the original amount. I use a water wetter with a 50% antifreeze mixture. One other problem is they will air lock. To get all the air out of the system you need to disconnect the small water line (about 1/4 inch) that starts around the thermostat housing and goes into a T with two larger hoses, drivers side. You need to remove the hose at the T and hold it in the air above the motor while holding your finger over the hose barb to keep the coolant in. Now you need to get some one to top off the rad. This sounds like your biggest problem to me. I changed the Plastic T at the front of the engine by the water pump and had problems heating up until I got the air out of the system. It only takes a small about of water extra but it really works. My trooper would heat running at a idle until I did this. The reason for changing the plastic T was they were breaking and Joyner gave me the new steel ones for free. The problem is that no one was telling me about upgrades, my dealer always said he new nothing about them and they were not having any problems with anything. I guess I picked the wrong dealer. I also put a oil cooler and a manual guage on one of the troopers but later found out the manual guage was reading about 25 degrees too hot. I do not think I needed the oil cooler for the way I use my machine but with the bad temp guage I was willing to try anything. If you try the tips I left you at the top I think your problem will go away.

Snowbird was right! I am at my dad's house and played with the machine a little bit. It was air locked. I took it for a spin around the block and no issues with overheating. Thanks!

Now I have to get the driveline issue figured out. It seems like the rear differential to me and also the clutch needs to be adjusted or replaced.

The engine has been durable, not the weak link. Not a Hot Rod engine but dependable. Some of the connectors & sensors have not bee as good quality.

rocmoc n AZ/Baja

it is getting HOT. Not just the gauge. After I let it sit a while I could still not remove the radiator cap without fluid bloin out. It is bright green so I assume good. It looks like straight coolant. Even when I moved it from the driveway to the garage it started to heat up again after only being at slow idle for 3 or 4 minutes.

Since you have a '08 for the clanging and banging routine I would check the rear diff mounts. On the '08 the brace will be round and will break. Later the changed the brace to rectangle tubing. Or the locker is adjusted so the locker is completely releasing. For the heating, is the rad fan working? You should hear it when you first turn the key on and before you hit the starter. Also if you are maintaining high RPMs it will heat if you don't do some mods.

rocmoc n AZ/Baja

The fan does work. I just drove it around the block without going fast. 15-20 mph at the most... I it got hot enough for the gauge to be max. The overflow filled up a bit as well.

The braces on the bottom of the rear diff look like a couple heavy duty pieces of flat iron welded to the frame.. A long bolt goes through the diff housing and the flat iron on each side. It is also attached at the back of the housing to the frame. I will look through my manual about the locker completely releasing. Thanks.

Hi Tyler,

Welcome to the forum, have you read the threads about the diff and the upgrades, what year is your trooper? How familiar are you with it's operation, was the fan running? Are you pretty good with mechanics?

Also, would you mind filling out you profile so we can all get to know you better, who know, maybe one of us lives just around the corner from you, or the next town.

Kinarfi

I updated some of the profile information. I live in Caliente, NV, but my dad and the trooper are in vegas. It is a 2008. I am learning the mechanics when I need to fix something. I haven't dug into a differential yet so all the pics and posts regarding them are a little overwhelming. I am sure when I pull it apart with my dad and friends it will make more sense. My dad bought it in vegas and a water pump was, and still is, on order with JMC. I guess they are backordered. We were thinking it may be the thermostat. No water is leaking around the pump. Wondering if the thermostat might be stuck ???

The fan does work. It has its own switch on the console so you can run it at all times. It was purchased from Bryan Wright. I think he might be friends with some of you on this forum.. Thanks again.

My dad just purchased a used T2 and it has issues. It overheats quickly (went around the block twice)... Not sure if it is the thermostat or pump. Is the thermostat a part that can be picked up at an auto parts store, or do I need to order one from JMC? Also, when in two wheel drive, it does a clanging and banging routine. If I lock the rear differential in 2wd it does not. I assume this is what I have read about regarding the differentials. If you could give me some direction I would appreciate it. Thanks. Tyler