Amazing Mound

Cleaning out the left hand axle passage through the body resulted in this humungo pile of greasy, sandy dirt.

Dug in there for 30 minutes at least, and that was just the single hole above the pile. There is also a goodly amount where the steering rack pokes through, but I haven't started there yet. I was amazed at how much of the crud kept coming out. I figure the car will be a good ten pounds lighter once I get all this out of the various orifices. Seems like a strange design. I wonder if it's possible to rig some sort of rubber flaps over those openings to keep the stuff from entering in the first place.

The right side doesn't look to be nearly as bad. I wonder if there's some explanation from driving on rallies, or if this is normal accumulation.

The inside of the engine compartment is still in need of cleaning as well. I won't give it the good scrubbing it needs, but will need to scrape and clean the worst of it. Getting rid of the crappy old steering rack should make a huge difference. Between the various engine and tranny leaks and the long-term steering leaks, it's a disaster down there.

I also need to get some better bolts for the skid plate. Will need to spend an afternoon at Tacoma Screw getting all the fasteners replaced...