zakzackzachary

Alright homie. There's a few threads on this forum that have more detail, including my personal build thread you can check out. Long story short, the KYB replacement stuff is all totally fine and will go together exactly like OEM, except that KYB item 54320 is different than OEM. KYB item 54320 comes as a two part piece that the above schematic doesn't show. Basically there's a metal tube that comes out of that part and extends down to engage with the strut when assembled where as the KYB unit has the part and the metal tube separate. It's super super easy to assemble, but you just have to remember to put the metal tube spacer onto the strut prior to putting item 54320 on when assembling. And that's it.

I appreciate that Josh! It's been a fun mild build. It'd be a long haul, but if you ever make it out here we'll make sure it was worth it! There's some beautiful spots out here for sure, coming from AK the mountains are a bit less intense here, but having the fire roads makes them so much more accessible which is great. I lived in Huntsville, AL for a while and visited the Chattahoochee and base of the Appalachians, which I see you're just south of. There are definitely some beautiful areas out there, and amazing driving roads if you have a street car- just not the super big peaks like in the West. I'd love to go back and cruise the Blue Ridge Parkway again one day.

Wow, I have NOT been updating this. My life has been insane lately so I've mostly been lurking. Not a whole lot has changed with the rig other than a new basket-light set-up. The rest has been maintenance and using it! Met up with a bunch of the NPORA PNW guys and did an overnight near Mt. Adams- After that little shindig I decided I wanted to change up the basket lights. I built some custom brackets for the side lights, and then swapped in some round front fogs. I always liked the "classic" round fog look. Wind noise is up, probably eats at my minimal MPG, but it's fun for now. Went out with a buddy to play around in Tahuya ORV, about 20 min from my house. I've got lots of pics and vid, but I'm on a time crunch. I might add them later otherwise they're on my instagram @GrizzlyPath I basically have a 1/4 mile driveway so once a week the Pathfinder is the Trashfinder- Random- Testing the light set-up. Pretty good floodage and I love the side/rear lights. I may need a spot for forward though. The trails get dark. Always fun when you run into a stock one. If you want more misc pics/vids definitely scroll through my Instagram. You don't need an account to view on a computer, unsure about on a phone - GrizzlyPath Instagram

I need to keep an eye out for a t-case skid plate, but on a lot of the vehicles it's hard to even see under there b/c they remove the wheels and set the vehicle on the ground

Did you make sure to assemble the KYB front struts with that little 1" metal spacer dealio? (I'm just checking!)

Welcome! Looking forward to some pics of your setup.

Welcome to the forum! Lots of great knowledge here.

Pretty sure MTG meant spacers on top of the front struts. But still, spring lift is recommended over a big spacer lift like 2".

Nice.

How do you blow out the charcoal line? The charcoal boxes are in the rear near the spare tire right? And if I recall, the vent is a tube that points down?

Welcome! Hopefully one day you can stretch the legs of Leaky Susan and get on some dirt. The 88's appear to be a great all around little truck. Looks like Oklahoma City!

Welcome! I lived in HSV 2016-18. Loved that city. I look forward to seeing pics of your rig and maybe some local exploration missions!

I would not recommend trying to use a Hi-Lift off the step mounts. They're rounded and don't really stick out that much. Just overall not a good anchor. I've seen people do it off the hitch. But if you're new to a Hi-Lift definitely do some studying, and maybe practice with someone who's familiar. They're useful, but also super dangerous. In many circumstances a solid bottle jack, or even scissor jack, can get you out of a pinch. Just my $0.02! Once you get sliders a Hi-Lift would become a lot more useful.

That reminds me @ferrariowner123 I could start pulling paint matched rear bumper/fender flares if you wanted.

Welcome! And interesting that he has that grill on a 99! The plot thickens with the amount of variations in our vehicles.

I hadn't thought of that and I think you're totally right. The boxed key is neutralizing the immobilizer I bet he could just get any 'ol blank cut at the hardware store and it'd probably work!

I've done the OME HD front springs with 3-standard rental compressors. Sketchy and slow, but doable in a pinch. I was broken down in the middle of nowhere doing it in a parkinglot though, not ideal. 3/10 do not recommend. Tempting, but it will still be slower than having the shop do it with a press. And I’ll likely never use the compressor again On a different subject, some of my packages came in early so I’m going to try to wire up the camera and water sensor tomorrow so that I don’t have to worry about squeezing everything into one shop day. I’ll post up some pics when it’s done. Honestly, if you plan on working on your vehicle pretty regularly, and have friends who could possibly benefit from using this compressor, I 1000% recommend it. Vs the sketchy rental compressors, these only take minutes to compress an OME HD spring, makes rebuilding the struts incredibly easy. I had a shop do my front struts the first time around and they did it WRONG and it ended up nuking my assembly. I wish I had just done it myself the first time around. You can take your time and make sure everything's done right. It's really not hard and this compressor makes it so much safer.

NooooooooO! Check out post #90 and the ones that follow my build thread. I tried to spread the word more, but it didn't get to you Let me know if you have any questions, but you'll need to disassemble and rebuild your struts properly.

As an aside for those reading- When you lift with a lift spring (OME, AC, etc) we put the spring into OEM spec struts. The strut limits the total length the assembly can be and therefore limits the total droop of your suspension. When you lift with a spacer, the spacer goes on top of the strut assembly. Therefore the total length possible will be the strut length plus the spacer. The CV axle has limits to the angle it can be at before it binds, on stock suspension that angle can't normally be reached. Typically with lift springs the strut length still isn't long enough to cause binding issues. If you have lift springs + spacer, or just a big spacer, then you're extending the length limit and could reach the binding angles when approaching your max droop. That's one of the reasons why lift springs are different than lift spacers. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is my understanding.

There's additional suspension geometry to take into account.

I'd like to chime in and say that with a previous car the only way to shut up the alarm was to hit the unlock button on the fob. At the time I was only using the key so I tried everything I could think of, finally I replaced the battery in the fob and that worked like a charm.

1) Remove all the relevant fender liner screws to gain access to the backside of the fender/metal. (maybe only for front wheels) There are a bunch of plastic tabs that snap the fender into the vehicle body. I've been told you could try to slide the fender (I think towards front of vehicle) to disengage and leave all the snaps in the body, but I couldn't get that to work. 2) Use a heat gun to warm up the backside of the plastic tabs, this'll hopefully help keep the tabs or your fender flare from breaking. 3) With slow, strong, even pressure, start at one end and pull away from the vehicle. They should pop out one by one. Once you get one out, you'll see how it's all attached. 4) I continued to warm everything up as I popped the fender flares off.

The spacer isn't visible (not sure what rubber grummet you speak of). The pic is of the bottom of the spacer, so it gets installed when the strut is assembled. If the spacer isn't installed, the non-keyed portion of the strut shaft will eventually dig into the metal insert of the mount and eventually allow for 1/2" of vertical play, which may also wallow out the hole over time. I think he's talking about this rubber grommet! I didn't know they existed, but found a set at the junkyard and threw them on my 3.3L. Keeps water out and stuff.

I recently pulled some mirrors off an R50 in the junkyard- 1) Remove door panel screws (one in the pull handle, you'll also have to pull up on the elbow rest to get to two in there, then pull carefully on the door card. 2) Pull open the plastic vapor barrier. 3) Unclip the power mirror wiring 4) Pop off the corner black plastic piece on the inside by the mirror 5) Remove the 3 bolts and the mirror should fall off.