mws

every 25,000 to 200,000 depending on usage and how long you want it to last! Heat is the enemy. Under normal use (some offroading, some high stress), I like to change trans and rear diff every 50-75K. If you're towing, back down to 25K on the trans. The TC and front diff can go much longer as they are usually used only intermittently. I change about every 100K or so just to keep the plugs from freezing up.

I like the 2 door because there are fewer seals to leak. That's it for rational thought... I do like the fact they are less common. If I was choosing between the two, high priorities are: - Which has the 5 speed! - Which has less rust - Which has better service records

What couldn't they get right? The camber?

Engineer popping in - You're all right, but then wrong, and then again, maybe not! But seriously: Gear oils are rated differently than engine oils. If I recall correctly, the viscosity of a GL 70W80 gear oil is pretty close to that of a 10W30 engine oil. And a 70W75 is just a touch lighter, like a 5W20, and is about the same as most ATF's. Confused yet? You should be.... Why all the different standards, and confusing applications? Well, the standards were developed by different groups at different times for different needs. Add to that the products sold in various countries are sometimes labeled and classified differently. New Zealand seems to be one... Soooo.... the short answer for Mr. Cohen and other '87-89 WD owners purchasing lubes in the US: Differentials, front and rear: standard GL-5 gear oil, 75W90 is optimal. Easy to get, no need to use anything else. GL-5 is required as you need the high pressure scrub protection on those gears. Manual trans: GL-4, 70W80 seems to be optimal. 75W90 also good at higher temps, but can be sluggish in cold. GL-5 protection is not needed in this trans. Add to this that the fact the sulphur based high pressure modifiers typically (but not always) used in GL-5 lubes are believed to be hard on gear synchros, and GL-5 can actually be bad for trans. So do your own research before using GL-5 in trans. Transfer case: Least demanding application of all. I recommend using the same thing used in the trans for convenience's sake. No hypoid style gears, no synchros, no wildly varying or extreme temps, so just about any thing will be OK. Can safely use ATF or engine oil (in normal applications) if that's all you have. Nissan started using ATF in later TC's, and I have not heard of any internal changes accompanying that change. Heck, canola oil would probably work... So there you go. I use Redline MTL in manual trans and transfer case, Redline 75W90 gear oil in both diffs. Notes: Redline 75W90 gear oil is compatible with open, locker, OR limited slip diffs.

Based on my experiences, it is not so much a west coast/east coast thing as a corporate office/field office thing. ALL corporate offices I've dealt with have serious pockets of "non aggressive" workers. Some of the worst I've dealt with were midwest, but many on the east coast and some on the west coast as well. From my 20 year perspective, I've actually seen less on the west coast, but I am involved in high end electronics. I believe the most significant factor is how "mature" the company is. Companies that have been around a long time tend to collect some dead wood employees who behave as if entitled. Recently formed companies (regardless of age of employees) tend to be much more aggressive.

Whattaya mean, that's all you can do? It's an engine. With all the options of any engine. You can port it, polish it, bore it, stroke it, cam it, supercharge it, turbocharge it, nitrous inject it, install 4 valve heads, reproduce it in billet aluminum and titanium, swap in a V8, run it on nitromethane if you want.... What do you want? And how much do you want to spend?

ps: They usually have at least a dozen different brews on tap at the pub. They bottle a mere fraction of what they come up with. It's a gotta do if you're ever in the the area. I've been a fan since I moved to Chico in '84. Back then, they brewed in what amounted to a storage locker and the labels (if they applied any) were hand cut b&w photocopies!

Let us know what you think of the Centerforce clutch. Mine came with one and I threw it as far as I could as soon as I could.... I hated it so much I even PAID to get it replaced with OE rather than wait until I had time to do it myself. It was ultra grabby and virtually impossible to modulate, and the one time I needed to feather it (abuse it) to get out of a difficult situation, it started smoking within 20 seconds and then slipped like greased snot until I let it cool for 10 minutes. Probably great for drag racers or sand where you want to dump it and have it hook up instantly, but horrid for precise manipulation in high traction conditions.

I do not, yet. But when my last case of 10 yr old R-12 is used up (thanks, Dad!), I will absolutely be using the LPG refrigerants. I will never willingly use R-134a in my older R-12 vehicles. It is a terrible refrigerant with so many compromises it is not even funny. It's just crap. I am patiently waiting for the industry to move on... Tip: Do your homework or get an expert to help you out. I recall the LPG refrigerants are blends and some of the molecules are very tiny and require barrier hoses. I THINK the pathy came with barrier style hoses, but I'm not positive. May need to change some seals as well. Again, not positive. Keep in mind, that is no differant than what is required to do R-134a right. The only difference is the LPG will have at least 25% more cooling capacity than R-134a and it will not lead to premature failure of your compressor as you can continue to use the lubricant it was designed for.

Or the really important stuff, like better looking? But seriously, statements like "better" in a tire needs to have a lot of explanation to have any meaning whatsoever. Everyone has someone differing needs and preferences, so what is better for you may be horrid for me. For example, tires optimized for mud tend to be terrible on wet or icy pavement. Tires that kick butt in the sand are generally not so good for hardpack dirt. And tires that are optimized for crawling on dry rocks are a special breed unto themselves. And all M/T's are compromised for street use - some not too bad, but some extremely so (noisy, poor handling, poor traction, extremely heavy, poor fuel economy, wear rate, etc). Comparing a Creepy Crawler competion compound tire to a Super Swamper Bogger and trying to say which is better is like comparing the 2006 Indianapolis Colts to, err, a tangerine. Which is better? At what?

It's mostly inertia.... 15" was the standard for decades. Now with better and larger brakes, 15" is coming up short of space. 16" and larger is more common today. The BFG AT is a really old tire designs. Do some research before buying just any 15" wheel - I suspect most alloys and maybe some steelies will not fit on your 2000. They will hit the caliper. A 265/75-16 is pretty close to the same diameter and width as a 31x10.5-15. Just 1/2" less sidewall.

BTW, I still haven't made a bracket for mine. Using stock arm with stock mount with about 2" taller springs. Axle is shifted a bit to the side (maybe 1/2"?) but it's not too big a deal.

Make your own? Even if you have to farm out the welding, you can beat the price. Buy a chunk of 3/16" steel, spend a couple hours with hacksaw, files, and hand drill. Voila! I built my first set of rearsets for a street bike that way. Now I use band saw, grinder, and drill press to save a lot of time, but the principle's the same.

Wouldn't that be nice! I've never seen a direct bolt on. All take some creativity in fabrication. Most aftermarket ones use some kind of linear zip tie to just clamp the shroud to the fins, but over time, that will lead to fin compression and vibration/noise. For long term, it is best to fabricate some kind of brackets that mount to either side of the radiator and firmly hold the shroud about 1/8" away from the fins.

I was afraid the dealer would be clueless... now to figure out what we can. Put on your experimenter hat and let's go to town! Measuring CFM would be ideal, but I'm not sure how to do that accurately, unless you have a HUGE plastic bag laying around. You could time how long it takes the fan to fill the bag and then calculate volume. But we are talking a really and truly big sucker to get accurate timing.... A fan of this size would take about 0.002 seconds to fill a trash bag! You couldn't start and stop the stopwatch to get meaningful data. So since you have a Taurus fan as well, let's try to compare them a different way. First off, is the OD of the blades the same? Is the OD of the center hub the same? Lastly, do they have the same number of blades? I can see they both use scimitar blades. If so, they will be somewhat close in efficiency. We can then compare current draw and with a few assumptions, make some conclusions. Since it is highly unlikely you have an ammeter around that can handle 30+ DC amps without smoking, lets just compare voltage drops. Connect your DMM across the battery and measure the voltage. With the engine NOT running, connect one of the fans and measure the voltage again. It should drop quite a bit. It will drop a chunk, then stabilize somewhat. Record the value about 3 seconds after start up. Then do the same with the other fan. Switch back and forth a couple times and record the change in voltage each time - always 3 seconds after start up. Report back here and we'll make some conclusions! The theory: The fan drawing more current will always result in a larger voltage drop. All things being equal, the fan drawing more current is doing more work. If the blades are very close in size and configuration, then it is most likely moving more air. If the Chrysler is close to the Taurus in size, configuration, and voltage drop, then it is likely close in air moving. In that case, the one with the shroud that best fits the radiator (area covered and minimal gaposis) is going to provide the best cooling. The Taurus fan fits OK, but has a lot of room for improvement.

The shape looks like it may be well suited for pathy... Let us know what you find out!

The most cost effective sulution is heavily dependent on your available resources and skills. I picked up my Maxima seats and metal to fab custom bracketry for well under $100. BUT, they were filthy (windshield was missing out of the car at the JY) and definitely NOT a bolt in as the drivers seat was the multi-adjustable version. Several hours of work with shampoo, brushes, and our upholstery steam cleaner had them looking and smelling brand new. That can be a crapshoot with JY seats - is there any deep goo in the foam that will smell rank forever? In this case, the car was relatively low miles, the vehicle died in a rear end collision, there was no blood stains, and it had only been in the yard for a couple months. So I felt it was low risk and it was. And then making them fit and safe was a full day of fabricating. The passenger was about an hour, the driver's many hours of design, fab, and modification to make right and ultra secure.

I have installed two sets on 5 speeds, but both were model 464-1's on '87/'88 pathy's. So that is probably not relevant to your question.

OK, now that was a problem with your wiring! Somehow you were feeding an constant electrical signal back where it didn't belong. Double check instructions and then re-try different connections. What you thought was something wasn't. If that makes sense....

It was a standard NPT... 3/8", I think? Maybe 1/4"... But I think 3/8. * edit * According to Permacool literature, it is 3/8" NPT. And if the Summit branded is not actually made by Permacool, it is at least a near carbon copy. I'm 99% sure it is 3/8 NPT

Yeah, life would be much easier if all vehicles could use the same gear oil, and same engine oil, and same batteries, and same windshield wipers, and same size and types of tires, and.... But the reality is than different consumers want different attributes, so different designs exist.

Are you saying it is clicking when the key is off? Or clicking when the key is on run but engine is off? I am not seeing how it would be a safety issue, but it is pretty hard on the relay. They are usually designed for about 10,000 cycles. So you're using up a bit of life on the poor guy! More importantly, if it is a voltage supply issue, you are probably getting awfully close to some other less tolerable symptoms (like no runny). Check out the battery and charging systems. If they are OK, start checking all the connections. A dirty/loose connection can drop the voltage significantly without being an open. BTW, I got the package this week and hope to send a return to you next week. Can you PM your address to me? I can't quite make out the address on the package.

To impress all your ricer friends?

As with all "universal" kits, you have to figure out which adapter to use (the proper one should be in there), how to run the hoses to clear hot and moving parts, and how to mount the filter holder. 2.5 wrenches out of 5 kind of job (you have to be able to think and a tiny bit of custom fab work is required). I have personally installed 2 of these kits in WD's and they worked out great. I chose to buy right angle fittings (from local hardware store) for the top of the remote mount, and then fabricated custom brackets so the filter mounts vertically. That keeps drooly messes to a minimum at filter change time, and allows me to pre-fill the new filter before installing.

Thank you! Hmm.... no wonder 1/8" feels so right - it is right in spec! Sometimes, just experimenting and feeling what works best isn't such a bad idea.