PopFly

Got It, Thank You

Thanks for all the responses! The truck has about 115,000 miles on it. When I bought it a year ago there were about 95,000. It appeared to have been recently revitalized after sitting for quite some time. I live a few miles west of Detroit. Not that many people know it but Southwest Detroit sits atop a huge salt mine. In winter it's slung on the roads in excess. So yes, in a way I do live in a salty environment. Perhaps one of the worst. I am not sure about the recall status on the tires but I will check that ASAP. My inflation is good. Yes, I did mean sway bar bushings when I said stabilizer bushings. There is some cracking on them but nothing I would have expected would cause the kind of drivability issues I'm having. I am not sure what "pan hard rods" bushings are. As far as the front end I am not too sure about the ball joints. They are original and have no zirc fittings so they may need changing. Aside from that the front end looks good. There is no cupped wear on any of the tires. I will start by reinspecting all my bushings, especially the control arm bushings, more carefully and replacing any that are the least bit suspect. That is after checking on the tire recall. By the way, my clutch pedal is very spongy near the top of it's travel. It seems to disengage well and I get a good response when it grabs, never any slipping, noise, smell or anything. It makes sense that it's wearing out but somehow it "feels" like the clutch is okay and the problem lies elsewhere; like in one of the cyliders or perhaps a worn or bent shift fork. Somebody told me it acted like it was the slave cylinder. That seems unlikly but I thought I'd ask. Thank You, John

I have a 1990 pathfinder. I bought it used a year ago, did a little maintenance which included a new pair of good Monroe shocks and took off on a 2 1/2 week, 3500 mile, camping trip to New Brunswick with my fiancee and two teenaged kids. It was a wonderful trip I highly recommend it. The truck performed very well and has continued to do so ever since except for one thing; it is very unstable at highway speeds. Anytime I am cruising and let off the gas, releasing the torque off the rear end, the back of the truck sways a lot. In a straight line it sometimes slowly rocks side to side. When I am going around a long turn at speed the truck sways too. In fact in this situation I am afraid to brake or vary my turn radius (like to switch a lane). It's a bit scary. I have looked at all the shocks, they are good; stabilizers are good and the springs and torsion bars are okay too. When I bounce the truck manually it recovers quickly although the springs seem to have quite a bit of travel. I am beginning to wonder if it's not the tires having just too much give in the sidewalls because if I push sideways at the rear of the vehicle I notice I am able to flex them a bit which seems odd. The tires are Firestone Firehawk R4S 31x10.5x15LT. Any advice is greatly appreciated