ChaosSaint

Yup.. that's what I did. It's all dirt cheap and easy to do in your drive way. throttle body cleaner - $5, plugs - about $3-4 per (vac or air out where the old plugs are before taking them out; for me, there was a lot of grit and sand sitting in the plug wells. sand ='s very bad for engine), oil filter - $6 (don't use FRAM), oil - $20, air filter - $8. I got pretty good results, but you may have different issues; will keep you busy for a little bit and I would think that's a good starting point to get it running better. PM me if you have any questions. I'm sure some of the more experienced guys around here have some suggestions of their own. As far as leaking manifolds go, bolts break and the manifolds warp as a result of crappy engineering, I'm sure yours suffer from at least one of those. Seems like a pita job too... mine need attention (specifically passenger side). I have no experience replacing them myself, but I've read of people doing headers, new manifolds, or getting the originals machined down with the idea that they have already warped from heat and will not warp further - seems to be a legit argument to me. If/ when I do it to my Pathy, I'll probably go with headers and redo the entire exhaust while I'm at it. My whole exhaust is rusted to hell, brackets looking like they are going to fall off, and a hole somewhere along the way. For the time being, I don't care about it - I'm too busy fighting frame rot! I'm very very tempted to try a half ass fix and paste on some JB Weld or something to plug up leaks... Anyone have a reason not to try that? lol

Bought my sec pathy about 2 weeks ago. My experience with this one... Carpets and trim are cake to pull out. There is a bit of wiring towards the front that might be a little difficult to cover over in order to put liner down, unless you just don't care that it is exposed. I pulled all the trim, headliner and carpet out to clean thoroughly. I also took the cloth covers off the rear seats (so far), shampooed them and then put them back on fairly easily. They look and smell brand new. You'll probably find a decent amount of rust under the carpet and under the rear seats, i sure did - just going to ignore it for now; I doubt liner will stick well to rust spots if you coat over them. I did a general tune up which solved a really rough idle, the engine cutting out, and crappy acceleration. Replaced old spark plugs (used NGK's - heard the run well in Jap cars, no idea if there is any truth to that though). Changed oil and oil filter, if you havn't done this yet I would cover up the starter with something cause it's going to look like a crime scene when you unscrew your old filer - oil gets everywhere. Also replaced air filter and ripped out all the plastic intake crap - there is a baffle looking thing tucked in the fender and a little tube that routs up near the hood vent. After that I replaced some damaged vac lines? coming off the intake, cleaned out the throttle body really well and then the mass air flow sensor. It's cake to do and if ur unsure search around a bit there is lots of info on both. I believe a lot of my issues were resolved by just cleaning out the throttle body; it was all gummed up with black crud. My 4x4 shift lever was stuck in 2 wheel - the linkage was just seized; a little wd40 and grease fixed that quickly. Pull off the boot (inside of the cabin) or you can get to it on the underside (drivers side) right next to the transfer case. I loosened up mine by taking the boot off and dripped wd40 on all the joints, and then crawled under and painted the joints with grease. Shifted the lever back and forth a few times and it's golden now. I have no idea if this is your problem - might be something to look for if you are having difficulty moving the shift lever? fyi... 2 wheel is the top most position too, not Neutral. You pull down to engage 4H, then neutral, and then push the handle down and pull all the way back to engage 4Low. If you drive a tight circle with 4 wheel engaged you should feel your tires fighting each other because they want to rotate at different rates but cant; this isnt great for your pathy btw. Make sure ur tension/compression rods arn't broken or loose. This was problem for me on both the pathys i've owned - in each car the drivers side broke at the threads and needed to be replaced. If they are broken you'll get what I, and others, call the Death Wobble - self explanatory. Also sounds like you have the typical leaking exhaust manifolds... if mine sits too long the cabin smells of exhaust. They also give a nice "tick tick tick tick tick tick" sound... entertaining if your radio doesn't work i suppose, otherwise very annoying. I'm sure it robs some power too. hope you find some of that useful!

Sure sounds like a lot of work! graduating in a few months as a mechanical engineer so I've got the mechanical inclination part down and I like pulling my truck apart to fix, so I've got that going for me. Welding... not so much. Sounds like I just need to get a hold of a welder, teach myself and then go to town on the Pathy. So, what about the internal parts of the frame? There are little holes (factory) scattered all over - for drainage I suppose? Is it best to literally box the entire/affected parts of frame in, leaving no openings?

You guys are on point! Thanks.

So yesterday was the first time that I changed the oil since I got my brand-old Pathy; it turned out looking like a crime scene - luckily, the rust and caked on mud soaked up some of the oil... what a horrible design. Anyway, just before I put the new filter in I noticed a "mystery wire" - with the connector a little mashed - hanging out the the harness below the oil filter and next to the starter. The gauge of the wire seems too small to connect to the starter, and everything seems secured to it; any ideas to what it connects to? an o2 sensor? My trip odometer stopped working, could it be related to that? The area is pretty cramped and it was getting dark out so I figured I would just ask, hoping someone here would know what it connects to. Any suggestions would be awesome...

wow! i'm glad i'm not the only one sitting in a pile of rust flakes... Have any after pics? I'd be interested in how yours turned out. I'm new to welding and wondering if i would be biting off more than i can chew. Have a little bit of welding know-how but no tools - welder, grinder, etc... can they be rented maybe? I'm located in northern Delaware, a little bit of a hike to Ohio

not too sure about the LED's... the majority of the diodes on the bulb face to the sides; this doesn't seem like an efficient way to project light foreward, although a decent amout will reflect outward. I wouldn't expect them to illuminate a great distance, compared to the xenons or halogens that is, but then again I don't know much about them in a headlight/ foglight application. It looks like they are intended for foglights, and not headlights? In regards to the Xenon/ Halogen debate, there just isn't enough information posted on ebay to determine which will produce a greater quantity of light. I would call up the manufacturers and ask. They have to have some information on how much light is emitted, if not, then their engineering department is a bunch of hacks. I believe you are looking for units of "lumens" or "lux". If you can get them to send you a full spec sheet, or any specific information, I can take a look at if for you.

The first link is a H3 Xenon Stage 1 bulb using 55 watts, the second link is a H3 Xenon Stage 2 bulb using 80 watts, the third is a Halogen bulb using 100 watts. The Stage 1 and Stage 2 bulb will have the same color temperature of 7000 kelvin, but the intensity will be different. Because of the increased wattage, I would expect the stage 2 to be brighter than the Stage 1. The third link is a halogen bulb at 3000 kelvin and 100 watts. Halogens require a greater wattage than xenons do. So, like I said above, it's difficult to compare the intensity or amount of light given off based solely on the wattage (between Xenon and halogen that is). They are 2 different bulbs with 2 different sets of requirements and characteristics. Also, at 3000 kelvin the light emitted will look more yellowish, similar to an incandesent light bulb in your house vs. a white/bulish tint of the 7000k xenon bulbs. 0 kelvin - 10,000 kelvin identifies the color of light in the visible spectrum, this isn't the whole spectrum, but as far as light bulbs are concerned it will fall somewhere in there. The higher temperature (5000+) the more green or blue it will look , the lower (5000 -) the more yellow or red the light will look. I think normal daylight falls somewhere between 5800 k and 6800 k? The closer you are to that range the closer it will appear as normal daylight, which is obviously desirable for night time driving. If I were you, I would first figure out if you want a Xenon or Halogen based bulb - there are hundreds of variations out there. After that, figure out what color temperature you want - this is probably personal preference. Someone may prefer a more yellow tint vs a pure white vs a blue light vs a daylight etc... After that, figure out what wattage you want. Intuitivley, the higher the wattage the more intense the light would be (the intensity might also depend on the diameter, length, # of coils of the filament and the % xenon or % halogen in the tube if you really want to get into the nitty gritty). All else fails, call up the manufacturer and ask them how many lumens a particular bulb will emit maybe? or call them and flat out ask which will be brighter/ more intense.

my 2 cents... I wouldn't consider the last one (130 watt), it looks like something I would cook up in my garage for the heck of it. There are no specs to go along with it either; i wouldn't trust it. Which leaves a comparison between a Xenon and a Halogen bulb. Halogens burn hotter therefore they are less efficient. I doubt you are really concerned with the efficiency (lumens per watt) of your light bulbs though. The "halogen" in halogen light bulbs refers to the gas that is contained within the bulb - halogens are right up next to noble gases on the periodic table (similarly with the xenon bulbs; xenon being one of the noble gases). In halogens, a thin filament of tungsten exists in a halogen gas and when a current is introduced it heats up, and when it heats up enough it's electrons get all excited and start bouncing around. Some of these electrons jump from one orbital to another and when they drop back the the original orbital the result is a photon (aka light), but this isn't a summary of quantum mechanics - if you're really curious let me know. Some of the tungsten atoms vaporize in the quartz core. There is some tungsten vapor cycle thing that i don't know much about that allows the vaporized tungsten to resettle back on the filament essentially recycling itself and therefore extending the overall life of the filament. Xenon light bulbs are a similar set up but with different hardware. Xenons don't last quite as long but from a comparison stand point I think they would preform a little better. It's also a difficult to compare Xenons vs Halogens solely based off of the required wattages. In the case of the halogen system, a greater activation energy is required to get those electrons moving, whereas in the case of the Xenon gas it requires less. Xenon has 8 valence electrons versus the halogens 7 on the periodic table so it kind of makes sense to me. with Xenon it's a little easier to get the electrons excited and jumping around... if only women were like that, right? There isn't much related to high intensity discharge (HID) bulbs. HID's work based on an arc instead of a filament on the inside. If there is no filament on the inside therefore there is nothing to burn out therefore they last a longer. The bulbs you are looking at both have a bluish tint on the exterior of the bulb resulting in the blue tint you see emitting from them. True xenon bulbs are set up as HID where the arc is utilized, but these are pricey. I'd be interested in how many lumens they emit, but neither of them state that in the specs. Personally I would go with the Xenon's. For $12 or $15 bucks just pick one and if you think they suck picking up another set isn't that big of a deal. If you really want to light up a trail look into the HID bulbs... or just wait for the sun to come up the 7000K, 8000K etc is the color temp, i'm not too sure what the "H3" indicates??

I have SolidWorks 2008 so if you, or anyone else out there, needs any engineering sketches or solid models of parts (could do a bumper, brackets, etc... ) just shoot me a rough sketch of what you want that has dimensions on it and I can whip something up for you pretty quickly. Could work from it yourself or take it to a machine shop - Either way it would be a lot cheaper then some of the after-market bumpers out there. I'm pretty good with the program... splines and other complex curves are a little iffy, but I can do the majority of modeling. I can also do finite analysis for any force, fluid flow (air/water), and thermodynamic applications on an object - i.e. if you wanted to design your own calipers or something it would be useful. I'm always looking for new stuff to design and model so don't be shy. All you would need to do is add some rust to that box and it will look just like a Pathy haha

What's up guys... So, I've been a lurker in this forum for a little while and decided to join up when I bought a 95 Pathy for $800 a week ago - complete with rust, broken odo (90,000 miles supposedly), broken tach, missing tension rod and a really funky odor to the interior. It's a little beat up but it runs and I know these vehicles are fairly hardy so I'm hoping to get a year or two out of it as a minimum. First off.. how much rust is too much? Is my whole frame going to crumble in the next 6 months or is this what they all end up looking like? I didn't realize it till after I bought it but there is a gaping hole in the rear end, passenger side, part of the frame - is this section load bearing? Other areas have small holes and are flaking off - it's pretty apparent that there wasn't much, or any, maintenance done to the underside. Does anyone think it's worth trying to repair some of it (box around it or remove and replace) or just drive it till it dies and ditch it? And secondly, when I drove it home on the highway I couldn't go over 55mph; when it hit a bump the entire front end of the car shook violently to the point where it was difficult to control the vehicle and had to pull over. I finally made it home, checked it out and noticed that the tension rod was broken. I replaced it today (with a struggle - didn't want to line up), and while I was in there I noticed some little "shims" crammed behind a bolt on the upper control arm. It's pretty apparent that they are not original parts. Are these shims for alignment purposes or something? if so, is this typical? or were they just crammed in there because the previous owner torqued the entire control arm out of whack because there was no tension/compression rod? Should I replace the upper control arm altogether? Haven't had the chance to road test it after installing the new tension rod cause i don't have it registered yet... Ideas/ suggestions anyone? Also, how easy should it be to shift into 4H? Do you have to push down on the head of the shift lever before pulling it into 4H? I went to test it out and the lever didn't want to go into 4H easily, I decided not to try to force it in. A cable gummed up? or some sort of linkage seized? Let me know what you think - any input would be appreciated as a lot of you seem to know what's up. Thanks!