Simon

Don't go throwing money at it. Ball joints and tie rod ends wear out when they wear out. Same with the CL. It really has little to do with age. Your CV's definitely need it. While you probably could get away with just doing boots, I'd still replace the entire shafts. It's a lot easier than tearing apart the axle itself. Jack the front end up and check for play. Wiggle each tire both side to side, and up and down feeling for play. Up/Down play usually means ball joints. Check for which one is allowing movement. Side to side play could be tie rod ends, or CL. You can watch the CL while you wiggle the tire back and forth. If it rotates while you do this, it's shot. Otherwise, if there is play, check the tie rod ends. If everything feels tight, leave it be. The one thing I will suggest is that you have a very close look at the tension rod bushings to see if they're sitting a little off. If so, you probably have considerable wear in the tension rod, or mounting hole.

Oh, and I'll 2nd (or 3rd) the idea of the high-lift recovery kit. It's an amazing tool. We pulled SkinnyPedal's rig out of a lake once with it, when we only had one winch on the trail, (Pezzy's) which had snapped the line 3-4 times. If you have a high lift, definitely look into the recovery kit. That kit works so well, I bought one for Pezzy last year even though we both have winches. You can't have enough recovery gear, IMHO.

Try this website. He's local to me, and his website sucks REALLY badly. However, he supports his product, and has done a lot of work re-engineering a basically cheap chinese made winch to create a reliable, and very strong winch, in a low budget range. There are champion winches available at Costco that are junk. They are slow, and have almost no seals in them. These winches are in the same price range, but offer a lot more for your money. They have a 5-6hp motor, which means less gear reduction, which equals more speed. I've had mine on for 3 seasons, and aside from the solenoid crapping out on me (replaced for free BTW) I have had no issues whatsoever. http://www.titanwinches.com/ I have a T10000 which is the older version of the tw10000. It appears he's put stronger motors (6.6hp) in his latest models. Mine is a 5hp motor, and it's VERY strong, and fast.

It's the throttle body butterfly. It's relatively common on R50's with the 3.3. We had it happen on Pezzy's truck, and I cleaned the throttle body out WELL, and the problem has stopped. No need to lubricate the cable.

Well done Tex. I echo Dave's statement above.

X2

Those are 12.5" wide tires he runs on those.....he's never had a problem.

Yep....gravity bleed. Make sure you work from the furthest from the MC to the closest, one bleeder at a time. So rear right, rear left, front right, front left. I'm not sure if there's any other valves or anything on the lines in those cars, but your issue could be air stuck at one of them, similar to the proportioning valve on the frame of the WD21's. Oh, and keep the reservoir topped up as you're doing this.

They actually aren't THAT expensive, and well worth it, to ensure you can use your winch safely. See this link... http://auto.sears.com/HIDDEN-HITCH-WINCH-A...oductId=2008258

Well said!

I will be replacing my winch cable with synthetic as soon as I see any signs of significant wear. I'm just too cheap to do away with perfectly good cable..

Not yet!

I would NOT use that setup. I've seen winch bumpers flex under the stress of a winch, and I'm sure they can handle much higher forces than that trailer tongue. I'd hate to see the setup come flying off towards whatever you're winching at a high rate of speed. The 2" receiver type mount offers a lot more stability for winching. Yes, a cable can break, and they do. It's ugly when it happens. The winch won't be the first to break, as it's the cable that fatigues/kinks/frays over time and snaps. No offense intended, but I find there are a lot of people who don't respect the amount of energy produced by a winch, which is then stored in the cable. I'd hate to hear of an injury, or property damage because of a weak setup, or someone not taking the proper safety precautions while winching.

Yeah yeah yeah...

I did.....I don't now. Love my new welder.

I tried all the above suggestions, aside from welding a nut on, and I ended up buying the proper locking lug removal tools. That way, I have them in the future if anyone else I know is a moron like me, and loses their key.

Unless you use a wrench, yes. I simply cut mine off, as I had bought the parts to replace EVERYTHING. I wasn't pissing around with 14 year old bolts.

I'd argue that most bushings on your truck would be higher wear items than the tension rod bushings. Sway bar links, and the like typically wear out every few years. Tension rod bushings (at least in my case) lasted 14 years. I went with stock items.

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Is the distributor the same on the VG30I as the VG30E? If so, I may have one for you.

Is that the one in the distributor?

The funniest part is, I ended up acquiring another set with rubber to run in the winter, from another Pathy-rust-partout.

Old Red's stock rims right there. They're well travelled.

It should have most of the harnesses, though, not necessarily in the doors of your current, non-power accessory equipped truck. The harnesses run back into the kick panels and should have a clip there you can tie into.

From the distributor.