sewebster

Probably once you get the carrier out you can compare the bushings/bolts and see what fits where?

It's an open diff, so only spinning one wheel sounds normal to me. You aren't going to get better gas mileage than with the auto hubs though.... since they automatically unlock. Manual hubs are only going to help mileage when you replace drive flanges like on the R50 which are ALWAYS "locked." This allows you to unlock them. Anyway, manual hubs are tougher than the autos anyway, so still a good mod.

You can get square drive hex bits for use with ratchets too. Very useful... lets you use a torque wrench for installation for instance.

No, it is no carburated or TBI.

If your hubs are not locked, then you do not have 4x4?

So the X frame is less rust prone than the WD21?

Your truck is higher up so you probably have more chance of rolling over, perhaps more body roll etc. Worse fuel economy due to increased aero drag... harder to climb into the cab. But how big each of these concerns are is not known to me

Another tip is to always open the fill port before the drain port. This prevents draining the diff and then realizing the fill port is stuck later. So you can still drive around to buy bigger tools

Yeah, good point. I had a similar style of "slow air leak" in my oil pump recently. I thought it was the o-ring, so I took off the oil pan to replace it. But the previous o-ring was fine... The symptom was good oil pressure at high rpm but basically zero oil pressure at idle... at high rpm enough oil was flowing to mostly "seal" the leak, but at low rpm all you got was air. Eventually found the problem by blowing into the oil pump from below and noticing a lot of air coming out. Turns out the cover plate was worn enough to allow air past... there is no seal there, just tight tolerance... and this is not in the FSM inspection procedure unfortunately. I think some of my lifters are still full of air bubbles actually. Anyway, this is kinda off topic I guess

Someone recently posted that there is a drainage channel between the transmission and transfer case. If true, then running the same fluid for only that reason is pointless. I believe they also mentioned running ATF in the t-case if you are easy on your truck because it probably provides less resistance, giving better fuel economy. Makes sense. The reason the transfer case can use ATF or gear oil is likely just that it is not very demanding on the lubricant and thus a wide range of things are probably "good enough." Other components have more specific needs and therefore require specific lubricants. Probably you could fill your transfer case with vegetable oil and it would work or something... Edit: I think I spent around $200 when I changed all my fluids. You don't do it very often so it doesn't matter so much. In Canada this stuff tends to be more expensive though. It was rather annoying when I saw the total bill, I'll admit!

Both diffs, the transfer case, and the manual transmission have drain holes on the bottom and fill holes on the side. You should get some kind of fluid transfer pump to put the oil in. The power steering fluid has no "easy way out" that I'm aware of. It's the only fluid I've never changed. Probably I should. Brake fluid.... you can just basically bleed each brake for a while (while continually adding fluid to the master cylinder) until it is all changed. If you haven't bled brakes before, read up on it first Yeah, drain coolant out the bottom of the radiator. I don't know where you are supposed to dispose of it. I usually leave it next to the oil drop off place. I think they even told me it was ok once. You can probably read around the board about the right fluids to use, or read the FSM. The most important thing is to use ONLY GL-4 gear oil in the transmission. NOT GL-5 and NOT GL-5/GL-4 compatible. If you mess it up you'll ruin your synchos. ALSO, the transmissions are designed wrong, so that the fill port is too low. This means you have to get extra fluid in somehow. You can either remove the gear shifter and put it in the top, or jack the truck up on an insane angle from the side. Both are somewhat annoying. The TSB with the correct fluid amount is stickied somewhere. Use LSD fluid (or an additive) in the rear diff if you have an LSD. Transfer case takes ATF or gear oil. The favourite of some people for the transmission (and t-case) is Redline MT-90. Basically all this info is elsewhere on the board somewhere if you search around too.

I'm not sure if there is a bearing in that side... I think they just replace the two ball joints that are a permanent part of the centerlink and leave the tapered holes alone. But I'm not sure.

There's probably a little bit more to it than just choosing the right size, but yeah, you could do the mod on your own I guess. Pressing in spherical bearings and seating them properly (sometimes needs a special tool) might not be entirely trivial though. I'm not sure what grassroots does exactly.

Actually, a turbo heats the air. When the air is compressed it gets hotter as a result (thermodynamics at work). IF there is an intercooler then the air is cooled with that somewhat, but it's probably still going to be hotter than if the engine were naturally aspirated.

I believe he means that instead of having a flimsy idler arm, he has a whole other steering box (like the one connected to the steering wheel) on the other side of the truck. It acts like a mega beefy idler arm.

I think modern winter tires are better than crappy tires with studs in a lot of conditions these days. Not sure exactly how this applies to your situation though. Studs should be good on ice though...

They look pretty much the same as a regular centerlink, except the ball-joints have been replaced by spherical bearings. Then you just bolt them onto the idler and pitman arms. There are pictures on the grassroots site (click the small pics): http://www.grassroots4x4.com/index.php?page=shop.browse&category_id=3&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=1&vmcchk=1&Itemid=1 Spherical bearings: http://www.google.ca/search?gcx=w&q=spherical+bearings&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&biw=1220&bih=683&sei=tn7NTozELsmsiQL8_ZW8Cw

the tension rod or compression rod runs from the lower a-arm back to the frame.

Sounds reasonable to me. You do have to press the bearing races in and out... The only thing I would be thinking about is to make sure it is really the bearings and not ball joints... I think ball joints are a more common issue than the bearings and can cause similar symptoms.

Wow, lucky your fix worked so easily... after I applied copper paint to mine I just found more areas where the strip is damaged making the resistance too high (I get hot spots only at that very specific point in the strip)... need to do a third round of painting!

The proper thing to use is a surface plate, but not commonly found in the family garage (unfortunately).

I'd say it's an improvement!

Got my measurements: good bad bad bad good bad good good good bad good good Somewhat unrelated, but unfortunately I just blew ANOTHER rear wiper fuse... sigh, must be something up with that thing.

Apparently the thickness of those gaskets matters... see Mr 510s VG34 thread (I think) to see how they affect the ports lining up.

They do sell an "auto trim tool" to help pop the panels off. It's basically a two-pronged fork that slips around the fasteners and helps you pop them out. But I'm not sure it's worth the money (not that it costs much).