Slartibartfast

Wow. I'm guessing the chain snapped and bunched up between one of the sprockets and the case. You could drain the oil and look for kibbles and bits but IMO if it locked up on the highway it's gonna be coming out one way or another, and it's probably easier to tear into it when it's not under the truck.

I like your under-hood light strip! I set up a cheap LED panel in the middle of the hood on mine but it does have some shadow areas from being a small source. I might have to copy your design.

Check the brake light switch for the pedal, I remember reading that the bung on the end of the switch breaks off and you end up with the brake lights staying on. I don't remember an issue with the ABS light with that, though, that could mean something different.

IIRC the stereo uses the room lamp fuse in the fuse block in the driver's side dashboard.

If the strut mount is bad enough, I imagine it could've collapsed a bit, but a whole inch would surprise me.

All I can guess is that you added some thickness to the frame mount when you repaired the wallowed holes--the bushings sit farther apart but the sleeve didn't get any longer, so the bushings have to compress more (which, being poly, they don't like). This doesn't offer any explanation for why the last set failed, though--it assumes the death wobble in the front end was enough to do them in. It does look like the driver's side rod is at a much steeper angle than the passenger's. I don't know if that's due to how the car was sitting for the pictures (I'm assuming jacked up from the frame, front wheels off), or if it's the camera angle, but if both sides are hanging and there's that much difference in angle between them, something's wrong there. I can't remember anyone bending a strut rod but I guess it's possible.

It is kind of a PITA but not that bad once you're used to it--just host it elsewhere and paste the direct link into the box that comes up when you click the image icon. Are we talking lower control arm? Upper control arm?

I cleaned the switch in my '95 a few years ago with fine sandpaper, bent the contacts a little, and buttoned it back up. It's a little fiddly to do but honestly the worst part of the job for me was that stupid buzzer blaring right next to my head as I tested and adjusted the contacts. (Funny story, that truck no longer has a buzzer.) It's given me no trouble since I had it apart, though to be fair, I built a relay harness shortly after fixing the switch. In fact the only headlight Issue I've had since then was the in-line fuse holder for the relay harness melting itself one night. Don't use the crap plastic fuse holders that take glass fuses. I've had two of those melt on me and switched to the rubber ones that take blade fuses.

Unless you're hard up for cash or there's something obviously wrong with the '96 trans I don't really see a downside to getting a spare.

Looks to me like he's got an auto now but a manual trans on the shelf.

So the shift point's higher than it used to be? First thing I'd check is if the trans is in power mode (switch on the dash). This is also engaged by the switch under the gas pedal, make sure that's not stuck or something. The throttle position also plays a part. I leave mine in power mode all the time and going from third to overdrive usually requires lifting off the gas for a moment. (I much prefer this to its default setting of going into overdrive while I'm climbing a mountain pass and then staying there until I panic and floor it.) If your driving hasn't changed, it could be that the throttle position sensor's going out or not set up properly, which would confuse the trans computer. Doesn't sound like you've messed with that, though. If you don't find an obvious cause of the shifting change, I'd chase the idle issue, get that resolved, and see if that fixes it.

There are a lot of coolant hoses that are kinda tough to see. There are some under the upper intake and then the bypass hose coming off the upper coolant hose neck. A small hole in one of those could explain your symptoms. My friend's van used to lose a lot of coolant--it had a torn hose we couldn't see, and it held coolant fine when cold, but after driving for a while the level would slowly drop until the engine would start to overheat. There was no obvious leakage unless you turned it off with the engine hot (running it hard or coolant level too low), when it would make great clouds of steam from under the hood.

'96 trans should slot right in and run off the same computer to the best of my knowledge. There's a build section at the bottom of the main forum page, "members' rides."

Not sure on repairing the visor but there are a few guys doing part outs, chances are one of them has good visors. I've got a spare set but they're out of a smoker car and kinda nasty.

The crank pulley can go onto the balancer six different ways. Common thing to screw up, easy thing to fix.

I remember some discussion but no results. I'd be interested to see what it caught.

Sounds like you've got a good arrangement! Good luck getting the Nissan grease out of the Lexus seats before she gets home. What year Scout are you guys looking at?

+1, if the fault is only from the driver's side switch, sounds like something got into the switches there. Hopefully it's a simple cleaning job and not something in the wiring. One word of advice for when you're taking it apart, stick to contact cleaner/alcohol/household cleaners. I can't remember if I tried brake cleaner or carb cleaner to get the cigarette tar out of mine but long story short it didn't work and the plastic kinda dissolved.

I replaced one of the P/S hoses on Rat Trap today and had the same thought about that exhaust manifold. I found that by twisting the new hose on the nipple for the P/S res I could make the hose bend a little sharper at the pump and get a bit more distance between the hose and the manifold. Unrelated, it's amazing how much noise one leaf stuck in the blower fan can make.

I should note that I've bought a fair amount of stuff from them before and since without issue.

A while back I bought a door handle from Rockauto that came marked for a Sentra and didn't fit (mounting stud spacing was wrong). I didn't send it back because I was tired of getting in from the passenger's side and I found that I could swap the bracket from the old handle onto the new one and make it work, but when I emailed them a heads up I got the same "we've sold loads of these and you're the first to have an issue" response. When the other handle snapped, I just went and got a set of metal ones off eBay.

Thanks man I was hoping for a picture of the internals of the unit, but no worries, found that too: Apparently the Jeep units are unreliable enough that people convert them to manual operation once the warranty runs out. Score another point for your mod for not bringing up an error light on the dash when it gets wet! Maybe a clip like what holds down the hood prop or the jack rod under the rear seat would work for your link end? I'd avoid drilling holes in the bar if possible, but a couple hose clamps could probably hold a clip. Or, speaking of hose clamps, just put a hose clamp on the swaybar and slide it over the rod when it's disconnected.

If you can trace the wiring in the EL section of the service manual, you'll find the plug for the injectors, and from there you can check with a multimeter to see which injector isn't reading right. IIRC it's one of the plugs on the thing sticking up from the passenger's valve cover.

My 31s are cracked worse than that between the tread blocks. The guy at the tire place said it was unusual to see that much cracking on a tire that wasn't terribly old (same year as yours IIRC) but that so long as you can't look into the cracks and see the metal belts, and the cracks aren't on the sidewall, they're alright to drive on.

Looks functional. What do you do with the links when they're not hooked up? I would be interested to see how Jeep's done the electronic swaybar disconnects. I would be leery of welding new ends to the sway bar--not sure that wouldn't screw with the temper of the spring steel. Easiest thing that comes to my mind would be to grind flats into the ends to take square tube, slide the tube into place (press fit?), and then use a larger piece of square tube as the engagement sleeve. Seems like it would be fairly stout and as an added bonus over splines, if you engaged it on uneven ground, it couldn't lock the sway bar with the ends pointing off in different directions. The actuator could be sprung, or set up like a vacuum disconnect axle, so that you'd flip the switch whenever and then the sleeve would slot across when it could.