Slartibartfast

That squeaky sounds a little like mine, and I'm pretty sure it's the AC idler.

Got a new set of driving lights and some tools. And a box of cereal, for some reason. Hope you all had a good one.

It's an LSD, so... maybe somebody put the wrong oil in it once, the clutches disintegrated, and you're hearing the bits of clutch in the bearings? There are two sets of gears in a differential: the ring and pinion, and the spiders. LSD just makes it harder to turn the spiders. If you blow out the spiders, the diff would no longer drive the wheels, but that only really happens under insane torque (think drag racers). The ring and pinion turn the diff casing (what the spiders are mounted in). To understand how hard it'd be to lock these up, consider this: ever tried to shift and heard the gears grind? Or accidently hit the starter when the car's already running? The gears, which are designed to mesh, can't, because of their different speeds. A little chunk of bearing would have to be perfectly shaped, timed, and placed to have any effect. But if you did somehow seize the ring and pinion, the driveshaft would be locked up, and (unless the truck's momentum against the seized rear end blew the spiders), the axle would be locked as well. It doesn't sound like your bearings are coming apart in chunks. I'm no expert, but I wouldn't worry about it. If it worries you, drive a little slower, keep an ear out, and maybe check the diff for heat once or twice.

He's got Hardbody lights. The square Pathy lights look a little odd with no grille. I don't think puddles would be a problem, as the air intake's in the fender. To get water in through the front you'd have to be behind/beside someone plowing through a puddle, and even then you'd get only marginally more than with the grille and bumper installed. I know in WA it's illegal to drive w/o bumpers. Doesn't stop people though. It's just one more thing for the cops to write you up for after stopping you for something else. I wouldn't bother. It'd look ghetto as hell, but more importantly, you'd be removing all the protection from the radiator, putting you one moron in a Kia (or one failed attempt at a taller tree stump) away from a busted rad instead of a dented bumper. Also, Pathy bumpers are a royal pain to remove. The bolts are made of soft cheese, they'll all be stuck, and there's no room to swing a wrench. If you're determined to pull something off the front end, you could pull the grille and cut around the main opening. But again, you'd be opening your rad to damage. You could mesh in behind it but that's fast approaching rice.

Gunned it over a bump in my friend's yard and got the front wheels off the ground. Also dumped everything from the dash into the footwell...

Be very careful with the MAF if you decide to clean its guts, they're a bit fragile. You should be fine with the plugs though.

Any chance it's the dreaded clogged cooler?

Nice! Now stay away from puddles with that intake. I like your adaptor though. Any increase in power with the new filter?

My question would be, which is in better shape? The frames on these are notorious for rusting out above the rear axle. Put it on a jack stand, pull the wheel off, and beat on the side of the frame. If it's clean and solid, you're a lucky SOB. If not, you're like the rest of us, and you're looking at either welding a patch or scrapping it. Also check under the rear seats, they like rusting through there. If one's in significantly better shape than the other, build that one up, and use the other for parts. I like the look of two-doors better, but 4-doors are easier to transport people in. If your heart's set on one, might as well go for it. Otherwise, unless the 87's in much better shape, I'd build up the 94. Body lifts, from what I've read, are about compensating for the IFS and making the tires clear the arches. I guess they're not really needed with a solid axle swap. So, if you want to make a proper trail rig, don't bother with body lifts, just SAS and go. Which way to go really depends on what you plan to do with it. If you want to jack it up and drive over rock piles, SAS will add a whole lot of flex and eliminate the steering and alignment issues of IFS. If it's a daily driver that you sometimes take out on the trail, SAS is overkill. SAS usually involves pulling an axle from a wrecked Jeep, fabricating mounts for the suspension links, and bolting it up. It's not bolt-on, but I think someone on here's made (or is making) a kit. It would still require welding. Keep in mind however that my truck's pretty much stock, so I don't know any of this firsthand.

Mine had the same fluctuating idle issue, only the engine did cut out (often in traffic). I never figured out just what was causing it, but messing with the intake seemed to fix it, leading me to suspect an air leak somewhere, or a poorly seated connector for the throttle position sensor or mass air flow. I packed both connectors (they looked fine) with dielectric grease and have had no trouble with it since, so... And welcome, there's a ton of good info here.

Then hit a junkyard and pull a bed off another HB. You might even find one that matches, or if it bugs you you could repaint the truck. Color's the least of its worries now though.

Kinda sad, how the SUV's gone from a work truck with extra seats to a fugly bloated station wagon. Part of me wants to go into auto design, but I'm afraid I'd end up stuck making committee-designed disposable cars that aren't worth fixing. Whenever I start talking about new cars, I start sounding like an old man, and I'm not even old enough to buy beer yet. That's just not cool.

People Ain't No Good, Nick Cave

The twin kayaks are pretty cool, but they lack a certain elegance. We need something more James Bond-ian... cut the side panels (maybe just the front and rear fenders) along the body line, then hinge them so they'll fold out. Then make big neoprene air chambers (old wetsuits sewn shut?) to put inside them, and hook them to an on-board air compressor. Rebuild your door seals so they interlock, then slather them with petroleum jelly. Get a huge snorkel, wrap all the electronic bits with condoms (you might need an XXL for the battery), and rig those heavy plate bumpers so they hinge at the bottom, and can fold down, lowering your COG and exposing your prop. Rig some kind of secondary transfer case to send power to the prop (collapsible/telescoping would also be good; tie the telescoping into the bumper mechanism for bonus points). Rig it all up with actuators from those campers where the sides pop out, then attach the controls to the dashboard where some people put those silly cupholders. Then throw the spare tire into the back (to use as an anchor) and put several life preservers in its place on the carrier. A bilge pump might not be a bad idea. Put a red LED in one side indicator and a green one in the other (do this in the reverse lights too) so the boat police don't get all up in your face. Inflate the bags, drop the bumpers, and go race a ferry boat. The only problem I see with this design is the cashier's reaction when you come through with the vaseline and the rubber hose. ... I've put a lot of thought into this.

Here's why I don't think it's the suspension. From the front, it looks level. From the rear, it doesn't. If one of the rear springs was wonky, making one side higher, that side would be higher on the front as well. You can't have a flat rectangle where three corners are at one height, and the fourth is higher. Assuming the frame is in one piece, and is flat, this is impossible. Between that, the patched-over body damage, and the bent-up U bolt, there's no way you're rolling on a straight frame. Or your bed mounts could be buggered. Given the bent U-bolt, though, I'm still betting on the frame.

How'd you manage that? I'm no help, but you might want to compare the cost of repairing your engine vs vg33 swap.

Eduard Khil: Trololo

Whatever you do, don't put graphite in the door locks. I did, and while it certainly got the driver's lock working again, it made the power locks go psycho. For the windows, roll them down and spray some silicone spray in there. I've heard that does wonders, but haven't done it yet. The door panels are pretty easy to get off, little more difficult to get back on. (If you put a drinking straw through the lock hole, and thread that onto the lock stem before lowering the panel, you'll save yourself a ton of fighting with it.) Might also want to consider doing the timing belt. When those go bad they eat valves.

Looks like a little citrustrip or denatured alcohol would fix those right up.

I do it in my WD without issue. If the hubs aren't engaged, I put it in 4x when the car's parked. From there, I can pop in and out whenever (so long as it's not spinning out) until I drive it backwards a bit in 2x to unlock the hubs. Stock R50s don't even use hubs, at least in stock form, so that bit won't apply to you. The clanking you heard was probably from the fronts trying to catch up to the rears. If the rears are spinning when you drop it in, it's got a difference in speed that a solid coupling can't compensate for. So it has to slow down the rears, or speed up the fronts, or just not engage properly. If I wait to engage mine until I'm stuck, it clunks when it engages. Try to engage the 4x4 before you need it.

Check fuses/plugs. The timer's pretty easy to get at and resolder. I've done it on mine, but it wasn't the problem. When I got the truck, the driver's lock didn't work at all. The little baffle inside had busted off and enough crud had gotten into the mechanism to stop it up. Also, it sometimes locked the doors when I shut one of them. So what'd I do? I blew a bunch of graphite into the driver's lock mechanism. It works now, but half the time the lock solenoid fights against the key, and when I hit unlock sometimes it'll unlock, lock again, sometimes repeat a couple times. So, I'm not sure what to tell you, only don't do what I did. The windows often get slow over time. I've heard a little silicone spray in the tracks works wonders. Mine are slow, but still work, so I haven't tried it yet. Good to hear the frame's solid. My understanding is that it's the dirt accumulation that's the problem: it holds the salty water against the metal longer, plugs the drain holes, and rusts it out. I suspect lousy metal plays a part, though, because I've seen car frames from the 40s embedded in river banks with less rot than some of the Pathys/HBs on here. Also, wood? Didn't know they did that.

My understanding is that a frame shop could bend it back, but I don't know what they'd charge or what this would involve.

My first thought was a busted leaf spring, though the front would be off too if this was the case. Given the Bondo'd cab and the bent U bolt, I wouldn't be surprised if the collision it was in was enough to torque the frame or the body mounts. The damage probably wouldn't show up just looking at it unless it all happened in one spot (slow curve rather than kinked). Try measuring diagonally across the frame and comparing the sides or something? Did the PO/dealer say anything about collision damage?

To ease the OCD, you can pick up blanking plates from a Pathy console in a junkyard. I'm not sure if they're the same plates between the square dash (93 and back) WDs and the round dash (94 and 95), so see if you can find a round dash. Mine's got two blanking plates in it where the seat heat switches would be, if it was so equipped. You can just pop out the switches and pop in the plates, and it looks OEM. Good to hear you're getting it back together. How's the frame?

I've never seen rear holders in a Pathy, but if your kids aren't using the little spin-out ashtrays, you could easily mount holders there. Then again, kids slam doors... maybe a holder on the back of the cooler would work better. But yeah, fill that cooler with bacon and you're halfway to awesomeness. (The other half involves a frying pan welded to the exhaust manifold.)