Slartibartfast

Sounds like the rear suspension link bushings are going.

You can suck out what's in the res with a turkey baster and refill it with fresh stuff to replace some of it. Draining everything would mean disconnecting the rack, and I wouldn't bother unless the old fluid is dead awful nasty. Either way, new fluid won't do anything for the steering play, though the pump might appreciate it. When I replaced the steering box on mine, I took the res off the truck, cleaned it out, cleaned the little filter inside, and stuck a magnet in there while I was at it. This was almost certainly more attention than it deserved. Can't hurt. Might help. My steering still sucks, but at least part of it is clean.

No heat could very well have been a symptom of low coolant. Coolant in a cylinder ain't good. Figure out the engine side of things and see if that doesn't resolve your heater issue too before messing around under the dash.

Yeah, mine looked fine too until I tried to scrape the loose rust off. Hopefully it's not worse than it looks and plating gives it a new lease on life.

Doing one side should be fine. Make sure everything's properly lubed going in. I haven't done a lifter replacement, but the IIRC the service manual has a whole procedure for making sure they're primed right before you put them in. Do the compression test first. If a valve isn't closing, you'll have no compression on that cylinder. If that's the case, you will need to remove the head to correct whatever is wrong with the valve. (I would have a look down the intake or exhaust port before pulling the head to see if there's some obvious foreign object or chunk of carbon holding the valve open, something I might be able to pull out without removing the head, but this is a very long shot.) If it's not a valve, I'd assume it's a lifter, unless you see something else obviously wrong. You might be able to identify the bad lifter by which rocker arm is loose when its valve should be closed, but I'm not sure this works the same on hydraulic lifter engines as on solid lifter engines. Mr. 510 had a retainer bolt come loose on his somehow which caused a ticking noise and some unusual camshaft wear. I haven't heard of anyone else having that problem, but if you don't find a smoking gun, it's one more thing to check. I've seen Seafoam recommended, but I haven't done a crankcase flush with it myself. Might be worth a shot if it passes the compression test. I can understand being leery of letting it run and warm up while it's making that noise, though.

Failing as it warms up makes me suspect a sensor or other electronic component flaking out. Position sensor, maybe? I'd say coil pack but I'd expect that to code. If you have a scanner that can read pending codes, see if it's got any of those. I would also check the fuel trims with the scanner to see if anything's obviously weird there that could indicate an air or fuel issue.

Sounds like a lifter to me. Mine clatters on cold starts in freezing temps, but only for a moment until oil pressure reaches the lifters. You may have a lifter that's not pumping up, possibly due to schmoo buildup if it sat a lot and saw infrequent maintenance. How's the inside of the head look under the oil cap? You might get lucky and get the lifter unstuck with an oil flush treatment. If that doesn't do it, you can get to the lifters without pulling the head. Expect to replace the valve cover gaskets while you're in there, they're almost certainly shot if they're original. If you haven't yet, download the service manual here and check out the EM section.

Side patches would buy some time. I would want to cut out as much of the rot as possible, but if it's like mine was, you'll have to stop somewhere before you run out of metal. I like the idea of the box section, seems like that would add a lot more strength than just plating the outside. The quarter plate might be a bit overkill, though. When I found the frame rust on my '95, I knocked off the loose stuff and my uncle welded plates (I think we used 1/8") over the outside of both rails. We made the plates the full height of the frame and as long as we could get to through the wheel well (though one side stopped at the panhard bracket). When my uncle welded them on, though, he said the welder kept blowing holes in the frame rails, suggesting that the frame was thin in a lot of places that hadn't broken through yet. Then I found rust in the bottom of the driver's side frame rail, where it runs parallel to the exhaust. I suspect the bottom of both rails was compromised from the lower link mounts back. Cutting out all the cancer and rebuilding it from fresh steel wasn't possible with my skills and resources at the time. We went looking for a frame donor and instead found my current '93.

This thread's probably got the best pictures you're gonna find. There should be a diagram in the service manual (get it here for free) that makes their location and function clearer. If you have a '98, though, good news! Your VG33E doesn't have power valves or swirl valves.

Been there, though thankfully not on an auto trans. Running it without a magnet isn't ideal, but I wouldn't call it unsafe. I doubt slapping a magnet on the outside of the pan would do a whole lot. If you can work out what threads the stock drain plug uses, you might find a magnetic plug from something else that will fit. That would be better than nothing. The Magnefine filters are nice because they catch non-ferrous crap, too. I've got a plastic one on my '93 and haven't had any issues with it, though I've heard the same about some of them not being sealed right. You wouldn't have to drain the trans to install it. It can't catch anything until it's already gone through the pump, though. I guess it comes down to whether you're gonna worry about it if you don't do it right. If you're not that worried about it, put a Magnefine on it, find a magnetic plug if you can, and send it, and it'll probably be fine. If knowing it's not right is gonna bother you, drop the pan again.

Yeah, sometimes the parts listings are weird. I accidentally bought VG33 intake gaskets (stamped steel) for my VG30 (which needed thicker gaskets with steel and rubber), because Rockauto listed them and I didn't know any better. That was a fun job to re-do. Quite the long-term project you have there! Good luck with the swap and let us know how it goes. The 3.4 build thread Precise1 mentioned is here, and it's worth a read even you're not planning to bore yours out.

The service manual calls for sealant in between each section. Rule out a leaking drain plug, switch, sensor, something simple to fix before assuming it's more than that. Unless it's leaking enough to drip, I'd probably ignore it.

You might be able to get 6x9s in there if you don't mind building new brackets and doing a little trimming. I guess it comes down to how much better would it sound with the bigger speakers versus how much screwing around will it take to get them mounted up. 5x7 was enough screwing around for me!

Sounds like a hell of a forklift! Understressed is good. I guess now you just need to grab a tape measure and compare the knock-to-knock distance on the ram and the D44. I get wanting to do it once and be done with it! Good luck and let us know how it goes.

The VG had square-tooth sprockets and belts up to mid '93. Later than that used round-tooth. Your '94 VG30 should have the same round-tooth sprockets as your VG33. If not, you should be able to just swap the sprockets from the 3.3 cams to the 3.0 cams.

Nice, you got it already. Sounds like the last guy used the resistors to drop the speaker-level output from the head unit to the line-level the amps expect. When I first installed the head unit in my '95, I didn't do that, and two stages of amplification meant it got loud quick and didn't sound very good. It also meant that the stupid beeping noises from the Sony head unit were painfully loud. I've got stock-size oval mids in mine, with the tweeters and high-pass filter caps built in. They were already (poorly) installed when I got the truck, and they were in good shape, but they didn't fit right and the last hack just sorta stuck them mostly in the hole and used longer screws. I guess the factory Clarions were a little slimmer than modern aftermarket mids. I'd run into the same problem on my '95 when I put Boss speakers in it, so I'd already trimmed a set of the plastic mount adapters, and I just swapped those in. I've got nothing against rounds, I just used what I had. Most any aftermarket speakers should sound better than what's left of your factory ones at this point. While I had my doors open, I stuck some sound deadener to the sheet metal and made blockoff plates to screw over the holes in the inner door. Sealing up the door cavity like a speaker cabinet is supposed to improve the bass. It doesn't make it sound like it's got a subwoofer, but I think it helped.

Those are tweeters, so it makes sense that you won't hear much coming out of them. If they're not doing anything at all, could be an issue with the factory amps, if you're still running those. The Memphis door speakers I've got in my '93 came with tweeters built in, and four tweeters up front sounded harsh, so I disconnected the factory tweeters.

The grinding sound was likely because the drivetrain started to spin up when the engine took off. Even if it was in neutral, there's a little drag in the trans that can get the drivetrain spinning, and then the parking pawl has a bad time when you throw it in park with the cog it engages still spinning. If park still holds the truck from rolling, you didn't kill it. I've barked mine a few times without issue. I doubt the trans has anything to do with it. I doubt the TPS could do it, either, though if your scanner does live data, it wouldn't hurt press/release the pedal slowly (key on, engine off) and make sure the throttle % isn't bouncing all over the place. The worst the oxygen sensors or MAF could do is throw the mixture off, and that shouldn't make it rev to five grand. There's not much an engine can do to run away like that if the throttle is shut unless it's getting air from somewhere else. Could be the idle control valve stuck wide open (or held wide open by the computer for some reason), though I'd be surprised if the idle control could pass enough air to rev it that high. (If it was an earlier rig, I'd ask whether you'd taken the EGR valve off, but it doesn't look like the VQ has one.) Recheck anything you messed with that wasn't the exhaust, see if it's got any codes. You say the tach shoots up if you shift into park or neutral--does that mean it runs normally in gear? (I'm asking if you've tried it, not saying you should--I don't advise neutral-dropping it from five grand to see if it launches itself through the neighbor's shed). Did you weld the exhaust with the battery connected? I've never had welding cause an electrical problem on a vehicle I've worked on, but I've heard that computers don't like high-frequency TIG.

I suspect there's more info for mounting hydro steer to a D44 on forums for vehicles that came with D44s, or more commonly get D44s swapped into them. If you're thinking of using the stock steering pump, and have a spec for the forklift pump (or a pressure limit on valves or hoses) to compare it against, the service manual says the WD21 steering pump is supposed to make 1109-1194 PSI at idle. (The R50 pump is rated for 1251-1337 PSI, though it specs this as "maximum pressure" rather than "at idle," so it could be the same pump for all I know.) I have no idea how big orbital valves are, but there's not much room to work with where the steering box is now. I guess you could put it just about anywhere you can run lines to, though, and with the IFS out of the way, you may have a lot more room for activities. The best way to do pictures here is to host elsewhere and link them in, unfortunately.

Nice space! Good thing you got a picture with it all clean and empty, it's never gonna look like that again.

If you haven't already, do the trans cooler bypass to prevent the strawberry milkshake of death. IIRC the 4.0 had some timing chain guide issues as well, so have a look at those while it's torn down.

The '89 manual shows power mirrors, so they've been around at least that long. The '95 manual shows power mirrors with heat, but it looks like the heater plug is separate, so a heated mirror assembly may still plug into an early harness (just wouldn't have heat). Many things are pre-wired, but I don't know about the door harness. I'd say remove a mirror and see if there's a wiring harness stuffed in behind it.

Who doesn't love a good rabbit hole?

i relo'd mine to the back of the driver's side head when I had my intake off (the sensor was fine, just didn't want to tear it all down again if it went later). There was a tapped hole back there all ready to go, and the harness reached. Probably not the best place for it, but it hasn't been an issue.

Ah, that sucks. The pictures I've seen of earlier transfer cases suggest that the switch locations changed at some point as well. If all else fails, buzz it out with a continuity tester to see which switch does what and go from there.