theexbrit

The steering wheel is on the wrong side!!!!!

Finally, you have a "real" Pathy!! :laugh: Looks clean!

Ah, but see in Europe or Japan that wouldn't happen When your FJ Cruiser Froading buddies always let you go first so that you can haul them to the top of the hill after they get stuck halfway up.

Usually I adjust mine until they're JUST scraping the drum, one time I adjusted them a little more & I got all kinds of noise from the LSD when I was cornering. If you have an open diff you shouldn't get this noise. I guess if they're too tight on a limited slip diff it acts like a locker, same as the old off roading trick of applying the parking brake a little to fool the LSD into thinking it has traction.

Finally got my CEL to go off, replaced the evap cannister & valve - hey presto! no more CEL or oxygen sensor codes Hopefully this also means no more barfing fuel out of the gas cap on a 100f + day

Congrats on the wedding, great idea for a honeymoon. I drove from Calgary to Montreal in the early 1990's, great trip, the road around the lakes (Thunder Bay, etc) is just beautiful! Looking forward to seeing your pics of the trip.

$4.19 per gallon average in South Orange County, you can find it for around $3.98 pf you get away from the beach. $245 every 6 months for insurance.

:laugh: :laugh:

:laugh: Good job no one was near that camera! This lady would have gone berserk if she'd been there........

I think they look pretty good.

As long as you're not compressing hi-lift springs, most compressors would be ok. I originally tried to compress my AC lift springs with a Pep Boys special compressor & nearly killed myself. I ended up having a shop do it for me, cost $50 I think. @itsnotme, where you been bro, you're missing some cool trips with SCORE!

Truck looks great! How's the gas mileage, handling, gearing, with those big tires?

I hear ya! I just needed them secured for this weekend as I didn't have time to fab a metal hold down, that's coming next week. Just as an addendum to this, after I got back from trip the batteries were still in place but the tie down I used had indeed come lose. Great advice about the solenoid bolts, I never even thought about doing that!! Yes, it's an R50, 1996 SE. That's a good question, I just went by the measurements & CCA! According to the receipt the Die Hard is a group 35, so I'm guessing the Bosch is too. No problem mate, more perspectives are always good in these mods.

After being stuck in the high Sierras with a dead battery & no one to jump start me until a Ranger arrived, I decided to install a dual battery set up. I decided on the T-max system as the price was pretty good (about $100) & it got some good reviews. I'd heard that you can squeeze 2 batteries into the spot where the current battery sits if you turn them sideways. That suited me as didn't want to run a cable all the way to the rear of the vehicle so that I could put the second battery there somewhere. So, I pulled the main battery out & started measuring for a new tray. Then I noticed that by my measurements the batteries would only overhang the end of the battery mount area by a couple of inches, so I figured I don't even need a battery tray. I was looking at an Optima as my second battery but after reading lots of reviews (& because of battery size) I decided to get a Sears DieHard Platinum which I read is a re-branded Odyssy battery which are supposed to be excellent. Anyway, I bought some zinc battery terminals (supposedly 3x conductivity compared with OEM) & lowered the batteries into place. They fit surprisingly tightly & don't move at all. Next came all the wiring, the T-Max solenoid is very easy to wire up it turned out to be the monitor/controller that was a pain in the rectum to wire. The kit comes with enough wire to reach comfortably from the passenger side of the dash out to the batteries on an R50. I had to remove the glove box to run the wires behind the dash & remove the passenger side kick panel & drill a hole through the metal between the door hinges in order to get the wires out of the cabin into the engine bay. There is already a small hole there but my 2 meter radio power wires were already using it. I took the wires from the hole between the hinges up under the fender & to the place where I'd located the solenoid. The solenoid is very sturdy & well made, my only beef is that all the connections are exposed & I had a few spitzen sparken moments when I was connecting things & accidentally touched a terminal with a wrench or something. Of course I then figured out "maybe I should disconnect the wires from the batteries, wire up the solenoid, then reconnect the battery ends". :laugh: This worked well but I still coated the solenoid terminals with that liquid rubber stuff that you dip tool handles into, all the terminals are now nicely covered & insulated. I figure it's going to be a long time before I touch the wires & terminals again & if I need to then I'll just cut off the rubber (after disconnecting the batteries first this time!). Ok, so after I connected all the wires from the monitor/controller I cut the appropriate lengths of 6 gauge wire to run from the batteries to the solenoid. All wire, connectors, fuses, etc, are supplied with the kit, they even give you a couple of battery terminals that I didn't use. I ran a new ground from the auxiliary battery to a good ground bolt that holds the lower hose to the block, reconnected my 2 meter radio, fridge/freezer power supply, etc, to the auxiliary battery (leaving enough available connections for a winch in the future) & fired her up! The monitor/controller is great, it constantly gives you the charging rate of the main battery & indicates that the batteries are "linked" for charging..... & at the press of a button gives you the charge rate & condition of both batteries......... It also has a button that manually links the batteries if you need extra electrical power, this feature automatically switches off after 30 minutes but you can set it again if needed. So far everything is working great. I cut a rubber mat to place over the top of the batteries & protect the terminals & temporarily rigged a tie down strap to hold the batteries in place, although as I said, they are pretty snug already. I'm going to make a metal tie down strap next weekend, but here's the finished product...... Sorry this write up is a little rushed but it's Friday night & my movie plus booze is crying out for it's pappa

Great job Darek, I've always liked that photo.

My ghetto rig is a poor mans expedition vehicle, I don't have an unlimited bank roll like some of the guys I go with but my Pathy handles everything I've thrown at it. I do expedition trips out to the So Cal desert & mountains all the time, going on a 3 day Mojave Road trip in November. Check out some of my posts for mods that I've done (just finished a dual battery set up). Here's the group that I go with, check it out for some of the trips we've done & for more pics of trucks that are set up as expedition rigs, might give you some more ideas as well.......... http://www.meetup.com/score-explore/

I put semi-synthetic in mine as I've read lots of places that the smaller molecules of full synthetic oil can cause leaks in a high mileage car that has never run synthetic. I made a big difference, no more rattles, etc, on start up, seems quieter when cold & runs maybe a tad cooler.

Actually it says it "FITS FLUSH" with the gas skid, nothing about attaching to it. It looks like there's only 1 bolt hole in the skid so I'm guessing the 2 bolt holes in the bracket end fits to the body, anything with 2 bolts in that area?

I don't do any rock crawling but I have every confidence in my Pathy, it's taken everything that I've thrown at it so far & I've gone a few places where others with me (FJ Cruiser, stock jeep, etc) have feared to go.

I'm thinking about a Magnaflow purely for a beefier sound, the extra mpg would be nice too. From my experience so far the biggest increase in mpg came when I put manual hubs on, my mpg jumped from 14 to 18. I have 31" tires though.

Kinda funny, but I think those retards are going to get seriously hurt one day. I like the way he say's "we've got some asshole following us", he doesn't realize that he's the biggest asshole there! :laugh:

Those guys are great riders but plainly have a death wish. Even though they read the road perfectly there are things the bike rider can't control no matter how good he is, such as doors opening, cars swapping lanes, etc. All it takes is for one of those things to happen & he's a scarlet stain on the asphalt. I had a buddy that drove his Suzuki 380 similar to that back in England in the 1980's, not as fast as those guys but still way speedy between cars, etc, his last name was Cannon (no pun intended) & we used to call him "Nutter". Some times I had to ride on the back of his bike to work & back & he would fly between the lanes of cars on the Croydon underpass. I would have dirt embedded in the outside of my pants legs where we'd brushed up against cars at about 50 -60 mph in heavy traffic. I went through a lot of underpants in those days Needless to say, one day a car turned right in front of him & he hit some metal railings at about 50mph. He ended up with a broken leg (compound), broken arm, fractured shoulder, fractured hip & numerous cuts & abrasions, He was in hospital for weeks & when he got out the first thing he did was ride my buddies Kawasaki 250 triple around, casts & all!!! I sold my Kawasaki GPZ 750 just before I came to the States & I've never been on a road bike since. Those videos make my testicles tingle in fright :laugh: