Mr. Pickles

Kinda what I thought, but I went ahead with Bosch Platinum +2. I figured if one spark was enough, 2 could be better, and at least if one fouled the other might be ok. I haven't pulled them in over 2 years and probably 20-25k miles and all is fine.

Mine has done a mild thunk like that since I bought it, 5 years ago or so. No problems then or since.

Exactly, that's a pretty good deal around here.

You don't need a spring compressor, especially if you're just replacing stock springs. If you don't have enough room, just pull the e brake bolts and the 2 for the little guides for the brake lines.

Ditto on the rear. I put 'er on jack stands, pulled the rear tires, unbolted the ebrake cable, and down she went. It was easy, although I cut the pigtail coil off a set of JGC coils. I can't vouch for the other method of heating the pigtail and bending it, which would leave the coils a little longer.

I've heard the JWT can do some good, although emissions legality seems to go away. First off, there is not a "chip" in the usual pull-and-replace sort of thing. Our WD21 trucks don't have removablve chips as everthing is soldered together- you have to pull the computer board and send it in. They then remove the stock "chip", replace, and send it back to you. Apparently its a couple week procedure including shipping, during which you are without your truck.

If in doubt, just pull the guage cluster, it really only takes a couple min at most. I'd doubt its dead though. Most of the time it seems to be the main display type lights that go out, not ones that are rarely used.

I picked up one of those E-tool style shovels in the camping section of GI Joes for like $10. It also has a fold-down pick for real digging, and its pretty stout so far. So, the list... Every day: the shovel multi-tool/Leatherman couple knives Mag light and 1 or 2 small spares vise grips duct tape electical tape jumper cables Fix a Flat Basic first aid kit 30k LB recovery strap stock bottle jack and a piece of plywood for a base 3/8 and 1/2" socket sets screwdrivers etc. etc. Off-road trips: tool box loaded with all the basics- wrench sets 3lb sledge hammer bag of spare wire, connectors, etc. electical multi tester (Harbor Freight sells cheap ones as low as $3) lots of little extra stuff Camping runs: well.......

Ask and ye shall recieve. http://ruggedrocksoffroad.com/

Good luck. There's tons of info. on here if you hit a snag.

Couple of things. Ditto on the Rough Country UCA's. I've had them 1 1/2 years, wheeled well, and they're fine. They're also a good company to deal with. If you decide to go with them, give them a call. You'll have to ask to separate the UCA's from the Hardbody kit and have them sold and shipped separately. I'm sure they're used to this by now though. I've got them cranked to just under 3" lift with Sway Away torsion bars. That being said, yes you can achieve roughly the same thing with stock UCA's, and yes you can achieve proper alignment. I drove on that set-up for about 2 years. The cost though, becomes lots of worn out parts down the line. Those UCA's return the suspension to close to stock specs, but the general consensus is that AC UCA's are on the low end of the quality scale and cost more than they're worth. As for the springs, check a junkyard for the JGC ones (there are tons of posts with the specs, check those by 88 especially as well as those by the rest of us with that mod). You could go to AC also, but you might just try checking your parts shop for the cost on a set of brand new JGC or Ford coils. They're not too bad from what I've heard, then you're modding and working on new parts. Finally, the body lift. Not gonna go there, there's tons out there. Really wheeling the truck on 33's with just the BL is not realistic at all without tons of trimming. If it all becomes too much to swallow, you could always try either stockpiling the parts as you can afford them then do it all at once, or start with either the BL or the SL and run your 31's until the other half of the lift comes within budget. There are lots of work arounds out there for various situations. Trust me, most of us running these old trucks don't do so cause we're made of money.

Hey 88, where did you get that type of metal, or what did it used to be? Just thinking of ideas. I sucked a leaf last fall that drove me freaking nuts until it finally blew to pieces on my floor. Another thing I was thinking could be cool woulc be some louvered vents. Maybe I'll grab some cheap heater vents or something and play around...

Oh well, its in the shop now. Be sure to post up what they find (or if they don't find anything).

Bah! 2 door, that's your own fault man. Do you have to pull the seat or something? Love the 4 door. Open door, look. Repeat if necessary.

Ignorance is bliss. Your tailgating is risking those in front of you cause you're being too immature and self centered to use common sense and safe driving. Its pretty ironic you ignore your own negligence and endangerment to those you tailgate, yet you turn around and call out those who act out in response. Just like with cell phones... shut up/wise up and DRIVE.

30min?!?! You could have checked for codes in like 3 min. Hope they don't get you for too much at the shop...

Please do so though, then I could try to talk my father-in-law into it with is '05. Really though, why do you want it. Are you going for pure horsepower (more for show and full throttle), or are you trying to make a tow rig? Those 3.5 trucks pull pretty damn good IMHO. If you could pull it off, you probably wouldn't gain much grunt in torque. It would most likely be higher top-end horsepower under throttle.

Have you guys considered running a vented/louvered (sp?) hood? Something to allow some more air in and some heat to escape. Probably not advised for water crossings and such, but maybe it could help.

Same here.

Ummm, was that in English? Seems to be lacking some vital info...

Me too. I also added 3" to the middle to account for the extra gap from the body lift. Helluva guy. I only did the fronts though (for now, rear to follow someday).

You forget where I live, grasshoppa. "Most unaffordable" metro area or something like that, due to lower wages yet high cost of living.

Nice. $4500?!?! Where are you? $4500 here (western WA) would buy you a decent WD21, but no caR50 worth a damn really. My 94 with 156K miles still pulls a local Kelley Blue Book retail value of about $6000! (just checked)

I did both in a couple hours at most along with some other stuff. I hit them with PB Blaster but still had to use a long 1/2 drive breaker bar to get them loose. They were a little tough to line up the bolt holes on reinstall, but nothing too bad. That was one of the easier projects I've had to do, really. Oh, and no messing with the T-bars or LCA's was needed. Just some fiddling.

We don't get any of those turbo diesel trucks in the US. Although I wouldn't mind at all a nice new Cummins Turbo Diesel Dodge Ram. sly