Mr. Pickles

I don't think anybody has suggested running the computer for codes. Maybe its in "limp" mode. Check and se what the truck is telling you.

My CB antenna is fender mounted, so I just have a hole drilled through the firewall. But I'd agree with GrimGreg about the rear fender access. I went that route when wiring back up fog lights under the bumper, feeding through the bottom and then reaching through the access panel for changing the brake light bulbs. There should be plenty of room for the cable there, and then just snake it through the interior.

I haven't experienced the Calmini's, but most every experience I've heard involving Calmini products has been great. As for the Jeep springs, once you deal with that pigtail (either cut it or heat and bend it) they are pretty much drop in once you disconnect/loosen everything in order to remove the old ones. Some people have talked of using spring compressors, but I didn't have to at all. I've also heard people worried about the brake lines being stretched when you drop down the axle, but all I did was unbolt the little guides for the lines and they were fine. So, you're down to price and amount of effort involved. 88 is way experienced in the rear coils, as he's tried all the junkyard options it seems. Do what he says (88, you've got a thread on this on your forum, right? or even here?), and you'll be in good shape. Either way, junkyard or new Calmini's, I bet you'll be happy. Good luck!

Yeah, I used a kill switch in my 83 Cutlass in college after it was stolen and the column was broke open. Lemme see, $15 for a heavy duty battery shut off or $$$ for a new or rebuilt steering column. Riiiight. Also, yes alarms are somewhat ignored these days, but they are still a deterrent to most thieves. And on that note, take the deterrant bit to another level. I added a couple more super bright LED's so that there is one in the console, one center dash, and 1 each on the A pillars. You can see them from a long distance in the dark. Any thief with a shred of common sense is gonna see it from a distance and figure a 11 year old truck isn't worth whatever this crazy fool has going on for security. Oh, and LED's draw almost zip for power, so you can go nuts with them all over the place- inside and out- and you won't drain you battery. Oh, and they're not overly complicated. I've messed with mine a bit (although the ones I've had were already installed) and for the most part, they are no more complicated that an average decent stereo system. But directions/diagrams are great of course!

That should be the ticket, stock bolt plus 3" and you should be golden. Summer has been great, and by great I mean busy. Sold our home, bought a house, lots of projects. Just did those Superlift UCA's and BJ's we were talking about before. Its obvious you've been doing pretty good for yourself as well, huh. Hope that monster fish check came through, bud. :contract:

It will ride fine, maybe just a tad stiffer. Plus, you have options with the Jeep GC springs. You can straighten out the pigtail coil for maximum lift, or cut if off to lessen it a bit. I cut about 3/4 of the first pigtail coil off, right to where it first tapers, and got just about 3".

Maybe you could pull one of those rear bolt ahead of time and try sourcing a longer one. Should be pretty easy as long as it isn't rusted in place. I wish I had checked the thread size when I had it apart, and with my special problems I don't want to mess with pulling it back out. Maybe there is somebody out there with the kit handy who could take a look for you.

Ditto GrimGreg, mine is a 94 and has the curved and softer, more modern looking dash. Oh, and maybe different markets/counties got different versions in different years.

Like 88 says regarding the stock Tbars, you'd be fine with them and maybe reindexing. If I had it to do over again, I'd probably spend the $200+ (can't remember exactly) for the aftermarket Tbars on something else first, like doing the UCA's. But hey, that was one of the first swaps I did after getting the truck. Comparing the stock UCA's with the nasty angles of the upper balljoints cause of the lift, and appreciating the bit of a pain of replacing the BJ's cause I was too cheap to do it right the first time, I'd suggest the UCA's for piece of mind. You get your lift but the angles stay like stock= no bad wear. And if nothing else, they look sweet.

Sell the Tempo, and maybe you could afford a set of used rims. Although a winter demo-derby beater could be fun.

That's a big a$$... whatever it is under the porch. What about pics of mum and or you and the truck? That's a great looking beach, by the way.

Awesome pics. I got a kick out the Grizzly Adams pic with the cig in mouth. Its gonna be a trip to see one of you back clean shaven for the rest of the year. Looks like there had to be some fun mixed in with all the hard work.

Sorry, I thought I had mentioned that. It does go away while turning or while making a steering input, say while fighting a rut on the freeway. Also, now that I've got the new parts in and have driven a few days properly aligned, I'm noticing that the wobble is there but a tad milder in general driving at speed, at some points almost hardly noticable, but it does get worse on certain surfaces. There is a long straight 50mph hill I go down daily, and at the bottom there is a bridge and the surface changes to a bit of a washboard concrete. When I hit that, it gets pretty wild and all over the place, but calms when I hit the curve right after that. Sooo, does that open any other can of worms or confirm anything in your minds? Thanks guys for all the input, by the way!

Welcome back man! The most useless thread on the forum misses you!

Also, word is that a if you compared the same ride height with stock T bars vs heavy duty aftermarket ones, you'd have a rougher ride cause as the bars are cranked and more twist is applied, they give stiffer movement (or something to that affect, somebody can probably explain it better). So basically the aftermarket ones wouldn't be "working" as hard to hold the height. Does that make sense?

Run the computer for codes. I'm thinking knock sensor, as that's how mine acted when the sensor went to he!!. If that's the cause, get ready. Its something like $160-200 and I ended up like $450 with labor to have it replaced by the time we figured out what was wrong (didn't have the time or place to do it). Good luck!

Have you messed with these much? Mine went close to a full turn, and while its a bit cleaner (or so it seems) there is still slop. Time to price a swap, hopefully it won't break me.

Spokane peeps are out there. Look for DJ Dank. There are a bunch of us on the other side of the Cascades as well, if you come over this way sometime.

Good call on the UCA placement 88 differences. And its like anything else with the Pathfinders or Nissans in general, the red-headed stepchild phenomenon. But the beauty here may be leaving things as they are (relatively) and suprising people with what you can do regardless.

I don't know about the UCA to bumpstop distance, but could be. I just put on Superlift UCA's over the weekend, and actually LOST some distance to the bump stops slightly compared to stock UCA's, but the new UCA's change suspension geometry so I could be wrong. A gain of travel could happen though, as I haven't measured. The nice thing is that the aftermarket UCA's correct the angle of the upper ball joints (which I replaced as well), as they get pretty badly tweaked if you lift via the torsion bars without the new UCA's. I had already done the aftermarket Tbars (SwayAway from AC) but many others have done fine just leaving the stock bars. Also, your truck should be able to be aligned with the stock bars and UCA's being lifted by cranking the Tbars. I've done so for 2 years. The problem is, you're wearing out other parts that can be spendy and a PITA to replace. Oh, and I've got the 3" BL as well.

I've got 2 55 watt (I think) PIAA driving lights on the roof that are great, about $60 on eBay. Had some older Hella fogs on the bumper that were great till I killed them on the trail due to a poor mount. But from what you're describing, you're not after fogs up there anyways, but actually driving lights since you mentioned that you don't want the wide fog light pattern. I've also had decent enough results with Pilot's for really cheap lights.

I stumbled across Jim's old site right after I bought my Pathy back in June 2002. I don't remember what I was looking for, just that I was green as can be coming from a ricer, and Jim and the crew answered questions. Then things changed and evolved to this forum, and here I am still.

We did the back and forth with the wheel, and the tie rod ends seemed tight and solid. Not sure about the whole CL. There's enough going on that a light movement could be overlooked. Time for another view I suppose. The tension rod bushings are suspect as well, forgot to mention that. They're pretty nasty and cracked, and I've got a set of poly replacements sitting on the passenger seat as I write this, but half the bolts were frozen in place so I haven't replaced them yet. The tire balancing may be toast and I've though about that, as they haven't been checked lately. But, I'm hoping for new shoes pretty quick here anyways as we head into fall. The wobble used to be mild till 40mph-55 zone, then it got pretty bad. Now, its pretty much gone altogether except in that zone. I don't notice any cause like a bump, braking, etc., as it just goes with speed. However, cornering or a load on the steering like turning out of a rut or truck groove does eliminate it. It seems to be that the side force on the steering pulls in the slack, wherever it is. Sooooo.... I'm still thinking steering box, or maybe center link. We turned that adjust screw till it maxed out and its actually a bit better than it was before, or could be my imagination. Could be that the gearing in there is just worn beyond adjustment, as I drove it so long without dealing with it. I know, that's what you get, but I've had bigger fish to fry lately. As it is, its livable so I'm gonna roll it for now, hoping to hold out for new tires, balancing, the install of those tension rod bushings, etc. Oh, and the Firestone lifetime alignment rocks, especially since their shop is like 3 blocks from work. I had it done originally in May, and just dropped it off yesterday morning and picked it up at lunch, no hassle or questions asked. Mind you, that was after taking it in with very obviously brand new UCA's and ball joints, and all their shims removed. Works for me. :contract:

So I'm looking for more suggestions on what to try next. Over the weekend, I installed the new UCA's, upper ball joints, poly bushings, and adjusted that screw thing for the steering box at my father in laws' suggestion. The tie rod ends appear to be fine, so I didn't swap them although I have them. Got her aligned yesterday, and the wobble is still there between 40-55mph or so. The remaining suspect part would be the center link and ????, but the thing that gets me is there is still play up top at the shaft going into the steering box. I can turn the wheel for about a 2" range where there is movement in the shaft going into the box that isn't translated through the box to the link below. So, could it be the geers in there are worn? Any thoughts?

I recently traded a 5 min/ 3 mile commute for 40 min/ 20 miles each way with the new house, so I've gone from 1 tank lasting over 2 weeks or more to lasting 1 week at $2.60+. :oops: I was seriously considering selling the Pathy for a while between recent problems, vehicle age, need for a truck bed, etc. Then I talked to my brother who drives a bit more than me for work in his '01 Chevy. He's burning something like $60-80 a tank X's 1 or 2 a week to put food on the table. No thanks! 17.5 MPG is decent enough with almost 6" of lift. By the way, all the comarisons to European prices for fuel are pretty unfounded. That's even the case with many Eastern US cities vs. out west. Everything is so far apart out here, and often (as is the case here) public transportation simply isn't a viable option. I suppose I could go that route, although it would take me about 3 hours each way to work or so. Sure the price may be half again more or double, but it takes many twice as long to get where they're going. And the only people that can afford to live close in are those willing to fork out $300K for a tiny shack. We've simply got the deck stacked differently than many others, so you've gotta make you compromises where you see fit- pay up to live close in, or pay up in gas and live with it.