Mr. Pickles

Let me get this straight. You're thinking of PARKING a 4wd truck in favor of a... Tempo?! Sorry, of the Tempo's I've driven, that wouldn't even be a question.

I tacked mine to the frame as well, or actually, slipped a guy $10 while he had a spare moment at a local muffler shop. 5 min or so and it was rock solid. We went in inside the fender well right where you can first see the bracket come down. Solves the lack of a welder for sure.

That would be me, for one. It was a PITA, but in most cases with a rust-free truck and a pre-lube with PB- Blaster/penetrating oil, it should be pretty straight forward and no biggie. I did the whole job, beginning to end (almost), alone with inferior tools outside in February in a townhouse parking lot. Maybe I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed. On a clean truck with a manual, good tools, and an extra set of hands, I can see it being done in a half day's work. I spent that much on the actual lift no prob, its just the special problems I ran into that had me benched. But still, other than turning that F'd up rear mount over to a body man, and handling the bumper proped against my stomach and my knee while bolting it up, I still take pride in doing the entire job with my own 2 hands and no help. So any haters or whiners can kiss my a$$.

You don't have to do any full removal or relocating of the shroud or radiator!! Just remove the small portion of the bottom of the shroud that runs around the bottom of the fan. It just snaps into place (at least on mine- a 94). After that, there is plenty of clearance, and no overheating problems, and I've driven mine from freezing to 100 degrees on monster climbs with no problems.

No. B Sorry, I believe my brain was confusing natural gas for the friendly combustible hydrogen. Flog me as you will.

Unfortunately, we're a bit stuck in the US. Fuel cells are far off, hydrogen requires a bunch of fossil fuels to produce, and a huge percentage of our population has their head up their a$s driving their Hummers and Suburbans. I personally think a responsible variation is a start. Looking at better fuel economy in general (mabye diesel or something else for the biggies), hybrids, propane, hydrogen, cylinder deactivation, etc. All offer a path towards a hopefully potentential solution. Expecting that America can suddenly jump off the petroleum fountain is a dream, but hopefully weaning the country off the pump with some large scale and strategically funded projects [read: NO OIL] could be a start.

I still think the clutch replacement was close to the best $490 or so I've ever spent. :contract: Maybe that's just wisdom and frustration speaking though.

Sweet, we'd sell millions of copies for.... for... free? Spread knowledge to the masses!

Couldn't you just pull a fuse or install a simple switch? Yea... for conventional batteries, Interstate is super awsome. Nah, the fan is supposed to do that on the Preludes. Mine did (91 'lude SI) all the time. Something about too many gerbils under the hood overworking themselves and causing heat. Damn rice. On a random note, and one I hope to explore again soon, try an RV battery. I had one in my old 720 truck, and I could power my 1400 watt stereo all afternoon while at the lake or camping, and still fire it up to drive home. It just took a quick sawzall and a mini-sledge hammer to fit, but should fit in the Pathy no prob.

Damn man, that sucks. I have no solutions to offer, but if you need a quick pull or something, let me know. I'm up the hill from Puyallup in Bonney Lake. PM me if you need my cell #, and good luck!

Pics, Pics, Pics! I can't wait! Resurrected from the mud pit, Rami's Pathy rides high! Aaron, that's gotta be one stuck muthafuka of a steering shaft, considering mine seemed impossibly stuck and you showed me how to make short work out of it. You da man of course! Great teamwork fellas, keep the pics coming.

The deflector is aluminum (I think, under the paint, some sort of metal at least) but the mount/riser things are plastic and are one piece each per side along with the hinges for the rear glass (at least that how it is on my 94). One of them cracked and later broke on mine, and I couldn't find one in the boneyards. Since it is also the rear window hinge, I had to correct it ASAP, so I bit the bullet and bought it from the stealer. They wouldn't sell the hinge/mount, just the whole thing, for somewhere around $75-80.

The bumper was loose no matter how hard I tightened it, and the bolts worked themself loose to where on side actually fell half way off. I ended up just welding the mounts to the frame where then run next to it down in the fenderwell. Its pretty solid now.

I'd go for 1 or 2 also, probably without the tire as well. Maybe a Pathy in its place? I've got one of the originals done by Jim way back, but its faded a bit and could use some backup.

I've been in a moderate wreck where the other dumba@@ roadrage dude locked the brakes after cutting me off and other such fine things, and I drove away while his Taurus was towed in pieces (with police in tow). It should be a fine vehicle, the ratings are just dependent on the vehicle.

Have any of you gone with an RV battery? I did so in my old 720, with the help of a Sawzall and a small sledge hammer, and I could run it with 1 of the same 2 amps I have now, or roughly 1400 watts on at a moderate volume for about 4-5 hours with no problem. I don't know the specs, as I got it from my dad out of his rig. That's been my recent thoughts, although if/when it did go low, it took a while to recharge. Regardless, a stronger alternator would definately be called for.

First off, I'd suggest you go to a spray-it-yourself car wash and spray the entire underside of your truck. Next, ditto the spray down with some lube, PB or similar of all body mount bolts. Start hitting bolts/nuts as early as possible, and do it a few times if you can. Also.... You can simply drill through the plastic to re-install the plastic cover for the gas lines in the passenger side rear fender. You don't have to toss it, just line it up and go to town. Common sense here. However, this may not even come into play with a 2" lift. The steering shaft may try to be a PITA to extend. Don't let it. 88 put up a great write-up. Basically, remove the shaft if it refuses to extend. I had to unbolt it from the top near the firewall, then pound in that direction at the steering box. Put the large (upper) end of the shaft in a vice, tightly clamp on a pair of old Vice Grips to the other half of the shaft, then pound away on the grips with a mallett until it extends far enough. Basically, this part of the install involves a BFA (Big$#&%inHammer). Don't be afraid to use it. The bumper solution in the PA kit is a P.O.S. Have a buddy here if at all possible, if anything to hand you a beer. Mine sucked to line up especially alone in the dark with a flashlight propped against my shoulder in February (I kid you not), but again yours may be different at 2". Its was a simple 1/2" clearance or so against the steering box that doomed me, so who knows. Other than that, check, double check, triple check, and take your time. It is pretty straight forward, I just came into some issues due to rust and age. But it all went well, I could have done it in 1 weekend alone (as I did it) or a long day with a buddy. Good luck, and have beer on-hand!

Does the new bumper mount to the stock mounts? My stock one wouldn't even mount after the body lift, as I had to trim away portions of the bumper to frame mount on the drivers side with a cut off wheel to get it to line up and clear the steering box. I've never compared, but I think there is a bit of difference between the earlier ones vs. the newer ones like my 94 due to the differences in bumper mounting. There is no way at all that a heavier bumper could be properly supported on mine using the Performance Accessories kit, as even with stock, I've had to go back and weld mine due to the poor engineering of the 3" brackets in the body lift kit. I'd bet you could put it on solid as I did (don't kill me for no pics, the other PC with the toys is in a box somewhere!) by lining it up with those P.O.S. brackets, then brushing off paint near where they mount and simply tacking them to the fram for now. Cheesy, I know, but so is the "bracket"/strips of steel solution.

I'd say go chrome or don't go at all with it. You'll never get a good solid paint on the chrome, so you'll always deal with shiny chips.

I put in +2 Bosch's at the last tune up probably 10K miles ago. No way was I paying for the bling of the +4, and these seem fine. I'll play the devil's advocate here and say that anything, as long as its changed regularly within specs, is fine and obviously better than being a cheap a$$. By the way, I think the +2's were like $2.50 each or so.

Yeah, I remember filling up in high school for like 89cents a gallon, and that was only in like 95 or so. This isht is ridiculous. We're around $2.29 here, and in Seattle (about 20 miles away) I'm hearing around $2.50 or so. It doesn't sound bad till you think about how, out west as many of us are, you may very well have to drive 10-20-50-100 miles or more each way, just to go to the mall, take care of some business, whatever you have to do. We're sure paying for the scenery and the wide open spaces out here, especially in Cali.

I've just gotta 2nd the "screw you" response. Or 15th it or something. Come on, we're all trying to play together nicely. And I'd like to put props up to all those who have agreed before me. A Pathy in competent hands can hold its own most any day, as it is a more than capable machine. Most people can't afford to thrash a $40K new rig or mod it to excellence, hence many/most of us wait until ours are older and/or buy it used when we're not as concerned about an occasional scratch or repair. So what, that's called economical common sense. My truck is 12 model years old (a 94) and has a window sticker in the glovebox for $26,384. Even now, I'd squirm at the idea of thrashing a brand new $26 truck, but it is what it is. Kudos to all the lovas, to he!! with all the hatas, and lets keep the rubber side down and the stories pouring in.

If you order the UCA's, be sure to specify you want them along with the bushings, ball joint bolts, etc. like in their picture. I said something like "I don't need the whole kit, I just want to do the UCA's" and they sent me exactly that, just the UCA's. No bushing, etc. I ended up calling back for the bushings and ball joint bolts, and paying another $10. He said he'd send "the whole bag of stuff for them" which ended up being just the bushings. Jeeze, work with me here people!!!. Still, all said and done, that was $137 total and I can find bolts elsewhere.

Don't worry Bernard, I carry at least enough tools to fix most things even around town. When I'm out on the trail I'm usually camping, so there is already clothes, food, drink, etc. nearby. Oh, and cb & cell phone. Guess it just depends on how hard core/deep in/ alone you care to get. To each their own. Nobody I can think of has ever died from being over prepared, so kudos to those that goes the extra step or 10.

Anybody like to bring... a friend in another truck? :secret: