Mr. Pickles

Its just the right side pic in my sig, and truck stats, but it made me smile. thanks

F'ya sir. Kickin strong, just been laying low lately. New front steering (CL, tie rod ends, etc.) last winter, new ball joints, CV's, etc. around the corner, and 32's or 33's coming soon enough. Must. Wheel.

Holy cow, I'm rusty, meant to post to General. LOL Gracias, seniorita!

You can't access it online on their site yet (May only so far), but my rig is in the June '09 Readers Ride sections!

The other would be the wifey's car, 1997 Acura CL 2.2 Vtec. Its a strong little car, decent power for a little 4cyl, great mileage, and it covers miles in comfort.

Rear locker, for performance and availablity. I bet if you get one, you'll forget about the front all together.

Ya ever run over a piece of string or a shoelace with a vaccuum. Yeah, well that X about 1,000,000.

Yikes. Good to hear you're ok. I vote chop it, cage it, maybe get handy with some plexiglass for a shield and over your head, cut up the fenders..., and make a trail killer out of the truck.

Your ball joint and/or UCA look wacky to me. Maybe its just the difference in yours vs. mine below (Rough Country), as you're doesn't angle at the end to correct the BJ angle. Is that a BJ spacer on there too on yours? And what's up with the nut on the bottom of the BJ? It doesn't look tightened down.

I've had a Summit kit for a while now, as have many members here. I've never had a bit of a drip. If you're unsure, I'd do some more looking/checking to figure out an angle to snug it up a bit tigher. If you have a body lift, you can reach in from the fenderwell. If not, from below might give you better leverage if you haven't gone there. If you're in doubt about the install, take it off to make sure everything is ok (threads, and IIRC there's a rubber O ring in there, then reinstall. That would only cost you a few $ in oil. Cheaper than oil stains on the driveway or a blown motor due to low oil. Which kit style did you do? Did you go with a Nissan style filter, or something else? Where did you relocate to? Underneath by the chassis, or up under the hood? Pics are good. I did the Ford small block V8 filter, suggested by Slick, as they have more capacity, and the filters are cheap and everywhere. Here's a LINK to my install, and there are a few others out there. Mine is more specific to mounting the filter than on the mounting of that plate, but like I'd say, its cheap insurance to just go back through it if you're unsure. LOL my Pacesetter headers are still sitting in the garage. How did that go?

This weekend is a bit short/tight. I've got my niece and nephew (3 and 1 1/2) Sat. evening till Sunday am. Putting some feelers out to see what's up. Shoot, just checked the weather again, and it sounds like the mountains are gonna get pounded this weekend, though. Hmmmmm..... I've got Fri-Sun off into next year a ways, so who knows.

Alas, then we see eye to eye, grasshoppa. (just put an HID kit in the Mrs. Acura recently... holy isht!)

Its been a while since I've been in a group roll. Hell, I've only had the beast out a handful of times this year. *gasp* Just filled the old pig up from empty for $28 versus about $80 a few months ago. Hmmmmmmm... however snow is upon us this weekend, and the hills will buried soon. Hmmmmmmm.....

Any chance of taking a pass down the track??

Feeling your pain, man. My wife's company's division shut down over the summer and put out those lovely pink slips, though she stuck on long enough to help complete that, and ended up finding a better job elsewhere in her medical billing field. Now I've been on pins and needles for a few months on reduced hours and the constant threat lately in my fairly rough biz (at least lately, real estate title). Its a crazy world, but keep your head up and nose to the grindstone.

Taking *special exception* due to hiatus. hahahahahaha Yeah, good point, moving over >there

They're spreading it out here. We use it all the time at work (title biz in real estate). My satellite pic is like a year and a half old (I'm about 20 miles from Tacoma, and 35 miles from Seattle, WA) with no street view, but my co-worker's about 10 miles closer in shows his newly surfaced driveway that was done maybe a month ago. Its pretty spooky how this whole thing works, really. I wonder how many, ummm... questionable shots they get. You know, windows open, crimes in progess, etc.

Hola bitcholas!

I've never had a problem since. I think the issue is the added power draw and heat with the tiny stock wiring to the stock plug. The nice part of relaying them is you can bypass all the stock crap wiring, and the worry of frying it when you play with more power.

I did the relay/rewire a while back that 88 posted. I ran 12 gauge wire off a $10 spool of wire from Autozone, from the battery to the relay, and then to the headlights. I used maybe 1/4 of the spool, plus a $5 relay and some crimp on connectors. Its really easy, didn't take long at all, maybe an hour or so to go through and figure the whole thing out, and then tie things down and clean it up. The lows are sooo much brighter and stronger after the swap. I also have PIAA driving lights too, which is another option if you want even easier, but relaying the stock headlights is cheaper and nice. Figure under $20 and an hour-ish for good results. P.S. I also went with higher powered bulbs off eBay years back, I think like 80 watts low beam (as opposed to wiring the lows and highs, which I've seen diagrams online on how to do). I think you'd be much safer doing the low+high if you had quad bulbs like some vehicles have (separate lows and highs) to avoid the excess heat and draw. I'd seriously question running both low and high in the same bulb like we have. Anyways, mine melted both light sockets quickly, so I had to replace both sockets, and they weren't as bright as mine are now.

I'd have to agree that it may be your location(s). I've been going to Firestone for probably 4-5 years now at 3 locations: Auburn, Kent east hill, and Puyallup, WA. I bought the lifetime warranty on both our vehicles, both bought at sale price, and I've gone at least probably 12-15 times total. Works for me, and they don't hassle me. I've done it after suspension work, replacing the UCA's, the last time after I replaced all tie rod ends and my center link, plus the wife has a magnetic attraction to potholes and such. No questions asked. Granted, yes its a quick & simple job, but it prices out. I can't vouch for their regular service work, cause I've done these repairs myself, but otherwise their customer service has been great to me.

Gracias, and thanks! Been out of touch lately, just busy with life and such with different things. Then sick for the last week or so. Grrr. Word to the big birds, keep your nests clean.

You've answered your own questions, then. You can rebuild a carb for a few $ with a kit, or have it done. "Wonky emissions stuff" would probably have to be kept and/or installed for Cali certification, but that's no biggie. The mileage sounds about right, and won't get much better regardless, cause you're still driving a big V8 brick down the road. It still sounds ok in my book, though.

I'd spend an afternoon seriously tearing into it. Headliner and cosmetic stuff, gone or dealt with. Bad fuel lines, torn out, etc. etc. Just really look into the job, look into the van, what do you want to spend and what needs to be spent. An old van and a 302 are relatively cheap things to work on. Gas suddenly is cheap these days. Maybe the van needs $500 but the job doesn't work out, so you spray paint and flip the van in a sale and look at the next thing down the tracks. I don't think grandpa would have minded that one bit. Good luck!

Its always fun. I had to replace mine a couple years ago, then I got a defective reman'd unit, which ended up with 3 or so installs. Swapped it again, then a year ago or so, it died. Pulled it, tested fine, replaced. And again... Wouldn't you know, the wiring between the ignition and starter had fried. After lots of cussing and a few adult beverages until I figured that out, I bypassed and rewired with a relay now in the circuit. As I figure, I've had it out 5 or 6 times, and can report: 1) no weird extentions or joints are required, just 1 long extension and a few tries 2) just drop the front splash/skid plate, the starter really will barely slide out with the right amount of twists and turns. It took me forever on the way out to get it right, but eventually with practice you can almost curse it into place. With practice, it was about a 10-15min exercise in wrenching and linguistics.