Bunchie

GREAT story! I'm just having my oatmeal and truly enjoying your tale of mechanical adventure. Everybody needs an "Attaboy" every once and a while...ATTABOY!!! I believe that will have been a defining moment for you. You're a young buck, like MY son and these milestone events will give you the confidence to take on bigger challenges life is bound to throw your way! When I was much younger, my good friend Dave made a comment one day: He said, "I can't". His dad, Don, replied, "CAN'T MEANS WON'T!" Those 3 words have stuck with me decades later. My Pathy is now showing all the signs of "Death Wobble". The good boys and girls on this forum have a myriad of experience to pull from and using their knowledge I now know WHAT to do and WHAT to watch out for. Never be afraid of asking for insight/help on a subject you are unfamiliar with. I'm 57 and a security service tech w/30 years experience under my belt and I STILL ask Q's when I'm at a loss w /a problem. Life is tough: Work SMART, not HARD! Cheers, Victor

Well THAT didn't work so well-lol. Was going to add: use pics in conjuction w/your cardboard and notes on the cardboard too. Use a zap strap run through 2 holes in the c/board to hold any nuts you come across.

Could you not add another stock cross bar (or 2) to distribute the load more evenly? That should give you 8 points of contact rather than the stock 4. Should be cheap enough from a local wrecker...

You may have a braking system issue: a caliper or brake shoe that is dragging enough that when stopped, is enough to make the vehicle not want to roll under the minimum torque being applied by the tranny. Jack it up, put it in neutral and see if any of the wheels are binding. With heat, things will expand and it may be just enough to cause the normally"free wheeling" parts to start binding. After a drive with some average braking, pull over and see (feel) the rims for any unusual increase of temperature, especially the rears.

If I tell you nothing else, I will tell you this: Your choice of TIRES is of profound importance. Quality tires for our PF's will cost you around a Grand. My story: Spent $170. a corner believing that I got me some decent skins. Truck loaded w/work stuff, I made a left turn around a negative camber corner at speed, in the rain, back tires hit the 2 ft wide painted crosswalk lines and just kept going...in the right direction with the wrong end of the truck. Spun it 180 degrees, hit the curb and did $1800 worth of damage to my rear suspension. My worn out Michelin's had more grip than these new P.O.S's!! Moral of this story: If you can afford $1800 in repairs, you can afford BETTER tires. Pretty rims can wait, especially if you're on a budget.

Well THAT'S a pretty negative attitude-lol. I think that you should think, "Yeah, I SHOULD make some, quality, Made in Canada sliders and increase the number of items in my Cool catalog of PF body armour!" I'm sure I'm not the only one who just thought this...just sayin...

Greetings from the other side of the world!!

You done an admirable job on taking a generic silver PF and giving it some attitude, well done! Not a big fan of large diameter rims on 4 X 4's but that's just me...I do like the style of them though. Your comment on the sad lack of the Patrol in the North American market, is right on the money....I'd buy one just on looks alone!

Not sure what sort of life span you're going to get out of that application of a rubber coating on what is, essentially, chrome. Had you prepped it by lightly scuffing the chrome off, it might have stood a chance. Biggest problem is they're singular, plastic and DST'd to the paintwork. The idea was was good in princple...far sight better than that fay gold thing they did for the asian market, Yeeeeesssshhhh!! Me, personally, am going to see the brown dude at my local swap meet and buy me some new letters of MY choice, HAHAHA! It's going to be AWESOME!! Somethin' w/a little shock value like my license plate surround that sez: I DRIVE LYK YOU, A$$HOLE. I LOVE watchin the expressions on peoples faces when they read it while waiting behind me at the lights, IT'S PRICELESS! Spring is here, woo woo.

And whereabouts are you...in BC? I'm in Cloverdale...

Always good to have a go bag...er, your case, Bin! Body: P/W it good, dry the areas of rust and try RustMort, available at Lordco. It reacts w/rust & seals up the metal to stop it from spreading. Then hit w/black(er whatever) rust paint. Stop gap measure for sure but The ONLY cure for cancer is removal and replacement of sheet metal. And that will cost you $$$ trust me on this

Yup, dielectric grease absolutely! Also self vulcanizing rubber tape-originally for marine applications, used in conjunction with Plasidip brushable liquid. & Im sure someone sells a w/p alternator-lol.

I'd lean towards the electrics myself. You know you've got fuel. P & N, have no load. Hows the distributor? They're coming up on 20 y/o...wobble, wobble? ?? 2 sense worth

It COULD be something as simple as a missing ground(or negative) wire. Your pic shows a grenaded female electrical coupler...what's it for? The stereo? Or??? Can you be sure yer harness is configured correctly I'm a Low Voltage Technician, so I know a few things about what can cause "No Juice" issues. 1st, the 2 most important troublshooting tools you will need are: a 12 volt test light & a digital volt meter (yer local HF should have both these items for cheap). Test light will instantly show you if you have juice-provided you have located a good ground for the alligator clip end. The DVM will enable you to check for "open" loops, voltage(obviously), and 0V continuity, resistance, relay function, etc. Although I haven't actually pulled one up, a lot of folks here have provided links to PF Field Service Manuals. For that matter, my generally useless Haynes manual has wiring diagrams at the back that have wire color codes & connector pin layouts. Im sure it will be something fairly simple as I am assuming that yer tunes were working b4 those thievin' barstards piked yer tunes!! Be positive-you WILL find the cause!

Yeah I would 2nd that idea...got abuddy who owns a autobody/restoration shop & he sez the ONLY way to deal with automotive cancer is to remove it completely and replace it w/new sheet metal(and they do a LOT of it). I realize that may be financially impractical for you but there products like Rustmort, etc, that will, at least, halt the spread of the rust. Consider checking out high school auto shops...sometimes they will take on outside projects simply for the chance of the students being able to work on a different vehicle other than the few thay may have been donated to the school.

I guess it all depends on your motivation factor. Someone was selling a 98 PF auto trans for $200 CAN recently so if you could find something like that, you'd only be into it for $850 plus whatever time it takes to re & re the tranny. Then flog it & make yerself some extra cashola!!!

Hey Ryan, the green beasty is looking good...almost as good lookin as MY green beasty-lol. Curious, are your roof racks aftermarket? They don't look like my stock ones. Opinion has it that the stock cross supports aren't very strong, especially if you want to put a "supplies" rack up there. Id post a pic of mine but I haven't been able to figure out how to do it on my tablet without it saying frustrating things like "ur file is too big"...but then that's what ALL the girls say, Bwahahahahaha

Any reoccurrences?? Did you try the tranny fluid?

Well done, son! One day soon maybe, I'll be worthy of this title, Cheers!!!

"No bushings", Bwahahahahaha! Um, dude, you MIGHT just want to tackle ur our repairs...I'm sure you can't screw it up any more than ur local "Professionals" as the recent evidence attests...just sayin, V.

Pathy looks GOOOOOD, Towndog! Do you have rim spacers on ur ride? I ask as those "stock" rims seem to be at least flush w/the outside edge of the fender flairs...and that's not "normal"...

No one has mentioned that when reassembling the ground points, to use an ANTISIEZE COMPOUND between the terminal and the frame. That being said, I use Neversieze on almost any threaded item I take apart and reassemble, especially on any exterior fastening point. That stuff last almost forever...

Personally, I'm not sure if it would be worth all the effort, as a turbo is designed for continuous higher rpm speeds...whereas a Supercharger, like the one found in certain Xterras, will provide increased power all across the rpm range. If ur 4WDing, you need power at all different rpm's. I believe that the better value for your $$ would be to ensure ur electrics are the best you can get or upgrade to. Ive noticed that a lot of member's upgrades have included a higher output alternator(considering that myself). Hope this helps, cheers.