Repack

There is also the removeal of the rear setas for additional cargo/sleeping room. Drill out the hinge pins w/ a 1/4" drill bit and replace them with bolts and wingnuts. The pin metal is soft. Once I had drilled through the heads, I used a hammer/driftpin to knock them out. Took <20 minutes total. I used two slightly smaller bits to start pilot holes b/c you need to drill on an angle. The angle wasn't tpp severe, but was just enough to make in near impossible to stop the 1/4 bit from walking. I have all the pieces to do the JGC lift. Maybe this weekend. The springs were $40, I bought an angle grinder and spring clamps from Harborfreight for $20 and $10 respectively. Now I need to get a cutting disc, some black spraypaint, and some rubber matting to complete the job. So well under $100 for about 3" of lift. I'll also get the air fliter soon. Or, how about a set of BFG All-Terain's? Or even something more aggressive? Don't forget about a full-sized spare and tow strap if you want to join a club. The clubs that I know of require a full-sized spare, fire extinguisher, first-aid kit, loop-end strap, and CB.

Rad pics!!! I have also had tp help pull a Dodge Ram out of the mud! Some darn idiot came into a mud hole in 2wd. He was with a brand new Silverado. The guy in the Chevy made it, but not without killing his truck. He just pinned it. His bumper was bouncing back up and down from hitting the ground to being like 4' in the air. After, he said somehting like "I can't believe I just did that to a $40,000 truck." It was a very similar section of trail to this. The Dodge ended up in pretty much the exact same position as where the Jeep is. My buddy's Tacoma was where the Xterra was, but pointed the other way. I was hooked to the Tacoma in my Pathy. It took like 2 hours, but it was fun.

Thanks!

Sweet. I have everything but the time right now- springs, RS 5000's, spring compressors and angle grinder. What is the max Tbar adjust before I need to start worrying about CV angles? I picked up the springs a week ago and my Harblor Freight order came in today

That is some radstuff! I have everything I need to do the JCG lift but time. Then its off to VT for some Green Mounatain whelin'!

That is cool, but how would I go about finding another remote, and how much is it likely to cost??? And thanks.

How wide are they? I think that anything over 7" wide will cause the tire to rub. But they look cool I guess. Maybe a little too clse to the look of a stock Chevy wheel though.

One last thing: The one tool that I did not have was a standard C-clamp. This would have allowed me to get it MUCH better. There are only so many places that you can fit a hook to. The one are that could be better that you can see is the corner of the fender near the hood. A C-clamp would have flattened that out much better. Also, form the camera POV, the lower-right corner of the headlight opening is still bent. I had to replace a "short" bolt with one that was ~3" long. Putting a clamp on this spot and then hooking it to the come-along would make things even better. I don't know if you can see, but the corner light is out of alignment. One of these days I am going to take it apart and fininsh what I started. If I had more $ I'd do it the "right" way, but instead I'm doing it the fun way (I'm a college student). I'd rather spend my money on things like timing belts, suspension rehab, and tires than stuff that won't stop my motor from dying. The tools you need are all very basic. The only thing I can think of that could be over looked is a long drift pin/pry bar. I did the work at my friend's house (You can see the corner of his Pathy). He had a couple of old jackhammer bits that really came in handy. Each was ~36" long. One had a standard chissel tip and the other was a "bent" chissel tip. After the picture was taken, I jacked it up and took the wheel off so that I could work on the damage from the inside. The bits made it easy to reach deep inside to hit the dents out. I was also ablt to stand up while hammering => no back pain and more power. EDIT: Since I've typed so much and its not exactly what RDN is asking for, I'm thinking of posting this in the garage section. Collissions outside theframe rails seem to cause somewhat uniform damage. If I do, I'll post more pics.

[i was posing I'm not that stupid! Like you, I learned by watching. I knew all those Discovery channel shows were good for something! But seriously, I watched what they did and tried to do the same. It is amazing what you can do to sheet metal.

Yes, that would be a Surly w/ some old-skool Magura hydraulic rim brakes. One nice interior rack idea is to scrounge a Thule load bar from your local junk yard and mount the fork mounts to that. Plenty stable and removeable. It did it for my gf's truck. What is nice about the bar is that you can put it on its side so that the bike will sit ~1.5" lower in the vehicle. And remove the rear seats. HUGE increase in rear space. I did it last week. Cost me about $5 and 20 minutes.

Hard at work:

Depending on how cheap you are, you may not need to replace a thing. This is my handywork. The finished result looks much better in person. One of these days I am going to put on a new fender and bumper. It started out bashed in enough that the body was hitting the tire. The only parts that I replaced were the lights- $20 form the JY. EDIT: Just read the other posts. I hammered out my headlight bracket no problem. Actually hammered everything back out. I was amazed at how east it went. A lot of time, but it all went smooth. I used a come-along to pull the bumper and fender out. The hood was not damaged. The fender was pulled down in front, so it looks like the hood was popped. There was only one bolt "mount" that I was not able to realign. Some people call this ghetto, but I had a lot of fun fixing it. One tip for if you pull the grill" when reinstalling it, put the clips in the grill first, then push it back on. Patience is key. Everything was very straight forward. Good luck!

Forrest Green Metallic. Mine is a '95. Around here, there seems to be an even mix of blue white red and maybe a few less black. What is this Champagne color you speak of?

Looks good! I think I am going to have to paint mine letal flake blue for my forrest green metallic Pathy. I picked up a set on Saturday. Went top the JY on more of a recon mission but ended up coming home with springs. I was going just to find a JGC and wait for my spring clamps to come from Harbor Freight but got lucky. Found a JGC onb top of another truck. One wheel was already off and the suspension was totally unweighted. Everything was at chest level, It really could not have gone any better. The best part was when I undid the lower spring retainer, the suspension dropped a little more. Now I have springs and a set of RS 5000's to put on. Then its of to Vermont.

Would someone mind posting the email address that topic responses come from? I have not baan getting any and I wanted to check that I did not put it on my Block list. Thanks, J

I'm from just North of Boston.

hmm.. my '92 doesn't have a lock either. And... I am selling my tire carrier, so if you have trouble finding one...let me know! Congrats on teh carrier for $50! I was misunderstood. I meant keyed lugnut.

I would NOT recoment any kind of l;iquid lube, especially not somehting like WD 40. Mine was sticky at first. So I tried Tri-Flo. Its a nice Teflon-based penatratinglube. All it seemed to do was flush out what was making the hinges stick and made them rattle. It took some time to develop, but it definately seemed to be caused by the lube. I wouldn't try anything but grease. In the Garage forum, someone posted that many dealerships will inject some sort of special grease into the hinges no-charge. But $550!!!!!!!!! Dang!!!! All I knew was that the minimum price I was quoted to replace the bushings (by a dealer) was like ~$120.

Sport tranny switch maybe? DO Pathy's even have those, other than the towing option switch? My shock swith says something like "Comfort/ Performance".

$2.28 for reg full serve this morning. Maybe .10 less the next town over. I'm near Boston.

A couple of other thoughts/ideas. Remember that you can still unbolt the actual tire carrier from the gate! That is what I did when I couldn't get the lug off. A ratchet with a socket slid in easily behind the spare. But with a real tire, there might not be room. One thing to note is that a short handle ratchet will fit inside of a 15" rim. I think that a 7" or 8" rim will both come in only 1" closer to the gate. Still enough room for a wrench. Is it true that 7" and 8" wide rims have the same offset on the onboard side of the rim? Anyway, here is a picture of what I am talking about.

By lock, I meant keyed lug nut. Sorry. Looked at 2 and both had them. The first came off with channel locks, but the hinges wer bad (carrier was slightly bent from being rear-ended so it was tight while on the doner truck but bad while off). Why would you need to replace it just b/c of a full-sized tire? My next purchase is going to be a 15x7" rim to go with an extra tire that the original owner gave me. I hear that the Lego rims go for $25ea at the local yards. I'm lucky that there are some very good parts sources arounf here. 2nd gen Pathy's are VERY popular in the NE.

I live around Boston and the going rate for spare tire carriers is $50 at the local salvage yards. Obviously its an easy job. Just don't expect the yard to have a key for the spare key bolt. Good news is that you can sneak a ratchet in to remove the whole mount, then recycle the original mount.

Other option: The Xterra should be called "new Pathfinder". They are essentially the same. Same wheel base, ladder frame, solid rear axle, but coils springs in the front. Xterra's are like updated '95 and older Pathy's. If size is an issue, the Xterra's are a lot bigger than you would think. Based on looks, I would say that the Xterra has more interior space than my '95. I hadn't thought of an Xterra for my next vehicle until I heard about the wheelbase. Started looking into them, and now I am 95% sure that us what I will get next. Additionally, the '05 (don't know about older Xterrs'a) have quick-releases on the rear bench seat. With the bench removed and the front seats slid forward, you end up with well over 6' of flat surface. Great if you plan on sleeping in your truck, which I do from time to time. The Xterra is an "Everything you need, nothing you don't" sort of truck. I was very impressed by how Nissan outfitted it. It is a perfect fit for my truck demands, which seem to be inline with many/most of the people who post here. Another major factor is that $27,000 in the base price of a new Pathy and the fully loaded price of an Xterra. The new Path is an overgrown stationwagon. But I can't afford new so I guess that it really doesn't mater.

This will be my 11th year of racing. Expert DH. Plattekill NY, Diablo Park NJ, Snowshoe, Mt Snow... Can't get enough of it. Me: Intense M1, Specialized Enduro. My GF: IH SGS Pro, Specialized Epic. She has enough points to upgrade to pro xc, but broke (shattered) her femur in October so that will have to wait a bit. Happened racing DH in NY. Not fun.