Crazy Geologist

my pathy got the best mileage when I ran it on a propriatary mix of aviation fuel, isopropyl alcohol, mineral spirits, and moonshine...I can sell you the recipe. cheap. and Los Angeles will become a suburb of San Francisco (or at least the land on which they stand) in about 100 million years or so. Major global tectonic changes must occur (the sense of motion on the San Andreas Fault) for California to ever "fall into the ocean"

I followed an FJ out to a climbing wall near Santa Fe a couple weeks back. It involved a good bit of sandy arroyo driving and crossing a few 100year storm gravel bars. the FJ had to repeatedly try two of the gravel bars (I believe success was attained by locking the diffs.) And I followed without incident in my stock 06 Tacoma. my only off-road experience with them. It does come with s#it tires, too much unpainted plastic (a hard shell for the spare? c'mon...) and a funky roofline tho. the Toyota stealer was totally trying to sell me on one instead, but they do look like a M&Ms with 4wd. No thank you, I will take a pickup with a locking rear diff and a campershell please. I gotta say tho, at least they didn't put mud flaps on it like the tacoma...I already broke off two (I think they are on USFS road 44b near el rito...) why make a mudflap that snaps before it flaps? Dumb.

The lack of any sort of degree is the primary gap in your resume? Sounds to me like you should knuckle down and get an AA in business management or something...The Crazy Geologist is a product of the community college system, and can attest that they are cheap and educational places to advance one's career. With your experience it should be no problem... and if you are on top of it, you could probably knock one down in a couple years of night school. It would force you to stay around your kids too. ps your machines are bad a$$$$$$$. They get the approval of the Crazy Geologist. How hard is it to drive (pilot?) those things?

So I scrapped the plan of letting the shop do it again. I called them the next day and told them I couldn't justify it And I bought another truck. I will pick up the new truck tomorrow and tow my busted pathy home from the tranny shop. I now have a beast to do with what I please. I think I am going to take the tranny out and have a look myself, knowing full well that my chance of not getting it back together again is high... Has anyone on this forum rebuilt a 5spd manual? Know of a good book or where to find blow up diagrams? Oh yeah, This will be fun.

Where did you all find these cheap transmissions? I want one!

Agreed. It should be tight enough that you can shake the vehicle. Not only does it mess up the paint, but the clips can/will slide back and forth in your door jamb and ruin your weather stripping too.

I finally caved too sarguy, I am the proud new owner of a truck payment...but I went to the dark side. I got a brand-spankin-new Toyota Tacoma TRD offroad with camper shell and roof-rack safari basket. I will pick up tomorrow. I got the tow package so I can finally tow my pathfinder home. I really wanted a 2004 with 35k that the dealer had, but they wanted far more than it was worth, so I ended up with a new one. features galore though...they are equipped. 6spd, bilstein shocks, locking rear diff. suicide doors, 120v ac power in the bed. and even one of those goofy compass-thermometer things. It has a 4x4 switch that is almost identical to the vent control. Wierd. and it is lame that the off-road package comes with bfg rugged trails. Gimme offroad tires, not some watered down version. Oh well, I can't have it all. I fear the same resale issues with the pathty, and I think it is worth more to me as a beater/beast/something I can take apart and not get back together again...time to search for transmission rebuild threads.

Does It feel tight at the cam when adjusting it, but not sit at the proper angle or tighten down to the roof when the cover is closed? if so Be sure that the collar atop the tower which accepts the crossbar is not cracked. Look close, as it can look fine, when the tower is open, but it will spread when you close the cover. I had 2 of those crack on me over the past 120,000 mi, and it drove me nuts until I found it the first time. If this is the issue, any yakima dealer should warrany the part. And if you go to the Yak dealer, hit them up for a new set of rubber feet for the towers, as they can wear like a pencil eraser if your rack is not tight and you keep driving around.

I am so jealous...you get all sorts of powdery white $hi+ and we get nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Snow forgot new mexico in general this year, but winter at the mountain where I bought a season lift pass has been completely non-existent. It is the only resort in the whole state that didn't open yet... and winter is nearing it's end. never fails.

Call me crazy, but that price seems a bit steep. 4 grand, tops is my guess as to what you would see. Kelly blue book is generally more gracious to the seller, and it lists there for 3600-4700. sad but true. I am grappling with what to do with mine now too.

OK, it was unbeliveably hectic with stuff at work for the past two weeks, so the pathy just sat, and I rode my bike and hitched for the duration... Friday I called the service manager and gave him the story. He told me they would do the job with free labor if I paid for parts, so I borrowed an enormous Dodge diesel and a car dolly and towed it 55 miles back to the shop on sunday, left my key in the drop. I got a message on my voicemail this evening that tomorrow they would pull it from the vehicle and they would tear it apart and would happy to to it all for half labor, and give me a call tomorrow about the parts. Hmmmm. It looks like the bait and switch to me.

I am ~2000 miles over now.

Ok, I had my transmission rebuilt at 185,000 miles. They put in new 1st, 3rd, & 5th gears with all the bearings/bushings etc. Since it had been rebuilt, it made a distinctly different sound when off the gas in 5th gear but I dismissed it. I went on a long tour de rocky mountains trip last week During the past trip this noise had increased, until about 350 miles from home the transmission slipped out of 5th gear (at about 75mph w/cruise on) and refused to go back in. I paid 2800 dollars in june to have it rebuilt, it was serviced at 6500k later and it still kicked the bucket. I had a 12,000 mi warranty, but this last trip put me barely over the top on that. I am mechanically inclined enough to try to install a rebuilt one...who knows where to find a deal on a quality rebuilt transmission? I dunno though, I think I am still going to have to buy a new auto...my days as a pathy owner may be falling short.

I broke the last hanger at the weld to the frame about 40k miles ago, I had it welded back on. The weld job-, lasted 5km miles and the welder said it would be permanently brittle due to an elevated carbon content in the steel from exposure to 165k mi worth of hot exaust. I have had it hose clamped since. If you get the clamp super tight, it may stop your vibration; it did with mine. It has been problem free since.

sounds like sun damage to me too, and mine is getting the beginnings of the same problem, especially on the top of the steering wheel. You probably had to wipe until you got down into deeper plastic that had not been sun damaged?

yes those are the ticket! You will notice that with the diamond type chains, the chain is always beween the tire and the road, whereas with the ladder type chains, you are constantly bouncing on and off the chain. I own one pair of each, and bought of the ladder type before I realized the diamond type existed. I don't think I will ever buy one of the ladder type again.

The diamond pattern chains are much better in terms of ride quality and traction than chains which use a ladder type pattern. The diamond ones cost more but it is well worth it. You can get chains with plastic stiffeners so that you can put them on easier, but they are pretty bulky, and not really worth the extra cost and bulk. I think national chain is a good manufacturer, but I had a hard time google searching for it. And with the fender flares: I lost mine the first time I used the chains. Ha.

I'm into a four-corners trip in february or march. There is a group chattin up the rocky mt. states on a couple other threads if you look around

I was looking at them too, but I still think you will need new uca's to keep your angles right. The emu kit is just shocks and rear springs. it is just torsion bar lift in the front. This is just what I could gather from the web. Someone please correct me if I am wrong.

Like JJ said, think it through. I didn't. make sure that you know exactly how the mounting brackets work on the lights you buy. I bought 4 hellas online a month ago, and still have yet to install them because they mounted differently than I expected them to. Has anyone tried to cut holes in the plastic faring that comes with yakima or thule style racks? I want to mount mine underneath the bar, but I must first modify the faring, or make a new one with cut-aways.

Good question. I would imagine it would depend to a great extent on snow conditions... But my guess is that you would start to "float" at about the same depth, with or without the skidplates. And you would certainly slip across deeper sections without needing as much traction, because the your entry speed would carry your further. You should bust out a can of rub on snowboard wax and wax it up before you go out again.

Early-mid Febuary? Anyone? Central CO / Front Range?

I stand corrected. Thanks.

Looks good K9... My main point is to make sure you know what you are buying; the dealer should disclose the working load limits for them. I have visited a number of places who were selling shackes without any testing documentation. I like the hitch pin-cottered idea good thing to add to the kit. You should still keep the threaded pin around though, because using it makes it much easier to determine whether the bow has been deformed/damaged during use. and if you store them with your straps instead of on your bumper, you can keep them out of the mud.

You would be suprised at the reduction in the ultimate failure load for counterfit hardware vs. the brand-name manufacturers. And counterfit hardware can be sneaky. They often have few or no distinguishing features, and you don't know it is bad until the pin has already failed, and the rest of the shackle is flying through your windshield. reason enough for me to spend a few extra dollars and minutes.