k9sar

The sending unit is directly above the starter at the same level as the oil filter but towards the rear of the engine. Typically has an orange rubber boot on it (unless it's filthy). Uploaded with ImageShack.us

lol

yes, balls should be greased

I would pull the rocker arms. Not much torque on the bolts and it will ensure that you won't have any valve interference when putting the heads on. I steady the cam gear by shoging a big screwdriver through the cam gear holle and wedging it against the inside of the backplate. Another way it to use a timing belt around just the gear, pull it together close to the gear and clamp it (use an old timing belt). This will act like a really good strap wrench. Now throw a wrench or pipe through the other end of the timing belt loop and wedge it somewhere. With my 95, I loosened the crank bolt by putting a long handle on the breakerbar and letting it against the ground or something (be careful on which side) and hit the starter with a burst or two. LOTS of torque to loosen the thing. As far as timing, on a VG30E (my 95) there are marks where you want to lineup your crank as well as your cams AND there are specs to how many teeth are between those marks. Do you have FSM for your truck? If not, download one and it should give you all the good info you are looking for.

95 SE pathy My CEL has been coming on for the past few weeks but only when I am decelerating or just coasting down a lengthy hill. Once I get back on the gas and under power, the CEL will linger for a bit then go out as the problem has been determined to not be a problem anymore (until the next time I coast). Reading the code shows the Injection Circuit (code 51) but I thought that would only indicate a bad injector (low/high resistance) and should stay on all the time with a failure like that. Anyone seen the intermittent 51 or have a suggestion other than to pull my intake and check all the resistance on the injectors? Is there anything else that could cause this cycling with coasting or being under power? Note, the CEL is not on when just sitting at idle. It only seems to happen when I get off the gas to coast or slow down for a turn.... and then not always. Throwing a feeler out there before I have to spend a day disassembling.

flakes/piles of rust inside your frame will retain water and promote more rust. If possible. get it out either through a hole where it rusted through or perhaps get creative with a long narrow metal rod and a shop vac. I had the luxury of having my frame split wide open before I fixed it. Once you get as much of the rust out as you can, I would spray stuff in through every hole at every angle that you can. I used el-cheapo rubberized undercoating spray. I had often throught about filling the frame with "great stuff" from Home Depot or Lowes but I'm sure there would be some bad side effect that I didn't think about (or it would be done at the factory)

199000 miles give or take a few.

I wasn't sure how to take the rings out so I went with the thing that had visable screws. lol Good to know the other solution for when my contacts wear down to the point that I have no room left in the plastic to drill deeper.

I was going to suggest a trip to the mall parking lot

Fixed 2 problems... horn didn't work and my tire carrier wouldn't latch 1. Took steering wheel off to gain access to the 'brushes' that make the connection to the back of hte steering wheel. These are spring-loaded copper or brass rods that had worn down to the point where they did not make good contact anymore (there are 3, 2 for he cruise control and 1 for the horn). I pondered extending the existing rods by brazing a piece on or reshaping them with a hammer but I decided on a much simpler solution. I removed the back plate that allowed me to drop the roda and springs out of the housing (that also holds the wiper and headlight levers). Turns out that the holes are just slightly bigger than 3/16" and the rods have a bit of a flair on them at the spring end. About halfway through the plastic, the holes narrow to just under 3/16" which gives a lip to retain the rods so the springs don't shoot them out in your face when you remove the steering wheel (ok, they aren't THAT strong). I took a 13/64" drill and ran it into the holes from the back and continued past the 'lip' for another 3/16" or so in depth. This gave the rods further room to travel to make contact with the back of the steering wheel. Put it all back together and all three functions work fine. 2. Took the latch mechanism off the tire carrier, pulled the retaining pin and slid the pivot rod (extension of the handle) out from the mechanism. Dropped out the latches, washers, spacers and springs, keeping track of how it went together. I used some sandpaper to clean the part of the handle that goes through the spacers and holds all the parts in place. I generally cleaned all the crap out of the remaining parts and smeared everything with a good lithium grease. Put it all back together and it works like new. The latches don't hangup, it's not noisy, it closes and locks with minimal pressure.

may work but your pathy would look like a hamster in heat unless you cranked up the front end and, then you would destroy your ball joints. The JGC springs are called the "poor man's lift" because it's cheap, easy but about the limit of what you can do without some rebuild. My guess is that anything over 3" would require some front end reconfiguration. Certainly, if you give it a try, let us all know the results. There's always room for learning here on the boards.

I'm not sure of the part number but that's a pocket-item from a u-pull-it. I'm going within a couple weeks so I can grab one out of a junker if I see one. I'll keep an eye on this thread just in case. That's a 3-position rocker (off | on | impact off) or something like that, right?

the heads are aluminum. The pressure in the water jacket is not very high so I would think some sort of repair could be made. I just threw away a set of heads about 2 weeks ago or I would have sent you one. As for the oil pump.... I've not had mine go bad and I'm over 200,000 miles

I ordered mine on a Monday and had it on Wednesday and didn't pay for expedited delivery. Not sure where their warehouses are but there must be one fairly close to me since all of my orders have been delivered within a day or two. Oh well... as long as your happy with your purchase.

my CV shaft was something like $55 from rockauto.com

not sure I'd drive without it but I guess if you pack the end with grease and cover it, it could get you somewhere in a pinch

I destroyed a cage and replaced mine. no special tools required. Normal sockets will fit those bolts

The oil dripping from the sending unit can get in and gum things up but it is typically carbon dust/sludge combination buildup in the commutator slots that causes the issue. I pulled the guts out, cleaned the entire entire thing with a little napthalonene on a rag (coleman camping fuel). That gets rid of the oil/sludge. Then I took an old toothbrush dipped in the same solvent and brushed out the commutator slots. I would avoid stronger solvents like carb cleaner or MEK since they 'may' eat into the coating on the wires or other vital parts.

Personally, I'd disassemble the starter and try to figure out why it failed. many times it's just carbon buildup from the brushes clogging the commutator and interfering with the electric motor. A good cleaning, especially since the damned things sit beneath the oil sending unit, may work wonders. I've used the same starter for the past 2 failures and she's still going string after a cleaning.

it takes some prying and sliding of the front axle but I've recently done both lowers without taking the uppers off. IF I have to do it again, the entire spindle is coming off and I'll do the uppers as well.

stock pathy springs were .050 if I recall correctly. Haven't had them on mine for quite a few years

I disagree. I bought those when I did my poor-man's lift. The secret is to grease the bolt before using them otherwise you will tear the hell out of the things. I used them twice, when loosening one of them on the last install, it ate itself. The job was finished and I took the compressors back to the store cause they had issues. No need to rent or buy expensive ones for the number of times you are going to use them.

filled with beer... then get to work on that tranny

I could probably troubleshoot this but I'm tired and lazy. 95 pathy runs fine but, if it rains overnight (or during the day when I'm parked at work), occasionally when I start the truck to leave, it chokes and sputters and I have to nurse the pedal to keep it running. It clears up after a couple minutes (engine warms up?). Thoughts? Water seems to be an obvious answer but I don't see how it could be plugs/wires/disty because of the hood preventing water from getting on/in them and it runs fine when I drench the engine bay going throuhg puddles/creeks/etc.

I think there's a picture in the FSM or the coolant flow but I can't access it through my work's firewall right now