k9sar

now... if we take this reply and place it out of the context of an offroad board discussing skids... hehehehe

although it won't fit my 95 (and I'm already sporting steel plates), they look great. I used a jack to install my skids but being able to toss these around sounds very appealing. I am curious to see if they aluminum will standup to a woman driver. Simon... slap one on Pezzy's green monster and let her give it a durability test.

just a guess but may be something to think about... if it's an auto (which it is), could the ATCM be bad or perhaps have bad shift solenoids? dunno

suggestion... the primary thing that goes wrong is that the brushes get worn and the commutator gets fouled by cabon buildup. Once you start experiencing a dead spor ot have time to screw with it, pull the starter out, open it up and brush all the carbon deposits out of the grooves in the commutator. it would be a good idea to go ahead and acquire a new set of brushes for a couple dollars to have them on hand for when you need to do the rebuild. You should get nearly a full lifespan out of a rebuild as you would anew one unless the solenoid craps out or you burn the windings by running it too long trying to start the truck when something else is wrong.

probably not. symptoms are not of a bad starter.

If you are planning to replace it anyway, check a couple failure points first. Lost of clicking indicated bad voltage NOT bad starter. If the starter was bad, the relay would thunk nice and loud and the starter would not work. Make sure your ground to the block is good. The starter used the block to ground itself and if the ground between battery and block is buggered, you won't have sufficient current to run the starter. Second... make sure you have 12V solid at the big post on the starter (big red wire). This should be 12V positive ALWAYS. IF you don't have a good solid 12V, the problem is not the starter. THird... make sure you have a good solid 12V on the trigger wire (to the solenoid on the starter) when the key is turned to start. Disconnect the plug and throw a meter between it and ground (use clips or jumper cables if you need to). Have someone turn the key to start and check the voltage. Fourth... if you want to check the starter only, turn the key to on (run) and hotwire it by disconnecting the solenoid trigger wire and getting a clip lead on the lug ont he starter and hitting 12V directly from the battery + to the clip lead (jumper cables work great but you will need a small lead to get onto the lug on the starter solenoid. If the starter jumps to life, that's not your problem. All this can be done without frucking around taking the starter out. There have been issues with bad connections in the wiring from the ignition switch to the starter. I have a post out there somewhere detailing the issue. And while you are at it, check the battery voltage under load and check it on both the posts and the cables. you may get great voltage when checking the posts but if your connections are weak, the truck will act like the battery is dead. Good luck and let us know what you find.

I don't think it's supposed to look like that

I actually tried to use the white marks on a Dayco belt and the only way they would even come close is if I ignored the arrows and reversed them. It was totally f-d up so I just count teeth and move on.

nah... I tend to use the terms interchangably

never trust the white timing marks on the belt. Always use the TDC marks and count the teeth. I NEVER use the marks on the belt when I replace one. I would rather measure than trust some manufacturing nerd trying to translate between languages.

avoid long hills on hot days. I set mine on fire doing that.

When I pulled mine, I made sure I had the flywheel disxconnected from the torque converter, had the radiator removed to gain clearance, had the fan and pulley's off for additional clearance, and had to jack the tranny up a bit to gain the right angle to slide the engine forward and out.

there's no bolt that I can see. The tube just comes out of the block and hangs out there in mid air.

I wanted to be graceful in removing it (it IS on a spare engine) but if I need to just rip the stupid thing out, I will.

so the damned thing is just glued in? great.

I need to remove the tube that the oil dipstick goes down through. Anyone know how they come out (if at all?) Close inspection shows a half-washer looking thing where it goes into the block but it does not appear to be a snap-ring or similar. On my caravan, the holder just slips into a home but there is a bracket that bolts onto it to hold it. Nothing like that here. thoughts?

RMS = rear main seal... on the crankshaft FMS = (can you guess?)... front main seal (remove oil pump and replace seal) front and rear cam seals on the cams BL is body lift... makes it sit higher on the frame and easier to get at stuff

good point. here's an idea.... Replace the engine.

I'm still not convinced that the previous owner put the wrong water pump on the thing. You stated that the pump listed (witht he wings) is wrong due to the height. I do not doubt that the height is different but I am thinking that the one listed (with the wings) is tall enough. Did you happen to stry to sit the water pump in place and see where the pulley ends up? Would ti hit anything or are you just going by the difference in height? It could also be that the previous owner put the v-belts on incorrectly due to the alignment with the different water pump. That seems much more likely (to me) than an engine swap with a non-pathy engine.

you can get a pressure guage from any pool supply place or home improvement center. There's nothing special that makes it automotive. removing the engine is WAY more involved than getting the pan out and also doing the t-belt. Assuming you have 4WD, you just remove the front diff and crossmember, loosen stuff and hike the engine up a little bit to get the pan out. But... with it out... it's much easier to work on assuming you don't have slingers, find a place front left to back right (or the opposite) and locate any mounting point ont he block where you can remove a bolt and replace it with another. I put a properly threaded long bolt through a big washer, through a shackle, then into the block. Gave a perfect place to attach. u-joint and plenty of extensions. There was one or two that I needed to be back nearly halfway on the tranny to get the angle. There are 2 bolts on top of the tranny that you can reach if you go long with extensions. Exhaust bolts are the same. Get underneath and find a place where you can see the bolt... then start hooking extensions to get to it. change your #6 plug while it's out

not before I got a few of them downloaded

let me know what you find with respect to cheap injectors. I can most likely do better if you want used ones. I pulled an engine with only 80k miles on it and have the injectors in a baggie in my tool chest. Saving them for a rainy day in case I needed them but I can only imagine needing one or two when the time comes. I'll check the resistance on them to make sure they are good (engine was running great before I spun the bearing so the injectors should be fine).

you can just hook into where the sending unit is. A simple fliud pressure guage and a couple of connectors from the hardware store and you should eb good to go

It would be interesting to see how it would look if you used UV LEDs. Not very bright but if anything in the cluster is UV reactive...

Rod Knock... sounds like a porn name