Rookie

Donno, but FYI a lot of people refer to brush gaurds as "damage multipliers". Accidents that would normally only cause minor bumper damage, turn into busted grill work and crinkled hoods when you have those brush guards on.

Whoops. Here's the link. http://forum.ih8mud.com/80-series-tech/642...dification.html

This link on how to modify the factory temp guage, has a good explanation of how to remove the instrument cluster.

I wouldn't be horsing with it like that. If it's running that bad something is way off and you need to get it checked ASAP. You could be causing a lot of damage by running it. I.e. what may be a relatively minor fix now, could turn into a toasted motor by continuing to run it.

I can't tell what that is from the picture (kind of foggy), but your setup is a little different than the LX450. There's nothing in that area on mine. There are a couple of things that connect up to the throttle body on mine (just not in this spot), that are about the size and shape of what you're showing. One is the Throttle position sensor, the other is the Idle Air Control valve. Obviously both could impact issues that result in the problems you've described. Both of these bolt to the throttle body, and have a wiring harness that clip into them. I don't think something like this could just "pop off", but look around some more and see it there's an empty wiring harness dangling from somewhere.

If your head gasket blew, you'd typically have white smoke and a coolant smell coming from the exhaust and overheating. If your PCV valve were stuck open and you're sucking oil into the intake chamber, that would make it run really bad, other than that the first place I'd look is fuel delivery.

You might try the for sale section over at IH8MUD.com. A lot of those guys have changed wheels and/or taken them off because they like the look better.

Usually I get about 4 quarts +/- to drain out through the plug. IIRC it has around 12 in it total. Next time around I'm going to pull the pan and clean out the bottom good. It's never been done before and I'm sure the magnets are caked with shavings. FYI, go easy on the tranny bolt torque. The pan or bolt has been known to strip.

I'm not sure I can add anything about the weird ca-chunk thing as I've not experienced that. I think I was just asking for clarification about what he was talking about. I've always heard not to try to pull a heavy load in reverse, like pulling someone out of a ditch or something, because it's to much strain on the transmission, and it's not up to that kind of load in reverse. Wouldn't think backing a trailer up would cause a problem though. Regards, Rookie

Diffs: Remove fill plug, then remove drain plug to let oil out, replace drain plug, pump new gear oil in, replace fill plug. righty tighty lefty loosy... not much to it. Trans: Remove drain plug to let fluid out, replace drain plug and add new fluid through tranny dip stick tube. If you're going to work on you rig, you need to invest a couple of bucks in a manual. Chiltons can be had for $20, it does a very good job of describing the procedures for most minor maintenance. If you want to go deeper the FSM is around $100. Although the drain and fills above are about as simple as it gets, there are tid-bits of information that I haven't listed which the manuals have (fill height, bolt torques, fluid specs etc..) Good Luck, Rookie Edit: the drain and fills above are for an LX450. You've listed LX470 as your car model, but you posted in the LX450 forum.

Good deal. The one useful thing about an oil pressure gage is that if it's reading zero one of two things has happened, either your engine has blown up or your gage isn't working. If the engine is running, it's pretty easy to elliminate the first one.

Next round maybe. Baby steps... She's still my DD. :D Funny thing is, I got them from Discount Tire and they originally sent the wrong size... 295's. I didn't even notice until the tire installer came out and said "you sure these tires will fit :o "? With my no lift, they packed the wheel well. I had to send the back :( .

If I'm sitting in my LX, I can bend forward a little bit and look over to see the white cap for the passenger seat. It's located under the seat (obviously), towards what would be the upper left corner (for the passenter seat). It goes in horizontally, so when I look from the drivers seat, I see the philips screw end of it. Hope that helps.

265/75-R16. They are slightly narrower, but about an inch taller than the stock tire I had on, so I got a little bit of lift to boot.

I narrowed my choices down to the Revos and Nitto Terra Grapplers. I went with the Nittos beacuse the based on the reviews were great, ratings on tire rack were as good as Revos, and the price was a bit cheaper. They have a pretty meaty profile to them.. look good, they are noisier than my previous highway radial. On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being the previous no-noise radials, 10 being the droan of a meaty mud tire, I'd put these at about a 4 or 5. Definitely noticeable, has gotten less with age (about a year old).