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Started by Dinky, Jul 03, 2024, 12:19 PM

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Dinky

Hello all and thank you for allowing me to join your board. Where to start? +/-15 years ago the wife came home and said she saw a "cute" little car for sale down the street.  Being she was currently driving our Expedition she wanted something smaller. A few minutes and $1500.00 later was driving home a 89' Sidekick JX, bone stock no thrills. 

The temps (Arizona) stated getting hot and she grew tired of it.  Sat around for another year or so, tried thinking of who in the family we might offer it to and get some use out of it. Nothing ever came to be.  Instead of just letting die a slow death we decided to take it to our vacation home in Mexico.  Gave it a serious once over and came back in remarkably good shape still. Then took it in and had the suspension done, with new wheels. From then until just the past few months it's has stayed in Mexico.  With all the other off-road toys we have we keep coming back to this one as our favorite.  So now we're looking to start going through it and repairing up grading.

The only problem Dinky gave us was the radiator. Tried swapping it out but what a nightmare.  Why it's so difficult I have no idea.  Ended up welding the concern spots but would still like to replace it at some time. Anyway, hope to bring you guys along for the ride.   

         

Still Zukin


Dinky

Thought I'd check back in with a progress report on the repair and upgrades. The radiator had to go, couldn't rely on the repairs any longer.  First tried ordering (Rock Auto) one just by the simple dimensions I could get from it in place.  The overall width was a little short, nothing some spacers couldn't fix. Fan shroud lined up, but the bottom positioning pins were 3/4" off. Thought about some fab work, but now that I had it out, I could get better dimensions. Second one I ordered, spot-on-match.

So, why not replace the water pump (WP), t-stat, hoses and belts while I'm in there.  Even though it never got any real milage on it, they're all hitting about 17 years.  I'm thinking 3-4 hours, but after my 7th hour, all I was thinking is those damn Japs!  First the fan then the WP pulley, timing belt shroud, belt, belt tensioner and that funky little set-up...who puts the WP behind the timing belt.               

Okay, all out and cleaned up, first of the three hoses installed. Now the belt and tensioner, found the marks on the top pulley and lined it up, now the harmonizer pulley...wait where are they?  The tear drop is in plain sight, but where's the pulley mark?   Must have rotated that pulley 50 times and still couldn't find it.  I'm thinking I've got to remove the pulley to find it. Before that I decided to take a break and web-search it a little. What I find is that there is no mark on the pulley, it's the spindle key slot, 12 o'clock straight up, that's the mark!  After that, the rest on the install went fine.  Cooling system all done.  Now on to the transmission.