Hi. New. Quick questions about 4 wheel and temperature

[iawia]

Hi,

I bought a 93 Tracker 4x4, standard, 8V for my daughter who then decided a standard is not for her. I've been commuting in it to save miles on my truck and have grown quite fond of it. It only has about 114km (~67K miles) so is in quite good condition, but I have two questions:

1. In 4 wheel, it doesn't steer too sharp (like my GMC 4x4) which is OK but when I turn in reverse it seems to bind up (both hi and lo). Is this a problem?

2. The temperature guage never rises more that a tenth of the way up from the left side. Heat and everything is fine. I find this odd. Is this a potential problem?

I'm searching for a hardtop. Like the rallytop but is expensive to get into Canada. Anyone with any tips, like alternatives, etc.?

I'm thinking of towing this behind my camper, either towbar or car trailer. Any advice of good towbar arrangements, and tips about flat towing?

Thanks for any help.

[kelikran]

Hello, I can answer to one of your questions, since I just had the same thing. My temp.
gauge on my 91 was doing about the same, just barely getting onto the solid white part. Put in a 195 thermostat, now it gets up to just under center, even in -35-40. As far as the
steering/bind up thing goes, I don't know. It almost sounds like there's a locked diff. Have you checked oil in the diffs? Good luck with these things. They are great little trucks, you fall in love with them!

[lord_galathon]

195°F seems a little extreme, especially if you consider (in light of my recent experience with my own truck) that the dash gauge provides information which is from the realm of science fiction...

I would try changing the thermostat yes, but put in a 180°F, that should be plenty. Another thing to change once in a while is the gauge sender, it's mounted just under the thermostat and has one single lead out, they cost about 25$.

Start with the 10$ thermostat of course. Mine was bad (see pic)



For your reverse gear binding issue, you must make absolutely sure you follow the rules when shifting into 4x4:

1-make sure front wheels are straight when you lock the hubs
2-make sure front wheels are straight when you shift the lever
3-make sure you're driving under 60MPH (105km/h) when you shift that lever

Entering 4LOW of course requires a complete stop. Enjoy your truck, you're addicted now. Believe me, I HATED it the first time I drove one (my in laws) and subsequently bought three...

[aquanaut20]

Steering problem, check front wheels for sign of unequal wear or cupping. Wife's 99 Tracker did that and found the front end to be toed out.

Adjusted to spec and now it tracks fine..

[iawia]

Thanks guys. Will look into these things.

[Alain]

Don't bother about changing your thermostat. 195° is just fine. Most poeple doesn't understand how a thermostat works. It's just a mather of heat transfer. The longer the thermostat stay closed, the more heat transfer from the engine to the coolant.

[jtgh]

the thermostat sets the minimum temp. not the max.
it will open later, and the car heater will get hotter, sooner.
Engine will be more efficient.
Engine can now run short trips with out water vapor depositing in the oil. (and remaining)
the hotter engine will need good top end oiling, but should be ok. (above vapor is worse)

i believe the perfect engine, is one that has an infinite stroke
and exhausts to absolute zero, (both impossible, but many still claim this engine has low efficiencies, silly huh? )

if one had such an engine , there would be no heat to expel to the RAD. (look up "pulse detonation engine", wow !)

I believe the high temp. is desired by the fed, so you can get in to closed loop sooner, cleaner air, and quicker Prime MPG sooner.
I have 2 cars, that have a 2 stage thermostat.
opens real late , then pops open fast and holds 190-195.
car is hot just blocks from home!

Not a big change , but for those that live near the Polar bears, all improvements are a blessing.
Never down grade an EFI tuned , thermostat, it will mess up the A/F maps.
The maps are tuned for that factory stat.
But in Klondyke city , 5 degrees more can be good.

cheers

[the flying scotsman]

An often overlooked reason for a thermostat is to create back pressure in the cooling system. Were it not for the thermostat, the front half or so of any engine will be much cooler than the rear half, creating hot spots in the water jackets of both block and cylinder head. Powertrain control modules of all modern EFI engines rely on relatively high temperatures to calibrate fuel delivery. One of the worst things anyone can do is to remove it entirely, which is the first thing virtually everyone here does anyway.

[jtgh]

Some still live in the age of carbs. even though they left us in about 1988.
People had a plugged up radiator, due to misuse, and they pull the stat.
car sucks gas for 2 years and everything goes down hill from there....

the future is something like this:

The QuasiTurbo
It runs in detonation mode ! burns fast and hot.
And stops that wasteful pumping losses.
If this flies, hybrids are doomed. I believe they are on the right track, in detonation mode !

Been tried on the pistion engine and they explode. everytime.

Quasiturbine Problematic - HCCI Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition - SCCI Stratified Combustion

Howstuffworks "Photo-detonation and Quasiturbine Engines"


check out the power to weight ratios on this plant ! 4x ?

[JamesG]

A gasoline desiel... cool!

BTW- I really hate to hear when someone buys a Trackick for their teenage kid. I really need to find/take some pictures of the aftermath of a collision or rollover of one of these little cars. They don't do to well.
Maybe that will reduce it, unless of course they have alot of life insurance on the children. LOL!