Welp. Found another issue. The transmission started lurching from a stop. Only a little at first, then it gets more noticeable as it heats up. Seems to shift through gears ok, but from a dead stop it lurches into gear. Sometimes it's a just a little bump, other times it will chirp the tires. Only takes about 5 mins or so to make it happen. Noticed the transfer case is leaking from the front, too. This wasn't leaking at all before. *sigh*. Anyhow - We're going to drop the pan and change fluid and filter (needs it bad anyhow), and put in some of that transmission tune up stuff and see if maybe it loosens up a sticky valve.

One thing I noticed today is after 3 hours of being parked, the bottom of transmission underneath the shifter is still very hot to the touch. A friend of mine lost his transmission because of a bad cooler. How hard are these things to change, and are they easy to check? Also, the leaking front of the transfer case - I'm assuming a gasket? Hopefully that's not too much a pita.

 

My idler arm was so shot it when i wiggled it to see what was loose it came in two! What if that happened on e road? Lucky. I en went on to replace all ball joints and the tie rod ends. It now tracks straight.

 

Don't waste your money getting it aligned at town faire tire. I had to bring it back to then three times before they got it right. They'd not know what they're doing. I do my own alignments with a string now. Look it up on YouTube.