My entire family and most of my friends think I am crazy for the amount of work I have put into my Mazda. In the past year I have replaced tires, shocks, balljoints, every u-joint, every wheel bearing, spindle bearings, all the fluids, done bodywork, replaced the clutch, replaced brakes and put on new rear drums, done some more bodywork, replaced valve cover gaskets, replaced coil/wires/plugs, and I consider all of this to be general maintenance that should be done periodically to any vehicle. All I am doing is making sure it's mechanically sound before I lift it, lock it, and gear it. That doesn't stop me from still beating on it on trails, though. My dad keeps mentioning things like "Yeah, I suppose you could replace those rockers, or patch 'em up to get you by until you get something else." He actually sold the thing while I was gone in the Army (it WAS in his name) and I made him get it back as soon as I found out. I was so relieved when I got home and found it in the driveway. All through highschool I drove a '90 Ranger with a 2.9 and wheeled the snot out of it (I broke a few sets of leafpacks, bent a tranny crossmember, put the tranny through the rear of the cab(you think I'm exaggerating - but I snagged the crossmember on a stump at 30mph and almost stood the truck on it's nose), snapped motor mounts, burned out a clutch, went through several sets of tires, ect - and it was always able to drive home, even with the front u-joint on the rear driveshaft chewing a hole in the sheet metal), and a Ranger with a Dana 35 and a 31 spline 8.8 with a OHC 4.0 and a manual was my dream vehicle because I figured out what a 2.9 with a Dana 28 and a 7.5 was capable of- not a Lamborghini or a Viper like everyone else - and I finally got that combo when I got my Navajo. I'm not upset it's in a 2-door SUV instead of a truck, I kind of like the back seats and short wheelbase. This thing is an absolute animal on ATV trails. I actually got it down one trail (with open diffs, auto hubs and 31's) where I need to use the front locker on my Suzuki King Quad, and I never even had to so much as rock it back and forth. Had a friend with me who was freaking out, and yes, I had previously had a few err, sodas, so I was using plenty of throttle. I'm convinced this truck has a soul and considers me a friend - one of the reasons I flipped out and got it back instead of finding another one.
I am retiring it from daily driver duties as soon as I can afford to drive almost 700 miles round trip to retrieve my other car from where my sister left it and get it back on the road. That will also allow me to do some work to my truck I've been putting off since it has to be driveable every day. I fully intend on keeping this truck until something catastrophic happens - short of it getting crushed under a semi I'm willing to fix about anything. Yet I still whack it off the occasional rock and tree out wheeling... (try that with a new truck! or try getting a new truck in water so deep your headlights are shining underwater and see how much it likes it)
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Obviously it's our fault by not buying new ones. Then Ford's fault for making them too good.
or a turbo diesel motor
