98 Amigo 4x4 Aka "Smeags"

We took the amigo to the local off road park and after a lot of playing in the mud and a little front end smack into a log I noticed the gauges were acting a bit funny. Just about every warning light possible was stuck on. Had the slightest hunch it was alternator related but didnt have my multimeter on me. An hour later we decided to go home and made it about 15 miles before we lost the speedo and tach, and the windows were really slow. Knew the inevitable at this point. Eventually died on the side of the road and had to tow it. All the connections were good albeit covered in mud so it looks like it's new alternator time unless this one comes back to life after a cleaning

Number 5 in this diagram. New one is on although the old spacer took some damage and I had to reuse it, doesn't seem to affect anything. Also attaching a picture that shows how the vinyl wrap turns purple when the sun hits it. Not gonna lie it's starting to grow on us, and we get a lot of compliments on it while driving around.

Latest update, more adventures and more problems. We roadtripped it down to Pismo Beach to hit the dunes for the weekend. We hit some unexpected traffic and started to overheat so we had to pull over and let it cool down enough to make it to the next exit to get some food and wait out the traffic. Once that was over everything was great. The amigo was killing it at the beach and in the dunes. Pulled out two stuck cars to get our positive karma for the weekend. Even some of the more serious rigs were getting stuck, including an area that was jokingly being described as "quick sand" that we were able to clear like it was nothing. Temps were perfect too. Had a couple beers with a great ocean view and decided it was time to start the trip home.

..Except the front axles were still spinning in the parking lot. Tried everything, from prolonged reverses, driving down the street a bit, wiggling the steering wheel in reverse. Fearing for the worst (stuck in 4WD compared to stuck auto hubs), I found a dirt lot and did some "tests". First test definitely felt like RWD, that was a solid donut. To be definitive, I hit the 4WD button and did another test, and yep now we're gripping. Turned 4WD off, and back into donut mode. So the 4WD is disengaging, but the hubs won't. Tried everything to get those hubs to disengage including flooring it down an empty street 20 mph in reverse. Eventually decided to head the 200 miles home and hope I still have CV boots by the end. Drove home fine, still got intact axles, yet we're still rotating. Really want to do a manual hub conversion now, but any tips to get these auto hubs to disengage for the time being?

Also, plan for the overheating is a new Mishimoto (or similar) aftermarket radiator and a new thermostat. Coolant is topped off and looks fresh. Fan seems to be working. Any other ideas?

Took a gamble on an ebay 2 row full aluminum radiator. Had a little bit of trouble getting it to fit at first, had to slightly hammer the lower passenger side bracket to clear the extra thickness. One of the upper mounting bracket grommets had to be trimmed as well. Other than that everything else bolted up perfect. Itll be a while until we take the amigo out to some trails and test to see if this fixed our cooling issue. The old radiator had some weird "C" shaped damage so I feel good knowing that something nice is in its place.



Also did a compression test, new ngk spark plugs, and a new Bosch fuel filter. Numbers were 190-190-190-190-190-195 (rounded to the nearest 5 psi).

Battle tested the new ebay radiator and it has indeed solved everything. We went to a place that is basically nothing but steep low speed hill climbs. No overheating! Gonna be nice to no longer worry about blasting the heater in traffic