I needed to get some heat out of the engine bay while on the trails so I pulled the hood, made some templates, and made some vent holes. I have some edge trim to go around the edges, but haven't gotten around to it, as I've been really tied up.
Driving it around with the big holes in the hood kinda forced me to address the leaking power steering pump, as the PS fluid was misting onto the windshield. It was very slight, but enough to bug me. Additionally, the windshield washer hose was saturated with the PS fluid and therefore soft, so every time I tried to spray the windshield the hose just popped off the pump. So between Friday night and Saturday I swapped the power steering pump, which shouldn't have taken as long as it did, but it really drove home the fact I need to invest in an impact wrench.
Today I dropped the gas tank (without cleaning it from the last incredibly muddy trail ride; won't do that again) to repair the fuel level sending unit which hasn't worked since I obtained this thing. The unit itself was just fine, but the float was cracked, so I clipped on a new float and everything seems to be working now.
Yesterday I found that my water pump is leaking pretty badly, so I'm going to keep the truck parked until I can make time to swap it out. Also, I pretty badly mangled my t-case skid plate on the last ride, so I'll need to toss in the replacement I picked up Friday.
A few pictures of the hood work:
