Kensai

I took a closer look at the sender from the 92. The pinion is a bit different than the type available for the 96 sensor. Its is splines run it's entire length, where the 96 pinions I've seen have a shoulder on them. Counted the teeth and there are 19, so I figure I'll just order a 19T pinion and new 96 type sensor. I got to use my BFH plenty yesterday on the old trailing arm bushings >_>

Thanks for the replies guys! Hawairish - No way that old sensor is coming out of the 96 trans. I think I've applied penetrating oil to it over a dozen times now and have only been successful at breaking off the little arm that the bolt goes through. That guy is STUCK, but I did manage to get the other two sensors towards the rear of the trans out, which is good because those two use different plug types than the one from the 92 trans. Based on the info I got from the threads you posted, I'm planning on ordering a new sensor and trying to re-use the gear off the 92 sender. That gear is the cream colored guy (18T?) and looks to be in good shape. Hopefully I'm able to get it off the old sender intact as is seems to be stuck on there pretty good at the moment. The 96 had 16" rims with I think 235s on them when I got it. These were (imo) too big for the wheel wells given that there is no lift on the truck and the PO had removed the rear mud guards to keep them from rubbing. I swapped them for the 15" wheels off my 92 that have almost new tires and fit great. Given that I'm going to be using the same diameter wheel setup I had on the 92, as well as the pinion gear from the 92, I'm hoping the speedometer will read something close to the actual speed. I took a break from the transmission swap yesterday to replace the upper and lower trailing arms bushings. What fun that is. Two of the trailing arms had bolts that were seized into the metal sleeve in the bushing, which needed to be cut out with the sawzall. Then came the fun of getting the old bushings out of the trailing arms XD Several of the arms had bushings where the center had totally separated from the rubber!

A couple months ago I bought a '96 with a very loud manual transmission. Based on what I've read here and what I saw come out in the fluid when I drained it, I'm pretty sure the PO used a GL5 fluid, which of course totally ate up the inside of the transmission. Long story short, I'm just about done swapping in the transmission from my old '92 but have run into an issue with the vehicle speed sensor. The transmission from the '92 has a cable driven speedo, where as the '96 has an electronic speedo. The speedo sender for the 92 came out just fine, and looks like the typical speedo sender I'm used to seeing on the old British cars I'm used to working on. I can't get the sensor out of the transmission from the '96, and have no clue what the end of that one looks like. I'm assuming that I can just get a new sensor for a '96 trans and it will plug into the '92 trans just fine. The question I have though, is do both sender types use the same gear? The '92 sender has a plastic gear on the end, but when I go to buy a '96 sender, none of them appear to have that gear on them. They all just have a black shaft where the gear should be. They appear to have a flat spot on one end that makes me think that they do use the same gear, and it's just sold individually, but I'm unable to find a listing for the gear. So, do you guys know if the sensor for a '96 will fit into the trans from a '92, and if so where do I get the gear for the '96 sensor?

Awesome! Thanks for the quick reply.

A couple weeks ago I bought a '96 to replace the '92 I've had for a few years now. I decided to upgrade because my 92 has started having a few engine problems and on top of all the other work it needed it didn't seem like it was worth my time to hunt down all the issues. I may have made a dumb mistake there as I have now started down a new rabbit hole with this R50. I looked at this car a couple times and drove it several times as well before I bought it but didn't really notice until I'd gotten it home and put a few miles on it that it has quite a bit of gear whine coming from the transmission. Give the high mileage I didn't think too much about it until I noticed the sound is most noticeable when you are idling in neutral with the clutch out. Given that the transmission gears should not be moving in this situation, I'm leaning more towards a worn input shaft bushing. I also think this may have been caused by the PO using the wrong type of gear lube in the transmission so all the bearings are going to be shot. As I mentioned before I also have a 92 WD21 pathy sitting around that I need to get rid of anyway. Both cars are 4WD 5 speeds. I replaced the clutch on the WD21 about a year ago as a "might as well" because I was swapping in a new engine and the tranny has always worked great as long as I've had the car. My question for you guys is can I swap the tranny from the WD21 into the R50? I've poked around the forums a bit to see if this has already come up but the only thing I've figured out for sure is that the front differentials are different between the models but everything else leads me to believe the actual transmissions and transfer cases are the same. Can anyone confirm that I can put the WD21 5 speed into the R50?

I got a chance to look in there a little more yesterday afternoon. I think you're right with your mud and moisture getting caught up there promoting the rust. I'll try to get in there while I'm working on the bushings and clean everything up.

I recently bought a 96 R50 to replace my old 92 that I've been having issues with the last few months. The PO mentioned that the trailing arm bushings needed to be replaced and while test driving it I noticed the typical rear end wobble. I tested the trailing arms by hand and not only do they need bushings, the bracket on the drivers side of the axle is slightly bent and allows for about a 1/4" of side to side play. While working on that issue yesterday afternoon I realized that there are no bump stops installed on the rear suspension. Upon further inspection I noticed that the upper seats for both rear springs are in bad shape. The drivers side is so bad that the center is totally rusted out. I'm thinking the bump stop got hit one too many times and punched up through the top of the mount. The passengers side is also rusty and cracked, and the stop looks like it was removed before it did the same thing as the drivers side. My question is this; is it possible to get new upper seats for the springs, and how much work would that entail? I've never worked on a suspension setup quite like this before, so I'm a bit lost. A few pictures for you guys. First two are of the driver side, third is the passengers.

I'll have a look at the EGR and check the distributor for looseness today when I'm fooling with the exhaust stuff. I have a loose heat shield on the passengers side because of few of its bolts are broken off. I've fooled with the EGR a bit, and adding vacuum kills the engine. Does that mean it's working properly? Also off topic but I love your Triumph project car Slartibartfast. My first car was a Triumph Stag and most my mechanic experience comes from working on the MG I've had for the last 9 years and all my dad's old British cars.

I've checked the MAF and it's connectors a couple times. They seem to be working fine. If I unplug the MAF while idling the car dies. Reading in the diagnostic guide pdf, it says that the knock sensor will make the computer retard the ignition. I have a pretty serious exhaust leak on the last port of the passenger side manifold, so I'm curious as to whether this might be causing the knock sensor and possible ignition retardation. Both studs are broken on that port so I plan to extract them and get that fixed up this weekend. Does anyone know if there is a way to unplug the knock sensor without getting to the plug on the sensor itself? It would be nice to be able to test the car sans sensor without having to get to the actual sensor.

A few weeks ago my '92 started running rough. When revving below 3500 or so rpm it's running like it has a vacuum leak, bogging down like you're in too high of gear when trying to accelerate. at this point it was idling under 500 and had no power when driving. I did a quick look through the vacuum hoses and found the large L shaped hose that runs from the main intake hose into the metal line that disappears under the intake plinth had a large crack in it. I replaced this hose and it helped but it is still stuttering when trying to accelerate and it just doesn't have the power it should. So far, I have gone through every vacuum line I can find, and have found no other broken hoses but have replaced most of the small ones as well as the brake booster line. I have also done a spark test and it seems like all cylinders are firing alright. I checked the PCV valve and it was pretty dirty. My local parts store doesn't carry them so I cleaned the old valve (seems to move freely) and have a new one on order. I have cleaned the connectors on all the sensors I could find around the vacuum lines. I have tried unplugging the MAF, as well as the other two sensors that looked vacuum related (the one on top of the "tower" near the rear of the engine as well as the one on the little box that has 3 vacuum lines running to it under the throttle). The only one that seems to effect anything if you unplug it while the car is running is the MAF, so I'm not sure if the other two are working at all or not. Today I checked my ECU mode 3 codes. It came back with 12 (MAF) and 34 (knock sensor). I cleaned my MAF and checked the wires again and that didn't change anything. I'm not sure where to go from here. As if I wasn't stressed enough about this my registration came today with the dreaded EMISSIONS TEST REQUIRED stamp.

I'm hoping for a clogged pickup. I took the new filter off to see if oil was getting that far and it was totally dry. I worked on getting to the oil pan most of the afternoon, and have made quite a bit of progress. The front differential is just about ready to come out but the bolt holding it to the right side of the crossmember is stuck. I'll get back at it tomorrow after the PB has done it's job.

Started the pathfinder up this morning and the usual lifter rattle did not go away, and my oil pressure light would not turn off. Checked the oil and it was a bit low, so I topped it off and started it up again. The noise seemed quiter but the oil light still wouldn't turn off. I was running late for work so I figured I'd give it a mile or so to warm up and see it the light would turn off. Didn't make it that far before the engine started dying when I would come to a stop oir even when I would just put the clutch in without reving the engine. Made it back home and decided to try some seafoam and a new filter in hopes that would free up a clog and get oil flowing again. That doesn't seem to have done much, and when I drained the oil there wasn't any sludge or chunkyness at all. The oil was dark but looked pretty normal to me. I took the right side valve cover off and everything looks nice and clean up there as well. Put everything back toigether with fresh oil and I still don't have any pressure. At this point I'm thinking I need to check out the oil pick up filter for clogs and look at the oil pump. Is there anything else I should check before I do all that work or anything else you guys can think of that would be causing me to have no oil pressure? I should note that this engine has ~268,000 miles on it. I have only had it since 262,000 and have no service records.