NovaPath

I'm going to go against the grain of the other posts. You are in college, you should be spending time hanging out with friends, hitting on girls, and enjoying being young, not tied up having to work on a vehicle every day. There will be plenty of time for project cars in your life, in my opinion now isn't that time. That being said, you could be totally different than I was and want to spend your time working on it on the weekends, but I can tell you I have tons of memories from my weekends in college that I wouldn't trade for anything, definitely not working on a vehicle. Do you live on campus or commute?

Do you get tired of hopping out and unlocking them re locking? I imagine 90% of the time the drivers hub just stays unlocked... also, how many cv shafts and manual hubs have you broken? Thanks!

Ok guys, give me the down sides. Only time I will be in 4wd is on trails, how screwed will the turning radius be? Don't want to weld the rear as it is still driven on the street to camping and wheeling spots, and will be occasionally around down as well. Thanks

Decision made: keeping the Nissan to wheel. Decided i will spend more tearing up the Jeep, and I'd really like to keep it in nice shape for a while. Now to find some cheap used 33's and shoe horn them on. Like to lock up the front end too. I'm excited to wheel this thing with an I don't care about cosmetics mentality(ok....never really did!)

Thanks for the thoughts guys. I'm still on the fence about it, I actually wheeled(well, lightly wheeled) the wrangler this past weekend. Holy cow, what a difference. Best way I can describe is that the Nissan feels "forced" when I wheel it, and the wrangler felt "at home". The hill descent control is legit, and so is the ability to crawl over rocks without touching the accelerator. That being said, I managed to scratch two of the wheels which bothered me way more than it should for a vehicle that I plan to wheel......No other damage to speak of, thankfully. I still have the Nissan apart in the garage, I've been spending the time cleaning the new vehicle instead of fixing the old. I promised myself i'd put two hours into the Nissan this weekend though, in theory that should be enough to put it back together. If I can get to a point of enjoyment working on it again, I will hang on to it to wheel, but if I still can't stand working on the thing, then I think it's time has passed. I don't mind a challenge, and i'm hoping that when it isn't my daily driver that is supposed to get me to and from work every day, that I won't mind being frustrated by the idiots at Nissan when they built the thing . I could weld the front diff and have no impact on drivability on the street as I've got manual hubs, remove all the sway bars, cut the fenders, and run 33's. That should get me most places that I'd like to go . On top of that the A/C still blows ice cold, and the seat heaters even still work....The rig really does have a lot going for it as a woods truck. Not to mention the ability to fully lock it up and protect the inside, unlike the soft top on the Jeep.

So to those that have followed my posts, it is no secret I have become exhausted with my pathy's constant desire to take my money and time lately. This "forced" me to run out and purchase a new 17 wrangler unlimited. So, i've got my old Nissan with the steering rack partially installed sitting in my garage, and my brand new wrangler out in the driveway. The way I look at it I have two options: 1. Fix the Nissan and wheel the crap out of it until I blow it up or can't fix it. This would allow the "newness" of the wrangler to wear off and still give me something to wheel. 2. Sell the Nissan for whatever I can get ( I figure 2500 is fair asking price for it once fixed). It's hard to justify keeping it to wheel when I have such a better vehicle for wheeling in my driveway, but i'm also not amped up to go destroy my new ridiculously expensive jeep. Hell, I don't even want to scratch it, lol. Give me some thoughts,

Yeah, it wasn't a good night of wrenching. I actually stopped for a bit and the truck is still taken apart. New rack is resting in place, but that's about it. I did, however, just come home with a brand new Wrangler Unlimited Sport so at least I've got a reliable DD while I sort through this flippin truck. Once the Jeep gets a few dings on it from normal wear and tear the Nissan is getting sold and I will be wheeling the Jeep. I just cant bring myself to purposely put my brand new truck into the dirt yet...call me panzy.

So, I'm mid this job, and have a few tips. This pertains to a 4x4 01, so your vehicle may vary. Both upper 22mm bolts are a pain to get to. The driver's side is made much easier by removing the a/c belt tensioner pulley assembly. The passenger's side there is no easy solution to, unless you can find a very thin walled 22mm, and then chances are it will break due to the torque on it. The vacuum pump is directly, obnoxiously, in the way. There is no easy way to disconnect the steering linkage, I ended up removing the bolts on the steering guibo, as years of salt roads had seized the regular methods. You will need to remove this first, loosen all 4 22m bolts, and then you can rotate the rack towards you to fit a ratchet on the 14mm hydraulic line bolts. Otherwise, you cannot get sufficient leverage on those bolts to break them free. On a plus, this last failure has given me the green light with the boss(lovely wife) to purchase a new JKU, which will leave this POS to wheeling purposes only until I don't care about the brand new JKU so much. On a negative, this is the worst freaking vehicle I have ever put a wrench to. It is absolutely obnoxious to work on, and I can't stand doing it. This is coming from a guy who has rebuilt BMW and Mercedes suspensions, performed his own timing belt replacements on Toyota/Lexus vehicles, and in general loves to wrench. This is the. worst. designed. vehicle. ever. to work on. Rant over. For now...

Thanks for the offer Saturn, but unfortunately Jacksonville is about 4.5 hrs away from me. I did use to go to school there though at UNF, fun town!

Alright, thanks for the feedback. I'm going to use the old tape measurer alignment until I can get it in to a shop. Truth be told, with this 2" lift, i'd probably have a better time trying to align in myself. When I was in Northern VA no one would touch it, and the one shop that did I had to bring it back 3x to get it even somewhat right. Sounds like I get to use my power tools...score. Anyone got bets on what goes out next? So far in the past few months it has been a spark plug seal, a coil, the starter(again) and now the rack. To make it fair, I currently have a CEL for the swirl valves and 02 sensor. Only fixing driveability issues at this point so...any takers on a guess?

My steering rack is more than toast. Literally dripping from both sides at this point, I guess 175k miles is about all it could handle. I didn't catch it sooner because all of the mud and clay built up in there acted as a nice diaper, so I didn't see any leaks until it was literally pouring out of it, guess the mud/clay hit it's saturation point.... I've ordered the replacement, along with new bushings, as well as new swaybar bushings, and also ordered new outer tie rod ends. Figure no sense in half assing it at this point. Any tips? I've got an electric impact that occupies a portion of my garage half the size of Texas, a big effing hammer, and lots of other destruction devices. My main fear is this turning into a fiasco like my valve cover gaskets and realizing that everything I touch is crumbling to pieces and has to be replaced. Thanks in advance, -Jeep guy in a Nissan body.

I ran 245/75/16 without a lift and had very saggy rear springs. Minimal rubbing.

Alright folks, looks like I owe Saturn an apology. I can tell you with 100% certainty that my 01 valve covers are metal with removable spark plug tube seals, however after doing some internet research prompted from Saturn's reply, it turns out that there was a change at some point in production switching those to plastic. With how brittle everything that is plastic is down there, I am in definite agreement that they should be changed out as well if you have plastic ones....

Saturn: I hate to break it to you, but the outside of the tube seals is the plastic part, not the valve covers....The new tube seals press into the metal valve cover housing(I used a bfg very lightly to tap them in). They were, a bear to get out and I can definitely understand why you would have thought that. Not intended to make you feel bad, but for others reading there is no reason to replace the actual valve covers themselves.

So, riddle me this: After doing my valve cover gaskets, i'm getting the following CEL codes: P1320 P1130 P1141(okay, in full transparency this one was existing). So, I replaced all the plugs with OEM from the aftermarket ones, and also replaced the cylinder 4 coil, as well as some vacuum lines and the pcv valve. The oddest part of all of this, is: this thing now runs freaking amazing. It has tons more power, is way smoother, no more mis firing when starting, and in general the engine runs like new. Why is my emissions check light mad at me for a better running engine now? It runs way better than when I bought it(with no check light on). Not really looking for an answer, I know that it is upset with some sort of resistance reading somewhere, more of a rant

Never had water or mud in the ignition coil? I thought I coined the term "rough terrain" for what I've had mine through.... The coil boot should protect the actual plug from the water/mud, so in theory the only thing that should be wet is the top of the coil itself. Now, if you want to talk about oil filled spark plug wells, then i'm your guy.

Thanks all! My budget is basically to just get the damn job done, i've got one on order from amazon prime for 145 but it is out of stock and has been now for two weeks. They have a new one for 170 shipped in stock...let me know what you'd want for the used ones!

http://www.partsgeek.com/gbproducts/WC/6755-01168828.html?utm_content=YN&utm_term=2001-2002+Nissan+Pathfinder+Air+Mass+Meter+Boot+Genuine+01-02+Nissan+Air+Mass+Meter+Boot&utm_source=google&utm_medium=ff&utm_campaign=PartsGeek+Google+Base&gclid=CjwKEAjw5M3GBRCTvpK4osqj4X4SJAABRJNCju-MqYA2uL05PDuYq8hCQJEkRd_AmyDoN0fyKjDjkxoComDw_wcB&ad=47433949932 I can only find it with all the other stuff on it as well...I just need the rubber part not the clamps, resonators etc!

No unfortunately, it is the other one....seems to be the only place is junkyard or to put up with the $150 price tag. ugh.

Alright Ladies and Gents, I'm trying to locate a new air intake boot, best as I can tell it is only sold as the assembly via part #16576-4W00A. Best price i've found is on amazon at $145, but all I really need is the darn flexible boot part. Has anyone else had one of these crack on a VQ engine and come up with a better(I.E. cheaper) alternative? Thanks!

The internet seems to be lacking on a DIY on these things. That being said, unfortunately I did not document my project well enough to create one myself, but thought I would post a couple of suggestions prior to diving into this. First, expect your hands and fore-arms to get all sorts of scratched up. You need to have jedi-like ninja hands or just deal with the pain when removing some of the hard to see vacuum lines and connectors. Second, in addition the the valve cover gaskets themselves have the following items purchased: Breather hose(mine crumbled), PCV valve(same crumbling problem), and PCV hose(again, crumbling...see a trend here?). Make sure you purchase the plug seals as well, you don't want to be dead in the water when you realize one is cracked or in two pieces all together! It is also a good idea to have both the upper and lower manifold gasket sets available. Mine had seen better days, and since I had to stop mid project to wait on these other parts figured I'd just replace them also. An assortment of different sized vacuum lines and connectors would not be a bad idea, either. Third, this is a prime time to do your spark plugs. Adds 10 minutes tops to the job. Fourth, there are two 12mm bolts on the back side of the lower plenum that you have to remove in order to remove the lower plenum. They are torqued tight, and you can't fit a normal ratchet on them. You will need either a boxed in 12mm, or some sort of slim line ratchet. An open ended 12mm resulted in me stripping out the bolt and having to bust out the dremmel. Fifth, you DO NOT have to remove the fuel rail. It is a tight fit on the passenger side(bank 1), but it is doable without removing the rail. Hope this helps someone, I know it would have helped me!

Check the area right of the shifter to see if anything is pressing on it or it is out of alignment. I screwed my CB radio mount to it, and when the passenger seat is pushed up and pressing on the CB radio, it does this.

Mine does it too. I've ignored it, has done it with or without the CEL being on for various reasons. Even when all is well, it still happens. I'm assuming it is normal.

It is possible on jack stands. My knee jerk reaction is that you jarred something loose in the starter and it is now spinning. This job took me 3 hours(no, i'm not kidding), and I'm no slouch with a wrench. Far from a professional mechanic, but competent at a minimum. This is by far one of the most frustrating items I've ever replaced on a car, second to a vacuum actuator on an old Mercedes, but it is possible to get it out. If i recall, you need to remove that boot and slide it up the wire first before you can get a wrench on it. From there, it is a 1/4 turn at a time. I had a shop quote me an hour to do this, I should have taken them up on it! Search my user name, I asked this question a year or two back as well.

Thanks! Next night I have to tinker with the truck I will have to do this. It will be very helpful for night runs.