tpounds

Reviving this thread finally. I spent some time over the course of 3 months trying to loosen that damn crank nut. I never could get the thing to loosen without an impact wrench. Shortly after trying that I injured my back real bad at work and it took a while to recover from it and then there was... 2020. So... Here I am 2 years later, I sold my green Pathy to a neighbor who then sold it to another neighbor, and then he sold it to one of his friends. That friend of his has it still and we talk about getting mine up and running often. Well thanks to stimulus #3 I've got more parts and a renewed interest to getting my black Pathfinder running. Some things are better over time right? I now have 6 new fuel injectors ready to be installed. I have bought new belts, coolant hoses, a coolant reservoir because the original is literally falling apart, fan clutch, fan blade, starter motor, and various other parts. Just about everything I could think of other than the water pump. If the water pump does go out at some point I'll take it to a local shop and have them get that crank nut off. After 2 years the garage has also become a clutter magnet from storing other things so I gotta get the garage cleaned out too but we all know what that's like I imagine. BUT, I'm ready to fix this thing and start enjoying the wonderful Montana backroads. As with before I will take some pictures and post them along with my commentary. As I like to proclaim, enjoy the ride! P.S.: Thanks to all of the previous posters in this thread and all of the other wonderful how-to and rebuild threads out there. This forum is worth its text in gold.

Groovy, much thanks!

OK so quick question, loosen the bolt clockwise or counter clockwise? It's on there pretty good but I have it static, just a small bit of play. I put pb liberally on there just to be sure. I'm ready to go at it but just want to know which direction. Counter as usual?

That link is awesome so thanks for that!

Alright, I'm getting closer. Before I get further into this I'm hoping to get some tips and tricks. First of all, the woodruff key mentioned in this NPORA forum seems like it's a hard to find part. I didn't know what the heck it was until mentioned by Mr_Reverse and went to the magical Google. If anyone has a source to buy one I'd be grateful for a link, I can't find one specific to this engine anywhere. So, I'm still wary on the seals, I've never replaced one before and it's a little daunting getting this far. Definitely don't want to screw it up with newbie mistakes. Now, I know I'll probably need to go rent a puller for the pulley but first are there any precautions to removing the nut? Will the crankshaft stay in place? If not what can I do to stop it from rotating? Should I spray it with pb and let it sit? The same goes for the camshafts, any tips are a plus. Getting closer to the cleaning portion of this test I just want it all broken down first so I can visualize each piece as I clean them. Thanks in advance, I'm learning more than my sponge can store right now but it's been fun so far.

Thank you both. I ordered a "kit" from RockAuto that has the pump, gasket, timing belt, tensioner and seals today and it should be here next week. Over the weekend I started pulling more stuff off like the fan shroud and radiator, sucked up as much crap as possible with the shop vac and renamed her to Black Betty cuz the damn things gone wild. Doing this slow and methodical has led me to believe that Nissan engineers are both brilliant and idiotic at the same time. Engine electrical connectors are too damn hard to separate, I broke two injector connectors while trying to remove them from the fuel rails. Not terribly bad but enough to curse at them. Grrr... The plus side is the radiator and shroud are easy to remove but why put the damn petcock hidden by a cross member? Weird. While looking at the underside a little more closely I noticed another potential issue when I looked at the alternator. I'm not sure how to test or clean an alternator but wow. This was directly under the valve cover screw I removed by hand. That's gonna take a while I think. Now that the shroud is out of the way I also realized the fan clutch is going to need to be replaced as it doesn't move at all. I'm making progress and enjoying it but damn I'm getting ancy, I wanna go play. Here's what it looks like right now: I keep looking at the valves on the passenger side and don't like what I see but I'm hoping this could be normal discoloration. If anyone has a comment on the valves being different colors like that I'm all ears, or any comments period I love feedback. Anyway, just a small update with more parts on the way. Have a good week everyone. Edit: I forgot, I took my multimeter to the injectors and whoa and behold one of them is bad. Not one of the ones I broke so it looks like I get to cannibalize the other pathy this week and grab 3. I have a method now so fingers crossed.

Thanks for the plug info! Yes, all 6 of the injectors are like that. I was checking it out and it is some burnt carbon most likely from the oil. I watched a YouTube video last night and the guy had the exact same thing on his injectors. Same pattern, lower 1/3 of each one. I pulled them because I'm going to test each one for resistance and replace the o-rings for all 6. I'm hoping all of the injectors are still good but if not I have 6 more laying around somewhere...

I think I've talked myself into replacing the water pump as well so further down the rabbit hole we go! Edit: can anyone explain to me where in the world the coolant drain plugs on the block are? Totally confused by the one close up picture in my Haynes manual.

Thanks mikah, I moved to Missoula 3 years ago and haven't had a chance to roam yet. Once I feel comfortable driving this thing long distances I'd be up for a fun run, it'd be nice to have a guide.

Well alrighty then. Here is a pic of my garage in my apartment complex. As you can see it's a little cramped in my garage but the nose is about 2 inches from the door when closed. In the rear of the garage there is a small workbench and an industrial shelf for all of the goods. The tire carrier is removed for now and the tailgate is open so the trunk is acting as a small parts counter. Pretty snug but manageable. Watching me trying to get on the creeper is probably a little humorous with my old bones trying to get situated on the moving object. I have recurring lower back problems so I take everything pretty slow so the creeper helps a ton. I'm going to backtrack a bit here to show a couple of pics from the donor vehicle. Just a few reasons why I chose the black Pathfinder to be the fixer upper and the green machine to be the donor. Some body rust right in front of the passenger rear tire. One of my favorites, the outer shell of the resonator held on with bailing wire. Backwoods engineering all the way. So where I'm currently at? Still dismantling the top engine area. Today I removed the fuel rail and injectors. I'm not sure what to think about what I found. Some carbon build up on the injectors or oil? I'm trying to be really careful right now but I'm going to get out the shopvac tonight and suck up everything that is lying around on the intake manifold. Small bits of caked oil, dirt and such hanging out right near the holes left from the injectors are making me nervous. I am getting close to my current objective though so I need to clean up anyway. The valve cover gaskets were horrible, I actually removed one of the bolts with my fingers so you can imagine there is oil everywhere. Which leads me to the current objective. The timing belt. Slartibartfast recommended that I replace it so that's where I'm headed. I need to order new injector seals and a few more things while I'm at it. Since this thing has never run for me I'm taking a chance that the water pump is still good but I'm replacing the thermostat. I hope that doesn't bite me in the butt later... Here are a couple more random pics... Throttle body has been thoroughly oiled... Slight boot irregularities... Barnacles close to growing on the struts... Oil, oil everywhere... At least I'll get to clean the manifold now... Well that's it for now. I've got a vision but unfortunately I wear glasses so I'm not too sure I want to see it. Have a good day.

So... After already starting a topic or 2 I thought I'd just start documenting all of the madness of trying to pull a Frankenstein. This will certainly test my patience but I'm all in on this project and it's just due to boredom and sentiment. My parents had a '93 hardbody and a '96 R50 so I wanted to buy one to fool around with but ended up buying 2 of them in need of major TLC instead. It's going to be slow and steady but I can be long winded so read on with a grain or 2 of salt. The first two topics are: And I've already had a handful of issues and really haven't documented a whole lot but I'm going to try to start from my current position and hopefully get help where needed. You'll find that this is truly a rescue thread more than a build because there are sooooo many things that need work. Anyway, I'm off like a herd of turtles. I'll post a few pics tomorrow and cover where I'm at with this project. Thanks to all in advance for your patience.

Did you put the shroud back on or did you leave it off? I'm thinking of taking mine off because the shroud is cracked and maybe replace the fan with an electric one later anyway. Just curious.

That's what I was thinking. $3 part with $10 shipping just isn't right.

Sweet. Thanks a hellova lot!

Thank you both! I'm worrying a lot less now. Yeah I need to host photos at a little more forum friendly host but I fixed the sharing for now... Getting to the iacv gasket first, it's not on RockAuto so I'll look elsewhere. I did buy 10 feet of vacuum hose as well so a lot of that is going to be replaced just to be sure. Looking at the pieces closest to heat generation prioritized. Thanks again! That's just weird on the bottle scraper but ill clean it and put it back in. I know there's a lot of info here on cleaning certain sensors & parts so I'll start looking at that too. As far as going that extra mile to get things right, that's what i want to do. I'll look at the manual to see how involved the timing belt replacement is. I'm not certain about any service done other than what I stated previously so I appreciate the insight. I guess I'm just a worry wart so thank you both very much, I feel less overwhelmed already. Cheers! Edit: One little thing, I'm already cleaning the plenum but should I leave the lower manifold alone so as not to get any of that gunk to drop in? I'm hoping to leave the lower manifold alone and pray that it will clear itself over time.

Hey folks, I've been lurking a bit but I'm finally getting to work on my pathy(ies) after a cold winter and have run into some problems and I could use some advice & knowledge. I bought a 96 LE (green) manual trans 4x4 in 2016 that had transmission problems and then stumbled upon another (black) one just like it last year on craigslist that did not run with supposed fuel delivery problems. The previous owners of the black one said that they thought it was a problem with the fuel injector pressure regulator. They told me they had already replaced the fuel pump & fuel filter and had a mechanic tell them it was probably the regulator because they weren't getting enough fuel. I'm just a shade tree type mechanic but don't mind getting a little dirty in the right conditions so terminology can be a bit rough here so please bear with me. I started removing parts and inspected things to possibly find what needs to be replaced. I've dismantled quite a bit of the topside of the engine and found some head scratcher issues along the way. When i got to the throttle body i noticed a little black oil in it and when I took off the intake plenum black oil was clearly visible inside it and the lower manifold. When I removed the tube that runs from one valve cover to the other under the distributor there was the tip of a pipe scraper about 2" long broken off inside. Ok, whoever left it in there is in need of a Jethro Gibbs head smack but thats beside the point. Without taking the fuel issue into account this leads to my first questions: Is that enough to cause the disrupted flow of air and oil to make it head towards the throttle body or manifold in some way? If not, should I be looking for something else that is causing this like the PCV or something? Surely the scraper is not good but I'm looking for help / advice / thoughts on the oil in the intake manifold & plenum as this may be getting into a little more than I'm used to/comfortable with. I do have a plan I concocted and have parts waiting to be installed once I'm ready but do i need to go a little further like remove the lower manifold and replace those gaskets? I currently have the following parts ready for this mighty project: Spark plugs Spark plug wires Distributor cap and rotor Throttle body gasket Thermostat (I might as well) EGR to manifold gasket Plenum gasket PCV valve Valve cover gaskets w/grommets Fuel filter (just in case) & the fuel pressure regulator Other than the stated issues above, cleaning everything and oiling moving parts I think I'm good to go parts wise, but it also leads to thoughts of further dismantling. The oil in the manifold worries me more than the fuel delivery, I hope that will be fixed with what I've already invested in. This is also further than I've been on any car I've owned previously so I'm trying to not get overwhelmed. I can say that my green pathy is still intact so i have it for reference when putting everything back together. My brain is saying "Is it starting to look like there is a problem with valves or heads?" I know a cylinder pressure test might tell me more but I haven't got that far yet. Should I just go rent the pressure tool to do that or am i chasing fictitious problems? "What would you do?" I apologize for being so long winded but I'm trying to remember everything I've planned all winter & I'm a little nervous. While I have it this much taken apart, what else? I have all the time to do things right but am limited to a budget. With all of this said, I'll add a couple of pics... Thanks! https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IrVwTb475Qgws_gleWh-xmF324cjO0V-/view?usp=drivesdk https://drive.google.com/file/d/16jvy4ggRdUDO8mwccD0wiQWbHDnZGR-w/view?usp=drivesdk

Now that working outside weather is showing its head its time to get out there and do it. So I'd definitely like to get in on this as well, Colorado to Montana isn't too far either. ?

I just want to say you are awesome and I'm still interested in at least the brackets as I initially stated. The actual bumpers are a surprise welcome though, for me it'll be all about the $$. I won't be able to make it to Quartzsite this winter anyway as I was hoping for health reasons so the cost of shipping would probably be significant for the entire bumper. Unbelievable progress though, I agree softening the corner on the rear would look pretty sweet but it sticking out to be able to stand on would also be nice. Keep it up man, this is still an awesome thread to watch.

I've been watching this thread with a lot of ooh's and aah's directed at my computer screen. I'm very interested in what you're doing here although I have a lot of other stuff to work on right now. I used to go down to Quartzite and Yuma in my motorhome for the winter and I've been thinking about doing that again except with my Pathfinder and a small trailer. If I decide to do that I could just swing by Surprise and pick this fine work up. Completely interested, take your time and do life and family right first!

Thank you I will check that soon. Sent from my Moto E (4) using Tapatalk

I joined this site a while back but have just been lurking and reading up on a lot of questions I've had. I bought a green (my favorite color) 1996 R50 SE with a manual transmission in August of 1996 that has had quite a few issues and I wasn't sure I was actually going to keep it until about a week ago. I found another 1996 here in Missoula for $600 and bought it yesterday. It is black (not my favorite color) and has quite a lot of items mine needs like a clutch and rebuilt transfer case with two years on them. It also has the factory rear swing-away tire carrier and driving lights which my original one doesn't. All in all I think I made a good buy, now I need to go over both of them and decide which chassis is the keeper. I want to thank all of the people here, I have learned so much about my Pathfinder since I joined up. I think you all have helped me to decide to keep her. I'm going to go slow for sure and try to not cut corners, I'm in no real hurry to fix either as long as my first one keeps on truckin'. So happy spring to you all, 'tis the right time (and weather) to get my hands dirty.