... And Let The Snowball Roll

[shift220]

So after finishing my SFD, I went for a drive with the new M/Ts and noticed a pretty bad vibration. I thought I would take off the rims and clean off the grimy rust build-up on the hubs (should have in the first place). Pop off the first rim in the front and I see grease all over everything. Now this was after literally a 2 minute drive with the lift in place. Rotate the CV shaft and sure enough, the boot has a tiny 1/4" split and was flinging grease everywhere. Being original CV shafts, I opted to replace it with a lifetime warranty one from Napa (not a reman, got a discount). The new shaft looked very well made and tough. I felt it was worth it. This was my first time replacing a CV and it went pretty good.

 

Ok so this is the first real problem I've had with my Pathfinder since I got it. Its been pretty much perfect so far.

 

Now for the last week its been consistently -30 Celsius during the day and dropping to -40c (-40f) some nights. Yesterday I plugged in my Pathfinder like I have been for the last two years. Go to remote start it later in the night and nothing. I hear it slowly cranking but no fire. Then I notice I have no power in the garage. Check the breakers and yup one tripped. Get out my fancier extension cord with a light and try plugging in the R50 again. Plug sparks and the light goes out. Breaker tripped again. So then I tried another circuit and that one trips too. Alright so this sucks. No going anywhere tonight.

 

The next day I did some investigating (yes, still -30c and in my driveway). Cord reads open circuit (that shouldn't blow the breaker?), so I snipped the cord loose, crawled under the newly lifted Pathfinder (one advantage), reached up and yanked the cord off the block. That end is slightly melted and corroded. Great. Impossible to actually see the block heater on the block (unibody disadvantage). So what the heck?

 

I pulled out the battery and i'm going to charge in the garage overnight. Its still the original 96 battery. Great during the summer, but might be a little weak for the -40c days.

 

So in summary, I want to drive my lifted Pathfinder but I can't cause its frozen on my driveway.

[Day95]

Sorry about the coldness... as for the cv boot, be ready for the other one to go too.... iv had to replace both of my origional ones since and a few ball joints... happy wheeling

[Dowser]

haha Man. this is bringing back some memories.

 

I lived North of Grande Prairie in a little back woods place called Fairview for just under 3 years but saw 3 full winters there. Up there its nothing but open fields with no trees for miles and miles. They do a lot of farming for Canola up there and you can see in any direction you want for 15-20 miles without obstruction of any sort. It got cold up there man. I mean REALLY REALLY freaking cold. No trees or building to block that damn Wind either so when the wind picked up which was almost constant, the windchill was just freaking brutal. Lots of days I would wake up in the morning, look at the outdoor thermo and look for the little red line only to find that all the liquid is still at the bottom of my -40 cel thermometer. I think while I was there we had a few days that were -60 with wind chill and I told my wife that on the coldest day I thought we would ever have I would run around the trailer in nothing but a pair of boxers and some sorel's. this was stupid of me for many many reasons but the main 3 were, 1) I ended up having to do the run 5 times cause I started at -52 thinking it wouldn't get colder then that. 2) The snow was very VERY deep around the trailer with only a small walking path to the driveway where the cars were parked. The rest was about 4 and a half feet of snow that really REALLY didnt feel nice with just sorels and boxers on, especially when I fell over, or when i lost a boot. and 3) Because at those temperatures, frostbite strikes FAST.... really Fast on the TENDER parts.

 

At any rate... where am i going with this? Oh yes. I remember. Many many a cold start for me man. I had tons of trouble with my block heater on my 92. I know the engines aren't the same but I think the placement of the stock installed Block heater is in the same spot. Mine was near the manifold and from what i remember you had to take the manifold studs off to get access to it. I could be wrong on this but i think that's what i remember being told at the time. My cord for it got melted on my exhaust so was not working. I ended up doing something else instead and chose a inline rad hose heater. It had a couple of benefits. Not only did it warm the block but you also had a heater FAR faster since the rad was already a little warm. Second I had a manual so I ended up putting a patch type heater on the base of the tranny box to warm the tranny oil. Otherwise I could of waited 3 hours and the tranny oil would still be a hard lump of cold oil. In fact while I went to school there one of our demos was to go outside to where an axle was sitting for a few weeks and take off the diff cover. We brought out a oil bucket to catch the gear oil and the instructor laughed saying, "You wont need that boys." Sure enough take the cover off and not a drop of oil. It was like Molasses. Run your vehicle like that everyday for a few miles while you wait for the oil to heat up and talk about premature wear.

 

As for the Auto Tranny's and Power steering issues, I put a Battery Blanket on the battery, and on the Power steering Reserviour and that helped with not making your Power steering pump scream bloody murder in the morning. The auto tranny though I never had to deal with but I would think as soon as you start the ignition that oil is moving hot or cold so I would personally do something if it were me.

 

Good luck man and thanks for the flood of memories. It was +4 cel here today and I went outside with a T-shirt for a while to say thanks that I'm not in that Sh!t hole anymore.

 

Good luck man. All the best.

Edited December 14, 2009 by Dowser

[shift220]

Yea I know Fairview! My mother grew up there and her parents still have a place up there (farmers). Only really been up there when it was summer but I know it gets damn cold in the winter. I love the area though, very peaceful. I worked on Hine's Creek bridge during the summer a couple years ago and that was one of the best times I ever had working. Much better then working over the Yellowhead.

 

Anyway thanks for the tips. I might look into a battery warmer, it seems like the next logical thing after the block heater. Hopefully I can get the Pathfinder started up and into the garage today!