Jump to content

1990 Pathfinder


poachr
 Share

Recommended Posts

Ok, so I'll get started with the fact I acquired my pathfinder just over a month ago. It's a 1990 SE 5speed with 282,000 miles. It belonged to an elderly couple who lived down the road from me, he passed away last year and she no longer drives. They also had a 1995 King cab 4x4 pickup with a 5speed that I also picked up. It has 170,000 miles both are straight and no rust. That's the great thing about living on the east side, it's dry and no salt on the roads!  So back to the reason I'm submitting this. There are no service records on either vehicle and she did'nt know much about them other than he had the oil changed in them regularly and the pathfinder had a water pump put on a couple of years ago. After getting the pathfinder home and cleaning and inspecting it along with doing some quick research about them I knew the first thing I would tackle was the timing belt, tensioner, seals, AC tensioner, water pump, thermostat, hoses, belts, oil and filter change, fuel filter, plugs, wires, rotor and cap. While I was waiting I also replaced the front sway bar bushings and the tension rod bushings with the energy suspension ones. 

 

The info I got here and with youtube and Haynes, Chilton the timing belt was straight forward, just took my time and cleaned everything and straightened out some things that the last guy "Fubar'd" some people have no business owning tools!! I had the engine harness all disconnected along the front of the engine after installing the belt and setting the tension I turned the engine over 5 or 6 revolutions then was going to start it. Well guess what crank and crank and nothing, "F---"  had the wife come out and turn the key on so I could hear if the fuel pump was running, it was, check all the fuses, pull the relays check all the grounds.So I check everything then take take the dust covers back of pull number 1 plug line up the cams everything is where it should be, WTF so I start putting things back so I could try cranking it again and when I reconnected the 4 plug connections on the harness on the right valve cove I noticed one of the plugs didn't look like it was all the way seated. So I pushed it all the way in and thought H mmmm, put the battery back in hoped in turned the key and it fired right off and runs like a top. 

 

So the moral of the story is never give up!! failure is never an option. Oh and changing the plugs, well #6 wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, #4 was a dirty mother It started to come out and wouldn't budge! so I used an old lesson I learned working on radial aircraft engines. After I got it all back together and while it was running and I was bleeding the cooling system I let it run till it was good and warm pulled it back into the shop and #4 came out! i used anti  seize on all the plugs when I installed then. The plugs I pulled had been there a while.

 

Thanks the Slartibartfast and all the others that have so generous and contributed to this site and shared their knowledge and experience.  

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, but I had to walk away from it for a while and think about it. I also removed the #1 plug wire and put one of the old plugs on it and had the wife crank it to see if it had spark, it did. That was the confusing part. 

 

I also replaced the the air meter boot with a new one. The old one had a big split on the bottom when I got it off.  I'll probably end up having to pull the plenum, I noticed the hose on the right injector rail right behind the the upper radiator hose that has the temp sensor is leaking a bit of gas. Just enough to make the hose wet looks like a real pain to change. 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...