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Items in the works: I've got a handful of things still to do short term but the list is finally getting shorter. Firstly the important items learned from the recent Moab trip would be that I need axle limiting straps and a taller spring would be ideal. I want to eliminate the HDPE spacers I've used for years and get an all-spring setup. I may also move the spring perches forward and fabricate new lower shock mounts that will provide more clearance. Still have some research to do on that front. While I was coming through Oregon I took advantage of a sale+no tax+IST coupon to walk out the door with a 12K winch for $260 bucks. Just need to swap over my old 9.5K Smittybilt synthetic rope and figure out where to remote mount the solenoid. The front suspension really isn't terrible, especially given my KYB's are approaching 10 years of age, but my roots in high speed off-road really have me wanting to build a better front end. Long term I have plans to make a LT front setup that should fit the bill very nicely but it'll be a ways off. For now there are a set of motorsport coilover struts that should work with the Nissan suspension components after a few changes. I think the weakest link of the whole front setup is the lower control arm mounts and overall method of stamped sheet metal manufacturing. A set of chromoly tube arms with through-bolt mounts and the motorsport coilover struts would be pretty slick and get me closer to the machine I want. I'm sure there are a few bits I've missed but this should be mostly up to date now. A few pics from the recent Moab trip with @hawairish

Falling behind on updates again... My guys' trip to Moab has come and gone, but unfortunately the truck was not ready in time for it. I still made it up there and had a great trip riding shotgun in Towndawg's truck (recently fitted with 4:1 t-case gears and a rear ARB locker...front ARB didn't get installed in time). Long story short, I was able to get the truck out of the garage and around the block a few times, but the steering and alignment didn't feel right, and the gear box started leaking. I had already rebuilt the power steering lines again (they had sprung a leak a 2nd time) so I have little confidence in their ability at the moment, but they seem to be holding now. This time around I snugged the fittings up a little less thinking maybe I was over-tightening them and compromising the liner. But frankly, if they're this sensitive to assembly, I probably don't want them. For now, they'll do. Parts are on order to rebuild the gear box, which I probably should have done in the first place. Beyond that, the setup has not been tested at all...but at least it drives now! Here were the finishing pieces of the build... The driveshaft adapter turned out great: Got the new rear 5.13 (41:8 = 5.125) gears installed. That took a lot of effort, though. I've surely mentioned it before, but the H233 used thick rings/spacers/washers of different thicknesses to set pinion height and preload, and practically all of those pieces are either no longer available, or several bucks each (and you don't really know which piece you'd need unless you have the proper setup tools). It didn't use traditional shims, and even then, there aren't really any good options available due to odd metric sizes. Fortunately, the new pinion gear sat high, so I was able to grind down OE spacer pieces on a flat belt sander. Unfortunately, it was a lot of trial-and-error to dial in the height (a lot of pressing pieces on and pulling pieces off), and I basically took the pieces down to the minimum factory dimensions to get it as close as I could. It sucked and took a lot of time, but the pattern is good. I also managed to strip some threads on the bracket that holds the actuator piston for my TJM, so I had to pull that off to weld some nuts on get some threads. I got the switches wired up for the overhead console the other week. I ran some 8-conductor wiring up the passenger A-pillar and into the engine bay. Six of the wires are for the overhead panel, and the other 2 I'll wire up for powering a USB port for the dash cam eventually. I ended up drawing ACC power, ground, and illumination from the compass module. Opened it up, soldered on leads, and crimped on terminals and harnesses. The panel is for a Patrol, and while the color isn't a perfect match for my gray "K" trim, it's close enough for me and I'm super happy to finally put it to use. Things are wired up in a way that's consistent with their usage; i.e., you can't engage the front locker unless the rear locker is engaged, and you can't engage the sway bar disconnect or rear locker until the compressor is on. Remote Air is for the tire inflation setup; it can either hold the air, deflate, or inflate. I was not able to get the compressor, relays, or solenoids wired up until last night, and tonight I needed to sort out some leaks from having to shuffle around my setup. These are not the finished pics, but close enough for now. I opted to use some modular solenoids that stack together instead of the ARB style solenoids...that 4-solenoid modular unit costs less than one ARB solenoid, but was a little tough to find. That funky rubber boot thing is an adjustable pressure sensor switch that I was hoping to use for the tire inflation (Remote Air) switch, so that it would stop inflating at a set PSI. Unfortunately, it's so sensitive that it'll just flutter at the set temperature and cause the compressor to keep cycling. So, I'll probably just retain it as a safety cut-off. Also determined tonight that gauge is garbage...it's way off. Lastly, this is how it sat as of yesterday before a powerwash. I spy something SASsy.

The last of our kits will be liquidated soon. Once they're gone there won't be any future kits made. Expect an early 2025 release. Kits will be sold on a first come, first served basis with lower 48 shipping only. We will not take any orders until the remaining kits are completed and ready to ship. Stay tuned for the the final sale announcement and check out our YouTube channel for a highlight reel from our Moab trip where our gear is trail tested.

I didn't realize I never posted the results of my projector retrofit. My original reflectors were borderline dangerous at night and trying LED bulbs in them only made things worse (no light on the road, glared oncoming traffic). I used Morimoto Mini D2S 5.0 bi-xenon projectors with Morimoto ballasts, round chrome shrouds and standard Osram D2S bulbs. I didn't paint the reflector bowl as I prefer a more OEM look. I may upgrade to Osram Lasers at some point in the future (or M-LED projectors) but for now this is more than enough light, better than most new cars. The only downside is that flashing your high beams causes the ballasts to quickly cycle on/off which wears them down, so I try to avoid doing that. This is my 4th retrofit and by far the easiest. Original headlights are super easy to take apart, they need minimal modifications to fit the projector and the only real drawback is that nothing prevents the projector from rotating, so adjusting the cutoffs is a bit of a pain. Low beam pattern and cutoff:

I have not yet been given an actual cause for this nearly week long outage, but after spending hours on the phone with the host company today, repeatedly reminding them that they had assured the site would be back up before this past weekend, here we are back up and running... finally!

Pulled it out to give it a wash today.

I just stumbled across some info on the 190F thermostat. It does exist, but Nissan warns of cats and dogs living together if it's used in a VG. The problem with the 190F thermostat is that the VG does not run at the temperature of its thermostat. The VG's thermostat is located on the lower rad hose, the cold end of the system, so the engine actually runs 10-15C hotter than its thermostat. Nissan's target for max engine temp is 90C (194F). 76.5C (170F) plus 15C is right on target at 91C. 82C (180F) plus 15C is pushing it at 97C, but apparently Nissan was comfortable with this, because NTB94-020 recommends swapping in a 180F thermostat to help the heater keep up with winters on Hoth (like Adam did), and (as Adam noted) they later spec'd 180F thermostats for the VG33E. 88C (190F) plus 15C is 103C, and apparently that's out of Nissan's comfort zone, because they warn that it could cause overheating, detonation, engine damage, computer trouble, and a voided warranty. The 190 thermostat was used in earlier (pre-VG) Nissan engines. They had the same 90C/194F max temp target, but their thermostats were on the upper rad hose, so they didn't have that 10-15C offset to factor in. TL;DR: 170 is stock, 180 is OK, and 190 is not recommended.

Changed out the front axle shafts for the Trakmotive extended travel units. Much beefier than OE and they come with the Thermoplastic boots. That said- they skimp on paint or any kid of coating so they rust quickly. I suggest immediately painting them if you get a set.

The rear arms I built years ago got an axle side change to some beefy heims in recent years. I'll start by saying I don't recommend them and will be changing them to Johnny Joints in the near future. They are super high maintenance and started squeaking within a year of install. They're probably fine for a trail toy or someone who just doesn't care about the noise. The performance was impressive but not worth it in the end. I started by media blasting the arms I built to get rid of the damage from DOT liquid de-icer's used in recent years. Then painted everything and applied a healthy layer of anti-seize. I kept the body-side rod ends poly to provide some insulation from noise and vibration and the combo worked well prior to the heims making noise. At this time I made a driveshaft spacer from 6061 AL to allow me to push my axle further back into the center of the wheel arch. Pretty easy job and solved an issue with lifted R50's that most folks don't account for when going higher. At some point during all this I started rehabbing a spare HB233 housing for the eventual rear disc brake setup that I picked up from @hawairish. I had the axle housing media blasted and coated it in POR-15. My OE axle shafts needed to be turned down to fit the WD rotors but later models apparently don't need that modification as the axle flanges were smaller in diameter. All new seals, bearings, rotors, pads and refreshed calipers. When I eventually get the axle done it'll be a short period of down time since I should have everything ready to swap in.

I said goodbye to my old set of KM2's on vintage mags and K02's on Tacoma alloys. Picked up a new full set, including a matching spare, of KM3's on some 15x10 AR alloys. With the impending long distance road trip the 8 year old rubber was a liability and it was time for a refresh. While I was at it I installed a set of OEM Nissan manual hubs that @hawairish sent my way. Much nicer kit than the Warn units I was running and they only need a 1/4 turn to engage. Gave the refurbished bumpers a quick coat of rattle can black to clean up the truck and get ready for the Southwest trip. I installed some universal mud flaps since the OE units wouldn't clear the tires to complete the look and so far they've held up really well. They come without brackets or mounting holes so it left a lot of room for interpretation but overall I think they're a great solution for my needs.

The entire cooling and belt drive system was refreshed. New radiator, pump, thermostat and housing, hoses, belts, power steering pump, alt, idlers, fan bearing bracket, fan and clutch. During my repairs I've been finding that many components, brackets, bolts etc...they're all succumbing to rust. I started ordering full sets of all bolt and nut sizes/pitches of yellow zinc JIS hardware to have on hand as I go through my truck and other projects. Additionally, i found that electrolysis is a great way to clean up super rusty parts prior to painting.

The universal sliders I've been holding onto for as long as I've lived here finally got mounted. Again, thanks to the brilliant engineering that @hawairish cooked up I mounted them via the OE locations using a set of QX4 step rail brackets and the adapter plates that he generously designed and cut out at his lab. They're robust, can easily support the weight of the truck and completely bolt-on. The truck also got a complete set of 2nd hand Coastal bumpers with a swing out that was conveniently located locally. The kit was professionally welded at a SoCal race shop so the fit up and quality was superb. Just needed a respray and some minor cosmetic repair. I bought the correct color matched silver to paint them but the window to paint outdoors here is very short and i have not managed to get the time in the 3 years since owning this set. I wasn't much of a fan of the Coastal options so I shaved most of what was on the bumper with the intention of 3D printing my own AUX/Fog light housings when the time comes around to painting them. For now its just clean and simple. An element of the Coastal design that seems pretty wild to me is the disregard for the power steering cooling line. These trucks use an aluminum tube that runs directly across the lower radiator support that the coast kit neglects, forcing users to bend it up out of the way. I opted to run a remote oil cooler next to my trans cooler and avoid what could be a disaster on the trail from a bump or collision.

The truck now has 4.6 gears. Initially I installed a SuperPacked LSD rated at 236.5 ft/lbs of breakaway that @hawairish built but after driving it for a while I found it wasn't really appropriate for my intended uses and the wet PNW environment. Would be great for a trail toy or sport truck application. So I ended up going with ARB lockers front and rear. The front hasn't made it into the truck yet but is on the bench as the next major item. The truck is already plumbed for it so I just need to finish the install into the housing and stuff it under the truck. @hawairish hooked it up with a slick bracket that he cooked up for mounting my old ARB single in the engine bay. I had originally mounted it in the rear passenger cubby and it worked well for the last 10 years in that location serving the sole purpose of inflating my tires after trail runs but with the ARB's it was time to relocate. I installed the switch panel that @hawairish and I ordered a while back that replaces the sunglass holder to run everything- Compressor, front and rear lockers, light bar, trail lights and AUX backup lights. Super stoked with the result.

Long time with no update! The truck is back from a recent trip to Moab with @hawairish and his build has inspired me to bring this thread up to speed... The truck has seen lots of trips and a handful of upgrades. Most notably is the rebuilt trans. Had some water intrusion in 2024 that prompted me to have it professionally rebuilt with a couple minor upgrades for durability and longevity. I paired that with a set of low-range gears for the transfer case that @hawairish helped make happen. Legend has it these gears are made by the same group that manufactures OEM gears but I have no proof so take that with a grain of salt. They are manufactured in Japan and have proven themselves in Moab but the install had a few hiccups that leave me curious how others have done this DIY in a garage setting. The large 4WD shaft required machining to match the OEM length otherwise it binds on the case. Not a problem as I chucked it in the lathe and made the needed modifications but unless you can machine the case or the shaft I would say this would be a show stopper. I drilled and tapped the output shaft so that I can run a SYE in the future while I had the case apart then reassembled everything and delivered it to the shop performing the rebuild so they could install everything and get the truck back up.

When I helped a friend swap the trans in his S10 Blazer, we just shot a spot of paint on each torsion bar adjuster. We used a different color on either side so we couldn't mix up the parts. Then when we put it back together, we just lined up the paint marks. Worked great.

When removing your torsion bar X-member, measure the tail of the adjuster bolts , that way you can get your suspension pretty much where it was in height, then you only need a small fine tune if necessary.

Not tearing the carpet is an incredible feat! I've definitely pulled the manual trans out of my 93 without cutting/removing the Y-pipe, but I did have the torsion bar crossmember and front diff out. Was a bit of a puzzle to get the transfer case tail housing down past the fixed crossmember, but it is doable. Front diff is very annoying to get back in because of the weird balance, but torsion bars and crossmember are pretty easy, even if a few rusted bolts give out (as they did for me). For posterity's sake, pulling the Y-pipe down off the manifolds early is very nice. With that and the trans mount disconnected, the motor mounts allow quite a bit of forward/backward tilt which can make reaching those top bell housing bolts easier. For install, I found it handy to cut the heads off a couple of spare bell housing bolts and thread them into the block. Definitely not necessary but helped a bit with aligning trans and engine. Also, since the engine can move so much it can be hard to eyeball the alignment. Having someone to watch from a wheel well while you wiggle and push is very nice. Not sure if any of this is helpful at all, but good luck!

When I bought my 92', it had many issues. One of which was one of the rear disk rotors was ground down, for whatever reason, halfway through the rotor material on one side. I didn't think much of it until the calipers seized. I rebuilt them using brake fluid as the lubricant to reassemble them. That's what I was taught years ago, and I have been doing it ever since. Every 2 years or so, for the past 10 years, I have been tearing apart the rear calipers, unseizing the piston, cleaning the rust out and reassembling using the same process of using brake fluid to lubricate the assembly process.... When the calipers were seizing, the symptoms were pretty obvious sometimes. A smoking rotor is one of them.... One of the things that threw me off a couple of times that I didn't really put 2 and 2 together on for years, was that the ABS light would occasionally light up and stay lit when the calipers were starting to seize, and would go away for a while after the rebuild. I was making an assumption that it's old electronics and mechanical gizmos that are starting to fail. The last time I tore apart the calipers, I reassembled them around the dust boot with a one-time-use packet of synthetic brake caliper grease as recommended by one of my co-workers. I'm not entirely positive that is it's the intended use for it, but it's what I used. Ever since then, the calipers have been working flawlessly and the ABS light no longer lights past the initial POST (Power on Self Test). What I think was happening is that the Mechanical gizmo on the frame was throwing a fault when it couldn't push fluid. So... With this observation, maybe that ABS light you have on your dash being lit isn't a symptom of your module or gizmo starting to fail. Maybe it's a symptom to something else.... in my case at least. Just thought I would share one of my experiences that I learned over more than a hot minute....

Well, this weekend was very productive. Wasn't able to roll it out, but we're getting close. Last update I mentioned the axle was being done. It's officially done and back on the truck. The bulk of the weekend was getting the axle back under the truck and slowly completing the final assembly. Right now, everything's torqued down and ready to go. Axle's centered, thing's aligned as best as I can get them with my eyechrometers. Got it to the point where the truck is resting on the axle, and tires were slapped on for a while. Still needed to tweak the steering stabilizer a bit. I finished up the mount v3 today and it's finally in a position where I don't think it's going to contact anything. Also figured I'd work on the center caps while some parts baked (powder coating). Limit straps, driveshaft adapter, and custom brake lines delivering tomorrow, among other small goodies. Been waiting on the brake lines to start the ring and pinion swap in the rear, so hopefully I get started on that mid-week.

I've done 15,000km on my reconditioned transmission using ATF dex III and had no issues. The gent who recommended it has been building these gearboxes for decades. I dismissed this at first and put 80w90 in it, then 75W/90, and couldn't select gears when cold. Now it shifts great.

I've heard of people jacking up one side/parking on a slope so the fill hole is higher. Might be worth a shot.

Time to necro this post. Found the source of the rattle... loose springs on the clutch disc. I guess at low rpm they would rattle around in there until about 2k. New clutch is in and no more rattle!!!

Today had enough progress that it deserved its own comment. After spending a couple weeks designing a few ideas that gave me some adjustability, decided the other day to just get on with it and make a static mount in what I seemed like the right spot. Pretty straight-forward at this point. This is the first mock-up with a tire...finally! There's so much space in there, that it makes the 2.0 coilovers seem puny. But hey, no more farting around with the stupid coil bucket on the McPherson strut! There's about 4" of space between the springs and tires, and about 2-3" from the inner fender. The first two pics in this post show a different attachment method, but this will be the end result. There will be a strut 'ring' atop the strut tower with bolts welded in, then the coilover mount attaches from underneath. This way I won't need to remove all the crap above the strut towers to change anything. After getting the mounts all welded up, I decided to see if the spring selection was the right one. So, time to see if it can support itself! Ride height compression... And so, I have coilover mounts! Right now this is about 1.5" taller than I predicted. I'll eventually put a bumper and winch on to pull things down another 0.75" or so and hopefully they'll settle the rest. I can't lower it any more unless I change springs, so I'm going to see how this does. Overall, I'm satisfied. I'll eventually make some changes to the rear suspension to level things out better, but I think I'll have some squat for a while. Painted the steering links today, too. Panhard and radius arms refreshed with bushings and paint the other week. In this pic, the axle is supporting the truck, so I must be doing something right! The axle is at ride height so I have some pretty good clearance.

@Lock Glad you found this useful! No ban on posting links. Amayama is a great source for these and many other parts that are difficult to acquire or not available here. In fact, I actually have two open orders with them right now. I have purchased clutch pieces from them in the past, though at some point the supply was exhausted, particularly for the thicker pieces. Looks like there are many in the UAE at higher/normal costs, but it's the less expensive supply from Japan that was always questionable or long lead times. As for the ramp-angle LSDs, those were in Patrols. There's not really as much of a difference between those styles and these in terms of functionality, though. The spider gears in ours will apply outward force on the side gears to compress the clutch pack, because the clutch pack rests directly on the side gear. In the Patrol units, the clutch pack rests entirely on those inner housings, which compress the pack when the cross-shaft ramps up on them, which means the side gears might not exert significantly on the housing (or it's a combination of both). In both cases, there's varying outward force when differential action occurs. Might also be the case where less, but bigger, clutch pieces has about as much friction as more, but smaller, clutch pieces. Speculation in the absence of factory specs and dimensions. That all said, I'd surely rather have the Patrol units because of the beef factor they add, but I'd be curious to know if it's a drastically better solution that what we have available. Just another thing I wish they'd have here.

This project is outstanding. Working with @hawairish and watching how he implements massive amounts of thorough engineering, design and consideration into his projects is incredibly inspiring. I'm super grateful to have the opportunity to help with a small part of this project and I'm excited to see it in action next year!

Long time, no update! Project has had its typical slow point the last several months. Work and sports (youth & adult) took up a lot of that time, dealing with sports-related injuries, and AZ setting a new record of like 113 consecutive days over 100° or something...well, hard to get motivated to go outside, to say the least. I think the only notable thing I did for the last few months was order a new radiator...still sitting in the box because I've not gotten to relocating the mounts for it yet, but I still have other engine things to do first anyway. The past couple weeks I'd been figuring out how to mount the radius arms to the chassis. Went through a couple designs and finally settled on something I really liked. Got all the pieces cut out the other week and got them tacked together and temporarily mounted up. Pretty huge step right there, because it allowed me to start working on the upper panhard bar mount (the lower mount was done a while ago). Got all that tacked up, too, only to realize that the position wasn't going work and that it would need to be moved forward a little...meaning the lower mount will also have to be redone. Then this week happened...and I finally had a super productive week! I took the whole week off and also flew TownDawgR50 down from WA to help. He'd thrown the idea out a while ago and I finally took him up on it. He was only in town for 3 days, but it was great seeing him and jamming on the project. We focused mainly on the radius arm mounts and crossmember, but also hammered out the corrected upper panhard mount. He went to town welding up the brackets and steering links, freeing me up to CAD and cut out parts. Pics! Radius arm brackets welded up and bolted where the transmission crossmember existed. The bolts are just for positioning; the entire bracket will be welded to the chassis rail. A plate will also be welded to the inner rail with gussets. The driver's side inner rail is free of lines and wires, but there's limited clearance below the cats, which is why everything had to be mounted below the rails. Much more cat clearance on the passenger side, but with all the fuel and brake lines there, plus electrical and pneumatic lines I've added, there's very limited space to weld a plate on the inner rail. Passenger mount showing how the transmission crossmember will attach...front wheel studs pressed into the bracket. This how the crossmember started. I chopped the OE one and built a bracket to put new mounting provisions on it. On the driver's side, plan was to put a plate (shown) to extend the tubing rearward rather than try to build a hoop over the driveshaft (I prefer staying under so I don't have to remove it if I need to remove the crossmember). For this setup, there'd be a 2" square tube (similar size as the center section of the OE unit) offset about 3" and it'd give me the clearance I'd need. But then, I got to this point and didn't like my options on how to attach it to the other radius arm bracket because of all the little height differences involved. So, I ditched that approach entirely and designed a whole new piece. Worked on it today and just need to redo the center piece and trim up the ends on the inner supports, then tack it up and confirm fitment. This took a bit of time to plan out and make the bends, but came out pretty damn good, if I may say so. The driveshaft hoop portion is deliberately shaped to be narrower than the rest of the shape (1.5" vs. 1-7/8") to give just a little more clearance at the point closest to the driveshaft at full droop, but the base plate keeps a uniform width so it's still well protected and boxed in. The big advantage to this is that it keeps my mounting surface flat and low profile, and just looks a helluva lot better. Lastly, got the revised upper panhard mount done when TownDawg was here. Since this piece is entirely bolt-on and uses the subframe mounting hardware, I needed to retain access to hole. Moving the mount forward would block the hole, but I was able to box in a pocket to retain access. Unfortunately, it's not looking like I'll be done by the end of December which is when my tags expire. So, I'll be an outlaw for a while longer until I can get it rolling to get emissions done. But with the recent work, it's that much closer to having the axle attached and in the final position...next step: coilover shopping.

Hope everyone has a safe and Happy Thanksgiving!

The tapers for the tie rod ends and pitman arm changed 8/92 for some reason. I found out the fun way, with an early '92 knuckle half installed on my '93 and a tie rod that just would not go in. I haven't tried the kits. I bought the various front end joints for mine off Rockauto, mostly 555 if I remember right (I think some of it was sold as Beck/Arnley, but the actual parts were 555). Ball joints, tie rods, centerlink, idler. Turned out most of the slop that I was chasing was in the steering box. I tried to adjust it, screwed it up, replaced with a reman that turned out to be even sloppier (and the pitman shaft seal leaks just enough to piss me off). If you've chasing play or you've got a clunk in the steering, have someone saw the wheel back and forth while you crawl under the front and see what's got play in it. Sway bar links/bushings can also clunk pretty bad. Put a dab of grease on the steering stops while you're under there. Those make haunted house noises at full lock if they're dry. I think they were supposed to have plastic caps on them at one point. +1 for doing the strut rod bushings, though. Mine looked fine until I took them apart. I welded bearing cups to the frame on mine in place of the sheet metal bushing cups that were broken off.

Rat Trap's steering wheel was starting to get gross. Hand sweat, sun damage, and the previous owner's lung darts had left the outer rim cracked, turning brown, and starting to smell. Then I remembered that aftermarket steering wheels are a thing. Maybe the minitruckers are onto something, I thought. I figured I'd keep things simple by going with a wheel and a column adapter from the same company. Grant's website showed an adapter kit for these trucks, #3560, so that was a good start. I had a look through their catalog and decided on their #1160. Simple, black on black, leather grip. No rainbow chrome, no trucker babes, no flames. http://www.grantproducts.com/images/product-images/lg/1160.jpg Summit had it well below list price, so I ordered it from there. They didn't have the column adapter, and Grant's website's checkout didn't work, so I ordered that from elsewhere. The folks I ordered the column adapter from emailed me the next day to say that they didn't actually have one. I checked around, and found a bunch of other retailers listing them as discontinued or out of stock. The few who claimed to have them either didn't get back to me or confirmed that they couldn't get them either. Grant's site also listed a fancy billet adapter, #5560, but I couldn't find one of those, either. There are a bunch of cheap D21 column adapters on eBay. They're all drilled for six-bolt wheels. And the #1160 wheel I had ordered, which by this point was already in the mail, is five-bolt. Nissan Nut's page suggested that Grant #3596 would fit instead. I found one on eBay. It came in an "American Products Company" box. (Made in Taiwan, naturally.) It doesn't say Grant on it anywhere, but it looks just like the Grant kits, the splines are correct, and the three-bolt pattern matches the spacer. Is it a knockoff? Is this Grant's own off-brand? It's what I could get. The wheel came with a spacer. The spacer adapts between Grant's three-on-1.75" pattern (which the column adapter uses, as do some of their simpler wheels) to their five-on-2.75" pattern, which their "Signature Series" wheels (including this one) use. It's made from welded steel, and it feels sturdy. Unfortunately, it spaced the wheel too far back, to where I had to reach for the lights and wipers. It's also stuffed into a rubber sleeve, which doesn't fit it very well. Flipping it around doesn't help, either. Either it's so loose at the front that you can see the metal part of the spacer through the wheel, or it's so loose at the back that you can get your finger in between them. And it's tight enough in the middle that it gets stretched into a polygon by the spokes of the spacer. I suspect its primary function was to sell the billet adapter kits. Naked spacer in the middle, misshapen rubber thing on the right. On the left is the Forever Sharp MG15-B billet spacer that I used instead. It's half an inch shorter, which fixed the gap to the stalks, and it looks way better than the floppy rubber turtleneck. It actually looks quite nice! It also solved a dumb problem with the column adapter, which is that you need a special three-bolt puller to remove it. The Forever Sharp spacer is drilled for both 5 on 2.75" and 6 on 2.75", so you can bolt a standard wheel puller across two of the six-pattern holes to pop the hub assembly off the splines. (The holes are threaded #10-32, same as the Grant spacer.) Either spacer goes in between the column adapter and the nut. Unfortunately this leaves the end of the steering shaft slightly short of the end of the nut. I don't think it's going anywhere, but, yeah, I don't love that. I have yet to decide if it bothers me enough to take it back apart and do something about it, but I'm leaning towards swapping that nut for one that doesn't have a washer attached to it. The turn signal cancel mechanism fought me a little bit. The APC column adapter has two holes for roll pins, which take the place of the tabs on the back of the stock wheel. The pins aren't long enough to hit the cancel lever on the switch if you push them in all the way, which I found out the hard way. The second time, I installed them about a quarter inch into the column adapter. That sorta got them working, but, strangely, only in one direction. I figured the pins were just a little too close to the center, so they weren't engaging the cancel lever properly. To fix this, I removed the turn signal stalk (as pictured below), stuck a 1/4" extension in through that hole there, and used that as a punch to gently persuade the pins outwards a little. This might not be the right way to do it, but the signals cancel perfectly now. Actually, they cancel a little better than they did with the stock wheel. Round and square dash have different turn signal cancel mechanisms. Square dash has a single cancel lever on the switch, and two tabs on the back of the wheel, spaced about 120* apart from each other. Round dash has two separate cancel levers on the switch, with a space between them, so Nissan moved the tabs on the wheel out to 180* to account for that space. (Square dash wheel on top, round on bottom.) The APC hub has the 180* spacing of the round-dash, but my truck is square-dash, so the steering wheel has to turn 90* for the pins to hit the cancel lever (I think stock is about 60). I thought the factory setup was a bit trigger-happy, so I consider this an improvement. That rounded sheet metal cover came with the column adapter, and it doesn't cover it very well. It's got a pretty big gap to the clamshell. My clamshell is a redneck abomination of my own devising, so I can't say for sure that it wouldn't match the original clamshell a little better, but I know the stock wheel was not gapped out that far. Maybe the correct kit comes with a longer cover? I'll probably make up a new one that actually fits at some point, but today is not that day. I've read some complaints about the horn buttons on Grant's 3-bolt wheels. This wheel doesn't use that design. The five-bolt wheels use a self-contained horn button, which friction-fits into the trim ring. It's got two spade terminals on the back for the wires. One wire comes from the column adapter (which uses a piece of circuit board for the slip ring), and the other goes to a ring terminal, which I put under one of the three bolts holding the spacer to the column adapter. This system works just fine with the factory horn contact on the column, and I didn't have to modify or adjust anything to get it working properly. Sadly they don't have any amusing replacement horn buttons, or even a Nissan one. Just domestic brands, their own name, blank, or "4x4," in case you need reminding of that sort of thing. I've driven around a bit since installing the new wheel. The leather grip feels nice, and it doesn't have a rancid mixture of hand sweat and lung dart residue festering inside of it, which is a welcome change. The smaller diameter clears my knees better, but it's not so small that I feel like I stole the wheel off the riding mower. And I like the look--it looks upgraded, without looking like I've mistaken Rat Trap for a racecar. That said, the fit and finish could be better. There's a little glue residue on the spokes, the leather wrap ends closer to the spoke slot on one side than the other, and that one out-of-place white stitch at the bottom bugs me a little. The horn trim ring has a garf under the paint, and came with some paint scratched off around one of the screw holes--screw holes which mysteriously don't exist in Grant's product picture. The picture conveniently omits the spacer with the can koozy around it, too. So, yeah. This turned out to be a bit more of a can of worms than I had hoped, and if I was going to do it all over again, I don't know that I'd do all the same things. Now that it's all said and done, though, I like it, and it's staying. One last thing: I did reach out to Grant's customer support about the adapter. Grant's tech support guy confirmed that the #3560 kit was out of stock, but said he'd managed to track one down. (Naturally I had already ordered the other kit by the time I got that email.) So if you need a Grant column adapter, try their customer support--they may be able to hook you up.

I rebuilt mine in 2023. I had the service manual and followed that, but also found the below video and follow-up assembly videos the most useful. I also downloaded the below website, which went offline but is still available on Internet Archive. https://web.archive.org/web/20170224101545/http://beergarage.com/PathTransmission1Remove.aspx The Pathfinder trans is just the 300ZX trans with a pull clutch and different (replaceable) rear on the 4WD models. Means for 01-04 we have double-cone synchros on both 2nd and 3rd. The bearing kits (BK240) are all the same for this model of transmission, it's the kits with synchros that are different (which you generally can't get anyway). I couldn't get the complete kit with bearings and synchros at the time, so I just bought the bearing kit ZMBK240, identified each synchro part # from Amayama and purchased them separately. You might find like me that you can order and pay for the full kit, then they'll refund you and say it's not available. Given their ages now I wouldn't install a used transmission without first opening it up. I bought my used trans from B&R and when arrived it was full of mud and wood chips and rust as it was obviously left outside in the rain. It 100% had to be cleaned and parts replaced. When in there I found the reverse gear missing a tooth, the reverse gear design is weak and its synchro doesn't work well so I replaced all those gears too. Apparently you should never put a 300ZX/Pathfinder manual into reverse until you've stopped and waited a second for the gears to slow down. I replaced all the synchros because you wouldn't reuse them condition unknown. I also replaced the smaller inner gear bearings that don't come with the kit and are ignored - the new updated versions were minus one needle, probably for better oil flow. Shifts are smooth as butter, well worth the time. If you're interested I could put up a post on my rebuild. Pro tip, I used a toaster oven to heat up then drop the 'press fit' gears in place, made it so much easier and I don't feel like a caveman hammering on precision parts.

Monstaliner - Lady in Red. 20250607_145706.jpg

Long overdo update - turns out the source of my intermittent front passenger wheel-area screeching was the brake. Pad was completely gone, and I pushed it a little too long, ended up melting the pad's backing plate and blowing out a piston in the caliper. Good thing I was already planning to replace the front rotors... it was a bear of a job but got it done, and it finally stops reliably, doesn't pull anymore, and doesn't make that terrible noise! Next step in restoration/repair, new muffler.

There are actually two switches on the brake pedal, but you're correct in assessing that if the brake lights work then the switch is good, because the AT interlock is triggered by the same switch. The other switch is for the cruise control system. The likely culprit is the park position switch on the back of the shifter assembly. When the shifter is in the Park position, it closes the ground leg of the shifter solenoid that unlocks the shifter when the brake pedal is pressed. If you supply 12V to the solenoid (also on the shifter assembly) and it latches, then the solenoid is good. You can check for continuity on the switch. In my case, my truck's previous owner tucked a chunk of tubing into the shifter override (the hole you can stick a screwdriver in to manually get the shifter out of park) because the park switch had failed. I found a replacement switch on Digikey (.com) for a couple bucks and soldered it in. You can use the tubing approach in a pinch, being fully aware that it will allow the truck to be shifted out of Park without a key and without the brake pedal being depressed. I'd just keep a screwdriver or tool in the truck until it's fixed. Don't forget there's also an interlock cable that provides mechanical functionality. The shifter moving from park also requires a key in the ignition and turned to ON. It's unlikely it's the problem, but you'd want to confirm that the correct slack/length is set where the cable connects to the shifter assembly. Full details are in the Factory Service Manual: https://www.nicoclub.com/nissan-service-manuals. Check the Automatic Transmission (AT) chapter, "A/T SHIFT LOCK SYSTEM" section after all the diagnostic code stuff.

Agreed and removed

SUCCESS! https://imgur.com/a/qWyHVX8

Hello! My name is Kyle, I was born in Carlisle (UK) but recently sold up and moved to Germany, to a small town in the east roughly 50km from Berlin. After moving over the thing I was most looking forward to was car shopping - naturally. Especially since in the UK the cars are fairly limited due to being right hand drive. Whereas here in Deutschland, I have the whole continent to choose from as well as a range of American cars. The irony being I chose a Pathfinder which is neither but I chose it as I was drawn to the idea of having a capable truck I could invest in and enjoy! And so, here is my 1998 R50 with the 3.3 litre engine and auto gearbox: A few niggles have come to my attention already, so I'll be asking about those on the relevant forum sections Aside from those however, I already love it! Kyle

WOW, it's been a hot minute since this has been a problem. Apparently I drag out fixing things... I bought a tap for this project since I have the HWOLE front end and transmission torn apart. I was able to chase the threads with no problem. Put in a new bolt and when I finally get it all back together, I'll get a proper alignment at a reputable shop VS the cut rate Navy Exchange.... One Star... would not recommend

Hey, if you need help let me know. I am totally willing to assist. Hell you can move it to my server which is already hosting a couple other forums... I've got 4 TB of space and dual xeon cpus on my rackmount dell server . I keep things behind a virtualized pfSense firewall and it seems to keep the noise down. Lets chat. We all get busy and life happens. I know we work in adjacent industries, its bit a total @!*% show since 2020.

I think I figured it out. I went back and started over. I went with a 5 pin relay so I wouldn’t have to put 2 wires together. My plan was to use pins 87 and 87a. I assumed that 87a would be powered up the same as 87. Apparently that’s not how it works. 87a has no power when the relay is activated. That is where I went wrong. Lesson learned.

After a good wash. The paint is pretty bad, I think it's been rattle can touched up a few times. But the body is remarkably straight, one dent in the rear bumper and a simple in the front if the hood. Removed the bent up roof rack and took this picture so we could noodle on a design for a custom roof rack. It's sloped down in the front pretty good, we've since adjusted the rotation bars to sit close to level. Well... An unknown server error limits my upload to 51kb so I'll try to get this and the next pic uploaded another time...

Thanks again @gamellott and @adamzan - agreed that timing belt is priority. I was able to get all OEM timing parts (belt, tensioner, water pump, front crank and cam seals) fortunately, but have yet to install. Been using this as my "daily" driver (but I only drive about 50 miles/week, at most) and so it's been hard to find time for it. Also had the starter motor go out, which I ended up spending a full day fighting to replace, and did a tune up/oil change while I was at it. Old filter was installed in 2023, but only about 2k miles ago. My goal is to do timing belt asap, then front end parts after, and finally figure out screeching after that. I ended up buying all Mevotech "supreme" parts on RockAuto - they seem to be not the worst quality, but obviously time will tell once they're on. All greaseable with zerks included - they even had a replacement centerlink by Mevotech which I was pleasantly surprised to see, as I've read those are/were hard to find on the forums. Wheel screeching is also still unresolved - I've been able to pinpoint that it is coming from only the passenger side front wheel, and only when moving in reverse or turning left (anything off of dead straight - if I turn right at all it stops, and if I press the brakes it stops too). Maybe a loose pad or hardware? The rotors look a little worn, but I honestly don't know enough to say whether its abnormal wear or just typical for their (unknown) age. I need to inspect pads more closely, but at this point I plan to replace all 4 wheels' pads/rotors/bearings all at once and figure I'll find the cause during that process. Next time I have the wheels off I'll take some pics.

I'm honestly not sure when ABS started in these, and whether it was a trim thing or a federal thing. The part numbers for the ABS valve block go back to '90, but it's not in the '90 manual. If yours has it, the valve block is under the truck, on the inside of the passenger's side frame rail, sorta under the passenger's seat area IIRC. Should be an aluminum casting with a bleeder, an electrical plug, and two brake lines going into it. The control computer for mine was under the driver's seat, but IIRC '92 (and earlier?) had it under the stereo. The sensor reads from the pinion flange on the rear axle. If yours doesn't have it, you're not missing much. All it does is release the rear brakes if it sees them lock up. There's no pulse action, no pump, no improved stopping distance. It's just trying to stop the rear end from stepping out and potentially rolling the truck. I guess if road conditions are bad enough to allow the rear brakes to lock, and the driver doesn't know to pump the pedal to regain control, then it's safer to nerf the rears, keep it straight, and take the hit in the crumple zone.

If it's made it this far... Either it was well cared for or replaced. it'll be fine

The noise could also be slight play in the bearings allowing the rotor to move just enough that it is contacting the backing plate. I have had that happen before. @gamellott They didn't have zerks but had a bolt that you removed to install a zerk. I agree it is hard to find good chassis parts these days. I usually just buy the cheap stuff because the lifetime warranty stuff seems to be 3x the price for 0x the quality. The best TRE, ball joints etc for these were/are the "three five" brand, you could get them at napa at some point, and rock auto under beck/arnley.

16 mpg on a misfire...I'd be happy to see that on my truck! But ultimately, a misfire will absolutely affect mileage. Since cylinder #4 (the "04" in P0304) is easily accessible on the engine (driver's side), you could at least swap the #2 and #4 coil packs to see if the problem travels, and pull the #4 spark plug to check its condition and replace if warranted. Those two actions would at least rule out spark issues. Air and fuel you can't really check without tearing down the top of the engine a bit, but maybe a borescope might show something. In tracking down my own engine issues in recent years, a smoke machine proved super valuable in finding leaks. Maybe run a fuel system treatment for a tank or two in case it's something with the injector. Unlikely the code is tied to clogged cat. Two other cylinders exist on the engine bank, so you'd throw a bank-specific cat or O2 sensor code instead.

The trucks that came with carriers have reinforcement/nut plates inside the fender. I don't think the non-carrier trucks generally have the brackets, but I don't know for sure that yours doesn't. Stick your hand up in there and see. It is possible to retrofit a carrier to a non-carrier truck. It has been done. The tricky bit is those reinforcement brackets. I pulled the brackets out of my parts car for @vzcraig70 a couple years ago, and found out why ninetyfivehatch cut his down to fit. They were clearly installed before the quarter panel went on, which is why it takes a little butchery to put them in after the fact. Hawairish used rivnuts to mount the carrier on his R50. Seemed to work alright for him, but after seeing NissanBoston's pictures on the last page of that thread, I don't think I would trust rivnuts alone.

I keep hoping my 24 year old son would take an interest in it, but he's too busy with the rest of his life...take care, happy holidays!

You would need to change out the Pitman arm to the different taper size IIRC. Rockauto seems to have all of the front end parts at a reasonable price for a 1991. The ball joints are all the same, though as well as the sway bar links. I would get it in the air and check what parts actually have play in them, and grease any zerks you find (there are bolts that can be removed on the factory joints to install zerks). Replacing old tie rods, etc that aren't worn (tbh I would hold onto those original parts as long as you can because the new stuff is crap) won't improve the ride at all. Make sure the steering stops are greased up, they are a big source for front end noise. Check the tension rod (also called strut rod) bushings, they can cause some funny handling and the hole in the frame is usually slogged out from them being loose. There are numerous threads on it here. Make sure your tires are not 30 years old, and are the proper load range, as well as balanced properly. If you are going to replace it all, try and stick with name brand parts, there's been a few people here over the years that regretted buying those ebay style kits. You just end up replacing it again and again.

Looks like the indented part of a friction plate guide used in the LSD carrier. Overall width on a new piece like that is 15.5mm, but where yours appears might've broken, I measure about 12.5mm, so pretty high confidence this is it. It installs on the tabs of the friction plates. You can see it in the hole in the pic.