blackboat

Started having trouble with the clutch not disengaging on Friday. On Saturday I found the linkage rod from the pedal to the clutch MC loose so readjusted it and things got better. Until I was about 40 miles from nowhere in the mountains and the clutch began not totally disengaging again when I stepped on the pedal. Then there was a loud bang and no more clutch action period. Managed to get it turned around and out of the woods, then 150 miles home with no clutch (there are some upsides to having learned to drive in a Model A Ford with a 3 spd crashbox). Today I went out to check a few things as I was trying to get a parts order together. The clutch slave is definitely blown out; I can move it in and out and hear it sucking air. WHAT REALLY WORRIES ME however, is that I can move the clutch fork that sticks out of the side of the transmission a couple of inches forward and back. As in the fork appears to be moving further than the slave cylinder pushrod moves. I'm thinking this is a bad sign. With the truck running, the fork still has the same amount of slop FWIW. I'd really appreciate some input on this, as I'm thinking this may be more than I can handle right now. Not looking for pity, but I was diagnosed with kidney cancer last September, and have been involved in an experimental chemotherapy program since October. To give myself something else to focus on I went back to fly tying and built a new fly rod over the winter. Can you see where this is going? Well this Saturday was my first fly fishing trip in two decades, with all the new equipment. I was within 3 miles of my first stop when the clutch came apart. To have been looking forward to this for months, and finally having a little strength and time to do it....well, it was kind of a letdown to say the least. Anyway, point was supposed to be that I'm not really up to yanking the tranny at this point. The hydraulics I can do, but I'm getting a pretty bad feeling that they're not the whole story. Financially it's not a good time to take it to the mechanics, but I think that's where I'm at, and why I could really use some thoughts right now on what may or may not be wrong. Thanks in advance, Rob

While the plug is gone, 1 wire is still attached. I think the missing wire is for the warning light. And yes, replacement alt looked just like the old one (pulled up the part number myself before going to autozombie). Again, I'm just trying to confirm what color the wires to the plug should be, and location (front or back). Thanks, Rob

Thanks Precise1, The FSM has helped a lot, but of course has me pondering other unrelated things now Rain never stopped before I had to run my daughter around until after dark. I'm betting next check is going to show Autozone alternator not charging. It did work in this config for about a month; the only thing that's changed is batteries aren't getting charged. We'll see, sometimes it takes me awhile to muddle through what I've done to it lately. Still am curious as to the missing plug and it's appropriate wires on a real vehicle vs. the schematics i have at hand. Thanks, Rob

Swapped out the alternator about a month ago. The engine has been swapped in mine (by PO) and the alternator plug with 2 wires that goes into the side of the alt is missing. There was a single yellow wire coming from a plug near the headlights that was jury rigged; i made sure I put it in the same place it was on the old alt. Truck ran fine for about a month, then the battery died. I've been thru 2 more batteries (one from a garage who was supposed to check all this out) in the past week. Quite clearly I'm now running a total loss electrical system. At this point I don't know if the missing plug is having any effect, or if the Autozone reman is just crap and dead already. Do think I need to solve the plug mystery regardless, so if anyone has a pic, or a description of what 2 wires should go into the side (where they come from, what color they are) it would be extremely helpful. It's pouring rain here today; I'm hoping for a let up sometime so I can do a quick check with a VM as see if it's charging. Thanks, Rob

I should have been a bit more specific: I have use it for the next few months mostly as-is due to financial constraints, but do intend to keep it past that point as a third/backup/hunting vehicle. Once I have the time and money it will see a bit more customizing to make it more the vehicle I want. I like the little thing and have lots of ideas for it. The body and frame are generally quite good; I need to start my own thread in Member's Rides to show what I'm doing now and blather on about my personal off-road philosophy. Rob

I'm about to install new sound and have been pondering this too. What I want to do is move the speakers from their top of the wheel well position to the ceiling around the rear seats. My thinking being to leave the rear cargo area as open as possible. Obviously will take some custom boxes and have to figure out how to blend it in with my headliner. To me the rear door location is no good since I'll probably have gear piled in front of it most of the time. I will check out the rear pillar idea though next time I walk out there (I had just logged on to start researching speaker wire routing). I'm not worried about having the speakers deafen passengers as I will rarely have anyone back there. My main goal is to clear out the cargo area (I'm sure I'm going to break those factory rear boxes sooner rather than later) and get my rear speakers in a better position for me to hear them while keeping them clear from all the garbage and dogs I haul around. As a further thought, chopping up those factory boxes might be a quick way to mock up what I want to do..... Got all my new stereo stuff in hand and now that the evil timing belt job is done I'm quite ready to do a "fun" project with the Pathy. Rob

Thanks guys. The PO wasn't any sort of gear-head and I highly doubt he had the gears swapped to use the longer life timing belt. At this point I guess all I can do is assume he lied to me and the engine has been swapped. I've already discovered damage from an accident he failed to tell me about (he admitted to one, but "forgot" to disclose the other that Carfax turned up. Go figure). Next time I go to town I'll stop in at the Nissan dealer and have the service dept. run the VIN just to see what turns up. In the end, it's a car with 192,000 on it that I paid $1250 for and am just using it until I return to work in a few months. Could even be a good thing that the engine was swapped. I need to figure out how to do a compression check without hurting anything electrical and we'll see how it looks then. At least now I know the timing belt is OK Thanks, Rob

Can anyone tell me if it is possible to identify when an engine was produced and how to go about it? I ask this because I have a 1990 Pathfinder that I just put a new timing belt in. The hitch was that I ordered and received a timing belt with square teeth, but when I got the timing belt covers off my cam and crankshafts (and the existing belt) were of the round tooth variety. From searches earlier today I gather that the round tooth belt didn't appear until sometime in the 1993 model year. Wiped out the whole day, but I found a round toothed belt and got the job finished. Now I'm left wondering what may have happened to my engine. I'm assuming something bad happened to the original motor and it got swapped, even though the seller assured me nothing major had ever been replaced. Thus I want to ID the engine and see if I can figure out what may have happened. Any thoughts or ideas, please? This has me a bit nervous about my new Pathy. Thanks, Rob