Harbinger

They do look identical to the brake connections. Can you find this bulk line at any auto parts store? It's not something I've seen before, despite spending many hours in the local parts houses. Yeah, I've had great luck with rock auto and factory nissan parts. I have probably 20 of those Rock Auto magnets on my fridge right now! I've gone through factorynissanparts before, when I first installed my suspension lift. Rob's a great guy to deal with! It's coming along, but actual progress out on the truck has been slow. School is kicking my arse and it's getting colder and wetter day by day. I rode my motorcycle home from class in the rain on Wednesday. 75mph out in the open drizzle, even in full jeans, leather MC jacket, scarf, winter gloves and my full face helmet, it probably took 4 hours to fully warm up when I got home! Still, parts are en route, and with any luck I'll have a vehicle with an enclosed cabin and a heater again soon.

Mine were an absolute b**** to get off. At least the drivers side one was, I couldn't get it out of the front LCA either. That is, until I had to drop the truck the ground to push it out of the driveway. As soon as the weight of the truck was on the front drivers wheel again, I was able to pull it out one handed. Others have had luck jacking up the LCA to remove the torison bars, or even loosening the bolts where the t-bar connects to the LCA. Good luck!

Good info to know on the Flywheels, thanks everyone! Well, just ordered a new flywheel from RockAuto. Comparable prices to all the local parts houses with a similar wait time. Not sure why I even try and buy local parts anymore! Also got a set of track bar bushings for when I install GrandpaX's panhard drop bracket. Want everything to be good when I take it back for an alignment. Just got off the phone with Alkorail too. Nice guy! Ordered up new torison bar boots, a rear main seal, hydraulic clutch hose, new springs for the clutch fork/release bearing, a new boot where the stick shift meets the transmission, and two new torsion bar bolts & 4 nuts. The lower hydraulic clutch hard line is no longer produced by Nissan. Alkorail said that one dealer left in the US has one, and it's clear across the country in Maine. I'm waiting to hear back from them now. Then my clutch kit, R50 release bearing, Redline MT90, new t-case input/output seals and a transmission mount all came in yesterday. With any luck I'll be able to bolt the new tranny up next week!

I'll have to take some pics of the end of my crankshaft. I couldn't see a bearing in the end of it last night (I think Beastpath's was the same?), but I know what your talking about. Taken from here: http://www.nissan4wheelers.com/displayForumTopic/content/286003431025218489/page/1 Where this is what mine looks like. There is a little lip and then it gets wider as it goes in towards the crank, but I didn't see any actual pieces that looked like they weren't solid. As far as flywheels go. The local scrapyards don't have any in stock and I haven't had luck finding any left in the you-pull-it yards. If I order a new one will I still have to get it machined? Since looking at $50 for a used one plus $30ish in machining, I could just buy a new one on rockauto....

Nice work! Not bad for a budget job. Also, as an American owning Japanese vehicles, metric is better!

Got the flex plate out yesterday with a little help from my roomie. It's getting cold outside! My RMS does have a slight leak so I'll be changing it, despite the costs. Silly question, but the flex plate I pulled off isn't the same as a manual's flywheel, correct? Looks like another part to add to the list.

I'd take the assembly apart before ordering new bushings, just in case the rods themselves are about to wear through. I know mine were scarily thin when I changed them last year.

I'm no expert, but I'd also take a closer look at your steering system and ball joints. I'm running 31's on Cragar soft 8's with no issues (at least up until my transmission died). But I also replaced my steering and front suspension components with new last year. +1 on the tension rods looking fine. I thought mine were fine until I took them apart to replace the bushings "just cuz", and realized I was only a few mm away from them snapping.

Lmao, yes, brake cleaner. Took two cans to my starter and I must say it's looking shiny compared to the oil covered thing that I pulled out of there.

Would be my guess, but it is really generic so it could have been any ford/nissan dealer. *shrug* , seeing how it was changed out over a decade a go too, it might be hard to track down. I'll pull up my carfax later today after some homework and see if I can narrow it down. Thanks B. Yeah, it is a push to get it all done before the weather turns sour. Already spent a morning or two working on the truck in the rain. Just waiting for parts now though, and then I can start bolting her back together. Damn good thing too. School is a 40 mile round trip twice a week, and if the snow hits I won't be taking my motorcycle anymore... I took a few cans of brake fluid and engine degreaser to the new tranny's bell housing yesterday. The 3.3 it used to be bolted to much have had a hell of a RMS leak. Happy to say mine doesn't appear to be leaking, but I haven't gotten assistance with removing the flywheel yet so I can't be 100%. Nissan wants 60 bucks for a new one so I'm hoping it looks so shiny and new as is that I won't want to change it. But will probably suck it up and do it anyway. Thanks for the kind words on the photography. All those pics were taken on my aging Canon rebel xt, with a tamron 17-50 f2.8 lens.

Ha, no instragram here. All those pics were taken on my dlsr and edited in lightroom. Yeah, it does make me wonder. There are two under-hood notes about the timing belt being replaced, but if I have a replacement engine, I don't know when it was installed. Makes me want to do a timing belt job sooner than later anyway! That metal reman'ed engine plate has a nissan and a ford logo on it it, but no other markings than what you can see in that pic.

Thought I would update with some pictures. This is where she currently sits. It's really empty under her now! Not a view I get everyday... Look Ma! 3 Pedals! While unbolting the old tranny's upper bell housing bolts, I found this. It wasn't mentioned by the previous owner or the carfax on my truck, so am not sure what to make of it. In other news, I have disconnected my t-case from the dead auto after a bit of grunting and prying. Today I returned my dead auto to the junkyard and was quite happy to get the core charge back! I placed orders today for redline mt-90 (9qts for the tranny/t-case/extra) and a pump to get it into the t-case after it's all installed again. Also placed an order @ rockauto for a wd21 clutch kit and a few other goodies. Will hopefully be ordering the cylinder rebuild kits, lower hydraulic system and hose from Alkhorail. I also ordered new t-case seals for the input and output shafts. Moving right along I suppose!

I seperated my t-case from the dead auto and stashed it in the garage. Dead auto is going to the jy tomorrow!

Eeek, well I'll be sure to be careful when replacing mine! Not sure the Nissan one is worth 10 times the price though...but we'll see how the budget ends up. In other news, THE AUTOTRAGIC IS OUT! Spent all day under the truck disconnecting things, grinding down rusted bolt heads, you know, the usual, but at the end of the day, the t-case and tranny are sitting outside the truck! Tomorrow I'll take off the t-case from the auto and return the auto for my core charge on the new tranny. Then I can hunt for a decent local machine shop for my flywheel and hopefully getting parts ordered soon. Now, time for beer and school work!

Yeah, with what I'm seeing, I'll order the vg30 clutch kit and probably grab a spare release bearing from rock auto for the 98 tranny, just incase it is different on the tranny side. Am talking with alkorhrail about some other parts. Hoping to get rebuild kits for the clutch and slave cylinders, new boots for the shifters, the lower hydraulic lines/hoses and some parts for that r50 console from him. At this point all the bolts will be replaced! The ones coming from my transmission xmember certainly will be! Thoughts on sourcing a new rear main seal? Rock auto wants less than $6, and the nissan price is well, much much more. Does it make that big of a difference?

Do you remember what they used to flush the transmission with? If it wasn't straight ATF it might have been one of those harsher detergents washes. I've heard our trucks don't like the harsher chems. Auto's are black magic to me, so good luck?

That's what I currently have. What I don't yet know is if the R50 clutch kit will work with the WD21 flywheel...

Well, I got a few more bolts out of the bell housing today. I'm up to 8, so I'm hoping that is it! Some of those things are hard to get to! Well I e-mailed alkorail with a few q's, and he verified that the R50 and WD21 flywheels aren't the same. So who knows which clutch kit I'll need now. With any luck I can have that transmission out tomorrow though! Will be waiting on parts after that.

Today I ran back to the jy, grabbed a taures 3.8L e-fan for later and a few bits I meant to pick up yesterday, like a slave cylinder. Much like beastpath I cant get any of the lower hydraulic hardlines/rubber hose off the yard trucks. I'll be giving Rob a call anyway, but the parts list just keeps getting longer! Got the starter gusset out today, and also got the 4 bolts out of the torque converter. I've now got about half the bell housing bolts out, but I was beginning to fight with the top 3 so I gave up for the day and came in. I have homework to do anyway. =/ With any luck I'll be able to drop that tranny tomorrow. I'll take another look at the t-bar tommorrow B, and try and get those measurements.

Ran to the j/y again today. Got kicked out (forgot they close earlier on Saturdays!) but managed to grab a grey manual r50 console, black leather shift boot and both shifter knobs. Turns out I am getting a 5 speed swap + cupholders! mwa ha ha ha ha. Got home and had enough time to pull the starter out. Man was that thing greasy! I'm hoping that if I clean it up the oil filter relocation I did a few months ago will keep it that way! So on my t-bars. The right one is slightly bent, and has a wobble to it if you roll it on a level surface. Budget was dictating that I re-use my old ones but now I'm not so sure I should. Silly question, but what's the best way to rotate the crankshaft?

I just ordered one of those 2 Go socket things. Will see if it's worth it! Well got some time to work on her today. Two cuts to the exhaust took a section out, so should be able to drop the tranny out now. Alsso got the tranny cooler lines out. Now it is time for dinner and beer, I'll pull the starter and start unbolting the trans from the motor tomorrow.

That means I'd have to start drinking canned beer! I think I am just going to cut it out though. I'll be launching into it tomorrow assuming I can get some homework done tonight! I did pick up some parts from a different scrap yard the other day. Pulled the interior shifter plate/gasket/shifter arm and a grey boot out of an 88 Pathfinder. Hoping all the parts will jive with me pulling parts from 87's and 88's to combine with a 98 transmission all for a 1995 truck!

Monday I grabbed a stick shift (just the shifter portion) gray manual/t-case boot, and the transmission cover plate from a manual 88 two door. I've only been able to find one 4 door WD21 in two local junk yards. Haven't found an R50 except for one QX4 that was an autotragic. This compares to probably the 8 or so 2 door wd21's I have access too, and a similar number of D21's. So far my auto-manual swap is involving a 1998 Transmission, and the rest of the stick shift specific parts from 87 and 88 vehicles... Now if I could just get my exhaust unbolted, life would be good and I could drop the autotragic onto a motorcycle lift I found at a pawn shop. Sadly the original exhaust on my truck is rusted to crap after 170k miles, and I'm not sure if I should just cut through it or try something else. Can barely afford the tranny swap with me doing all the labor, let alone having to drive it to an exhaust shop if it ever drives under it's own power again.