unccpathfinder

do all the connection checks and what not cuze thats what it sounds like is battery but if it happens to be the starter u can put the truck in 1st and rock it back and forth for a lil while and it will do the same as hitting the starter with a hammer it'll eventually move it off of a bad spot if there is 1...but i would put the money on a weak battery or corrosion or a loose connection

well there was 1 on ebay for 695 but it was gonna be like 100+ to ship it and its only like 5 hrs from me so i asked him if i could pick it up and he was like ABSOLUTLY NO P/U so i was like well then i'll keep looking...im gonna try to crank her up and get some video with audio so yall can hear what shes doin cuze im lost

turning by hand everything felt very smooth and no rough spots... im starting to wonder now if i damaged some of the plug wires and the knock im getting is just pre-ignition from compression or a weak spark...i've never really heard that type of "knock" but it does sorta sound like a diesel but louder but it sounds really bad so im guessing im gonna maybe try to get some plug wires and change those out and cross my fingers (b/c really that is the only logical reason y she died) and im wondering if the initial bang at first before the knocks started was a backfire from raw fuel being ignited in the exhaust manifold or something to that effect...

yea i was gonna do feel 1st and then try to pinpoint where its coming from figure out whats in that area and then take the needed action

well im just kinda glad it happened in the driveway on a cold crank before i started making my treck home today for 120 miles...i found a ride home so i can go be with momma for thanksgiving which is good but as for the motor when i get home on sat im gonna pull the valve covers loosen up the rocker arms and turn her over by hand as suggested before and take a steathascope and see if i cant hear whats clanging... i'll post when i get back and find something out...gonna go have a beer and dinner with my cuz and see what she wants for her 95 since she just bought a mazda 3 for gas sorry to hear about blowin that vegas money...im kinda streached for $ till the beggining of next sem...so im thinking shes gonna sit till then

couldnt wait till tomorrow just got done going thru it all again...pulled the rockers and lifters and everything was looking perfect so at least i know for sure i didnt drop anything in when i had the valve covers off... pulled the plugs and they all looked the same so i figured if something fell in it woulda dinged those up...so im guessing my next step is pulling the heads to see what i've done...i dont wanna crank it up again and damage anything else to any more extent than it already is... i'll post up whenever i find anything else new....

im pretty sure its gonna be major...thats just my luck... now i gotta decide what to do...if its get a new motor rebuild if its possible on this 1 sell her as she sits or part it out... all with a dwindling bank account... also 1975 trailduster for sale get as much out of it as i can...needs floorboards and has a lot of cancer...located in wilmington NC...runs strong with a lil smoke from leaky valve seals.... but for now -alcohol- -alcohol- -alcohol-

well either i dropped something in the head when i had the valve cover off inspecting (really dont think happened) or something fell down in one of the spark plug holes (i really dont think happened) or she just decided to break when i cranked it up tonight... all kinds of knocking and raquet from under the hood...looks like im not goin home for thanksgiving updates tomorrow after i check it out but i think the motors toast now...

if u pull the light cover off you can see the lever that moves a flat piece of metal from one of 3 tabs the lever might not be going completly over to "on when door opens" but sticking on the "always on" so no matter where the selector is it'll be on and the way u described it it seems like it might only be touching a little bit(as if the switch got pulled down so it bent the lever on the inside so it barely touchs now)..if you can get a screwdriver up there (maybe with the battery disconnected) you can get it to the proper selection... i know in mine the back light is completly on its own... i have an 87

where i think the leak is coming from i tried to orient the 1st 2 so that its how you would see it if you laid under the truck from the front with ure feet in front of the truck close up of area whatta mess (oriented looking from the fan back to the motor sorta)

pulled the timing belt cover and some good news there...it was looking nice and clean no oil splattered all over it...so i still think the oil is coming from some counterpart of the driverside head on the front side (maybe cam seal)after taking off the driver side valve cover and dist cap thinking this would let me see a lil better i quickly realized that this wasnt the case and i just wasted about 20 mins to take it off and put it back on... pulled all of the plugs and besides from pulling some of them apart and having to recrimp the wire back to the connector (i really wish those plug wire grabbers would work a lil better)...they were all good looking...only thing was a lil white color which is a norm when i change the plugs no oil or anything like that...they looked good to be in there for 2 years... ...still didnt fully locate the oil leak tho...its blown oil all over the place but i think i nixed the crank seal b/c the oil is def coming from either around the oil pan or above but im sure its above b/c the alt has some on it and i can kinda see up to where that backplate is for the timing belt cover and think thats where its coming from which i would susped is the cam seal...im gonna try to upload some of the pix if they seem to be helpful...

checked a couple plugs and they look good but didnt have time to check all of them but fixing to do that here in a couple mins...the truck runs great shes smooth and no unusual effects...i have picked up the same problem i had about a year ago and when im accelerating hard it doesnt seem like it wants to go but thats only every now and then and last time i changed plug wires dist cap and rotor as well as the coil and that fixed it im thinking my plug wires are bad again... i've been wanting to run a compression test but havent had time to do it...i dont have a mixing of fluids which i thought would exclude the head gasket but i didnt know if it were possible to blow it out on the outter side and not have the cooling ducts hit the oil ducts the top half was rebuilt about 25k ago or 3 years... well i wasnt loosing oil until i noticed the other day the leak that had been coating everything...the oil smells like normal used oil to me but i guess there could be a hint of "fuel" smell to it but im pretty sure thats just reg oil...but the way it smokes is i can crank it up without any smoke (besides the cold weather condensation evaporation) and the truck doesnt smoke at all while running but if i let it idle for a min or so if i hit the gas its just 1 puff then as im driving no smoke...i know i do have a rich condition b/c of a warped exhaust manifold....its an 87 with 250k on it with the top half rebuild at 225k after i broke a timing belt and bent 3 valves... yea i was initially thinking rings but thought that i would see smoke all the time and voided out valve seals due to no smoke on startup after sitting (sometimes up to 4 or 5 days)...i've also heard of trucks sucking oil up into the intake at idle but changed the pcv and that didnt help...and i also noticed that it wont ever smoke even if it idles until the truck is at running temp... but for now going to investigate the oil leak and check the plugs will post (pics if needed) about my discovery's (we need a figners crossed smiley)

as posted before i noticed after a min or so of idle i'd blow a puff of blue smoke on initial acceleration and that was all of the blue smoke...i had lost about 3/4 a quart in 500 miles which seemed like a lot yest i crawl under to do an oil change and notice oil had been blown everywhere along the front side of the motor (dripping off of alternator as well but none on the belts) so i go to look at my known to sometimes leak valve cover and it doesnt seem to have noticable leaking happening as of now (but sure that'll happen really soon with winter coming on) my question is tho could i have somehow half assed blown a head gasket to where its shooting oil out between the head and block and maybe at idle a lil into the cylinder? or any other idea's? i havent had time to pull the timing belt cover to see if its indeed leaking between the head and block :sniff: my baby's doing evil evil things and have a feeling everything is about to get a whole lot worse

sounds exactly like what my 87 did...pop off the top timing belt cover if u see just the cams and no belts then u broke u're timing belt...if you did what i did and hit the clutch as soon as it died then you may have saved "major" damage...i bent 3 valves #1 and #3 intake valves and #1 exhaust valve...funny thing is i had just refueled and thought it was a bad pump so i would bump over to the 3 pos and heard it prime up so i knew it wasnt that and knew then i was in big trouble... what we did was since i was on a broke bank account was get a new belt put #1 at TDC and get everything back in time and crank her up to see what happened... pulled plug wires 1 at a time to see if the motor stalled or changed idle speed and thats how we found i had killed 1 and 3... i got all new valves and a master gasket kit and rebuilt her in 3 days due to wrong valves being sent by napa's warehouse the 2nd from the right is a straight valve the others are all bent and was my only carnage from breakage

i was also talking about the 2 doors...the lil triangles...so i hope i didnt mislead you cuze i forgot to ask what year

pretty much u gotta pull the entire truck apart (interior panels) and then its like 3 screws...im gonna try to find my pix where i installed my 6x9's and upload them so u can get an idea... well that was a big negative they were lost in a dead hard drive along with my project pix for my 75 trail duster...

so what was the difference in the motor mounts that was stated earlier?

i should be square there cuze its a full motor(so i could take olds or go buy new 1's for that block and be on point)...only concern i have is that he replaced a 90k motor with a 45k "because he had it" which is fishy to me but i dont care as long as the bottom half is not burnin oil b/c i plan on taking my old motor and building it up just for more power...opinions on that...i plan on questioning more plus it seems like 1 of those too good to be true deals...

so im putting the *94* motor in an 87 pathy so that wouldnt pose a problem would it? if i changed heads wouldnt my old exhaust manifolds still mount to the old head? and the same for the intake? how are they different? as in im going to have to drill new holes or fabricate new brackets? i also have a manual tranny and im guessing your saying it needs to be dropped (do a clutch change cuze i need it) and then put the motor in and put the tranny back in...or are u saying im going to have to relocate my tranny mounts as well?

sounds good...i cross referenced gasket #'s and other common parts in the motors and the part #'s were all the same...and i would prefer to go with the same year but im having problems finding them at a reasonable price so if i can find something that'll work then im gonna go with what the bank account can handle...

im not looking to change out my ecu and all that good stuff but i am going to need a new motor and my plans are to have 1 ready to drop in when i pull the old 1 out... i am curious how similar the blocks from say an early to mid 90s pathfinder block is to the 1 in the 87 (3.0L v)...i didnt know if the heads and intake have all the same bolt patterns and what not as well as if they'd mate up with the driveline.

my 87 does the same thing...lemmie know how that goes with the grease B4 i go pulling out the gauges cuze if i do it 1st it wont work...and then if it works for all of yall it still might not work...thats how it goes i guess...

i went to home depot and got some 3 or 4 ft wide vinal and got about 4 ft of it and that was plenth to do both sides...i dont have the pix uploaded anywehre right now but i pulled off the tires and took some empty beer case cardboard from the night B4 and made some templates...traced it out cut them out and put some small stainless nuts and bolts thru the holes where the old plastic push pins went...that stuff is pretty tough and it keeps the motor about 85% cleaner than when i only had half of them hanging down...

like all the above said...sounds like syncro issues...is it still under warranty?....if so i'd suggest not taking it in quite yet...cuze if its like most dealerships they'll say "cannot duplicate"... i would say drive the gears hard till they break and then take it in os they have to fix it...or take it in and if they give u the cannot duplicate BS then drive her hard till they break...but that stinks and hope its still under warranty

also check the battery for corrosion...my truck will act like she has no power if theres any corrosion on the battery but not that bad...and do what 88 said as well...i was backfiring a lil so i did the cap and rotor and she quit that but nothing as extreme as what ure saying