Filthy Luker

I blew apart my transmission a few months ago. The planetary gears decided to explode. Fun stuff I tell ya... Definitely attracts attention creeping to my mechanic in 2nd gear making noises of hell and shaking the floorboard. I went to one of those JDM engine importing places, and picked up a low mileage (they claimed 40K miles) tranny complete with a t-case for $500CDN/$400US(they wanted more but those places are usually flexible on $$$). They gave me 90 day warranty. My mechanic installed it for $500CDN/$400US, and that included replacing the rear main, and an oil pressure sensor. It's a major job so unless you have a proper transmission lift and air tools you don't want to do it yourself. Consider this a fair warning. On the way home from the shop, everthing was running fine, but then I heard a huge loud bang, the thing downshifted to 3rd and stayed there. Yep... planetary gears exploded AGAIN. So it was turning around time... creeping in 3rd this time, with huge rumbling coming from underneath the truck. I had a sense of humor failue for about a week. Don't go there. What ended up happening is that my buddy did a rebuild on the original tranny from my truck. He charged me $1000CDN/$800US which is basically cost on the rebuild parts from Nissan (planetary gears/torque converter/bands/seals/etc...) He also installed it again for free (god I love my mechanic) because he felt bad even though it wasn't his fault. I ended up taking the JDM tranny back to the JDM place, they put up a fight but I forced them to take it back and give me most of my cash back.. There was some BS about restocking fees... but I had the last laugh as i kept the transfer case for peanuts as during the ordeal it got separated from the tranny... I ended up paying for the t-case only $75. Anywho.. i know it's a long read, but if you want it done right, and you love your Pathy, I highly recommend getting a rebuilt transmission. It sure cost's a bundle, but at least you won't be listening to every shift it makes like it was going to be the last shift it's gonna make. While shopping around I found fully rebuilt transmissions for $1600CDN and that included a new external tranny cooler. I recommend calling your Nissan dealers and talking to the service managers and mechanics. They usually outsource jobs like this, so they will be able to point you to a proper shop. Anywho.... also get another tranny cooler. You're not supposed to use the stock cooler once you have a tranny let go on ya.

Probably try eBay. It's the Factory Service Manual (what dealers use to fix your truck). Just print yourself the few pages that you need at the time. I printed myself the whole darn thing in duplex and it took two big binders (it was more than 1300 pages).

http://www.madmudders.net/1995_Nissan_Pathfinder.rar Here is the FSM for a 95. I have a 92 and i find it's all 99.99% the same so give it a good read. Chiltons is not very good as you can see from the crazy info you're getting.

So you think you're gonna get another Pathy to swap parts from, or should we start making the list of parts that you'll need to get?

The dealer is wrong. Where does the extra 3/4 quart of oil capacity come from in the 2WD trucks? Also the oil and water pumps are different on 2WD and 4WD models. Also the transmissions are different.

It will be more trouble than it's worth. Nissan Pathfinder rear end tracks so nicely that you can wheel the sucker as is and do some pretty crazy stuff. Maybe add a locker in there for now, and start collecting parts for SAS.

At first glance i thought your Q-Tower cams were lights that were pointing out to the sides.

There is no substitute for dedicated winter tires. If you do a lot of driving in snow, I highly recommend picking up a set of Winter Duelers and swapping them on for the winter. As for daily driver with occasional trail driving? I'd go with BFG AT KO or Bridgestone Dueler AT. Also Firestone Destination AT is a good choice.

Welcome to the joys of owning a Nissan 4x4.

One word: karma

Just because the bulb fits doesn't mean the lens is designed for the light output. http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/bu...onversions.html

Go onto College St east of Bathurst St. in Toronto any night. Amazing bars, lot's of live music, party nevery stops. Try out Orbit Room (540 College St. West) as they have live music 7 days a week(10PM on). If that doesn't suit your fancy, try any one of the hundred's of bars in the area. As to wheeling.. Hmm..... If you feel like doing a day trip to Bobcageyon (named after the Tragically Hip song) which will be about 3.5 hours east of Hamilton, there are tons of trails there. Ranging from stock truck friendly to well... rockcrawler heaven. Also you can check out this trail, it's just outside of Hamilton:

No issues here.

Looks like he talks about HIDs there. Also as I mentioned above, if you have a lens designed for HIDs, it's a different story. If a vehicle comes stock with a set, it's kinda self exlpanatory.. no?

Why? HID are the new wave in lighting. All the rage here. If you're going to replace the entire lens assembly with the proper one designed for HID lighting then go for it. Somehow I doubt however that nothing other than the bulb will be changed. The issue is that the geometry of lens is designed to work with the bulb. The differences in light output and shape of it between HID and conventional bulbs are enough to be unsafe for other drivers (why on earth would you want to blind other motorists) and hence usafe for you. As well as the lens design being ineffective (designed for something else). So you spend money on something that will perform worse in every respect, as well as be completely illegal.

Please don't do HID conversion. That's just wrong and unsafe.

I have mine modified a bit like this. It's just a small 12" section with a slight bend in it. The muffler shop did it for free for me just for kicks. I guess they were so impressed with my original piece neatly wrapped around the shock and rear axle that they wanted to help me out.

This might help: http://www.parksoffroad.com/tacomamods/rea...0Protection.htm