94 Pathy Gary

Me too, me too! Cheers! Gary

I tired the feeler guage process but gave up and went with the "spin the engine a few times and then check the belt's deflection between the cam sprockets" method.... It hasn't come apart on me yet Cheers! Gary

A block (just a block) is an empty engine block. A short-block is a partially assembled engine, but without heads, oil pan, etc. Basically, it's just the block and rotating assembly. A long-block is a partially asembled engine c/w heads, but it is usually still missing all the covers, oil pan, water pump, etc, as well as the intake. Basically, it's the block, rotating assembly, and heads. This is a rather long winded way of saying that the difference boils down to whether or nor it has heads on it Cheers! Gary

YESSSSSSSSSssssssssssssssssssssssssssss!!!!!!!!!!! Air conditioning (tensioner/idler) pully and bearings and nut, please Cheers! Gary (A BC boy stuck in Ontario)

Cuong, Plasti-guage is for re-assembly: It's used to set the space between the crank journals and the bearings (it "squishes" when you torque down the bolts and you measure the width (amount of "squish") of the plastiguage in order to ensure proper spacing) Here's my $0.02 for pulling a crank: Buy a metal stamping set before you do anything and use it to number your caps (stamp the number right onto the bottom surface) ... This is what any good machine shop will do - It allows you to work with (clean, inspect, etc.) the caps after disassembly without worrying which one goes where. I do this when I pull an engine to be sent for machining: It saves the $50 or so that the engine shop would charge me to do it Cheers! Gary

Yeah..... The electric brake controllers I've seen all seemed to be proportional to pedal travel (IOW, they're not just either off or "ON!") so I'm having trouble wrapping my brain around wiring them into a simple grounded switch. Maybe the brake controller's proportionality is a function of the amount of time the pedal is pressed instead of how far it is pressed? Anyway, you're right: Both switches are identical in form and function. Cheers! Gary

Heya Guys, He's talking about a brake controller (for electric trailer brakes) that sits up in the driver's compartment and not a connection for the lights. Here's a Nissan FSM diagram: http://www.themadores.ca/brakes.jpg '88 ... This diagram shows the right one as being the brake light switch: It's from the '94 FSM so I'm thinking they may have changed things over the years Here's the applicable wiring diagram with the brake switch (left-hand side, near the botoom) highlighted: http://www.themadores.ca/wiring.jpg What year is yours Nufy? Cheers! Gary

A reasonable assumption, for sure, given the positioning of these things on our engies. In this case, though, the snout of the water pump sticks out from the middle of the upper and lower timing belt covers and is driven by the crank pully via a fanbelt. Here's your timing belt assembly: And here's the water pump. The 4 studs are for a pully that is secured to the shaft with 4 nuts. The snout of the water pump sticks out from the middle area of the upper and lower timing belt covers on the picture above. Finally, here's the tensioner and it's a bee-otch to get set properly. (You can see the 4 studs on the water pump shaft in the top-right corner) I don't think I'm going TOO far out on a limb if I suggest that, if your timing belt let go, this is the culprit: Cheers! Gary (replaced my water pump and timing belt (and all seals but didn't think do the oil pump ) last year)

I personally can't see how the water pump and timing belt are related beyond the fact that the water pump lives behind the timing belt cover. IOW, a seized water pump should not, under any circumstances, cause a timing belt failure. (A possible exception being that the water pump could leak antifreeze on the timing belt for an extended period of time, thus theoretically causing it to break down) A seized water pump would, though, cause a broken/burned fan belt and an extremely rapid rise in engine temp: You should have noticed that long before the engine quit. If the timing belt is indeed toast, my money is on in improper installation (overtightening) or a seized tensioner/idler. At any rate, the mechs there on-site will tell you what went wrong. Cheers! Gary

I downloaded the whole "Project Pathfinder" series and cleaned it up a bit.... In case anybody's interested, I just zipped the whole package and threw it up on my server... It's about 2.5MB, though, so you'll want a high-speed connection Project Pathy Zipped Once you've unzipped it, just open "01.htm" and you can walk through the entire series (I added a link to the following page at the bottom of each page in the series) .... The engine bottom-end page we're talking about here is "09.htm" if you wanna skip all the other stuff That hybrid 3.0/3.3 (bored to 3.4) is just screaming at me to do it :cool2: Cheers! Gary

Thanks It's the voice of experience: I started making all the typical mistakes 30 years ago on my first car (bolted HUGE dual 4-barrel carbs onto the stock 400ci mill in my '68 GTO in the mistaken belief that more gas = more power so LOTS more gas = LOTS more power) and kept on screwing up for a long time Over time, though, I've managed to learn a couple of lessons. I really started thinking about airflow problems and how to correct them when I tore apart my '85 Corvette a couple of times and learned a lot about things like the uselessness of stuffing 280-grind cams in an engine that can't suck in enough air (plenum/runner design in this case) to make the lift/duration worthwhile. Once I hogged out the plenum/runners and had the heads done, though, that car was downright scary. It all seems so simple (OK, if you have a 600CFM throttle body and your airbox is capable of flowing 600 CFM or better, there's no need to spend $100 on a fancy air filter) but most people (including myself) don't put a lot of time into analyzing what actually needs to be done (which is to rectify the bottlenecks in your system) .... We tend to look for the sexy bolt-on solutions. Cheers! Gary

All good advice here. An engine is a pump, and in order to get more power out of it you have to increase the amount of air coming in and going out: It's that simple. As you've all identified, there are lots of ways to accomplish this; the trick is to correct the weaknesses in the particular engine you're working on. For example, putting huge lift/long duration cams in a motor that has a poorly designed intake system (like the early C-4 Corvettes) will get you nothing. Figure out a way to hog out the intake so that more air can flow, however, and you wake up a sleeping monster. There are a ton of things you can do to improve airflow, and I *always* start at the front (intake) and work my way to the back.... Research has to be done to find out if the throttle body is a restriction, ditto for the plenum, the intake runners, etc., etc., etc., then the exhaust (again, from front to back) Something that will *always* help out, though, is a simple cleaning up of a stock engine: Port-match the intake runners with the intake ports on the heads, and the exhaust manifolds with the exhaust ports on the heads. Take it a step further and have the heads machined and a good valve grind done. These are simple things that provide a lot of bang for the buck but are (generally) not done by a manufacturer because they take time, and time is money.... Now that all the roadblocks to max airflow are gone, it's time to have a look at how gnarly a set of cams you can slide in there without piston/valve interference or loss of vacuum. Unlike an old iron V-8, though, I don't think there's a lot of wiggle room in these motors. Once you've got air flowing, have a look at the other part of the "bang" - fuel. The amount of gas getting to the cylinders in a fuel injected engine is dependent on the max flow rating of the injectors (equivalent to the jet size in a carburator) and the length of time they are commanded to dispense fuel by the ECU. The flow/duration needs to be matched to the amount of air you're getting in there and this is accomplished with high-flow injectors or a new/reprogrammed ECU chip, or both. I have no doubt whatsoever that a 3.0 litre engine can be worked to put out some serious ponies (I wouldn't be worried about horsepower in this case, but that's another story) and it shouldn't take a lot of work or cash. I'm currently torn between trying to build a fire-breathing 3.0 or stuffing something crazy under the hood. The truck will likely make up my mind for me one day when, while I'm still procrastinating, she starts puking rods onto the road... While certainly not a comprehensive treatise, this post could serve as a base for ideas/discussion, I think. Cheers! Gary P.S. I intentionally avoided discussion increasing cyclinder volume (bore & stroke) because I wanted to concentrate on things a backyard mechanic can do with hand tools and a die-grinder sssh

Pop off the interior panel and disconnect the actuator? That said, in my experience, those lower exterior moldings are always completely rotten (unless they happen to be a very recent replacements), so I would just order new ones. Cheers! Gary

Hey gang, Thought I'd pass on one of those "it worked for me" gems..... My heater blower quit. Stone dead I decided to start at the "top" with my troubleshooting and took the center dash apart, hauled out the control box and had a look at it: Everything worked OK and I couldn't see anything wrong. Next, I took the glove box out and removed the metal plate that 'covers' the heater core and fan motor. I took the resisitor assembly out (it looked OK) then vacuumed 12 years worth on pine needles out of the core box. Then I took the blower motor out of its can (3 screws, drops out from the bottom) and it looked fine. Motor wasn't seized, fan spun without resistance or weird noises. Knocked a bunch of pine needles out of the fan while I had it out, then gave the area a good cleaning (12 years worth of dust) I was about to put the whole deal back together when I had an idea: I took the bottom cover plate off the motor (2 small Philips screws) and about 2 pounds of carbon dust poured out onto my lap. Shook the motor and another 2 pounds fell out. Oh MY! I stuck the shop-vac up there and sucked out what was left, reseated the brushes and put 'er back together. Re-installed all the bits, turned the key and "WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSSHHHHHHH" ... She was pumping air like a hurricane. All speed settings worked and I was able to confirm that I didn't even mix up the 3 push-pull cables that control the dampers, etc. In short, it looks like 12 years of use (and in Canada I usually have either the heater or the A/C going full-blast all the time!) had worn the brushes so much that a big pile of conductive dust had settled at the bottom of the motor and was shorting the usual path through the armature & brushes) I have no idea how long this will last, as the brushes are VERY worn, but it'll keep me going for a while yet. AND, more importantly, I know where the problem is and can fix it myself when it finally kicks the bucket for good instead of paying a Nissan dealership several hundreds of dollars for what is reqlly a $2 fix Cheers! Gary

B-b-b-b-but *I* made it sound so darned scientific! Cheers! Gary

The way I see it.... When the EGR circuit is commanded to open there is a temperature sensor in the housing (intake manifold) that checks for a heat rise and sends a signal (voltage) back to the computer to say "I'm feeling the heat, so everything's OK" If there's no temperature rise (because you killed the vacuum or closed the port or whatever) the sensor doesn't send a signal and that's what trips the Check Engine light. So..... fool the computer (provide the sensor voltage regardless of temperature rise) and voila: no Check Engine light. Cheers! Gary

Canadian military here, and am familiar with "Auto Hobby Clubs" (along with wood hobby clubs, etc., etc.) on military bases. My random thoughts: - Make it a "club" with membership fees. - Charge an hourly rate for basic bays, a different rate for a bay with a hoist, etc., etc. - Loan tools out with some sort of an accountability system (tool tags, for example, where members are issued tags that are hung on the tool boards in place of the tools when loaned out) Tool use (except for, perhaps specialty tools) is included with membership fees. - Specialty tools (engine hoists, transmission jacks, engine stands) cost extra (but maybe not too much extra) - Offer secure, long-term storage at a reasonable cost to members. An engine rebuild (for example) would entail renting a bay to pull the engine, long term storage while the motor is out for machining, then renting a bay again to drop the mill back in. - Offer bench-space for rent as well: If someone wants to rebuild a tranny and take up part of a workbench for a week, it should cost 'em something. - Sell consumables (nuts, bolts, clamps, oil, filters, tranny fluid, screws, loctite, etc., etc.) at slightly below retail. - Make members responsible for cleanup: Their auto isn't released until their work area is clean and all tools are acocunted for. - See if you can work a deal such that there's a licensed mechanic on duty as a supervisor. Maybe pay them a small wage for part-time work and give them free memebership or something... They'll be available to answer questions and maybe do things for those people that shouldn't do them themselves: Torque head bolts, for example. I'm sure there's a thousand other useful suggestions. Maybe these ones will spark some good discussion. I was an apprentice mechanic as a kid and own my own tools but would MUCH rather make use of a DIY garage.... I would sell my tools and dirty up someone else's. Cheers! Gary

The Pathy has a peculiar crankshaft (long snout) that may have to be swapped. I understand that it's possible to go the other route: Keep the crankshaft and change all the accessories, but I also understand that it's not worth the trouble.... Swapping crankshafts is easier. Cheers! Gary

Well, if anybody wants to see what a couple of days of grief looks like, here ya go: Driver's side CV Boot Change The passenger side should go as slick as snot on a rooster's beak because the slide pins aren't seized on that side, and I learned not to piss around with cotter pins and stuff: I'm just gonna drill 'em out and save myself a few hours. She's back together and drivable but I'll obviously need a new torque member (I wanna call it a "caliper carrier" but what the heck do I know? heh) ... Anybody got one for sale? Cheers! Gary

Wooooooooooooooooooo: We're having some fun now! After a couple of 4-year tours on Canada's east coast (which means heavily salted roads, and pretty much constant salt-spray in the air) EVERYTHING is seized on that truck. Seized, as in "it may just have well been arc-welded because it's not gonna move. Ever." Bolts, nuts, even the cotter pins..... Everything is snapping. Even the #$@* cotter pins are seized in place and wont come out: I had to clip 'em off, use a punch to knock the ends down, and then take the nuts off over top of them. Man, oh man, is this truck proving to be a piece of work! Anyway, I got one side apart and cleaned up last night. Trouble is that I can't put it all back together because one of the caliper slide pins I mentioned earlier in this thread broke off *inside* the torque member (differential carrier). Arggggggghh!!! I'm gonna give my drill press a try but if those sliders are too hard I'll be taking it to a machine shop to get things drilled out, I guess. It's a good thing that I'm getting this done now, though: The lower CV joints are so full of dirt, grit, crappe, corruption and everything else that the grease is jet-black and the joint feels just like there's gravel in it when you move it around by hand. (there probably IS gravel in it, which would explain that feeling... heh heh) I'll post a couple of pictures later this morning after I have more coffee and screw up my courage to go face The Bee-otch again. Cheers! Gary P.S. Upper CV joints were fine, grease was clean and boots were in good shape. I'm replacing them anyway, because, like the timing belt, I'm not looking forward to doing this li'l job again any time soon

Yeah, I was thinking of 1.5" PVC, or even 2" .... Something big enough in diameter to allow for useful storage (fishing rods) inside the tube CPVC... Hmmmmm, now there's an idea! Cheers! Gary

Thanks '88 ... I'll try your "single balljoint method" before tearing the whole @!*%eroo apart. I'd like to minimize the tear-down because I'm not gonna do the BJs, TREs, and CL this time: I ran out of cash because of all the tools I "had" to buy All the steering parts will have to wait until May. Thanks again, Cheers! Gary

I've been toying with the idea of making one out of PVC pipe and standard PVC fittings.... It'll be light, and dead easy to do. I can even use the long tubes to carry fishing rods in! Whadaya think? Cheers! Gary

Thanks all. I decided to bite the bullet and bought a couple of tools for separating tie rods and balljoints today.... It's not ALL bad, I guess: Like I said, I love having excuses to buy new tools! PB Blaster, huh? I'll remember that for next time. Anyway, I bought all 4 boots so the whole front end will be coming apart this weekend: Wish me luck. Cheers! Gary

Hey '88, I was pre-reading the service manual last night and the process looks pretty involved. I haven't started turning wrenches yet and I wonder if you (or anybody out there) knows if there's a way to replace the CV boots without dis-assembling the whole front end. Is it necessary to pull the hubs/knuckles and do the change off the vehicle or can I just pull off the spider gear end and work that way? Thanks, Cheers! Gary P.S. Caliper slide pins are still seized after 2 days of WD-40..... So I bought myself a new torch last night. I love it when I have excuses to buy new tools! Muwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaaaaaa....