lgranch

Sounds like engine not tranny to me. I'd guess ignition failure/breakup. Hose everything down with WD40 and see it it still does it. Also check you rotor carefully. 88 just found a rotor failure that caused his problems.

I hope you guys are just kidding around and really know how this works on Ebay with no reserve. For those new to the game: The ad says he wants $2300 or $2400 for the pathy. As the bidding nears the end he ( or a friend) will bid the desired amount hoping that someone will top it. If they do not, then he pays the Ebay fee for the sale and relists the pathy. Sometimes the game is to claim to ebay a deadbeat bidder, have Ebay send the deadbeat at threating email, no one pays and the lister is only out the Ebay posting fee which is small.

No At this time that is all that I can not find, but I know I'll probably run into something else before it is done

My 21yr old son rebuilt the block and the heads. He then moved from Buffalo to Cleveland. He gave me the motor to finish assemble. Guess what I can not find in the parts boxes????

ok here is the pdf of the parts. I need the cam locator plate and bolt cam0001.PDF

Ok, The first thing you do is get the tranny fluid flushed and changed. The "filter" should also be changed if the garage is talented they can do that, but be prepared for them to say they can not change the "filter". Next install the biggest aftermarket tranny cooler you can find. Nissan trannys HATE heat and will fail because of it. Since you say you are not much of a mechanic a good tranny shop can do this for you. Now the problem is finding a good tranny shop. There are very few in world. Most are parts replacers and really do not know what they are doing. The dealship is generally not any better. The things I suggested can be done at any good garage, so if you have someone you trust then go to them. Other wise post your location and MAYBE one of teh forum people will come and help you fix your Pathy. :bow:

Cleveland area ZIP 44057.

I am looking for 2 cam shaft locating plates. The attach to the cam shaft at the rear of the head just under the seal cap. Anyone have a set of bad heads that will sell this plate?

I have to ask the question...Is the transfer case in neutral??? The tranfer case has to be in a gear for the power to be sent through. Generally trannys do not fail instantly or in all gears at once.

Lets start out by saying I know Nissan auto trannys well. I am not a big supporter of how well they run but.... So you said it died. Genereally a tranny will have symptoms before. Like reverse will fail, or one of the forward gears. Most of the time the failure is a solinoid failure not a clutch or pump failure. The pump is not the best design and it can fail, most of the time from heat. The biggest tranny cooler you can find will fix that in the future. Not knowing what your problem is I'll assume that you have no forward gears. If you just lost reverse then you have a simple problem to fix. All of the soft and hard parts to fix the tranny will cost about $900. The single big ticket item is the converter. with almost all of the tranny failure that I have seen on Pathys there is no need to change the converter. You change the converter when there is metal in the fluid or there has been a vane failure in the converter. The problem with buying a used tranny is that you do not know where it has been. Even a low mileage used tranny could have been used to haul a 6000 lb trailer without a cooler. This tranny will fail on you in a short time. I have to recommend either buy a rebuilt ot rebuild what you have. The problem with this is who is the rebuilder. Many, Many, Many shops cheat by just replacing the soft parts. This is wrong!!!!!!. Clutch, bands,pump, soliniods all have to be replaced. Someone who is good is worth the price, but how do you find the person??? The big cost in tranny repair on the pathy is the removal and re-install. This can cost almost $1000 at some shops. So the way to really save money is remove the tranny yourself and then have someone reliable rebuild it. For a reverse problem, you drain the fluid or have the tranny flushed. There is a very good diagnosis posted on this forum on how to determine what is wrong. Then just repair that part only. Most of this can be done without removing the tranny. Just remember if the guy doing the work says rebuild before it is torn apart, walk away. This includes the dealers. As for Phoenix they do ok work at low prices, but they can try to cut corners on the unusual trannys. Please note that all 90 to 95 trannys are not made the same. you may have to swap computers also. Finnaly depending on where you are located I have an untested 91 tranny. I am interested either in getting rid of it or having a "bad" tranny to make one good one. Trannys are too heavy to ship.

I hope you check out everything on this pathy. Like the exhaust bolts, floor pan rust and frame rot.

The basic price for the Y pipe from almost everywhere is $200. However most of these do not come with any of the heat shields. The pipe comes very close to the floor pan right under the drivers feet. Now who cares if it gets hot on the floor, but the heat takes off the paint and under coating. Then the floor rusts out and you have real problems. In this area Nissan is dumb on how they built the heat shield. I am at the point where this weekend I replaced the floor pan under the driver. Now what to do? I guess I'll try any wrap the pipe with heatshield from Summit. I know this will hold in the heat , but it could also rust out the pipe fast.

You have discovered Nissan biggest Pathfinder problem. Almost every 95 I have ever examine has the rust condition you are describing. Since it has been repaired once the only solution is replacement. In replaceing the rear frame you have to look forward of the rear doors. Many 95's also have rust holes in the straight frame rail portion between the axles. While you could fabricate a new frame look for a 90 or 91 donor. These frames are generally solid, but the bodies rot off those years. There have been claims that frame replacement has cost people only $1500. The only documented frame replacement I have seen was on this forum and the cost was over $3000.

First off are you east coast, west coast, or flyover country like me? It makes a big difference in what you actually get for the Pathy. Not knowing the exact rust condition of your 90 $1750 is a bit high for the mid west, but probably low for the west coast. Why is this important to know, well if you have someone fix the exhaust studs it will be somewhere around $600 just for that. The total exahust system is about $350 to $400 if you are replacing the cat. (Summit racing has excellent pricing) So you could drop $1000 into fixing the exhaust and never get any of it back. In Ohio I would tell you drop the price a couple of hundred and fix nothing!. Someone from the west coast could give you a better idea if that is your sales area. There is a guy on the Ohio/PA border who claims to have gotten $2500 for his 1995 Pathy after he cut it up and sold the pieces on Ebay. I am not sure if I believe him.

I thought I would finally put my 2 cents in here. Many Pathys on Ebay start ot at $100 or even I have seen $1. I watch every day. Some do not increase in price until the last day or last few hours. If you looked today there are $100 and $300 pathys with no reserve. Most of these on the east coast will sell for $1000 to $1500. some go for as low as $800. If you move towards the mid west abit then they sell for $500. Almost all are rotted out. 93,94,95s are frame rotted. 90,91,92s are body rotted. You would not believe what is allowed to drive on the road in Ohio. Some day i'll figure out how to post an image and I show you some pics of Pathys on Ohio roads

My son called a big Nissan dealer he works with in Buffalo, NY. The dealer does his own engine work and told him that they never replace the head bolts. As far as they knew no dealer replaced the head bolts unless something was obviously wrong.

I have been in "discussion" with my son over head bolts. The head bolts are official torque to yeild bolts. However you can not buy new head bolts anywhere. The Nissan dealership will special order them but, all the internet listings for head bolts say they can not be obtained. Heads come off all the time for exhaust stud repairs and everything. What is the experience with you guys and gals on the forum? Mookie?, 88? someone who has reused the bolts?

Another source of gas smell is the sending unit at the tank. Pull up the carpet in the rear and open the acess panel. The sending unit is right there. This gasket can go bad also. Replace it and tighten the clamps on the fuel lines.

Almost every 95 I have seen has frame rot. Most of the 94s and some 93 also rot out the frames. I saw my first 92 with frame rot yesterday. The pass side had a hole about 2X4 through and the drivers side had a 2X2 hole though just at the dogleg. (With a bad tranny it sold on Ebay for $810. In Ohio they will let you drive this on the road until it breaks in half) My 91 is solid. Has anyone seen 90,91 or 92s with frame rot. I am also very interested in frame repair photos. A few have been posted in the past, but I have not seen a good repair yet. I am trying to look forward to when all that is left in the world are rusted pathys or this new piece of overgrown sheetmetal that they gave the Pathfinder name to.

From a guy who has been knee deep in auto trannys and pathy trannys for quite some time. Get the biggest aftermarket cooler that you can and put it in. Also a remote filter is a good idea. Now for rebulding a pathy tranny. Generally the soft parts in the tranny cost about $250 and the hard parts another $250. Normally this is not the cause of reverse failure. Most of the time (there are always exceptions) reverse failure is caused by a bad solenoid or dirt. This repair is cheap. Why do I dislike most auto tranny shops...because they replace parts and do not diagnosis the problem prior to teardown and replace. Also they reuse the hard parts many times. Again if you find a good guy then stick with him. There is a comprehensive tranny diagnositic procedure list here in the forum. Use it or give to the tranny guy and ask them to actually use it before they quote. How about used. You already have been given prices for a used Japanese takeout. A used US tranny should cost about $500 or you can buy a whole pathy in the northeast for that price. (rotted frame of course) Ther reall cost in tranny work on a pathy is the labor to take it out and put it back. Nissan did not make this easy and you can expect 4 to 6 hours labor on this alone. If you can not do this by yourself then an acceptable price for a reverse fix is under $1000. Ask around and don't take the first thing offered. Unfortunently if you are a west coast person then just start shelling out the cash, because everything from Seattle to San Diego is 2X the cost of the east coast and 2.5X the cost of the midwest.

Excellent point 88. With all of our pathys getting older this is going to be a more frequent problem.

Well I got the mixed reaction that I thought I would get. BTW does anyone know where Mookie got off to. That guy had some radical mods that he could build. :secret: The problem that I have is that my whole life has been and is tech. Many of you young guys still have a life and there still is a social part. Good for you. When you get to be over 50 maybe you won't have a life either.

I joined this forum many moons ago because the members really discussed meaty subjects regarding Pathy performance and problems. Guys like Mookie, 88pathfinder, and Mr Jim were the backbone of the group and a constant source of good solid data for the advancement of Pathys. I know the Pathfinder has aged and the new one is now is just a shadow of the early models, but they still are out there and still are viable. Most of the chatter is from Newbies who are looking for help. That is just fine. It was the thing that atracted me, people helping. But almost no one follow up with data or fixes that worked or didn't work. Recently a member said he got his frame fix cheap, he was asked for pics and details, no reply. This is the latest pathy problem and data is good. This non responce is happened almost every day and we are all poorer for it. Some questions never even get a responce from anyone, even the though the issue is simple. Is this forum just becoming a social club??? :oops:

The last post was 3 days ago any progress?

I again find myself in the position of agreeing with 88. Bending a good frame by hitting a curb with a tire is very unlikely. So now for the questions. 1) the frame is good correct? It does not have the classic rot out ? If the frame is rotten then all previous statements are void. 2) The 4 link system for axle is prone to bushing failure. Bushing failure causes the rear axle to be out of line and frequently manifests itself as a truck that wanders on the road. Every bump causes the pathy to jump to one side or the other. Even acceleration will cause the pathy to dive for the edge or center of the road. This is the most likely damage from hitting a curb. You can not tell just by looking at the bushings. So I suggest that you fix the front end per the recommendation already given and then replace the 4 bushings in the rear suspension. (this is a 4X pathy not a rare 2X model correct) These bushing are expensive and a real pain to replace. Based on my experience replacing these bushings I suggest to pony up the real big bucks and buy the Nissan parts. The polyurethane bushings available do not fit 90 to 95 pathys well and require minor modification. Once the poly bushings are installed everything is ok about them, its just getting them in the control links thats the problem.