Nutz

I replaced my first clutch at about 130K, and Im at 230K now. I guess I'm living on borrowed time with this clutch. My old girl spend about 12 years as a daily driver for my wife in stop and go rush hour freeway driving, so I certainly can't complain. I did flush the damper (and slave again) yesterday with my son's help, and its seems to engage smoother starting in first, though I haven't driven it alot in heavy traffic, which is when it usually starts to really act up and get jerky. It feels great shifting through the rest of the gears. Thanks MY1PATH for the info on the function of the damper. I'm not getting any noise from the clutch when it's engaged, so it sounds like the damper is not a likely cause of the jerky engagement in 1st. Piste, I'm completely baffled by your problem. Logically, it has to be a hydraulic issue, not a worn clutch, but since you've replaced the master and slave twice, it doesn't make sense that either of those would be causing the problem. Hopefully the damper was the weak link in the system and its fixed for good.

Did you get the Clutch Damper replaced? If so, did it fix the problem? I don't have the loss of pressure problem you described, but I am starting to get some nasty clutch chatter when starting off in 1st gear. I've flushed the system and bled the slave cylinder with no effect. i just discovered that it has a clutch damper, so I'm going to try to bleed it, and see if it helps. Not sure exactly what the damper is supposed to do or what the syptoms of a failing damper are?

Got it. Thanks Aaron.

I bought some nice thick sheep skins at Costco, sold individually for about $40 for the fronts (for a different car - but they fit the pathfinder's buckets). Haven't seen anything similar for the back seat. Have a look at these too, they are obviously pleather, but for $50 for the full set, might be ok. Ebay Link

cool, glad it worked out well. nice job

$85? your talking about servicing the AC and not replacing the door switch I hope?

the door switch is only held on with one screw, which also grounds it. since its corroded, you may just need to take it off, clean it and put in with a nice shiny new screw. Since they are very cheap, I would just pick up a new switch, with the rubber boot. once you pull off the screw, the switch comes out and you pull of the wire connector and put it on the new switch and screw it back in. two minute job. Not sure about the AC capacity. if you're filling it yourself, don't forget to put some compressor oil in there, otherwise your seals will dry out and leak. But if its very low you probably already have a leak at the compresser or seals. I would take it to a rad/ac shop. for about $50 plus freon they will pressure test for leaks, and refill it for you. Good luck

while your in there, I would also check/change the panhard bushings. the panhard's job is to locate the axle lateraly, so if the bushings are gone, the rear axle will move side-to-side relative to the body, and your butt will wag. trailboss mentioned that he changed his but still has the problem, but his is raised 3.5 inches, which itself reduces the effectiveness of the the panhard, even with new bushings. to fix it, he might need to relocate the mounts to bring the panhard rod closer to horizontal again to eliminate the problem. since yours is stock height in the rear, you shouldn't have that issue, just make sure the bushings are good.

how did the header install work out? are you happy with the results?

[quote Get the fluid power flushed by a shop.] If you get it flushed, don't go to Jiffy Lube. Just saw a story on the news here in So. Cal, they busted 5 out of 8 Jiffy Lube shops for charging customers for work (including AT power flushes!) without actually doing the work. Seems that the problem is not just a few bad nuts, but corporate policy requiring unreasonably billing per vehicle. One employee (whistle-blower) said they actually trained them how not to get caught by undercover reporters using hidden cameras. This was the 3rd such bust in 3 years in the LA area. Go to a reputable shop and watch them do it.

Thanks guys. I guess since it aint broken, I'll leave them alone for now, but shopping around for spares sounds like a good idea. Just can't believe how insanely reliable these trucks are. I guess I just want to keep it that way. I found a set of brushes but it looks like they are internal, so changing them requires taking the whole alternator apart. Not sure it make sense to do that, unless I rebuild the thing with new bearings etc. Sounds like you guys replaced the entire alternator when it quit. Anyway, here's the link if anyone is interested. link - alternator brushes

Hi guys. My 95 is too reliable and its got me a bit worried. I've got about 180K on it and I have never changed the fuel pump or altnernator on it. Just wondering what your experience with these parts are. Is this typical, or are they long overdue for failure? I've changed the T-belt and water pump (worked fine) at about 120K, as preventative maintainance, but I'm not sure if I should change out the fuel pump and alternator soon, just in case. I'd hate to waste money, but I want to make sure I can continue to trust the truck to hell and back. (its only left me on the road once, due to a broken fan belt - too old,my fault entirely). Also, I'm wondering if the alternator brushes are easily replacable (and if so, where is a good place to buy the brushes/rebuild kit). Thanks, appreciate your comments. Nutz.

I had a similar problem with 2 broken studs(one on each side of course), one of which I broke a drill bit into. After a couple of days and nights on my back, trying every type of extraction tool and drill bit, I had made a mess of it and was getting close to the water jacket. I finally had it towed to the dealer, and after their mechaninics pulled their hair out for a couple of days, their head mechanic told me that they could try to drill them out but wouldn't be responsible if they messed up the head. He suggested that they call in their "laser guru" who they used on jobs like that. This guy is an independent "fixer" who does jobs for dealerships and other shops. They have no idea what he does exactly, (he covers the side of the truck with a tarp and won't let anyone watch) but they said it works. I had no choice so I told them to go ahead, and I'm glad I did. I looked at the heads after he was done and it looked perfect. I was amazed because I had made such a mess of the holes ( they were oversized and out of round by the time I took it in.) The guy must have done some sort of aluminum welding to fill in the holes and drilled and tapped new threads. Probably similar to what a machine shop would do with a head on the bench, but he did in on the truck. It was a perfect job and I didn't have to have the heads removed. If you can find a guy like this, do it. His fee was $300 for both sides, which is a lot less that the dealer tried to charge me for screwing around for several days and still not fixing anything. Hang in there. It can be done, just gotta find the right guy Good luck.