Indigent

I'll take one, I have the hard copy, but I love me some PDFs. PM me the info!

I was waiting for this to get asked, and am kind of surprised that it wasn't the first question. How much money are you into it for? I know you have a bunch of things available to you that most people don't. I have access to or own everything i would need, so I am curious. I have been tossing ideas like this around in my head for a bit. Seeing this gets me motivated! Thanks for documenting and sharing!

Buy a can of MAF cleaner and clean your MAF. And as mentioned multiple times, check your compression. Should be around 160 i think, and no more than 14 psi difference between any two adjacent cylinders; meaning 2 and 4 should be within 14 of each other, if not then you have a bad head gasket. Rings, head gasket, or valves not seating will cause leakage that robs you of that explosive power mentioned. If the motor is solid, then you may have bands wearing out in the transmission. Some of that material will be caught by the pan magnet and the brass will not. Drop your trans pan and clean off the magnet so it has a chance to pick up more crap. Also, it is a good idea to install a trans fluid filter.

Kinda hard to believe that no one responded to this. That looks to me to be the wire for the horn. Does your horn work?

I am kinda surprised that no one brought this up, so I will. The #5 injector is not under the plenum... Hope you didn't go through all that for the wrong injector. Also, from what you described, the part you are looking for is called CAP-RUBBER 16619-53J00 in FAST. Those don't feel like rubber to me though, the feel aluminum. Check this pic. Nissan Parts Zone has them for around $3.50 right now. The number I think you are talking about is 17521H (the H kinda looks like a K, but it's an H). That pic is in section 164, under "B Fuel and Engine Control"

Adamzan is right. The terrano I had in Japan had an extra washer fluid tank, pump and lines. The jets were the same ones used to wash windshield. It was pretty neat. Shouldn't be too hard to add a pump and lines whatnot.

if your spark plug gap is way off that might cause what you are seeing. I would pull the problem plugs and check if the gap is either too much or if they are even touching.

The RE4R01A transmission is the same no matter what rig it was in. That includes the pathfinder, terrano, skyline gts-t, 300zx, etc etc etc. The only difference was the bellhousing, which unbolts in a matter of minutes. As long as it is an RE4R01A transmission, and you have the right bellhousing there will be no problems.

Check the thickness of your rotors too. They may look ok, but might be too thin. I believe it is 200mm minimum, and like 260mm new. I had similar problems for a while. I went through every damned brake part BUT the rotors. I went and grabbed my $20 measuring caliper and sure enough, they were like 192mm. Let's face it, they are the last part anyone really wants to change because they are kindof a PITA to even remove. What happens is if they are too worn, the bulk of the brake fluid goes to those calipers and there isn't enough to spread all the way around, allowing your pedal to travel farther. Do yourself a favor and spend a few minutes checking that before you get too far into it.

OK, so there is a bunch of chatter here, and I have one last question about this issue, as I need a VSS currently. I am also looking at the ~$50 option from ebay, and noticed the lack of plastic gear on the shaft of the sensor. Am I correct in thinking that you bought a genuine Nissan gear that worked? Because as stated above, the bladed shaft looks different from the splined shaft in my hands.

they have different part numbers in the Nissan FAST parts system. Other than that, I do not know about physical differences. They can't be all that different because the mounts and bellhousing haven't changed, and neither has the engine block. hope that helps

Just to say it, since no one else wants to, Mass Air Flow sensor. It is either the wiring or the sensor itself. To me, it sounds like sensor because of the way it fails later.

It means that that is what the guy on the other end of the phone said. He could not look up the eligibility or other pertinent information relating to my vehicles because they were manufactured prior to the 2002 model year. I put a call in to 1800NISSAN1 and they even had problems. They stated that my vehicle information for both my 91 and my 90 were "archived" and would have to be put back into the system. I have to give them about 24 hours and by then, they should have had enough time to get my VINs back out of archive. Strangely enough, they had no problem with my 95.

Strange, I called my dealer and they said that the farthest back they could go in their system was 2002. I will have to call the nissan 1800 number to get the warranty info. and kind of a funny note, the auto spellchecker deal thinks "nissan" is spelled wrong LOL.

Better yet, take a picture of the cover, and I will translate it for you. That way you know it is right for your rig.

ahardb0dy, those are exactly what I am talking about. It appears that mine are broken, as the clip part of that is missing, and one of the wires is ripped out. Nissan wants like $90 bucks a piece for them, so hopefully I can find them in a junkyard. Thanks folks.

You may have too little line pressure due to a clogged factory cooler. It takes the most amount of fluid to get and keep these transmission in reverse. If your cooler is clogged a bit, you aren't getting enough pressure to maintain reverse. This will eventually eat out your bands and grenade your transmission. Get an external cooler. If you have one, then disregard my whole post, lol.

To start this off right, I searched for "key switch" and got a bunch of crap about the ignition switch (which isn't the same thing). I am almost done rebuilding my wife's 95, and I am doing the locks. Someone has replaced the door at some point in this pathy's life and everything is pretty much wrong. Locks don't work and random stuff like that. I took the door apart today and noticed what appears to be a magnetic prox switch dangling in the door. I found it in FAST and it comes up as PN 80603-01g00 "switch assy-door lock,LH" It goes to plug number 214D in the door harness. The FSM calls it "Key Switch (Wagon)" It checks out good as per the FSM electrically, but I can't figure out where it actually goes. I pulled apart the passenger side door to see if I could glean some info, but it is dangling too. I looked on my 90 and my 91, but they don't have this type of switch in the door. Can anyone help me understand where this little doodad goes?

I have found over the 4 transmission swaps I have done (all but the last 2 with different "tricks") that the absolute easiest way to get the transmission bolted back to the motor is this: Remove the 4 bolts holding the motor mounts to the frame and hoist the motor an inch or two (or all the way out if you want). Bolt the transmission cross-member to the transmission and jack the transmission up into it's place. Bolt the transmission cross-member to the frame. Lower the motor back down, but not all the way. Wiggle the motor until the torque converter nub slides into the back of the crank-shaft. While still wiggling re-bolt the transmission to the motor. It is a billion times easier to wiggle a hoisted motor than a jacked transmission. The last time I did a transmission re-install, it took less than an hour from the time I bolted the transmission mount to the frame to the time the last bolt was done on the motor. I am doing a swap for my dad's newly acquired pathy here this next weekend, and I will get some good pics and follow Precise1's SUPER advice and do a write-up. We will turn this site into a wiki yet!

Your profile thing there says you are in the northwest. There are a ton of us up here. If you are around the Yakima area I can be of help.

If the oil level reads to your satisfaction, it might be that the tube is clocked wrong. I had a similar problem on the JDM motor I put in my pathy back in april. I used the original pathfinder oil tube and dipstick, but when I turned the crank while doing a t-belt, I fskced it up. The tube was turned wrong and put the end of the dipstick right in a shear point of the crank. Took it right off. I had to use the dipstick from my junkyard pathfinder. It would be very beneficial to you to pull the motor and drop the pan and get it right. You do not want the end of the dipstick floating around in your oil pan right under the crank.

You most definitely do not need to pull the transmission out to do an engine swap. support the front end of the transmission, and unbolt it from the engine. You do need to drop the torsion bars. You can get to the torque converter bolts through the starter hole and the engine gusset hole. Disconnect the wires/hoses/etc. from the motor. Pull the upper intake (plenum) off, and bolt a chain to the motor and unbolt the motor mounts from the frame. Yank it straight up and out. I will try to find pics of the process when I did mine back in april.

I would guess temp sensor. The ECU adjusts the fuel ammount based on temperature. When the engine is "cold" it tells the injectors to spit out a bit more fuel to warm it up faster. Also, a popping noise like a backfire through the intake is definitely related to the temp sensor. FYI it is the one with the yellow connector at the front of the engine. It could be the wires going to it too.

There is a procedure for tightening those down. The final torque should be 13-16 ft lbs. You put #1 cylinder at TDC then tighten the bolts in a gradual pattern on the 2-4-6 side. Next you put #4 cylinder at TDC and tighten the bolts in a gradual pattern on the 1-3-5 side.

To be fair, you didn't say front or rear axles. My first thought was rear axle. How many splines are on the CV shaft? I know there are 2 different spline counts. Maybe the ones with the lower spline count have different sized holes.