adamzan

Stick your finger on the edge of the valve cover just above the exhaust manifolds. If you feel oil or oily residue then you have your answer. also they are 30 year old trucks now, so if they aren't leaking I'd be surprised.

What Slart said. And to be honest I would start at the hatch. Check the wiring at the rubber where it flexes, common issue on most hatchbacks.

Be glad it isn't there on the mpfi ones, it is kind of a bear to get to when it is in the car fully assembled.

Funny enough even if you bypass the cruise cancel switch (I did it when testing a bad switch) the brake light switch still cancels the cruise. It's a failsafe.

Glad you got it sorted. Aluminum to steel usually has these results after 30 years haha.

There are also places you can send it out to, to get repaired. There must be one in the Seattle area.

No there isn't, you'll have to tie into the wiring manually. It only needs 12v and the brake signal, though. so not too hard. The rest goes back to the 7 way plug at the hitch.

If you could gently heat up the part of the MC around the stud it should release. Even a plumbing propane torch or MAPP gas would work, if you're careful you won't damage anything. That is what I did when changing my brake MC.

This is the one you need, but if you're just adjusting them or repacking you can get away with a hammer and brass drift or punch. https://www.amazon.ca/Sunex-10202-Wheel-Spindle-Wrench/dp/B002GT454K

So now that these things are considered "classics" in most jurisdictions... What do we think of the front end now? It's certainly better than most things I see on the road these days.

I put an SKP brand one in my VW last year. So far so good.

Honestly I would buy one of the sub $100 scanners on amazon, I use bluedriver. It can read the SRS, ABS, SES, and whatever else codes on pretty much anything 96 and up.

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Do you find there is any difference with those rotors? I upgraded to EBC pads a few years ago and it's decent, but always room for more.

I got a payout, based on the cost to repair, so saving the labour doing the panel work myself I should have enough to get it repainted You're right parts are getting really hard to find. Almost tempted to get another parts truck...

I bought a red head for my 1994 years ago and pulled it out of the truck when I got rid of it. It now lives on in my current 1995... Solid rebuild quality, and good service.

Have you checked those fusible links at the battery? I know you said new cables, but hey. Can you jump the solenoid directly and have it roll over? That would at least narrow down where the issue is in the wiring. Mr. Reverse had a "starter fix" for these old trucks that involved adding a relay under the hood.

Steering stop noise doesn't apply to the r50, that's a wd21/22 thing.

I wouldn't go poly, it transfers so much vibration to the cab which is annoying in a truck that isn't a performance car. But it's your ride. I got the rag joint assembly for my Xterra from some wrecking yard in California, they shipped it up to me. Nissan only wreckers is what was called IIRC.

Do you have a picture of them? Might be able to get it from one of those large electrical suppliers like digi-key. They are probably a somewhat common weatherpak connector. Just doing some checking, you can probably match it up at the parts store if no one has any laying around: https://www.amazon.com/Pathfinder-1987-1995-Foglight-Assembly-NI2592113/dp/B074QGQ8JZ

That's a huge improvement. Kind of crazy how sagged the springs can get over time. I just replaced all 4 corners in my Golf and it lifted the car by nearly 3 inches... Noticeably easier to enter/exit the car now.

My Xterra has done this forever... I think it is a normalish thing for solid axle part time 4wd vehicles.

I'm not laughing! Running that warm at 40F is definitely not near at all normal. Mine barely gets up to 180F this time of year. I assume yours is like my Xterra where the gauge readings are smoothed over vs what you see on the scan tool, so the average joe doesn't freak out about it moving around. At 220F that fan clutch should be beyond fully locked up but that doesn't explain running warm at freeway speeds. I would suspect the water pump at this point if you've done everything else. The fact that it will overheat at speed then setting down once moving slower to me indicates the water pump isn't able to keep flow at higher rpms? I am not an engineer lol. If the fan clutch has never been changed, I would definitely pop a new one in there if it doesn't sound like a dump truck over 190/200F. The one on my Xterra after replacing it made a huge difference, but it would only run warm in stop and go traffic with the AirCon running.

This looks great. Any updates? There aren't too many SAS r50 around and most of them seem to be hack jobs. Of course knowing you, yours will be the outlier!

Best bet is to rebuild an oem one. Check out this post, there's a couple attachments there with great DIY write ups https://www.clubfrontier.org/threads/distributor-rebuild-on-the-cheap-for-1st-gen-nissan-frontier-xterra.350719/