JamesRich

I couldn't get my drain plug out either. I bought a cheap gear oil pump at autozone that is meant to screw on top of your gear oil bottle. Pull the short hose off the suction side and put the long hose that was meant for the discharge side on the suction side. If the long hose has a barb fitting for holding it in a fill hole pull that off. Now shove the long hose to the bottom of the trans through the fill hole and pump till you can't get any more oil out. Then fill through the shift tower. Next time your tranny is out drill out the plug. James

Note to self; Self move to Denver Crawlerado for a few months. I will have to wait for the summer though, I like the cold but I don't think a cajun will do good in the snow! James

Everyone wishes he was their neighbor! He could help me enlarge my fenders on my two door so I could put some oversized tires and kill the little bit of power I have left! James

It sounds like your starter motor and the solenoid are bad. You would need an inductive amp meter to test the starter. You hold it over the starter positive cable and get someone to turn it over. A good starter shouldn't draw more than 150 amps. I have seen bad starters that would drag but still start the motor peg my amp meter at 600 amps. Also if the contact plate in the solenoid is worn when the solenoid pushes the bendix out into the flywheel and the contact plate doesn't connect it won’t turn over. When you let off the key if the bendix pulls back the solenoid will activate again. If the bendix gets stuck in the flywheel teeth, because it didn't turn, then nothing will happen when you hit the key again because the solenoid is already in the activated position. By rolling the vehicle you must have turned the engine a little and allowed the bendix to retract. I'm pretty sure a new or rebuilt starter should fix your problem. James

I have the smittybuilt XRC8 too! And it's paid for itself already. I've used it for doing other work too not just saving my butt! I had heard of some of the older HF winches catching fire but that was probably because loose connection that the owner didn't inspect often enough. If they are from smittybuilt now they should be good. Still from china but probably a better quality. China builds whatever they are asked for. If you want cheap crap they will give you cheap crap, but they can build good quality too. James

I remember a while back a guy posted a picture of his R50 with 18" titan wheels. I don't remember the lift he had but he did have to bore the centers out. I had 18s on my titan when I bought it and changed them out for a set of factory 20s. There aren't many options for tire sizes in 18" and they were more expensive then the same hight tire for a 20" rim. You will probably be better off with 15 or 16" wheels. James

Did you get the road hazard warranty? James

I recently put some firestone destinations on my titan and they have surprisingly good traction in the rain and on dry roads. I don't get as many accidental spin outs. You are right about your struts too. A worn out strut won't keep your tires on the road as well giving you less traction. James

I just ordered 5 quarts of amsoil from their web site. It was like $66 to my door. The pennzoil looks promising if it states it won't affect yellow metals. Call the company and ask about older nissan transmissions specifically. I never read the whole bottle, if it said GL5 I put it down. Nissan has always been picky about their oils. With my 06 titan I’ve been warned to only use matic J fluid because of the same yellow metals in an auto trans. Several guys on clubtitan swore amsoil ATF was compatible. Then while rebuilding their trans 5k miles later they claimed the nissan oil left sludge that the amsoil cleaned out and plugged things up burning the trans. I stuck with matic J, which isn't cheap, and mine is still going. The first thing nissan does for a warranty claim on an auto is test the oil. James

Are you sure your crankshaft doesn't have a pilot bearing in there for a standard transmission? Just a thought. Maybe try pulling your torque convertor and stab just that into the flywheel to make sure it fits flush. Then you will know if it's an alignment problem. Have a pan under the trans if you haven't pulled the convertor yet, oil will run out. James

It sounds like it is consistent when you rev it. Is it consistent and louder when you are driving? It could be a lifter but it does sound like a slight rod knock. Remove all the belts so the fan is not making noise and try to pinpoint if it’s from the top end or from under the truck. Just don't run it for more than a minute or two without the water pump turning. It definitely doesn't sound like an accessory though, it's internal. If it’s a rod it will be louder when you drive it. Does your oil light work? You might put a manual gauge on it to verify your oil pressure. James

When I worked as a fleet repair mechanic I washed my motor at least once a month. The first truck I had was an 86 ford ranger with a V6, distributor in the back. Then I traded that for a 90 model chevy with a 350. What I did was park the truck on the side of the shop in the morning. By around 11am the engine was cold. I just sprayed everything down with degreaser, I didn't cover anything, with the motor off. Then washed it with a steam cleaner with hot water and high pressure. Just don't blast anything electrical too close. After I finished it always started right up. I would let it dry till the next day then spray everything down with tire dressing to make it shine. Yes it collected dust but it made it much easier to clean off. The pledge sounds like a good idea. I did this every month or two for 7 years and never had a problem. Now if you drive to a car wash and try this be ready for a problem. What wets the distributor is condensation from the distributor being warm when you hit it with cold water. Unless your cap is loose or cracked your not going to spray water inside of it. James

I had the same problem. I ended up using one of those cheap gear oil pumps to suck it out the fill hole then I filled it through the shift tower. James

While wire nuts are better than just twisting the wires together and taping them they are meant for AC electric, houses don’t move. It's just not proper etiquette to use them in a vehicle. James

Luck you! I run a huge mazak machining center at work that does turning and mill work on the same setup. I could make all kinds of cool stuff for my vehicles and my gun habit, but they won't let me do anything on it other than company work. We have a phosphate area too. There are a lot of parts I'd like to run through there! James

Grounds can make a big difference. Electronic components can't work like they are designed to do without the power and ground they were designed to have. James

You can't have too many grounds on a computer controlled vehicle. You can buy grounding kits for newer vehicles but its easier to just do it yourself. If you are suspect of a ground take your multi meter on ohms and touch between the suspect ground and the negative post on the battery. You SHOULD have no resistance in a perfect world. In our world if you have more than 1 ohm run a ground from where the negative battery cable bolts to the fender to the suspect ground then check it again. If you made you cable right it should have no resistance. You can even run grounds between you body and auto trans to help it shift better. Just go poking around with your meter, if you find too much resistance between two grounds put a jumper. The main parts that need a good ground are from the battery to the intake for the injectors, from battery to the body for the ECU, battery to alternator, and body to trans on a auto. James

Looks good! I take it you know a powder coater. Gunmetal is the color I want to do all my accessories in. I already got the xterra rack gunmetal. James

I didn't bother with the factory wiring because I didn't know if mine had the factory amps that others have mentioned. I got some wire from a home audio place that has the two wires in a plastic casing. James

The quest has a 4 gauge wire from the alt to the junction box by the battery so yes thats what you need. James

I could have used some like that! Kind of late for me though. I had to space them out with some 1/4" nuts. Then when I tried to put the trim panels back on they didn't fit. I cut the factory grills off the trim panels and used the grills that came with the speakers. It was a real pain in the @ss, the plastic was like self healing. When I was cutting it the plastic would stick back together behind the saw blade like when you don’t have your torch set right cutting steel. It looks nice but was a lot of work and I really preferred people not know I had aftermarket speakers in there. And why do I see some wire nuts in there? Fix that right! James

Hey as long as dads paying to fill it up it can have a 5 gallon tank if he says so. What ever you say dad just give me some money! I remember those days, in about another year I'll be hearing that. James

I haven’t messed with a MPFI pathy yet but tungsten may be right. I was screwing my 01 quest van with a VG33. I wanted to give it a little more timing to see if it would give it a little more getup. On the OBDII system you have to disconnect the TPS sensor for the ECU to let go of the timing. I set the timing to 20 then plugged the TPS back in. Timing was back to 15. I set it to 25 and plugged it back in. Timing was back to 15. The 95 and under pathys are not OBDII but might work the same. James

Stick with 31" tires, no body lift and a moderate suspension lift and you will have a capable trail rig without troubles. You still will need a better center link for your steering though if you lift it. At stock hight the tie rods and center link are in a straight line. When you lift it the tie rods are now angled down from the center link and pull up and down on it. James

I saw that on the facebook NPORA page. James