sewebster

The VG30E fuel rail (with the injectors) is held onto the intake manifold by bolts that have these black plastic pieces. They are essentially 5 mm thick M8 washers. On my truck they are a pain, because they are half broken, and the dealer couldn't replace them. However, on my truck they serve no real purpose that I can tell because the fuel rail is still electrically connected to the intake. Are there supposed to be two insulating washers, one above and below the metal fuel rail tab you bolt through? Does that even really work, because the bolt threads could touch the metal in between the washers... Is there a reason for insulating the fuel injectors etc from the engine? It seems to run fine... but I have the plenum off so this would be a good time to do something about it... http://nissan4u.com/parts/pathfinder/us_wd21/1990_11/type_18/fuel_and_engine_control/fuel_strainer_and_fuel_hose/ That page shows two insulators above and below on one of the bolts I guess, so maybe I'm just missing parts...

I think what he's saying is you can take the distributor apart (which is probably somewhat unusual), find the bearing(s), and replace it/them. If you decide you're willing to replace the distributor anyway, then you could pull it out and start trying to find the bearing This might become one of those things that takes more time than it is worth though, depending on how close you are to a junkyard, or how much your time is worth. But I bet I'm going to do something similar too with my rear windshield wiper motor so...

What's the point of an electronic fan anyway? (since the mechanical one is good enough to keep the engine cool, right?) I could see it being to reduce parasitic power loss the engine... but the engine still has to turn the alternator harder to recharge the battery etc... so do you actually come out ahead? I think you probably do, just not sure why. Not criticizing, just asking.

I think I get it now, thanks!

No. Though I've never taken it out without the top plenum off. Hopefully you could switch it without doing that (though even that is only probably an hour or so of work). The problem is they are somewhat expensive... $200? I really don't know if this is your problem though. I had a distributor die on my car before, but the symptoms there were ignition problems. Unfortunately the very expensive replacement also died a few months later. Third one has worked for a while...

How does VVT work on that engine? I mean, what is the mechanism to adjust the timing... extra cam lobes that only get used when engaged by something?

Presumably there are bearings in the distributor... first thing to do is likely take the cap off and look inside, if you didn't already, but that wouldn't tell you anything about distributor bearings...

Right, I think I get the idea of the LSD, just not why that causes you to spin out. Same as why a locker might cause you to spin out I guess (don't understand that either). Never even driven a RWD car before.

So why does the LSD cause these problems? I guess it must be that to do that maneuvre you want, your wheels have to turn at significantly different speeds, so when the LSD doesn't allow that it "upsets the balance" and you go out of control (to some degree).

Well, those two videos sound pretty great to me. I was wondering about doing my ball joints, and I hate how the filter spews oil down and through my starter motor every time... I hear you on the garage problem though. My truck is sitting in a friend's garage right now, but usually my repairs have to be done in the back lane, in the weather.

Done.

Can someone explain this LSD spinning you out problem? I have one and am not familiar with it (probably because the truck has been mostly disabled in the garage since I bought it).

What he's saying, is that all the transmission fluid is basically at the same temperature. So it doesn't really matter where you put the gauge sender. The temp will be slightly lower right after the cooler, but generally the cooler just helps to keep ALL the fluid at a lower temp, by constantly removing heat. Your transmission doesn't heat the fluid up a crazy amount in one pass, it's just that eventually, without a cooler, it will overheat.

And to answer my own question, from the FSM: High: 1.0 Low: 2.02 1st 4.061 2nd 2.357 3rd 1.490 4th 1.000 5th 0.862 R 4.125 So, is this right then, that if you are at 1000 rpm in low range, in 1st, you will be turning the crank 2.02*4.061*4.37 = 35.8 times per tire revolution (for 4.37 diff). So circumference = pi*d... 31" tire, circ = 3.14*31*2.54/100=2.47 metres. So at 1000 rpm, that's 69 metres per minute or about 4 km per hour. edit transmission ratios are for the V6 transmission btw

Bringing back this thread rather than start a new one... Ok, so newb question... is this for low range? What about "regular"? How about all the other gears in the 5 speed manual? edit: duh, so you're talking about the rear diff, but anyway, my main question remains, how about the ratios in the transmission and for low range?

I think what he's saying is that the shock is not the limiting factor for the travel. So you just hit some sort of stop in either direction before the shock is fully compressed or extended. If you put in a shock with LESS travel than stock then potentially you could have a problem.

It was a Sachs kit from RockAuto. I think the Exedy kit was $150.

I bought a complete clutch kit (friction plate, pressure plate, bearing, alignment tool, grease) for under $100. Flywheel would be another $50 or so. The main thing is the labour for sure (had my engine out already so it was easy, except for the part where I forgot to put the plate that goes between the engine/transmission on before I locktited the flywheel bolts on.

Yeah, it wasn't spinning either, checked that too when I was turning it. At one point I was worried that a previous owner had swapped the centerlink for one off a newer truck so I had the wrong taper, but again, it only happened on one side, and only the first time... i.e. it went together ok the second time (albeit with the castle nut a little low on the stud, maybe not too much...). Maybe it's a good reason to upgrade to the grassroots CL...

I don't think you need premium gas...

Yeah, thing is, it all went together ok the second time. Torqued up nicely. Only difference I can see is the grease. If the CL was cracked (is isn't, I looked because I suspected this) then it wouldn't have gotten snug the second time either. I understand your theory... but then I'd expect to have the same problem on the other side, but I didn't. So then we're at the defective part idea, which would make sense if it didn't go on ok the second time. Hmm. Very odd.

I don't think the taper is different. I installed them based on the packaging. I.e. I bought an outer tie rod end, and I installed it in the outer position etc. But it's the same on each side right, the right hand thread on the outer, LH on the inner? If you are correct then I would have had the problem twice, once on each side, but I didn't. I would also like to have some other explanation, because I admit, mine sounds kinda ridiculous.

So one of my tie rod ends was toast, so I set about replacing all of them. Took everything off and then reassembled the assemblies. I figured I might as well grease them while they were out, save me some bending over. So I pumped them full of grease. Of course then I went to install them and realized that I needed to squash the boots down to install and grease was going everywhere. This isn't ideal, because you aren't supposed to grease the tapers. Anyway, I figured I'd just clean things up as best I could and install them. I mean, even if there is a little grease on there, it shouldn't really matter much... you are putting on a castle nut and pin after all. So I start tightening down one of the inner ends and it seems like it's just turning for ever, never getting to my target 55 ft-lbs (half way in the range in the FSM). Eventually I stop and I barely even need to use the tie rod end puller to get it out. I cleaned it up again and put it back in, and this time it's no problem, but the nut is down pretty far, and the boot is pretty squashed from how much I turned it last time. What I think happened is that there was grease on the taper, and it reduced the friction so much that I was actually stretching out my centerlink a bit. So now the tie rod end sinks in a bit deeper than before. Sounds ridiculous, but I can't see what else could have happened. The CL isn't cracked at least. I think it should be fine now, because if there is a problem it will likely show up as play in the system and I can do something about it. Thus ends my tale of woe.

Yeah, I definitely don't want UPS ground to Canada. But I mentioned that when I bid... I would just get him to ship to my US address and pick it up. I do this all the time for auto parts, SOOOO much cheaper.

Just out of curiosity I looked up press prices on the web.... and you can get a 1 ton for a hundred bucks. I don't have anywhere to put one, but if I had a garage, I'd be tempted. Not sure if 1 ton is enough?