Slartibartfast

They go between the steering rack and the brackets that hold it to the rest of the truck. From what I've read, they tend to get oil on them, rot, and get loose, and then your steering gets iffy.

Huh, that is weird. And no worries--Italy sounds more fun than the inside of a dashboard!

Yeah, I remember looking those up once, but I can't seem to find them now--not sure it would fit the profile on the sheet metal anyway. I've ordered a piece of 1 3/8" clear plastic tube that should slide right over the switch, and then I can go from there. Is the stock one just tied into the dome light, or is there some kind of time delay on it?

Hoses are cheap and not that hard to do. A set of flare wrenches is nice to have for brakes--it's harder to round a fitting or bleeder with five points of contact rather than two with a standard box wrench. Also I picked up a tip from Youtube a while ago, which is to crack a bleeder, then push the brake pedal down and hold it there with something while you're working on hoses/calipers/lines. It basically blocks off the master cylinder so that the reservoir doesn't bleed fluid onto the floor the whole time you've got the system apart. I used a tripod between the brake pedal and the seat, but a stick and just pushing the seat forward on its track should work too. That way you're not rushing to get the job done before all the fluid drains out. Also take a good look at your other brake hoses, especially if they're the same age as the one that failed.

^I'll bet your vents blow better with that out of there! Today I hauled a bunch of wood and T posts around, did a dump run, and cursed at it for randomly deciding not to idle halfway through... and then going back to running like normal with no explanation. Oh, and the ABS light came on, so there's one more thing to track down.

You think you've got it bad, try passing with the 3.0! But that is pretty much the reasoning that's got my dad's TR4a torn apart: it didn't have a good passing gear. So we're installing a passing gear. It just happens to be inside a Tremec box, which just happens to be mated to a roller-cam 302 that should put out double what the old four-pot did. It's a practical thing, really!

I'd expect you'd notice the sudden increase in resistance. And if the overlap is small, and the lifters are collapsed because there's no oil pressure with the engine off, they might not hit anyway. Just speculation. Again, good to hear it survived!

Well, all this steel I'm bolting on has probably screwed the weight balance anyway, so in the bin it goes! Speaking of adding steel, I started on a bracket for the bottom side. The stock one's got these hollow risers in it (broken, naturally) where you put the screws that go through the brackets on the column. I made my own out of 1/8" wall pipe with washers welded on the ends. Probably beefier than it needs to be but a 10mm socket fits up there nicely. Now I just need to make the sheet metal to mount to it. I forgot how fun Bondo is. Wait, not fun, the opposite of fun. It's not perfect but it looks a little less like a puppy chewed on it. My freehand plasma cutting didn't leave a clean hole for the ignition cylinder, so I'm working on some kind of trim plate for that as well. I'm going to try and make it light up while I'm at it. I think there was a factory option for that, but I've never seen one in the wild, and I suspect I can roll my own cheaper than tracking one down. I've got family in the Seattle area. I don't mind the politics so much, but the population density is something else.

Nice! Good to hear a happy ending to one of these. Yeah, I've read that the VG33 only interferes by a very small amount... the cams probably stopped in just the right position to where none of the valves was extended enough to make contact.

I remembered downloading an '89 service manual several years ago (no idea where I found it, but I'm sure it was linked from this forum at some point) and had a look at the AT section, and found that there's a section for a transmission I'm not familiar with: the 71B. That transmission does indeed have a vacuum diaphragm rod/kickdown/etc. The manual should have the info you need to adjust the thing (and an awful lot more besides, it's not just the auto trans section). PM me your email and I'll try and send it as an attachment. Shows what I know about the early rigs!

Bizarre. Compression rules out a lot of things. Sounds like you've already checked firing order, though that's still the first thing I'd recheck if I had it in front of me. The remaining three cylinders running worse with the plugs out of the dead holes is interesting. Resonance in the intake, maybe? I haven't had a chance to work on a propane powered anything so I wouldn't know. Is the gas you run in the truck scented like the stuff we have for barbecues up here? Seems like you'd be able to smell that on the plugs. What I'd do, just to rule out fuel, is pull the plugs from the three dead holes, squirt some ether or gasoline or whatever in there, put the plugs back in, and see if those cylinders try to fire when you turn it over. If that gets a pop out of them, then I'm with Citron on this--either the intake valves aren't opening (easy enough to remove the valve cover and watch the rockers) or there's something between the intake and the head that shouldn't be there, like if the gasket had shrink wrap around it or something. Doesn't sound likely but I've been surprised before... like the time the loud ticking noise under the hood of my friend's Chevy turned out to be an exhaust manifold gasket installed backwards.

I had a hell of a time getting the O2 out of my '95. I ended up welding the spark plug socket to it and twisting it out in two pieces, which was of course not ideal. I was told afterwards that it's much easier if the exhaust system is hot.

When I got my '93, the stock plastic clamshell was trashed. It wasn't worth putting back on, and I couldn't be arsed to fix it, so my column's been running around commando ever since. I live in a rural area so I didn't worry about it. I'm driving through Seattle next month, though, and that's got me thinking. An exposed ignition cylinder and a mess of wires seems like a great way to meet suspicious cops and car thieves, and I'd rather avoid both groups if I can. I've read that the stock clamshells are about as good against thieves as a bunny rabbit with the word "boo" painted on its nose, so there's the easy solution off the table. After a little cardboard-aided design, the butchery of a scrap GMC hood, and some sparks, I've come up with this thing. As much as I like the Mad Max look, I stripped what was left of the paint and primed it. I'm happy with the fitment, and I think a bit of Bondo will hide my various sins against the art of panel beating. Once that's cleaned up, all I need to do is build a bottom half for it. Speaking of the bottom half, I've got a question for you guys. Do the clamshells in your rigs have flat bottoms, or this weird bulge at the edge that meets the dash? I assumed they were all like this, but the ones I'm seeing on eBay and in the Nissan diagrams have flat bottoms. Mine's shaped like an oil pan to house this... whatever the hell this is. Placeholder for a trailer brake controller? Counterweight? There was nothing mounted to it, or (as far as I can tell) any provision to mount something to it. It doesn't seem to have anything to do with the column. Whatever it is, it's going in the art bin, and my fabricobbled version's getting a flat bottom--but I'm still curious why Nissan bothered.

Disconnect and look for corrosion in the plug ends, or any obvious damage to the wiring. If it all looks good, plug it back in.

I'm not aware of any vacuum control for the trans--should be all in the trans computer. That said, I don't know if an '89 in Patagonia came with the same equipment that an '89 in the US would've. My understanding of the TPS is that there are two parts inside, a pot (for the auto trans) and an idle switch (for the ECU). The idle switch should make contact when the throttle is fully released. Adjust it to that point and it should be good to go. Poking around with an ohmmeter should allow you to work out which connection is which. I've got one of the cheap manuals for mine and it's really not great. The service manuals on Nicoclub are much better but I don't think there's one on there for the 80s models with the TBI (again I don't know exactly what you have).

Good to hear that did it! I don't imagine the hatch is any worse than the doors. The PO of mine didn't bother, so I've got a key for the doors and a key for the ignition, which is workable but annoying.

That sucks! Shredded belt makes me wonder if the tensioner failed or something. The pictures I've seen of failed timing belts (haven't had one quit on me) look like the teeth just strip off. Maybe the leaking coolant weakened it enough to kill it--I don't know for sure but I do remember hearing that coolant's bad for timing belts. The only non-interference VG33 was in a minivan. You may have gotten lucky but I wouldn't count on it. The usual way to test is to slap a belt on it and then check compression. Either you'll find out that you dodged a bullet or you'll know which head needs to come off.

http://www.nicoclub.com/FSM/Pathfinder/1995_Pathfinder/ EL and "foldout" are your friends.

Have you tried anything since the last time you posted about this? Still sounds like fuse links to me.

Jesus. Somebody's got to make a decent pump, right? Hopefully you can fix it without having to pull it all the way apart again. Sounds promising otherwise though!

Interesting. Shows what I know about the TBI rigs! Hopefully it stays fixed.

Changed the oil. The oil pressure light in the dash goes off much more quickly than it did before, which is interesting. Maybe the drainback valve in the new filter works better than the old one did? Or maybe the oil is just that much better. Either way, it's an improvement. One of these years I'll pick up a relo kit so I don't have to fiddle around for five minutes trying to find the right angle so the filter will thread.

I don't think the auto trans has a mechanical kickdown or any provision for one. That said, I've never had one open. How about the wiring where the harness meets the trans? If the Caravan and Hardbody transmissions have similar guts (same number of speeds and control system), you may find it easier to splice the wires where they meet the trans rather than right at the TCU. If you've got enough of the Caravan harness left, you could probably work out the rest of the TCU wiring just by following the wires to where they terminate, then separate it from the donor loom and wire it into the HB. Or you could have a look at the HB TCU to see what it needs but isn't getting (probably tach and throttle position) and scab something together so it can get the info it needs. Of course, given the different torque curves and rev ranges of the two engines, this would probably not perform very well. If that gets you nowhere, there is a rail shifter available for the four-speed that would eliminate your need for a TCU entirely.

Hopefully cleaning the MAF helps. I haven't had much luck just spraying them with a can; the corner of a rag and some alcohol do a good job if they're really dirty, so long as you're careful about it. If that doesn't help, I'd check the operation of the oxygen sensor. There's an ECU mode for that, or you can just unplug it and see if the truck runs better guessing at mixture than running off what the O2 tells it. Failing as it warms up also has me thinking distributor (there's a position sensor in there that gets unhappy when the bushings wear out, and for some reason they tend to act up more when they're warm), but I'd try the easy stuff first.

Did you have the knob on Auto or 4H? My understanding is that it only tries to think for itself if it's in the Auto position, and locks the clutch pack solid like a manual transfer if you go to 4HI or 4LO. If this is your first time using the 4x, it could be that the PO never used it and it just needed to push some fluid around like onespiritbrain said. Probably wouldn't hurt to check the fluid level and condition, or just plan on changing it as it's more than likely original. The manual box in my '95 worked a whole lot better after I changed the fluid. I don't know how finicky the auto box is, but I expect it's more finicky than the manual. If you want to do some research on what you've got, I believe it's called the ATX14A, and there should be an exploded diagram and troubleshooting info in the service manual. For the rust, scrape off the loose junk and post a picture.