Slartibartfast

Again, unless there's something very funny about the three-speed, its control unit is entirely separate from the ECU. I remember reading someone suggest a minor difference in fuel mapping between the auto and five-speed versions, but the FSM doesn't show different wiring diagrams for manual vs auto for the computer, so they should plug in and run well enough. I would be very surprised if it fried something. I don't think the ECU has control over the lights. I suspect what's going on is that it's got a constant + feed (how it remembers trims and codes with the key off) and a switched + feed (turns on the ignition) and they've somehow bridged together inside the ECU, so power's going from the constant feed into the switched circuit and keeping your other stuff on. Burned trans fluid is not a good sign.

I found a weird issue with my dash lights, stumbled on a fix, and thought I'd share in case someone else has the same problem. When I turned my parking lights on, the dash lights didn't always come on. If they did, they'd stay on, but if I turned them off, there was a good chance they wouldn't come on again. I cleaned the contact in the headlight switch, but the parking light circuit wasn't the problem... the outside lights worked even when the dashboard didn't. It was good to know I wasn't driving with no tail lights, but being able to see the gauges is still kind of important. Upon closer inspection, it seemed like the dash lights would turn on every time if the engine wasn't running, but very rarely if it was. This didn't make much sense. I also noticed that the dimmer did nothing to adjust brightness when the lights were on. I pulled out the dimmer, which was more trouble than it should've been (had to take it apart from the back because the surround absolutely would not pop out of the dash) and found that the contacts for the little scroll wheel whatsit were bent away from the circuit board and covered in gunk. The circuit board behind had a surprising amount of crud on it as well. I cleaned out what I could and bent the contacts to where they touched the circuit board again. I had to hot-glue the control wheel bracket to stop the thing from flickering, especially since I'd broken off the little metal tooth washer thing that held the bracket down. I put it back together, tested it again, and it works again! While I was in there, I removed the dead incandescent light and its mounting whatsit from the dimmer. I didn't have a new bulb that size, but I did have a new 3v LED and a 1k ohm resistor, so I used those. A few solder joints and I've got one more dash switch that works and lights up like it should.

Here's how I did mine and here's another way. I kept the old amps after pulling them and have actually gotten a fair bit of use out of the rear one. I wired it with power leads, hooked the inputs to the cable from a pair of crappy earbuds so that I can plug an iPod into it, wired it to some salvaged speakers, and used it as a shop stereo for a few years. It's currently sitting in the hole in Rat Trap's dash where the radio should be and running the door speakers until I can be arsed to install a proper head unit. It actually sounds pretty good, and unlike the Sony head unit I had in my '95, it doesn't go into a silly demo mode every time I unhook the battery or make godawful beeping noises when I turn the engine off.

It started, ran, started making white smoke as it warmed up, then quit and wouldn't restart. That's not how flooded works. Check the rad to see if it's obviously lost coolant, check the oil to see if there's coolant there. If you have a compression tester, you might get some idea of which cylinder(s) are acting up. It does sound like a head gasket (or lower intake gasket) failure... there's not much else that blows white smoke from a warmed-up system. You will get some steam/water just from condensation on a cold start, but that's supposed to taper off as the system heats up, not get worse. It does seem odd that the alarm and the head gasket would act up at the same time, but I can't think of much else it could be, given the symptoms. If you don't find a smoking gun in the cooling system, you might try running the codes on the off chance there's something helpful there.

Dude, what? The rocker with the headlight looking deal is for the factory fog lights. The one with the red light is for the alarm. The one for electric shocks (if equipped) has a shock absorber on it.

I have no idea if this would work on a Nissan, but I did check an idle air valve on a friend's Chevy once by unbolting the valve from the intake manifold and turning the key on. We then watched the valve go through what I assume was some kind of self-check where it extended and retracted again. If your old one is junk anyway, you might try digging into it to see if it comes apart enough to unseize whatever's jammed up.

Nope, just unplug the bugger and you should be able to see the electrical connections to hook the test leads too. Kind of a tight fit but doable. I'd remove it anyway if you haven't recently just to clean it out and make sure the fan spins freely.

If they're already holding the screwdriver they're about to jam into the lock, I doubt the plastic would do much... unless they got confused and thought you'd converted to push-button start or something.

The auto trans computer for the four-speed is in the passenger's rear quarter panel (of all places) and AFAIK it does not talk to the ECU. I would expect a similar setup for the three-speed.

30A is a lot to ask of factory wiring. Unless your model has something special I don't know about (I've never even seen a diesel R51!) you'll need to add a relay off the battery that's switched on by the ignition. I would check the under-hood fuse box or other relays in the engine bay for your ignition signal. The relay will put a very small load on whatever you hook it to and the relay will handle the 30A load from the battery to your accessories. Don't forget to add a fuse to the 30A circuit as well.

My bet is that the starter contact in the ignition switch has given up. It makes sense with how the problem started (contacts getting slowly grungier and more pitted until finally they don't work). If you've verified that there's no power from the ignition switch at the relay, then there's no point fooling around with the charging system or the starter itself. Remove the clamshell over the column (make sure you get all the screws, also the tilt function is your friend) and locate the solder terminals on the ignition switch. Find the one going to a black wire with a yellow tracer. Check from that terminal to ground with a meter while you're trying to start it. If you get no power, your ignition switch is bad. If you get power, check the alarm next. It's under the driver's seat on the trans tunnel side. There's one big long connector on it but there should also be a small connector with two black wires with yellow tracers. Mine even had "starter" printed on the insulation. Jumper those two (I used a paper clip in the plug) and you've bypassed the security system. (My '95 didn't have a starter kill hooked up, but I suspect the PO may have bypassed it already.) If the ignition switch tests bad, you could try hotwiring it. Again, it's the black/yellow wire.

Go for it, but I'm probably not the guy to ask about TBI--the closest I've come to working on one was scavenging a few bits off a Hardbody. This has all the bits of the TBI labelled, with pictures. Then of course there's the almighty service manual.

Yep, they collect there. I trimmed that plastic bit before I put them on the last time to at least slow the accumulation.

No worries! Check out the PD section of the service manual, it's got exploded diagrams for everything. If you want a locker, hold onto the open rear, IIRC most of the aftermarket lockers need the case from the open diff to mount in.

Ah, I see where you're confused. Open and LSD are both called H233B, even though the guts are a little different. Same gears, same housing. Even the 33-spline rear end in the R50s (versus the 31-spline in WD21s) is still called an H233B. The concept of the clutch-type LSDs in these is fairly simple. Imagine you've got a standard open diff. As soon as one wheel loses traction, the spider gears send all the power that way, and it peels out instead of pushing forwards. Unhelpful, right? Now stuff a bunch of clutches between those spider gears and the diff casing. The clutches make the spider gears harder to turn, and since spiders only turn when one wheel is going faster than the other, those clutches make it harder to do a one-wheel peel. The FSM says it should take at least 260 lb/ft to make the clutches slip. It's low enough that you don't chirp the tires on dry pavement (like you would with welded spiders or a spool), but high enough to give you a fighting chance off-road. The clutches can wear down over time, but I can't imagine the kind of abuse it would take to get that 260+ lb/ft down to zero. Much more likely you're rolling on an open diff. As for the vent tube, unless the rear end is making horrible noises, I would just check the fluid and replace the tube... especially since you're planning to swap in an LSD axle anyway.

IIRC it's one of the plugs mounted on the passenger's side valve cover. The EF&EC section of the FSM should show the plug pinout for testing.

Hmm. Is the trashed LCA bushing on the same side that keeps destroying the rod bushings? Might be some connection there... could have been worn out for a while before getting stuck finished it off. Jack, I'll bet they'd last longer if you welded up the hoggage. I put the blue ones on my '95 ages ago, and the last time I was in there, they still looked alright. I'm hoping for similar longevity from the ones I just put in Rat Trap.

My '93 doesn't do that. My '95 had leaks at the fuel rail, leaks from a rusted out tank (up at the flange, which took a while to find), and then the crappy cheap replacement tank I got on eBay wouldn't seal to the fuel pump properly and so leaked vapor, but with those things dealt with, the only thing the fuel system did to annoy me was the check valve making a noise like a duck when it decided to vent. Assuming you've ruled out the usual fuel rail leaks and the seal for the pump, I would have a look at the vac lines on the carbon can (make sure they're connected at both ends), and the condition of the can itself. If that all looks good, check where the evap lines meet the tank. IIRC you can find the hookup on the front of the tank by pulling the fuel pump access cover and jamming your arm in there, and if you remove the passenger's rear wheel, you can more or less get at the lines and the check valve. You can also pull the line that goes to the canister and blow into it; IIRC the check valve should hold pressure. It should allow air though if you suck on it, but given that it's full of gas vapor, I don't recommend sucking on it. The table in the FSM doesn't show any code for the evap system.

Seems like a full tray in that kind of thickness would be heavy as hell, and most of what it would be covering is empty space. I would also be concerned about flammable things getting trapped between the skid and the exhaust, or furry things nesting. Probably better to build smaller skids to protect the individual components or harnesses you're worried about. My '93 came with a skid for the transfer case, not sure if those are standard but it doesn't look like a complicated part to replicate if yours doesn't have one currently. Protection for the transmission pan (if auto) might not be a bad idea either, not that I've heard of anyone managing to bash a hole in that. Come to think of it, I haven't heard of many rigs crippled by woody debris apart from tire damage and the u-joint my cousin snapped by driving his Samurai back and forth over a log.

Huh. Glad to hear it's holding now, anyway.

Alright, good, much less to go wrong with levers. Hopefully cleaning it out deals with the problem, but if not, you may need to pull that assembly and check that the levers are still hooked up properly. If that's all working right and there's still no heat out the defrost vents, you may need to pull the dash and make sure the other end of the cable is hooked up properly. Hopefully it doesn't come to that.

Yep, sounds like the bushings in the rear links to me. What all have you replaced?

AFAIK the strawberry milkshake of death (coolant getting into the tranny cooler) isn't a common fault on WD21s, so you've probably just got an external leak. My bet would be a bad hose. +1 on the stock clamps being a pain, probably best to have new ones on hand in case they put up a fight. I usually end up destroying them.

I hate mice. They crawled into my blower motor and heater box and crapped everywhere. I've thrown out two of those hood insulation panels because of mouse nests. We did have barn cats, but then we had a cougar, and then we didn't have barn cats anymore. I found four of them the other day in a closed drawer where they'd eaten the seeds for the garden and the gardening gloves as well. The only thing I know of that's eating the mice are the snakes, and that's another problem. I might have to give those trees a go. Maybe if I bought them in bulk, mulched them, and spread the mulch around the yard... One tip I picked up on a fishing trip last summer is to leave your hood up when you're parked at a campsite. Apparently the mice don't feel safe with the hood up and so are less likely to climb in and gnaw on the wiring. We left the hood on my dad's Yota up and the mouse stayed out of the engine bay. It got into the cab instead and somehow ended up between the roof and the headliner, running back and forth as we drove home.

I would recommend something other than graphite for the door lock. I blew some into the driver's lock on my '95 and I think it got into the contacts for the electric locking, because that system went from occasionally glitchy to full-blown psychotic immediately afterwards. It did free up the lock, but it wasn't frozen from moisture, it was stuck from years of dust.