Slartibartfast

Noise at full lock isn't unusual; the steering stops hit the A-arms and make scraping popping generally bad sorts of noises. A glob of grease on the stop might quiet them down. The rattle could be a heat shield getting loose.

The flashing power button means there's a stored code for the transmission. That's worth looking up again... it could well be the cause of your issue, if the trans is slipping or the torque converter is failing. My power switch shows "auto" and "power," and I keep it in "power" pretty much all the time. IIRC for the test, you put it in Auto, then turn the ignition on and count the flashes and pauses. Also, the MAF sensor: the Mass Air Flow sensor has a couple little wire filaments that stick into the intake (just after the filter box). The wires are electrically heated. Electrical resistance through the wires varies with heat, so as air flows past the wires and cools them, their resistance changes, and the ECU picks up the difference in current through the sensor. It sounds imprecise as hell but it's good enough for the computer to figure out how much fuel to inject. A couple things tend to make them flake out. One is junk on the filaments (from oiled filters especially), which you can clean off very gently with contact cleaner or alcohol (nothing corrosive or that leaves a residue). The other is the wiring. The plugs can get corroded (to take the plug off, you have to get that little wire clip off of it first) and the ground wires get gimpy sometimes. A crappy ground connection, corrosion, or fouled filaments will cause the sensor to read incorrectly, and the air/fuel ratio will get buggered up. Doesn't sound to me like the engine's the issue, although it wouldn't hurt to check your throttle position sensor, since it's one of the things that tells the trans when to shift.

Hello all, I searched but didn't see much about this. My transfer case fluid is a sickly shade of purple, and I'm pretty sure it's not supposed to be, so I'm planning to do something about that tomorrow. I was looking at it today and trying to figure out how I'm going to get the new ATF into the fill hole above the crossmember. The right way would probably be to drive back into town for a pump head and a hose, but I'd rather not if I can avoid it... on the other hand, the best alternative method I can think of involves a turkey baster and a lot of swearing. Anyone found a good trick for filling these buggers?

I might have to do a proper flush on my engine on its next change. I just changed it tonight and the old oil looked pretty awful (as it did on the last change). Both changes I've done myself I've run a little bit of ATF (probably not enough to do a whole lot) before draining, and this time I had a quart of cheap 10W30 lying around, so I poured that through to flush some more of the dark oil out. The new oil went in so light I can barely see it on the dipstick... guess I'll see how long that lasts!

IIRC you want to make sure you get the torque converter along with the transmission.

If your transmission has half a gear in it, pull over, something's gone horribly wrong.

I use mine all the time and it still works fine. I avoid using the key to open it because since I put new lift struts on it, the glass likes to pop up and pin my wrist against the spare tire!

The other day my friend and I were looking up how to fix a faulty gas gauge in his Chevy, and the service manual suggested replacing major computer modules before checking the wiring. Surprising that there would be a difference from 90 to 93... maybe it's a V6 vs 4-banger thing. Is the circuitry exposed enough for you to trace the circuit from the gauge to the plug?

If you warm up the spray cans before painting (hot water works well), the paint usually behaves a lot better. It's not strictly necessary (especially if you're some place warm) but if you're going for a good finish, it helps. I pretty much cleaned up my tire carrier with some sandpaper and a rag, sprayed it with rust-oleum hammered, and it still looks alright. It does fade a little over time.

Looks like you bought a bro truck and made a proper rig out of it.

What, did they use the same guides as the VQ40?

Lift the middle (trans maybe, doesn't sound like you can lift from the frame!) with a car jack, ratchet strap some 2x4s to the frame, limp it into the shop?

I tried cleaning out the auto hubs on mine, but they were already too far gone, the clutch bits were worn down beyond tolerance. I went for manuals. The mileage increase is on the R50 Pathfinders, unless those clutches drag more than I thought they did.

The nasty wiring may have been why the original injector didn't work! Good to hear you got it going though.

With the exception of the '86 and '87 (which had three-speeds), auto WD21s have a four-speed box. The locking torque converter doesn't change the number of gears in the box. Assuming your shifter's the same as mine, it goes P R N D 2 1. D is gears 1-4, decided on mostly by the computer. 2 locks into second, 1 locks into first. There are no special notches for third or fourth. Generally you stay in D and the computer picks which of the four forward gears to put you in. 1, 2, and the OD/OFF switch come in handy in low-traction situations, when towing, or when driving up long hills, to prevent the transmission computer from doing dumb things.

I'd take a look at the wires to be sure they're in the same places, but even if they're not, moving the pins around would be a lot easier than cutting wires. When I put a square-dash style hazard rocker in my 95, the plug was the same, and the color codes were the same, but the wires were in different places on the plug. I think that came down to the different construction of the two switches, though; hopefully Nissan didn't see a reason to change the SMJ pinout.

Thanks Builder, I was unaware of that.

The WD21 H233B rear is 31 spline. 33 spline is Xterras and R50s. Depends how much $ you want to throw at it. Also IIRC the lockers won't bolt onto an LSD rear, you'd have to find an open diff third member to put a locker in it. No idea on the rebuild kit, sorry.

I don't have a two-door but I've been pretty happy with the rubber mats the PO left me. They say Cannon and look a bit like the Weathertech mats, but that's all I know about them. The fit isn't perfect, so they could be universals for all I know. They even have little spots to fit over the holding pegs, if you cut out the hole. They do shift around a little otherwise.

I dunno if it reduces strain any, but making the trans drop out of o/d does give you a little engine braking, which helps.

You can move the latch for the rear hatch (the part on the floor) around a little to make the hatch close better. Maybe the one for the glass is adjustable too, I haven't tried it. I moved the hatch one a bit and still had wiggle so I wrapped it in electrical tape... much quieter now. Keep saving your foam scraps though, that stuff would make great redneck dynamat!

Good to hear you got it running. I remember the super multiple junction thing giving me issues when I pulled it apart once to see what it was. Getting it back in is kind of like sticking two great big Lego plates together. Now that you've got a meter, you can check for power in various places until you track down where it should be but isn't. I'd start off at the fuses. You know they're good, but all the same, check for power there; a good fuse doesn't matter if the wiring isn't delivering power to it, or if the fuse box is damaged. I had a hell of a time fixing my driving lights the other day because the wiring all looked good, but power wasn't getting to the lamps... turned out my cheap fuse holder (aftermarket) had melted and wasn't contacting the fuse! So, first, check from the fuses to ground (any bare metal on the body works), should be 12v or so with the ignition on. You may have to pull the fuses out and stick a piece of paper clip or something in there so you have something to test from (if you do, keep in mind only one leg of each fuse goes to +). If there's no power to the fuses, start checking the wiring to the fuse box. If you have power at the box, the problem's further down the line... follow the wires and test for power in other spots. Once you find where the power isn't anymore, you can narrow down the problem to whichever module or plug or length of wire is between where it tested good and where it didn't. Hopefully you don't have to pull out much of the interior to find the problem.

Yep, sounds like your MC has a bad seal, or there's a leak elsewhere in the system that's dumping pressure. Do you have to keep adding fluid?

While there's a lot to be said for doing everything the motor could possibly need while it's out, if it doesn't burn oil and the bores still look good, I'd say don't worry about it. I don't remember reading about people having ring/cylinder issues with VGs unless they were run without oil, left full of water, extremely high mileage, or otherwise beat to death.

Spark/fuel's kinda moot when the thing won't turn over. So, you had a dead circuit, swapped the fuse, and it worked briefly, then died. Then as you worked on the wiring, the engine wouldn't start, and then it wouldn't even turn over. My guess is that there's a problem in the circuit that was originally dead, a frayed wire or something, that caused enough of a short to take out the original fuse. When you put a new fuse in, the circuit worked again, but crapped out quickly; if the fuse is still okay, maybe the shorting electrical component just gave out. The circuit didn't work anymore, either because it was disconnected or because there was a short somewhere that deprived the rest of the system of power. If there is in fact a short (or a load with just enough resistance that it won't blow the fuse), that could've run your battery down while you were working on it, to the point where it didn't have the power to run the starter properly. I'd get the battery on the charger before tearing into the wiring again, just to make sure you haven't found or caused a bigger issue than the windows. When it's back to how it was before, go through the faulty circuitry, and unhook the battery (or pull the fuse) when you're not testing.