Slartibartfast

There's a Hardbody rolling around here in bedliner. It'll take the skin off your knuckles if you walk too close. But there are smoother products. ( )

I didn't have to on my 95, dunno about the 96+ though. I went ahead and pulled out the sway bar anyway just to grease the bushings between it and the frame (I suspected them of squeaking).

My understanding is that some have an external cooler and the one in the rad, and the recommendation is to bypass the one in the rad (or bypass it and add an external if it didn't come with one), because the rad tends to leak coolant into the trans fluid and make an expensive milkshake. It's a defect that Nissan knows about, but won't fix (or do the work to prevent) unless it fails within the warranty period.

Alright, so, three months later, and the engine's burning roughly one quart of oil per 1000 miles (which the dealer tried to tell him is normal). I know he should take apart the top end and fix it, but he's reluctant to get into it. I'm trying to convince him to compression test it, just to rule that out. Anyway, it hadn't been torn into since Slenderman put the PCV in. It kept right on running and driving as it should, except of course for the oil consumption, until my dad tried to take it over a pass yesterday (a pass he drives it over a few days a week) and it started surging. It didn't throw any codes, but the engine bucked and surged on throttle, whether it was in drive or not. He could rev it up a little if he feathered it, but it went right back to surging when load was applied. It idled fine. My dad limped it home and took it to a mechanic who found that a vacuum line was clogged with carbon. He apparently had to ram the crud out of the hose with a piece of wire. He put a new air filter in it too. We drove it home without issue. I was curious, so I looked under the hood after we got the truck back. The only line without dirt on it (and thus the line I assume was clogged) is the one between what the FSM tells me are the "swirl control valve control vacuum check switch" and the "swirl control valve control solenoid valve." (And I thought my WD's EGR-BPT valve was confusing.) I'm a little confused as to how carbon, or anything for that matter, would get into that line, since it dead-ends at a sensor (erroneous signal from which likely caused the surging) and any leaks would (I assume) pull ambient air into the tube rather than pushing crud from the engine into it. No doubt the engine's been spitting out some excess carbon from all that 5W30 it's been guzzling, but how on earth would it get into a vacuum line?

The '03 FSM shows an ABS sensor in the knuckle, which I would imagine is the same on the '96. As far as getting it off, I'm no help.

You can say that again... oh wait. Makes sense to me, it's high enough on the engine to not be affected by water crossings but the humidity could get to it on wet days (and condense inside as the engine cools). From what I've read of other people's similar issues, the cap's often the problem. Maybe try shooting water directly at the cap with the engine running?

Sounds to me like the sheet metal's pushed in and making the actuator rods foul. Can you pop the metal back out from the inside?

Sounds like a problem with the trans computer to me. I haven't heard of one going out but if the signal's there at the plug, and the computer thinks it's getting nothing, odds are there's something wrong with the computer. A bit of resoldering might clear it up (if the issue is a cracked solder connection on the plug or something), or you could swap one in from a junkyard.

If you've got the factory steel rims, you might try and find the stock alloy 'Lego' wheels. The backspacing is apparently such that you can fit 33" tires without a whole lot of fender beating. Good luck reviving it!

+1 on checking the blower motor resistors. Mine had a lot of leaves and pine needles and stuff in there.

Late addendum: If you want a cheap workshop stereo, or a stereo for a cheap car, or whatever, don't chuck your amps after you take them out. They'll take an iPod (or anything else with a headphone jack and its own volume control) output and amplify it for car speakers. I made a workshop setup out of the rear amp, a couple little 1W speakers (only matched set I had laying around), a set of buggered earbuds (for the input cord), and drew 12v from a computer power supply. It sounds reasonably good and cost me nothing.

When you try to accelerate out of it, are you pushing it to the floor? That light comes in on power mode, which you can do with the switch or which IIRC it goes into automatically if you floor it. That may be why the light is coming on. It's also possible that the bogging engine is confusing the trans computer. Put the switch on 'auto' and turn the ignition on without starting the engine. The light should come on for two seconds and then go off again. If it doesn't, or if it flickers for several seconds afterwards, the trans computer thinks there's something wrong. If not, I agree with your mechanic, this sounds like an engine issue. The fact that it stops bogging in neutral is interesting but IMO doesn't necessarily point to the trans, unless your current issue is unrelated to what it was doing before. If the transmission was somehow binding up and slowing the engine I would expect it to make all kinds of bad noises in the process. I'd start by checking the electrical plugs in the engine bay, especially any you may have jostled when you did the fuel filter. Open them up, look for corrosion, clean them up if needed, see if the wires are buggered. If a plug is making a lousy connection, bumping it may have made it connect again briefly. One other possibility is a gummed up fuel pump. Mine gave me issues a while back when I ran it down way past empty and apparently sucked crud into it. It bogged horribly and barely ran, and that's when it would start at all. When we took it to a mechanic, it started right up, ran fine, made it a block, and then cut out again. If a clogged fuel filter caused part of the problem, then maybe there was enough crap in the gas to gum up the pump as well. (The mechanic cleaned mine out and it was back to its old self.) I know the feeling of thinking it's fixed and having it act up again. Good luck!

The EL system of the service manual covers troubleshooting the ASCD (cruise control). It doesn't show this particular symptom, but it does give you things to test, and that might help you track down the problem.

Could be the amps, could be the absurdly long and thin wire going from the dash, back to the amps, and forward again to the speakers. I'd suggest trying the amp bypass first (I did mine recently and made a writeup: ). I've heard that the amps themselves can cut out but I've never had the problem with mine. There are two amps, front and rear, and for some reason (at least on my '95) they were both in the back.

Ah, makes sense then. The gear for 31s has to spin faster than the 235 one (relative to the transmission) to account for the larger tires. This means it's a smaller gear, apparently enough smaller that it doesn't touch the gear in the trans. I don't know if there's a shim or an adjustment or what there is, I know this has been done so hopefully someone knows.

Your upper radiator hose hooks to a pipe going to the engine. Mine's got two sensors on it (IIRC one is for the dash gauge). Looks like the rearmost one is what the computer looks at. Mine doesn't always want to downshift either. There's nothing wrong with the engine or trans that I'm aware of, it's just that the TCU just doesn't know that the truck is underpowered, so it goes for overdrive when I'm trying to drag it up a mountain pass. Next thing I know I'm making a parade, and then it drops to second and howls at me. I've found that it works much better in power mode (which I leave on at all times now). It downshifts earlier and more easily, I swear at it for doing stupid things less often, and I've noticed no impact on fuel economy.

Sounds like the gear in the trans is knackered then, if it didn't work before with (I'm assuming) the original gear.

That's how it begins... the government becomes overrun by chickens.

Sounds like you're narrowing it down!

Got tired of looking at grey plastic corner lights around a black grille. Turns out a page from an Onion daily tear-off calendar is the perfect size to mask the lens. Corner lights look great... now the grille and bumper look grey.

Interesting. The temp sensor's known for the shutting off when warm issue, but I can't see it causing the lack of spark. I'd start by checking the plugs for the position sensor and the temp sensor. It ran fine before you pulled it apart, so maybe a plug didn't get pushed all the way in or a brittle wire gave way.

LOL thanks guys. I am kind of considering doing an Instructable on the switch. Seems like it would make a badass door switch for a rat rod. I've taken it to the post office and back and it's sat out in almost 100* the past two days with no issues so far. I'll give it a good shakedown next month (road trip). The foam tape's the weak link IMO but it seems to be holding up alright. The tin sits just above the fan shroud when the hood's closed, so hopefully it's far enough from the intake to escape most of the heat. Two lights sounds like an improvement! Mine doesn't light up the area between the engine and the sheet metal too well.

Nice to see more aftermarket bits for these! How's the mileage?

Sounds like the trans isn't turning the speed sensor. If the old pinion was trashed, maybe the gear it engaged was also trashed? Or if you changed sizes, maybe the gear just isn't touching the gear in the trans for want of a spacer or whatever Nissan used to accommodate the different speed sensor gear sizes.

Sounds like an expensive fuel filter! Good to hear you got it running right though.