Slartibartfast

Damn... what a thing to come home to. Looks like he was using jackstands, I can see one lying on its side next to the truck. Doesn't look like the rear tires were chocked, which probably allowed it to roll forwards once the trans was unhooked. My dad told me to put the wheels under the truck if you take them off to work on it, to give it something to land on other than you if all else fails. This is also a good argument for working on a concrete pad... tougher for the jackstands to tip over if they're on solid concrete vs flexible plywood on an uneven lawn.

And just to throw this out there, temperature is very important to the reading... It seems to fluctuate quite a bit by temperature.

My dad had the exhaust studs fixed when he bought the truck, but it still leaked at one of those flanges. He tried scabbing it with some kind of putty, and when that blew off, we decided that the cat was probably blocked up. It's run a lot better since we had the exhaust replaced (from the bottom of the headers back). I'm not sure if the cat was actually clogged or if the old flanges were so corroded that the gasket couldn't hold. Either way, it doesn't have a flange there anymore.

The torsion bars are basically just springs, I don't see how they could squeak. I've heard that poly bushings squeak like mad if you don't grease them, so you may be onto something there. Make sure you don't do the bounce test with the e-brake on, I know mine makes noises of its own.

JJ, any pics of your setup? I just tried to stick a piece of hose in mine but I can't find any room between the brackets and the carrier.

I know my 95 has an access hatch under the carpet, but I can't say for sure if the two-doors are rigged the same way.

If you suspect it's got a dead cylinder, try unhooking the spark plugs one at a time. If you find one that doesn't make the engine run worse when you unhook it, that cylinder's not firing.

Filling the bushings with a stiff grease might help. IIRC Nunya drilled and tapped the grease holes on his to add Zerk fittings, and in the linked thread it looks like Kingman managed to fudge it with a regular grease gun and a straw. Adding some kind of stop to the driver's side top corner would probably cut down a lot on the vibration (since it's the only corner without a support, and it lets the whole carrier flex... not one of Nissan's better designs). If you don't mind looking like a redneck you could just jam an old cushion between the carrier and the body. That should shut 'er up!

Sounds like fun! You can host pics on Photobucket or another hosting service, click the 'insert image' icon (below the smiley icon above the reply box) and then paste a direct link to the pic in there. Can't wait to see what this beast looks like.

Update for anyone else with this problem, my dad took it to a local shop and had both resonators (turns out they're not cats) removed, welded up, and put back in, $150 out the door and it sounds right again. His research suggested that the patch kits don't hold up.

I'd check first and see if the bulbs in the new lights fit the old housings. If they do it'll save a whole lot of mucking around and look better IMO. If they don't, it's probably less effort to get the right bulbs for the old lights than to hack the ovals. If you like the ovals though, I see no reason why you couldn't dremel off the the rounded mounting bit (that's what's hitting?) and secure the lights to the factory brackets. I'd probably make a thin sheet metal bracket (out of an old spray paint can or something) that would cradle the light from behind (lots of surface area for epoxy) and then give you something to bolt/rivet/weld/ziptie to the brakets.

Dafuq? Sounds like he took it in, they poked at it a bit, the issue (clogged injector or something) cleared up on its own, and they wanted to say they'd done something. I dunno why they'd try and blame it on spacers of all things... maybe they figured it was the last changed thing, and have no idea how cars work. Or they're jerking him around because he works at a dealership and should know better. I hear muffler bearings are on sale this week...

I straight bolted mine to the bumper and haven't had any vibration related issues. In fact I would expect a rubber block to let the light vibrate worse (whipping around with wind or on rough roads). All the stock lights are hard-mounted to the body, and they hold up just fine. A rubber strip between the light and the bumper might help for corrosion prevention though, so you don't have water wicking in between two metal surfaces.

Looks like the front end's a little more curved than the WD21, so you'd have trouble adapting the ARB even if the width is correct. If you can find an engine for it and put it back together you might get enough $$ out of it to buy a proper bumper/tires/etc for your Pathy. If you're parting it out you might try and find a Montero forum, the trim and bits might be worth something to someone.

Well, crap. If the plug is out, I'd try to vacuum out the cylinder (shop vac, duct tape, small-diameter hose, whatever's at hand) in case aluminum shavings from the buggered threads fell in. Not the end of the world if you can't, but the less crap in there the better. This would also be a good thing to do before installing the new plug, as whatever you do to re-thread the hole will probably kick more metal in there. If you have to drive it, I'd disconnect that cylinder entirely. Unhook the wire from the plug (if it's still in the head) and unhook the injector so you're not wasting gas and torching your catalytic (or spewing raw fuel out the open plug hole, or risking blowing out a stripped plug). I imagine it'll run like crap, so go easy on it. Back roads, low speeds, probably good to keep the revs down as much as possible seeing as how it's limping. If that fifteen miles includes highway, find a different route! Good luck getting to the plug hole to tap it. Hopefully someone else who's stripped a head has a good way of doing that. A mechanic did mine so I'm no help there.

For putting the new plug back in, I've heard you can stick it in the end of a bit of rubber hose and stick it in that way, then twist the hose to start the threads.

IIRC the ratio differed with auto vs manual trans (usually). Check the info plate in the engine bay (passenger's side, back towards the hinge) for your ratio, it'll say HG and then two numbers. Mine says HG46, meaning 4.6ish:1 gearing, as opposed to the 4.3ish:1 on some rigs). If the donor's tag matches yours, you should be good to go.

My battery's all over the place today. The two harnesses in the pic (the bits you could completely unplug from the system) are fuse links. If you follow the harness behind the battery, there should be a plug with a brownish wire coming out and then going back in, which is apparently a separate link for the headlights. The no start/click issue isn't uncommon. Some people wire the starter wires to an accessory relay and then hook power from it to the starter, and from what I've heard, this works pretty well. It's something to keep in mind if the new starter doesn't fix the problem. I'm not sure what the underlying problem is, but I suspect the contacts in the ignition cylinder get grungy and won't pass enough amps to push the starter solenoid properly. Here's a partial writeup (screen shot off the 4x4parts board because I can't find the link): Tact's not my strong point so I won't advise on what to tell the shop.

Warming up and then dying sounds like coolant temp sensor to me.

A few guys have chopped Xterra racks to fit. They look pretty good and probably beat the stock rack's 80lb rated capacity.

Can you test your meter on something else to make sure it's not tweaking out?

Dunking in the river isn't too bad... it's the year of sitting wet that scares me. On the plus side, it's probably dried out by now. First thing I'd do is to wash it off. If you're fighting wiring issues, it's much easier when the wires aren't covered in mud. Clean out the inside, too, I imagine those carpets are good and fruity. You may have some corrosion to clean out of the submerged electrical plugs, but it's not like you dunked it in salt water. The wiring issues are probably the same as they were before, and I wouldn't worry about them until you've got it running. You could test the ECU by pulling the codes (there's a writeup on here, you don't need a scan tool). If the test mode works, then the ECU may be alright. If not, you can snag one from a junkyard and swap it in. Unless the oil is contaminated the engine should be safe to start, or at least to crank it and see if it catches. If it doesn't, I'd suspect the distributor before the ECU. I use Photobucket for pics. The interface is a little sketchy (they went and 'improved' it for some reason) but it's free. Copy the direct link, click the 'image' box above the reply box, and paste it in.

You might try unhooking the battery for a few minutes to reset the ECU. It could be trying to compensate for whatever it thought the problem was.

Went out and took a look at mine... Here's the plug. Ignore the two wires right next to the battery post (orange and green), they're not stock. The harness from the green plug goes behind the battery and includes this fuse link. I'm not sure where the other two fuse links are, or if the wires coming off the green plug are fuse links too. Looking at your pic again, it looks like someone's cut open the wiring harness and done strange and terrible things to it involving crimp connectors.