Slartibartfast

Is the shape of the cone really important enough that you'd get better sound from a smaller speaker?

I put 6x8s IIRC in my front doors when the factory speakers crapped out. My dad and I had to cut part of the plastic bracketry out. They're Boss Audio (cheap Radioshack sort of deal, $32 for the set IIRC) but they sound pretty good to me, and I'll probably get more when the rears go. I didn't have any of the crackling you mention when my speakers died. (It did make a wub-wub-wub sound that freaked me out a little until I realized it wasn't coming from the front suspension.) Your crackling may be from loose wires, the cassette deck crapping out, or a problem with the amps. Most people just bypass the amps when they put in a new head unit, or run whole new wires. I haven't gotten around to bypassing mine so I've got a little hiss and the volume gets loud quick. Keep in mind that different year Pathfinders had different door cards and different front speakers. Some have round speakers and some have rectangular speakers. I thought it was by year but now that I'm looking around, I don't know.

Maybe it's out of warranty by the time it's a problem... just like there's no service interval for the strut rod bushings.

Looks like quite a project!

I remember seeing a few threads, but I don't remember enough about them to find them again. And yes, you're in for a bad time. I don't remember the exact procedure, but IIRC you have to pull the oil filter and detach the little heat shield hooked to the starter to get it past the transmission lines (if you've got an automatic). Don't worry if you bugger the shield, mine hasn't had one for quite a while and nothing's burned up. Make sure you put the oil filter back on before restarting it! It's surprising how quick an engine pukes oil onto the driveway.

Round dash Pathies got robbed of the voltmeter for some reason.

Might be something to have a mechanic check out. I'm all for fixing stuff yourself but inoperable brakes seems like something worth calling in an expert for.

If you want to 'roll your own' without going through all the bending and measuring and whatnot you might try what Nissan Nut did and hack a cheap set of 300ZX headers to fit. And yeah, from what I've heard the VG30 firing order is all wrong to run true duals.

Yikes! Looks like it only got the fender, though, find a black fender in a junkyard and you should be good to go. For anyone who hasn't heard Ron White's bit yet... (if you're easily offended by language don't bother) My dad had something similar happen, he took an Audi in for CV joints and somebody forgot to tighten the bolts properly. My dad drove all the way from Washington to California, then went out the next morning for groceries and saw one of the axles bouncing down the road behind him. The mechanic made it right though.

Are you sure it's getting fuel and spark? Maybe you pulled/unplugged something (coil?) and forgot to plug it back in. A dead starter's no help though.

There are more Jeeps than Pathfinders around here. I do see them around, but I haven't seen one lifted... I think there's one lifted Jeep in town (I live in a small town LOL) and a few lifted late-model Dodge pickups. I think I saw a lifted Xterra once. There isn't a huge offroad scene where I am, so the trucks I see are probably used more for snow and ice than for wheeling.

Does it feel like pressing the brake with the engine off, or is it just legit jammed up? I don't see anything about a mechanical pedal stopper in the FSM, and IMO Nissan would've been on drugs to install something like that. You might be able to rule ABS in or out by pulling its fuse and then testing it. If a valve or something is jamming closed, that could be what's locking up the pedal.

Like Inyourface said you might measure the R51 Pathfinder IRS and see if it would fit. The lug pattern is different (dunno why but Nissan went from one 5-lug spacing to another, point is WD21 and R51 wheels won't interchange) and Wikipedia says it's six inches wider (the whole car, dunno about wheel to wheel). You might check out some of the 90s Nissan Z cars, IIRC they used R200 diffs (like your front diff) in the back so gear matching at least would be easy. The R200A probably isn't as strong as the H233B but then this isn't a towing capability build... pretty sure the Z cars are unibody though so you're right back at needing some kind of jig. I dunno what to tell you, except that you won't find a 'direct drop in' arrangement.

Sounds a lot like something mine pulled a while back. I left the lights on in a parking lot, killed the battery, and then when I got a jump it ran fine... until it warmed up and I took my foot off the gas, at which point it stalled. It ran fine cold, but I had to drive two footed once it warmed up. Then it cleared up. My dad and I had been messing with the MAF and TPS wiring, and he swore he'd done something with the airbox that had done the trick... I packed the MAF and TPS connectors with dielectric and haven't had a problem since. All I know is that it wasn't a problem with the fluid. Maybe the trans computer got confused by the battery dying? Anyway it couldn't hurt to check the plugs for the engine sensors and the transmission, make sure they're still making good contact. Maybe it's just a bad connection somewhere.

I understand why you'd want to weld in a complete rear end. The trouble will lie in finding a body-on-frame car with IRS, a compatible gear ratio, and the proper lug pattern. The Escape is unibody, so I suspect you'd have a hell of a time moving its components over to the body-on-frame Pathy without an alignment jig, even if you can match the diffs. The 180 mph makes me I had mine up to about 75 once on the highway, and that was enough. The higher gear ratios are really more for fuel economy than for speed.

Holy thread necro! I wonder how many of these Nissan actually made.

I like the stock lights too but that actually looks pretty good, red into chrome into black. So it was all bolt on except the plugs?

What's the gear ratio in the Escape? Before you commit to it, make sure you can match it to the front end.

I searched around a bit, looks like the restriction is only for how many lights are turned on. (You can only have two fog lamps, but you can also have two spots and two 'passing lights,' whatever those are.) So if the truck in the pic had the high beams (all four lights) and the fogs on, while driving on a public road, that would be considered illegal. Also apparently you can only use fogs with the low beams. Then again this is the state that outlawed flicking the high beams... doesn't stop anyone from doing it.

Good to know! Fog isn't really a thing that happens around here.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure WA is one of those states, but I've never been hassled for it. I hardly ever use my factory fogs... in fact I think the last time I turned them on was for my profile pic. I'm always afraid I'll miss the switch and hit the hatch popper instead. Thanks for the heads up though.

Maybe look into how the consult went into the KA ecu and see if there's anything in common with the VG30. If it's a matter of tapping into pins on something, you could look up datasheets and maybe figure out where to hook in. If the eproms (I sort of know what that means LOL) chip in the ECU is removable/reprogrammable, what're the chances the same chip is used in some other ECU, and would therefore plug right into a chip burner made for something else?

I mounted my driving lights (Hella 500FF) to my bumper. Didn't do a whole lot of measuring, just got the marks pretty much even, drilled, and bolted them up. Bolting it up through the turn signal holes and putting the factory fogs back in was a PITA so you might consider removing the bumper first. And thanks for the writeup, I need to do mine one of these days. edit: jesus this new image posting system is useless

My1path put an M30 ecu in his Pathfinder. It's supposedly easier to hack that in than to hack in a z31 computer, a little smoother, and compatible with nistune. ^^from my1path's thread, I can't vouch for the info as I only sort of understand it!

Power mode on my 95 is a switch on the far left of the dash. Do you have the owner's manual to check where (or if) it is on yours? Flooring it should put it into power mode, so maybe try that, see if it shifts right with your foot to the floor. Not a solution obviously but it might shed light on something else.