Slartibartfast

Very nice! The corners look like shin biters but it should fend off the deer a lot better. That is, if your light cluster doesn't vaporize them first.

Those do look wiped out! How many miles were on it when they crapped out? Good luck with the rebuild.

Mine's been tweaking a little too. Towards the end of my last tank it would vary between 1/4 tank and maybe 1/16th seemingly at random. Halfway through a tank it can never decide which side of the halfway point I'm at. It's... special. I think the conventional 'gas gauge don't work' workaround is to remember how many miles you typically get on a tank, then set your trip meter. You might check the wires coming out of the tank, they're easy enough to get to (hatch under the back carpet with the fuel pump IIRC) and if they're corroded, that might be your problem.

Strut rod bushings and blower resistors.

The geometry should be determined by the space between the front cup and the washer on the strut rod, which (if you didn't mess with the front half) should be unchanged. So your dad's probably right that the nut would just sit a little farther out on the rod. The other side will probably be just as flogged, though.

4-high you mean? Awful tough to get into 4-low on the fly.

Too bad about the long-legged rats... looks like your new bumper will solve the problem.

Does sound like it's overloading the flasher unit somewhere. Wires rubbing/shorting maybe? Check the rear bulbs for corrosion too.

Toughest thing would probably be getting around the 2wd trans. If you're lucky, your old one might slot up just fine, but I wouldn't count on it. If not, you'd have a Roadfinder, unless you found a JDM 4x4 trans or a separate transfer case. Looks like quite an engine but also quite a project. I'd love to see it happen.

Derp. Odd though that it wouldn't show an error with the ABS computer removed.

Does the ABS light on the dash come on with the other idiot lights when you first turn the key? If not it may be disconnected or burned out. The box should be beside the heating vent, between it and the gas hatch release lever. It's pretty hard to miss, so if you don't see anything under there, sounds like you don't have it. I don't think it was optional equipment, but check for the actuator. If it's there, someone's been at the computer.

Sounds like it was running rich...

Also check your oil. If your head gasket is butchered, coolant will get into your oil and make it look like pudding. If it's not clear and brown, you've got leakage. The FSM should walk you through head gasket replacement. Once you have the head out, you can check for warpage. Hopefully it's just the gasket.

The factory service manual should have a test procedure for the valve.

You might try pushing the little rubber cup by the latch farther out. IIRC it's held in by a couple bolts, which can theoretically be used to adjust the clearance. Assuming the latch is rattling rather than the bushings, maybe this would help.

It didn't want to start the car again, I'm guessing?

I shoot a little WD40 on my battery connections whenever I'm fooling around under the hood. No felt pads, no special sprays. No corrosion issues yet. Maybe the shape/design of the Pathy battery connectors make them easy to overtighten?

Also the hardbodies are sprung differently in the back, so only the front end bushings are compatible.

I dunno, it doesn't make sense to me. The hardbody in the vid looks kind of cheap with how the doors move... they open a little bit normally, then tilt up? Seems like if you're gonna do it, it should be one smooth motion. Otherwise you'd get some idiot like me trying to open the door, and when it only opens three inches, reefing on it and screwing up the hinge assembly. (And it just looks sketch.) Also, with the shaving/fobbing, what do you do if you leave the lights on and kill the battery? You can't jump it without getting inside to pop the hood. Do you crawl in through the rear window, or is it on the fob too? Or maybe the battery in the fob craps out after a few weeks of showing off your new doors. Either way you're standing in the parking lot waiting for the locksmith (or deciding which window to break). Having the doors swing up might be nice in tight parking spaces, but other than that, I'm not feeling it. It's not my truck though.

Well, there aren't any good codes... the knock sensor code can put the engine into 'limp home' mode, which limits the engine to 3000 RPM, if it looks like the engine is knocking due to pre-detonation. IIRC it needs to get above a certain level for the computer to go into limp mode? It's clearly not in limp mode, but the sensor code suggests that the steering wheel isn't all that's shaking. I suspect you have a timing issue, which is making the engine fire wrong, setting off the sensor.

So it drives fine but struggles on hills? Mine does that if I leave the overdrive on. Assuming yours is auto, try going up a hill with the O/D off and see how that works for you. They'll slip into OD while cruising and then try to bog up a hill in it. I've heard that seafoaming the intake helps get some power back. There's some disagreement about putting it in the crank case, not for fear of buggering the seals, but on the off chance that the crud it loosens could clog something else. When I got mine, the exhaust was hammered, and at least one of the two cats it had was clogged. It got a lot quieter and seemed to pick up a little power with a new exhaust.

This guy: http://www.nissanpathfinders.net/forum/topic/32903-wheeling-in-rocks/

Looks like fun.

I imagine it's a matter of having enough room on the carrier to mount the can. If you've got a smaller can you might not need to.

Mine had starting issues a while back that ended up being a gunked up fuel pump. I ran it real low (the light was on for, like, three days of commuting) and then sloshed the fuel around, which apparently got some crud into the pump. It wouldn't start unless you floored it, and it would run like absolute crap if you did. We didn't keep it running long enough to see if it evened out. A shop cleaned out the fuel pump, and it's run like a top since. I think it was somewhere around $100 including diagnosis, but you could probably do it yourself. Again this doesn't explain how it would start running properly after a while... maybe check the wiring to the pump first, maybe there's crud built up and it's holding water? Wouldn't hurt to check your fuel filter too.