Slartibartfast

Got my hinge plates fresh from Taiwan, and picked the truck up from the alignment shop. New ball joints, CL, idler, and TREs. Feels a little less like trying to steer a puppy.

Hmm... wonder where the extra fluid came from.

You sure it didn't get pushed into 4x accidentally? It'll bind up like crazy if you drive in 4x on dry pavement. That binding would show up as a power loss, even in neutral, and would lead to increased wear in the diffs and transfer case. The lever should be all the way forward, and the hubs should be disengaged. (Engaged hubs alone won't cause the problem, though. If it's not in 4x, but the hubs are engaged, you'll just lose a little fuel economy/CV life.)

^^That. I've actually done it a couple times to mine, nothing's exploded yet, but definitely something to avoid. It's tough to gently engage the hubs when, for the CVs to move (and thus for the hubs to lock), you have to spin the rears on ice/dirt/whatever. That's why I engage them in the driveway now if I suspect I'll need them at any point between there and where I'm going. Gotta get me some manuals!

Never had a problem with mine, with the key anyway. It doesn't always lock/unlock. I pulled the panel off and shot some lithium at the joints, which seemed to help somewhat. Maybe check the linkage for play where the rods hook together?

I've heard that the EGR can 'flutter,' the mechanic who did my timing belt said mine was doing it, so I cleaned it out. My only other thought is that the lifters might be worn out. How many miles are on it? The knock sensor can trigger the engine's limp mode IIRC (won't rev over 3k), so that probably is something to take care of.

Maybe a motor mount is bad and it's stressing a wiring harness somewhere?

I shift on the fly, but only when it's already had a chance to lock up the hubs. On some days (winter) I'll start out in 4x to get out of the driveway, shift to 2x when I get to the road, and then shift in and out as needed. Until I back it up in 2x the hubs should stay engaged and it shouldn't cause problems. It clunks a little if I wait to engage it until I'm stuck, but it doesn't grind.

You could have little hinged covers on them. My '59 Triumph has a little cover in the middle of the cowl that flips up when I move a lever. I've thought at least once that having two little cowl flaps on the WD would be pretty sweet... might not even have to turn the fan on. And if you used a throttle cable or something, you might even be able to hook it to the recirc/fresh lever.

Yep... you'd need to re-route the venting. I think the cowl would look pretty good with louvers cut in it. Or you could go the rally car/rice rocket way and put a scoop on the roof.

That's the manual TPS, correct? IIRC the auto has some kind of potentiometer as well.

Dropped it off for a front-end rebuild! Driving it's gonna be sort of surreal after this... I've gotten used to it wandering all over the road.

A guy my dad works with puts a dent in the fender of any vehicle he buys, before he drives it, so that he's not worried about banging it around. A couple hours with a hammer might get most of the bits passably straight. If you're not looking to win beauty contests with it, and it's safe/legal to drive, chances are you'll find other places to spend the money.

Maybe jam the key in there (so it reads the chip) and then hotwire it? Looks easy on the WD21, but I'll bet the R50 has all kinds of nice antitheft stuff to get in your way. I'd suggest a junkyard ignition, but if you can't get out of your driveway, I don't suppose that's really an option.

Yeah, incandescents don't care about polarity. I'd just wire it to ground and the illumination lead going to the cluster.

Took it to an alignment place to see if they can figure out why it wanders. Turns out all four ball joints and the TREs are shot, and the hole in the pitman got all flogged out too. Also discovered that the switch for the tire carrier is worn out... little disconcerting when you're driving and the idiot light is flashing!

LOL wasn't blaming you... but yeah, that explains it! I knew collision parts were jacked up, didn't know they did it by side though... that's crazy. Thanks for the info! Seems like there'd be a bigger aftermarket for them, though, with the increased demand.

Fabricated a ghetto little camera mount so I could get a look at the steering linkage while the car was moving... looking for the source of the sloppy steering.

Of the eight hinges for my doors, only one works properly. The others aren't flogged out yet, but the pins are seized to the bushings same as the driver's door.

Yeah, I saw some r50 hinges when I was looking for these... probably about 2x the cost of doing hinges on a WD. I understand that these were built to a price point, and for a certain life span, but it always seems like the manufacturer's crapping in its own bed with lousy designs and overpriced replacement bits. I love my truck but the company that made it... not so much. And that was even before I saw the Murano convertible!

IT LIVES.

Thanks Rob! Finally found the right parts. Oddly enough, the 80422-01G00 is really easy to find. They're all over ebay, dirt cheap. I only found one seller with an 80402-01G00 (and they didn't know what they had). Even on Factory Nissan Parts, the 80402 is more expensive.

If you tore off the timing belt cover, and hooked it up for a compression check, you could probably turn the cam and crank separately to where they'd be if there was a belt, and check it that way. You might also be able to eyeball it if you pulled the heads, but I'm not sure of that.

I thought my corner light had a dead bulb until I got it apart and found that the contacts were just corroded black.

Turns out the kit was one driver's upper and one passenger's lower. Same hinge. Dunno why the bags are marked driver's lower, they couldn't possibly go there. I asked the seller about it, and apparently they couldn't be bothered, because they're refunding me. Can't complain, just have to find a driver's lower now.