Slartibartfast

I don't think I've heard of many people rebuilding the Pathy AT. The early R50/Xterra trans is stronger and bolts right up... a better setup for a lot less work. Unless it's been run with sand in it, the clutches are probably all you need to worry about. I've never rebuilt a trans myself, but it seems like that's always what goes bad.

Yeah... the 3k rpm is limp home mode... it'll do that if the MAF is dead or the wiring is buggered. Did you replace the MAF with the other stuff? Check the wires/plug/sensor...

Yeah, 4x4 shouldn't affect it when you're turning sharply, on-road... mainly because it shouldn't be in 4x4 on-road! If it's in 4x4 it's winding up the front diff against the rear diff, building up torque until something (usually traction, but sometimes a hub, and sometimes the transfer case) gives/breaks. When it's wound up it'll have crazy high friction, which could account for it failing to roll downhill. There's no central differential or coupling in these, so the wheels have to slip a little in 4x4 when you go around corners. (Unless the tension is released, it'll still bind when going straight.) Assuming your transfer case and hubs are working right, the 4x4 system does absolutely nothing when it isn't engaged. The CV axles shouldn't even be spinning. The T-case lever should be all the way forward, and the light (square dash has a 4x4 light, right?) should be off. You can also jack up the front end and see if you can spin the wheels. Both fronts should spin freely in either direction. While it's up, check and see if the transfer case shift linkage is buggered, that could be keeping it in 4x4 no matter where the lever is. (Never heard of one failing though.) If it's not in 4x, then I don't know anything... sorry.

Weld the flanges together and keep rollin.

Just opened mine up, pulled the hose off the actuator and blew into it. No resistance, like there's not even a pump there. I tried sucking on it too, nothing. I imagine the pump locks up a valve or something when it gets going. (I can't imagine it as a sealed unit in an engine bay... too much temperature variance, thus pressure variance... probably.) The one thing I did note was the cracked and hardened hose... at this point I doubt your hose is bad, but it couldn't hurt to check. Of course, I've never actually used my cruise control. My dad said he got it fixed when we got the truck, and IIRC he tested it, but my commute's too short and hilly to bother with it. Anyone with known good cruise want to chime in? Given that the 'resting state' of the pump appears to be wide open, I'm guessing that the 50-60 seconds are controlled by the cruise control circuitry... maybe check the wiring? Or, as Silverton said, the sliders behind the steering wheel. My horn worked fine until one day when it didn't... didn't take the wheel off (couldn't figure out how to remove the horn pad) but still got loads of crud out with some alcohol and a q-tip.

I'd download the service manual (if you haven't yet), then pull the interior door trim to get at the plugs and things. Hook the 12v tester to the window motor, have someone try to move it, and see if you get 12v to the tester. If you don't, there's a problem somewhere in the wiring. If you do, but the motor just won't go, then... either the window itself is stuck or the motor's cooked. (Do you hear it humming when you try to make it go?) The tester has to hit metal/wiring, so yeah, a little disassembly is probably required.

California spec may be different.

Give the exhaust gaskets a check... one easy way I've heard to do this is to duct tape a shop vac or something to the exhaust pipe. Then you crawl underneath to see where it's whistling (or use an incense stick or a cigar or something to see where the air's going), and find the busted gasket/rust hole/whatever. Mine was loads quieter after its new exhaust, and did seem to pick up a little power. Probably couldn't hurt to unhook the ground strap, let the computer reset, but I doubt that's it... seems like it'd only be confused while you were in the mountains.

I just loosened the bolts for the skid, pushed it around until the latch just barely hit right, and resolved to ignore the tiny big of panel movement left over.

Looks like a crank angle sensor wheel, the new engine controller must have a sensor for that. From what I've read, the water injection should help keep the pre-detonation (knocking) down. How's the trans holding up?

Possibly... it's gotta come out somewhere, it could just be a stuck valve. I'd probably try tearing into the pump to look for dirt or bad rubber bits.

You can get selectable mufflers now, there's a little baffle inside that you can actuate from the dashboard. Goes from loud to quiet pretty quickly. It's more of a rice rocket thing, though. I've heard a cold air intake makes the exhaust sound a little deeper.

Leak between the pump and the actuator?

They're not universal, unfortunately. The bolt spacing differs between 4.5" and 5.5" according to 06 Xterra: 6 lug 4.5 inch or 114.3mm 02 Pathy: 6 lug 5.5 inch or 139.7mm So no, doesn't look like they'd fit, regardless of the center hub.

I've read about people swapping the heads between without changing distributors, so you should be good with the 30 dizzy.

Got it back from the mechanic, found out the timing is fine, it just sucked some crud into the fuel system. It's got a little tick at idle... I'll see if it smooths out over the next week. Nice to have it back!

Pathy's back home... the shop pulled and cleaned the fuel pump. Apparently the tank was nearly dry, the pump was full of crud, and this was severely limiting the fuel supply to the engine. My fault, then, for running it until the light came on. It did sit for a year (under a pine tree no less) under the PO, and I've heard that this tends to increase tank gunk. I did hear some backfiring when we were trying to start it before. I'll keep driving it, and if it starts doing the same stuff again, I'll pull the dizzy. (It's the crank sensor that goes bad, right? Or just buggered terminals/rotor?) Thanks for the help, guys... hopefully the problem's actually fixed this time. Edit: It hasn't acted up since... definitely the pump. They didn't even replace it, just cleaned it out.

Check out the frame rust repair thread in the WD section. How bad's yours? I've seen people on here rebuild frames from rust flakes... mine just had a few holes in the sides. My dad and I had a guy cut patches from 1/8" steel, ground them to size, and had my uncle weld them up. Any pics of the rust carnage?

Gotta love IFS. Looks like fun though!

So, we took it to a shop. The guy messed around with it a bit, called us up, and said 'It's fixed! Dunno what was wrong, but I drove it five miles and it's fine now." My dad went down to try it out. It started rough, cleared up... and went a couple blocks before crapping out again. The guy did suggest something busted and moving around inside the catastrophic polluter, but we had that replaced about a year ago with a brand-new unit. My dad thought maybe a valve was stuck, or maybe it sucked up some crud from the tank (it was quite low) and somehow screwed up the injectors, but that doesn't explain the loping when it's trying to start (which seems to indicate loss of compression, or am I full of it here?). I've had it lower on gas before, but then I did off-road it a little (bump in the lawn lol) the weekend before this went down... might have stirred something up. Drove it maybe twelve miles between that and the onset of the issue. Unless my fuel filter is somehow internally ruptured, and the gunk is jamming up the injectors, I have no idea how that would cause this issue. I don't know what if anything the mechanic tried. The guy was going to drag it back to the garage, but I just drove through town and it was still sitting beside the road where it stalled out, unlocked, with the window rolled down. I buttoned it up but didn't bother trying to start it... the check engine light was on, though, so I checked for codes. Still 55. Thanks for the suggestions, guys. I need to start doing my own repair work... this has given me a good list of things to check on.

It died just as I pulled into the driveway... seems the brand new timing belt skipped a few teeth. At least it got me home!

So I'm driving home from class today, and something doesn't feel right. It's bogging and the transfer case lever's vibrating. I make it home okay, pull into the driveway, and feel it vibrating... look down and it's at 200 rpm. Then it died and refused to start again. It was low on fuel, so we dumped some lawnmower gas in there, thinking maybe it ran out. That didn't fix it. We also tried unplugging the MAF, no change. My dad unhooked the gas line from the filter and doused himself, so it's got fuel pressure. He also pulled a wire off the dizzy and got sparks. The rotor is spinning, so, no broken belt. We finally got it to start through a long crank and flooring it. It sounded lopey when the starter was going, shakes like crazy (one hard shake at the end of each lope, if that makes sense) and when it did start it bogged like crazy, like it's only got three or four cylinders going, but it wouldn't keep going for long. It will rev past 3k, so it's not in limp home. I checked the computer, 55, no malfunction. No black smoke. It also backfires when it won't start. We think the timing may have slipped on the crank. We had the belt done very recently. It ran fine when we picked it up... Any ideas?

To the best of my knowledge, there's no bendix in a Pathy (older cars use bendix starters, which essentially fling the pinion into the flywheel; newer cars use solenoids). There is, however, a one-way clutch in the starter pinion (so that the starting engine won't curbstomp the starter when it fires up), and that can fail. Mine did, and it made godawful squealing noises instead of turning the flywheel. Yours engages (solenoid works), it spins up (contacts/motor are good), but sometimes (and without godawful squealing) fails to turn the flywheel? Either you've got a very quiet and inconsistent failed clutch, or your flywheel's missing a few teeth. (Or, now I think of it, something is horribly wrong with the starter solenoid that's allowing it to close the contacts for the motor without popping the gear out.)

All looks good... nice job guys

See you all on the other side.