Slartibartfast

I 'd at the duck call. Does that make me a redneck?

Took a second to see it, but yeah, looks like it hit something pretty hard. I cursed mine. The other day I removed the door lock timer and resoldered the relay contacts (so it'd quit randomly locking itself). Today I got out, shut the door, and it locked itself. FFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

It lives! Glad to hear it.

Mine is a little reluctant in the winter, too. I give it a little time to warm up, and when it's really cold (single digit night temps) I've found that a piece of cardboard duct taped across half of the grille helps it warm up and stay warm while driving. A cold battery is less powerful, cold oil is more viscous, and a cold block probably doesn't burn the fuel too well either.

Doesn't sound like a dead battery to me. Even a mostly dead battery will sort of try. I assume you'd get something between an iffy start and a total non-start (trying to crank but not catching). Probably not a dead starter, either, it should at least be clicking. Check the connections to the battery. Are they loose? Corroded? Does it spark when you move them around? I've seen a loose connection do exactly what you're saying, dash lights are on but there's nowhere near enough juice getting through to make the starter go. Unscrew the clamps, clean the terminals, shoot some WD40 up in there to keep them clean, and reassemble. (If they're just fine, check the starter connections.) It could be the alternator, but that would probably have turned on a few of the idiot lights. Check the battery voltage.

Definitely get a second opinion. My friend took her car in to the local Les Schwab with what we later discovered were warped rotors, and they wanted to replace the front hubs. My dad took his Frontier in with horribly bad rear brakes (the disks had gouges in them) and they tried to tell him the fronts were bad instead. There's a difference between a mechanic and a part replacer. I hate to be cynical but I suspect there's a good deal of profit padding going on as well. You bought the tires elsewhere, so they weren't going to make a hell of a lot just installing them. You could very well need some front-end work, but probably not a grand's worth. Find a place you can trust to do the work, or learn to do it yourself.

Guys, Nissan failed to predict mud. I'm pretty sure lightning protection wasn't on the list of design objectives.

I've got an aftermarket head with the stock amps, and new speakers in the doors, and I haven't had any issues. If I turned it all the way up, I probably could damage something, but I'd be deaf for life long before then. Unless it's really pounding, you're probably good. (I blew out a factory speaker with the stock deck, but only because the foam was all dried up and crumbly.) You're right, the stock head unit is quite weak. I hooked mine up to a computer power supply (12v) and a door speaker from a Ford. It's very quiet, even turned all the way up. I don't think it was intended to power speakers on its own. Not entirely sure what Nissan's thinking was there. I've been considering a ghetto bypass (just connect the input and output wires that would've gone into the amp) rather than running all new wire. Should be pretty easy. Not as good of course, but as I'm not swapping any more speakers (unless they blow), it should be an improvement at least. As for your links: #1 Looks good to me. #2 Depends on if your aftermarket head has the plug for the stock antenna. I'm fairly sure mine did. #3 Only if you're keeping the stock amps. Also keep in mind my experience is with WD21, R50 may well differ.

... maybe because it is?

Cleaned mine out today, having stumbled onto this thread. Dead simple, maybe fifteen minutes and a little shop-vac time. It wasn't high enough to hit the resistors yet, but it was getting close. Meshing in those vents is starting to sound like a really good idea.

A flat spot? I guess the brushes or coils inside could be worn out, making it run at half power with a sort of dead spot. But yeah, generally if a starter goes, it straight-up goes. Mine didn't give much warning before it died. Check the fuel pump first. If it's not the fuel pump, your neighbor might be sort-of right. You mentioned it didn't like starting in the wet. If you or the previous owner held the key for too long, trying to start it, you/(s)he may have overheated it and fried the coils. Starters are designed to run just a little, and only at startup, so if they're run continuously, they'll overheat and burn up. The starter, unfortunately, is a royal PITA to yank. It doesn't require special tools or anything, it's just a bit difficult to get to the bolts and thread it out between the wires etc. It comes out much more easily if you remove your oil filter and the little heat shield on it. (The second time we did mine, my dad left the heat shield off, because it was shot. I haven't had any problems yet. Keep your heat shield from your starter, neither of our rebuilt replacements came with one.) If you put it in yourself you'll save a fair amount of money over having a garage do it. There's probably a blow-by-blow how-to-swap-your-starter thread on here somewhere. Check all your connections before diving into it. Make sure the starter connections are good, check the battery terminals, clean off any corrosion (a little vaseline helps keep connections clean) and try it again. I've seen a car fail to start just because the battery cable was loose (didn't even click, but the dash lights were on). Usually on these when there's a connection issue, the starter just clicks but doesn't spin. Since yours is engaging, I doubt it's a connection issue. That said, I'm a noob, I'm very often wrong, and it's not too difficult to check the wiring. Good luck.

If you're into that sort of thing, you can save some $ make your own even if you don't have a welder: http://www.instructables.com/id/No-Weld-Truck-Roof-Rack/

Also, just hang around the forum for a while. It starts to soak in. From what I've heard the FSM is better than the haynes or chilton manuals, and you can still get paper copies.

FSM is a better reference, but here's a diagram I scribbled up when I removed my factory radio (so I could hook it up on the bench and mess with it later). Keep in mind this is looking into the back of the radio. I've hooked it up partially using alligator clips and found no fault with this diagram so far.

Resoldered the contacts in the lock timer and tested out power mode.

The clear(ish) dome light cover? It's got clips at the ends (front and rear iirc, could be the other ends though). You sort of have to pinch and pull. And the handles should have plugs on either side covering the screws.

Hooking up an aftermarket deck isn't hugely difficult. I did mine with a plug that slotted right into the factory harness, and then soldered it on the bench to the plug the deck came with. The new plug had what each wire did written on the insulation. I didn't end up using all the wires from the deck plug. (Also note, my 95 had a 94 plug. I don't know if the stereo people confused 95 wiring with 96 wiring or what, but the 95 plug did not fit.) I installed mine with no other parts except the plug and the shrink wrap. Since you've got two holes, rather than one, you could pick up the coin tray that goes beneath on the one-deck models, or some kind of blanking plate setup. Or, you know, full equalizer setup, if you decide to go crazy with the audio. As for getting what you have running, check (and clean) the plugs inside. Your tape deck probably has either a loose plug between the face and the unit or a loose plug/bad solder joint in the face plate itself. The CD player could have anything from a bad reader head to a bad motor to a little switch that checks if the CD's in there that's worn out.

+1 on the solenoid relay mod. From what I've read, it pretty much eliminates click-but-no-start. The click you're hearing is the solenoid firing, and pushing the gear into place, but not pushing hard enough to engage the contacts. (I suspect that on the first few starts, the terminals corrode a little; with full current this isn't a problem, but weak current either doesn't push them together hard enough or can't overcome the resistance.) This may be because it's not getting adequate power through the ignition; the relay mod solves this. But definitely check the connections first.

LOL yes, the throttle. And I had mine up to 75 once, the engine had more to give, but the suspension sure didn't. The low gearing is probably just to compensate for the big tires, so as long as it has big tires on it, the final ratio should be similar to the higher-geared rear axle running little tires.

Chances are, clean the mud out and you can get it going again. Check out the Mud Sick thread, your issue sounds similar. But for swapping in the van engine, I imagine you'd need to use the Pathy intake, maybe the oil pan, and probably a few of the old sensors etc. Chances are the different stuff is all bolt-in, could be frustrating to get it all figured out though. Before it's in you might as well do the timing belt/water pump/thermostat, and with swapping parts around I imagine it wouldn't be that much more work to do a legit rebuild. It'd take a little longer/cost more, but you'd have better peace of mind and less risk of having to do it all over again later. TBH I'd go for the bigger swap-in engine too, just because if I'm putting that much work into something, I'd rather make it better than it was before it broke. Then again, my time isn't worth a hell of a lot.

Glad I found this, mine goes a little screwy in the winter too... when we got it, it locked itself with the keys in the ignition, running, in the snow/sleet. Last winter I'd have to turn the key and pull the handle at the same time, as the lock solenoid would actually fight against the key unlocking it. Good to know what's causing it, and thanks for the link! Looks like I've got one more project.

Mine doesn't go clear up either, and it fluctuates a bit (sometimes I'll get in and it'll be higher than it was when I parked it). I fueled up yesterday and calculated my milage at 16.3, which isn't much of a surprise as I've been enjoying the skinny pedal more since getting the exhaust fixed. Just for giggles I calculated that it's costing me about a quarter a mile in gas. Edit: Found my last recipt/odo reading, it came out to 21.7 mpg (with less skinny pedal).

Sounds like a bad door sensor to me, I've heard the sensor for the rear hatch (if yours has one, mine doesn't) often goes bad. If it's a door one it's probably driver's door, just because it gets the most wear. It could also be a bad connection somewhere in the wiring, but check the door sensor first. I've never had one apart so I'm no help there, but I don't imagine it would screw stuff up. They're just on/off switches, door opens and they're on, so unplugging them would be like shutting the door. But I'm assuming, again, never having had one apart.

... e-fan time?

Bushings and dust covers are different. Dust covers just keep dust out, bushings hold something that turns or pivots or whatever. So, if there's load on it, it's a bushing. If it's just keeping road crud out, it's a dust cover/boot. Bushings wear out eventually. This usually means wearing oversized, giving the part it's supposed to be holding solid too much room to shift around. When this happens in the rear axle links, the truck wanders on bumps. The bushing in the upper driver's side hinge on my Pathy is long dead, and the door doesn't always shut quite right. A bad CV boot lets dust/grit get into the CV. The grit mixes with the grease, forming a paste abrasive (think sand and vaseline). The joint gets abrasive in it and grinds itself to death. If it's not too bad you may be able to just clean out the dirty grease and replace the boot, but with the effort to get to the boots, you might as well do the CV while you're in there. I wouldn't worry about the t-bar boots (mine aren't great either, leaving them for when I mess with the t-bars), but the ball joints probably do merit attention. Worn out ball joints will make it wander, shift around, and generally feel loose.