Slartibartfast

There were indeed two systems. I'm not sure if it was a trim thing or a dealer option or what. My '95 SE didn't have the pushbutton unit, my '93 SE does. The pushbutton unit's reason to exist is the automatic mode, which changes temp and fan speed on its own in response to two temp sensors and a light sensor on the dash. It's a neat piece of engineering to save you from the harsh manual labor of moving a slider a couple of notches now and then. You can adjust the fan speed manually, except that they lost a spot on the slider when they added the auto position, so they wired the three remaining positions to 1, 2, and 4. I do like that the slider knobs on the pushbutton version light up, so you can see where they are. Also, I cannot fault its reliability--at 250k, it all seems to work, apart from a little relay chatter when I pass the auto position, and that's probably just dirty contacts on the slide switch. All the same, the next time my dash is out, I'm downgrading to the manual controls off my parts car. Swapping from one system to the other not as simple as swapping the head unit, but it has been done. This thread on Infamous should give you some idea of what you're up against. Your symptoms sound like the cable sheath has come unhooked at one end. You may be able to just snap it back in, or repair a broken clip, and get it working again. If the cable is binding, silicone spray might bring it around. If you do go looking for a replacement cable, make sure the ends attach the same way as yours. I grabbed a manual HVAC head from an early Hardbody a while ago and found that the cables were built and retained differently.

https://www.grassroots4x4.com/product-page/1988-1992-pathfinder-and-harbdody-4x4-centerlink Looks like he's out of stock and planning a run early next year, so his schedule may match up with yours.

Ah, sorry, I missed that you're working with an R50. I see what you're up against now. Unless the lines are rusty, or there's something in the way, you should be able to bend them around a little without damaging them. I wouldn't call steel brake line easy to work with, but unless you try to bend it all in one place, it's reasonably forgiving. I've bent steel line around a 3/8" extension without it kinking, though not easily. There are also tools for bending brake lines cleanly. If the existing lines don't want to play ball, your idea with the soft line sounds like it would work. I would be inclined to bend up a new hard line instead--fewer fittings to buy, fewer places for it to leak. If they're the same as WD21 brake fittings, they're M10x1 inverted flare. Old VWs use M10x1 bubble flare, so don't just go by threads when you're looking for fittings. Hopefully your clutch works better when you're done. The only clutch damper I've messed with was on my Honda lawn tractor. I took it off when adjusting the clutch (dry disk clutch, weird little tractor) and never felt the need to put it back on.

43 PSI with the vac line off, 34 with it connected (at idle) is correct. The pressure going to zero as soon as you turn it off is not. It will bleed down eventually, but normally you have to pull the fuel pump fuse and run the engine to bring the pressure down before you open the system, or you spray gas from hell to breakfast. It shouldn't just snap to zero when you turn the pump off. Sounds like fuel is getting out of the rail too easily, and the pump is having a hard time keeping up when the engine is under load. This would also explain why it's taking longer to start. You don't mention a puddle, a fuel smell, or being on fire, so I'm going to assume it's not leaking externally. Idling normally suggests it's not leaking through a bad injector. Sounds like a problem with the regulator to me, but it holds pressure all the way back to the tank on the high-pressure side, so it could be something in the pump assembly leaking back into the tank--though I'm not sure how that would come and go. A clogged filter can cause drop under load, but it wouldn't cause the pressure dropoff when you turn the pump off. Did you check fuel pressure while it was running normally, or while it was acting up? If you can catch it when it's falling on its face, that might give you a better idea of what's going on. +1 for running codes as well, on the off chance the computer has something useful.

Intermittent issues are always a PITA. The EL section of the service manual will do you a lot of good. You can download the '94/'95 manual for free from Nicoclub. There's an underhood diagram that calls out where the relays are. IIRC the inhibitor relay on my auto-trans '93 is near the washer fluid res, not sure if the manual trucks put it somewhere else. There are also diagrams of the auto and manual starter circuits. The alarm being turned off won't necessarily prevent issues. I had the alarm brain fully deleted, starter kill wires spliced together, and the circuit still acted up until I got rid of the harness. The spazzy door locks are classic Pathfinder. Mine does it too, sometimes, usually when it's cold and I can't be arsed to chase it. My first one was really bad about it. I suspect something electrical in the driver's door is worn and makes or loses contact if shaken hard enough, which the lock timer sees as a lock signal. Some people have reported success from resoldering the lock timer, but that didn't do much for mine. The switch for the rear cargo light is a weird design. It's built into the latch. On my '95 I rewired it to the switch for the tire carrier warning light, which worked, but only after I added a diode so it couldn't backfeed the cluster.

I've never had one apart to find out what goes wrong, but here's a walkthrough for getting rid of it.

I had a similar problem with the starter circuit in mine. Sometimes it would do the classic click/no start, sometimes it would release the starter and then power it again so it barked to gears, sometimes it would crank slow like the battery was flat, when it wasn't. I checked and replaced a bunch of stuff, some of which seemed to help a little, but what finally killed the problem dead was deleting the harness for the car alarm. I'm not sure exactly what was wrong with it, but it's gone now, and so is the starting issue. The alarm is pretty easy to get rid of. Two or three Scotchlocks, everything else just unplugs, and the harnesses it intercepted plug back into each other like it was never there. Given yours is manual, I would also check the clutch switch, if you haven't yet. If that doesn't do it, you can install a relay between the factory harness and the starter, as Mr. Reverse describes here. I did this years ago on a friend's Toyota that wasn't worth the cost of a new ignition switch. It worked great, until the switch finished dying, at which point it got a pushbutton. Possibly your mechanic is a Ford guy and is thinking of the pushrod ignition they used in the '80s/'90s F-series trucks. If you've already done the ignition lock cylinder, and the switch, I don't think there's anything else in the column that's relevant to the starter circuit.

I went with 555 joints for mine. I've been told they're good, haven't tested them head-to-head against other makes though. IIRC I looked at the pictures in the Rockauto listings and found some where the parts were stamped 555, but they were being sold under another brand name. Cranking the torsion bars provides the lift. The lift UCAs are supposed to correct what the lift does to the upper ball joint angle (so the joints last longer) and the camber (so you don't have a fat stack of washers between the UCA spindle and the frame). I have read that the Superlift/Rough Country UCAs fix both issues, but the AC or 4x4parts arms only correct the camber. I have not worked with either, though, and I don't know what's still available or if designs have changed. If you were hoping to install lift arms now, in preparation for a lift later, don't. I don't think the front end would align properly at stock height with lift UCAs. If you're planning to lift the truck, then, yes, you will want the UCAs to match. Any lift puts more stress on the steering linkage, which isn't great to begin with. There are a few solutions for this. The most common is an idler arm brace and a Grassroots4x4 centerlink. Some people run the 2WD Hardbody centerlink instead; some love it, others say it handles poorly due to excessive bump steer. Calmini made a pretty skookum-looking linkage for these, but between the price tag and Calmini's reputation, I didn't consider it as an option. I've got a Grassroots on mine, and it's been alright, except that the bolts holding it on loosened up a few times. It hasn't done that in a while, but I'm still not crazy about the design.

I don't know the R50 front end well enough to know if that would fly. If you try it, pay close attention to the length of the bolts. Unless there's 15mm of unused threads sticking out past the nut once they're tightened down, you will need to source longer bolts of the same grade.

NTB93-036 covers the car alarm. Annoyingly it didn't make its way into the service manual, as the security system was installed at the port, not the factory. I think I downloaded it off Nicoclub a while back, but I can't be arsed to dig it up again, so here it is on Dropbox. The rest of the lock system is in the BF section of the manual, which you can get from Nicoclub ('94/'95 round dash) or cardiagn.com ('90 square dash). There's a short-ish harness from the alarm brain to the door lock wiring, and it plugs in behind the driver's kick panel or thereabouts (I think it's intercepting the power lock wiring for the driver's door). Sounds like either the alarm brain is borked or there's an open circuit between it and the door harness. Good luck!

Is there any correlation between the noise and the speed of the engine, or how many electrical loads you're running? Absent any better ideas, I would unplug the alternator (or remove its belt) and see if that kills the noise. The alt makes 3-phase AC and the diodes inside rectify that to DC, so if one of the diodes goes out, the alt could be dumping all kinds of noise into the electrical system.

I used the races on mine. Did seem a little loose, but the bushing sorta filled it once it squished down. Yours looks like a better fit. Is it a custom piece or a repurposed off-the-shelf?

Looks like a good list. Look into the missing link if you haven't, supposedly that keeps the front end a little tighter. I'd leave the fenders alone until you know how where/how much the tires rub. If it's got an automatic, add a cooler. If it's got 4.3 gearing, you can offset your larger tires by swapping in 4.6. If it's got the rear LSD, check out Hawairish's writeup on packing that for higher breakaway torque.

If you can find a replacement remote, then yes, you can program it in. The alarm/keyless entry brain is under the driver's seat. It's the square one with the hole in the middle, which may still be hidden by a sticker if nobody's been in there yet. Under that hole, there's a square button. Turn the key switch on, then off. Press and hold the button on the brain. The siren will make four single blips, then five in a row. Release the button and it'll beep again, prompting you to press the large button on the remote. When it beeps again, press the button on your second remote, if you have one. It's got four memory slots and the TSB recommends filling them all for some reason, even if that means programming one or two remotes multiple times. When all four slots are filled, turn the key switch on and off again. Then try locking and unlocking the doors from the remote to see if it worked. If you want the full instructions and a circuit diagram, track down NTB93-036. I think I downloaded it off Nicoclub a while back. If you don't find one, message me and I'll shoot you a link through Dropbox. That said, you might be happier with a modern system. I deleted the alarm brain from mine because I was tired of accidentally setting it off, and later removed the wiring harness as well because a loose connection somewhere was playing silly buggers with my starter circuit. The alarm system on these was a port-installed afterthought, so it's pretty easy to remove.

Does anyone else smell canned pork?

I have no idea, but I would check your work inside the hatch first in case something just didn't clip in properly and worked loose. If it thinks the hatch glass is open, maybe that cancels arming the alarm?

Alvarez Metal Works on Youtube posted a video on tearing down a door, looks like he only showed the front door though. I would expect the linkage to be similar. I've got a donor I'm stripping down and can get pictures if needed. The bent end of the linkage rod goes into the hole in the base of the clip, and then the clip pivots around to grab the rod and hold it in. To disengage, find the open end of the clip (so you know which way to push) and work it off of the rod, and then pull the rod out of the hole. As for which to remove first, if you can get to the clips, I'd get the rods off first so the latch isn't flopping around while you fight with the clips. Take pictures of how it's all set up before you start so you don't get all turned around when you go to put it back together. Hopefully the fault with the lock is something simple, which will make itself obvious once you've got it on the bench.

EL-213 in the '97 manual says it'll take up to four. The same page also has the procedure for programming new remotes. If the last person to program the system programmed in more than two remotes, reprogramming it with just yours would make it forget the other codes. If that doesn't do it, you might try programming in just one remote at a time, to see if one of them has a doppelganger in the neighborhood. I would hope the OE remotes all had different codes, but who knows how the aftermarket remotes are set up. Or I guess you could walk around the block with your remotes, pressing the panic button on one, then the other, by every late '90s/early '00s Nissan you pass, until you set off someone's car alarm. Might not be the best way to make friends. That said, it might not be the remotes at all. WD21s are well known for their door locks triggering randomly as they get older. I don't know if R50s do the same thing, but I would not be surprised. If you catch it in the act of locking itself, note whether the corner lights flash at the same time. If the R50 works like the WD21, the lights flash if you lock it with the remote, but not if you trigger the locks manually. If the lights don't flash, you may have an electrical gremlin rather than someone stepping on your remote codes.

Security cert/connection not private warning fixed here!

I think I did the belt at around 230k miles, and it passed 250 recently with no issues. I did have the timing together and apart a few times before I was happy with it, both because I couldn't convince myself I hadn't set it too tight and because I didn't replace the crank seal the first time around and it started leaking as soon as I buttoned it back up. I wasn't impressed by the tutorial's 90° tension check, but I figured it would get me closer than I'd get screwing around with improvised shims and a fish scale. Not sure why your tension isn't meeting spec. It shouldn't need to be maxxed out on the tensioner, and you don't want to set the belt too tight. I think I used a Gates belt on mine too and found no fault with it. Do you have a link to the tester you're using, and have you checked it against a known weight to make sure it's reading right?

The service manual has an elaborate method involving shims and weights. I used the method in this tutorial instead.

With the engine out. I did the timing belt on my VG30 with the engine in, and it's not terrible, but given the opportunity, I'm doing it when it's easy. I was thinking more of the accessory drive belts.

Yeah, it's a pain, but it is possible. The trick for the driver's side plug wires is getting the angle right. IIRC I found some angle to where I could see the plug between runners, or got a finger down in there and found it by braille, and went from there. It's not fun, but I've worked on worse. That said, I intend to do everything but tension the belts on my VG33 before I put the engine in the truck.

Doesn't even have to be running. Key on, engine off. Press the pedal slowly. The number should rise as the pedal goes down, then fall as you let off. If the number bounces around with little regard to where the pedal is, or drops/spikes randomly, the sensor is borked. Think of it like the volume knob on a stereo. If it's good, the volume goes up and down when you turn the knob. If it's bad, it pops and crackles and drops out if you stop in the wrong spot. Don't condemn the sensor if it doesn't go all the way to 100%. I've seen that on other vehicles and it wasn't causing problems, so I left it alone. Unless you damaged the sensor or its wiring while you had the intake apart, I doubt this'll end up being the issue, but (if you have the tool) it's an easy thing to try. And yeah, I hear you on "I won't let this wore-out POS die on me now." I've been there with mine. Actually I'm kinda still there. Good luck!

Well, that sucks. I wouldn't expect a break-in or relearn or any of that--though you might try resetting the computer on the off chance the computer got confused when the fluid was overfilled. I remember punching some kind of Konami code into my dad's '03 to reset the engine computer (following instructions in the service manual), but just unhooking the battery for a while would probably do the same thing. Long shot, though. Running it when it's not shifting right might cause damage depending on what the problem is. The transmission is an RE4R01A. The AT section of the service manual has a bunch of troubleshooting in it, though naturally they assume you've got Consult. They were also used in Skylines, so there is some 3rd party info out there as well. (Serious rabbit hole advisory on that link, BTW.) Short-shifting makes me think it may be getting bad info from the engine computer. Maybe the same bad info is why the engine is running poorly. If you've got a code scanner that will show live data, I would take a look at the data from the throttle position sensor. See if the % jumps around when you open/close the throttle slowly. IIRC there's a sensor at the top of the bellhousing that reads engine speed off the flywheel teeth, or something like that? I only remember it as something that's on the Xterra trans that you don't use if swapping it into a WD21. But that's something you could've unhooked when prepping to drop the trans, then missed when buttoning it up (or bumped the sensor out of position or something). Given that this issue started when you messed with the transmission, I would check that you got everything buttoned back up properly. (That goes for any sensors/wiring you moved to pull the plenum, too.)