Slartibartfast

The '02 manual does not spec an idle speed in gear, but in park or neutral, it wants to see 750 +/- 50 if the aircon's off, 825+ if it's on. Sounds like yours is working. Every auto I've driven idles a little lower in gear, so while I don't have a spec for that, I'm inclined to call it normal. Turning on electrical loads or working the steering loads the engine, so it makes sense it's dipping a little more under those conditions. The vibration/stumbling under load, while it's still pretty close to its target RPM, makes me suspect a mixture issue. MrElCocko may be on the right track with the MAF sensor. Yours sounds a bit like how my '93 behaved when the MAF sensor connector was worn out. Sometimes it would idle low at lights, sometimes it would surge, sometimes it would stall completely unless I shifted to neutral or drove with both feet. Wiggling the connector would clear it up for a while. Finally I got around to replacing the connector, and haven't had a problem since. I don't know if the R50 suffers from the same issue, but I would check that the plug feels tight and the sensor is clean. If that checks out, check for cracks in the boot between the MAF and the throttle body, and check for vacuum leaks. Might be worth throwing some fuel system cleaner in the tank in case one or more injectors are a little gunked up. One or two cylinders firing poorly or not at all could explain why it's vibrating so much, though I wouldn't expect that to only act up at low RPM, and I would expect it to throw misfire codes if it was that bad. Probably wouldn't hurt to clean the idle controls, maybe check for signs of the coolant leak those get, but again, it sounds like that system is doing its job. If your throttle body isn't the fussy electric one, maybe give that a clean, on the off chance.

I would check that your aircon drain is clear. Doubt you're running much aircon this time of year, but if water gets in, that's where it's supposed to get out again. Might also be worth removing the cowl vents and checking that the cowl isn't blocked up on the ends and/or rusty around the air intake for the HVAC, which is on the passenger's side.

This guy wasn't impressed. Sounds like it's the same aftermarket stuff with a bigger markup.

I think the WD21 drains into the rocker panel, no idea about the R50. Have you pulled out the wheel arch liner? Might be hiding behind that.

So much room for activities! Buying the hose crimping tool is probably easier than explaining what you need to the guys at the local auto parts place, and probably cheaper, too. I don't remember what my dad paid to have a hose made for our plow, but it was not cheap.

I think the engine just doesn't run well enough when it's that cold to hold its idle speed against the torque converter. Probably just poor fuel atomization. Cold ATF might not be helping, but the stuff is so thin to begin with that I doubt that's the whole problem. I just let it warm up while I clear the windows. Probably easier on the engine anyway. I've read that synthetic gear lube nerfs the clutches in the LSD, don't know about Motul specifically though. Other than that, yeah, can't hurt.

Like an OE Nissan one? That's cool, didn't know that was a thing. Makes sense it would be, though. Yeah, mine's not happy when it's really cold. Takes a few minutes before it'll go into gear without stalling out. Fortunately I've had nowhere to go so far during this cold snap. It was -19F yesterday morning! Can't complain, power's still on on and the plumbing still works.

I haven't done one on a VG, but I replaced one on a friend's Dodge last winter. Not much to it, provided the core plug hole isn't rusted to hell. They're not fun to do from under the truck, in the snow, so you've got the right idea doing it while it's on the stand. The heater I was replacing wasn't very old, so I'm not sure why it burned up. Didn't find any brand information on it. I don't remember what brand I replaced it with, either, but I didn't go with a cheap one, because I didn't want to do it again. IIRC the instructions on the site where I bought the heater said which core plug to replace and which way to point the element for that particular engine. It does a world of good on a carb'd 360.

Jeepers have rubber ducks, this guy has a real one! Dammit, now I want to see this, too. A guy on here turbo'd his VQ and was having transmission slip issues. Probably more hassle than it's worth in a rig that goes places where most tow trucks don't. 12 mpg is rough. Hopefully the gearing helps. I've heard of some rigs de-tuning themselves if they have smog codes--no idea if the R50 works that way, but that could explain a lot. The point of no return is always daunting. If it helps, you've got a group of Pathfinder nerds here cheering you on.

Biscuit joiner

Oof. Tough to tell from the pictures, hopefully the damage isn't too deep.

man eater

Hell yeah! Looking forward to seeing this one come together. Nice that there's a kit to retain ABS. Is the tooth count on the GM tone wheels the same as the ones in the R50 hubs? I don't know if the ABS would notice/care about a mismatch vs the rear speed sensors, or if it's just looking for lockups. I've got a WD21 front driveshaft on the floor in my shop, let me know if you need measurements.

Nice when it's the simple fix! Good thinking using the fader to work out which output was which.

I see that your head unit and adapter connect using RCA plugs. I haven't set up a head unit like that, but the first thing I'd do is poke around in the owner's manual to see if there's some some setting you need to change to switch it over from the internal amplifier to the RCA outputs. I would also double-check that the RCAs are plugged into the correct holes--looks like you want the four closest to the power plug on the back. If it's not that easy, check fuse #4 (15A), in fuse box JB (looks like that's the one under the dash). That's the unswitched power feed for the audio system, and while the head unit may power up without it (it also gets power from the ignition switch), the audio amps (there are actually three of the little blighters) will not. If that fuse is blown, check your work, because fuses usually blow for a reason. Check your color code match-ups, look for damaged insulation/slipped-off heat shrink, make sure the pins aren't folded over in the adapter plugs, and make sure you didn't pinch a wire when you bolted the radio back in. If the fuse is good, and you test from the yellow wire in the head unit plug to ground, and you should see around 12v whether the key is on or off. The only other thing I see that could take out all the amps at once is the turn-on signal from the head unit, the one you mention in your second post. It should be blue/white coming out of the head unit. Confirm that this connects to the light green/red wire in the harness, and confirm that it tests at +12v when the head unit is trying to play music. If that checks out, I would try and track down the relay for the front speakers to confirm that it clicks when the radio turns on and off, or find the rear amp and verify that it's getting signal to the appropriate pin. The circuit diagram for the Bose audio system is on EL-145 of the '99 manual (download it from Nicoclub if you haven't yet).

Fresh springs sounds like a good place to start. I realized recently that what I thought were lift springs in my parts car are actually just the size they're supposed to be. The sagged-out springs in my '93 make them look like lift springs. Gotta get those swapped out one of these days. Those Sumosprings are interesting. Looks like a giant squishy bumpstop.

FYI, Tapatalk likes to say stuff didn't post, when it did.

Huh. Now that I'm looking closer at the kits, yeah, those are just spacers! I had assumed that they were entire mounts. That makes it easy then! Especially if they offer a 50mm option. There's all kinds of good info in the service manual, but yeah, they don't make it easy sometimes.

Aftermarket body lifts replace the rubber body mounts with thicker ones. Nissan lifted the 4WD D21's cab by modifying the body mount brackets on the frame. This thread on Infamous has pictures showing the difference. The 4WD D21 brackets sweep up, while the WD21 and 2WD D21 brackets sweep down. The bushings themselves are the same (I confirmed one of them by part number). I have not confirmed that the D21 cab and WD21 body have the same spacing from the top of the bushing to the floor, but I don't see why they wouldn't, so I am assuming that they do, and that the difference in body height is entirely due to the brackets on the frame. Finding the height difference of those brackets took longer than I expected, but as usual, the service manual had the goods. All info below is from the BF section of the '95 service manual. I did not cross-check this information against other years because I've already spent far too much time in this rabbit hole and I would very much like to come out now. The BF section has coordinate measurements for a bunch of different points on the frame, including the body mounts. Each point has an X, Y, and Z value. I'm not sure what sets the zero point for the Z axis, but I know it's in the same place on either frame, because the front-suspension droop-stop bumper holes and the compression rod mounts match perfectly. (The front shock mounts do not, but neither do the part numbers for the shocks, so I guess that's just a D21 quirk that I was not aware of.) This means that we can directly compare the height of the body mounts between the two frames. I'll spare you the math--each one of the 4WD D21's cab mount points is exactly 50mm higher than the corresponding mount points in the WD21 and 2WD D21. In freedom units, that's 1.96". TL;DR: the D21 ARB bumper should fit a 2" body-lifted WD21. And yes, a body lift would leave a gap over the rear bumper, but you could fix that pretty easily. Slice the brackets, lift the bumper 2", weld the brackets back together. Even if you half-ass the welding, they'll still be stronger than the bumper they're bolted to.

The sealed-beam D21 grille and corner lights are no different in size than their WD21 counterparts. The D21's bumper matches up to its body the same as the WD21's bumper matches up to its body. The D21 bumper sits higher off the frame because the body does, too. So your options are raising the body to match the D21 bumper (which I know you don't want to do), or lowering the bumper to match the WD21 body. B posted some pictures of the mounts on his WD21 ARB, which should give you an idea of what you're up against. The top mounts look pretty easy to work with, but those lowers would need some thought. All things are possible with a welder, provided you don't mind cutting up a brand new $1100 bumper, and provided you're confident that your mods will be strong enough to take a winch. Take pictures if you do. I've read posts like this one saying that it should be possible, but I don't remember seeing anyone actually do it.

Finally found where I stashed the other two! Unfortunately they were in the junk switches bag, because they both have busted rocker pivots. So that's disappointing. PM me if you're still interested in the dimmer/defrost/hazard switches, and if you want I'll throw in what's left of the other two. Might be good guinea pigs for trying disassembly methods if nothing else.

I found the dimmer, hazard, and defrost switches in my stash. I know I pulled the cruise and EAT switches, but they are currently hiding from me. I'm tied up the next few days but will have another look later, see if I can track down the missing ones.

I'll check my stash. I know I've got at least some of those, and no use for them as mine's got the square dash.

Invisible ink

That Trail'd can is a cool idea. Their site says in a few places that their cans are for water, not fuel, though that may be an EPA thing rather than a materials thing. That said, I'd be a little nervous about suspending twelve gallons of gasoline over the road in a container it's not supposed to be in by a single chain hooked to a twenty-year-old hoist designed to raise and lower a spare tire. A secondary strap or even a skid plate to catch it if it falls would make me feel a lot better about it. And, yeah, accessing those in wet weather would not be a good time, though I don't imagine you get much of that in AZ. If you're planning to use the extra fuel often, I would consider mounting a permanent tank in that space instead. You might find a writeup somewhere like Expedition Portal, or wherever the Cannonball guys hang out. You might look at how Ford did it, too--they built a lot of dual-tank trucks, and I'm told some of them even worked right. Trouble is, the dual-tanks I've seen have a second filler neck, and I'm guessing you'd rather not attack your quarter panel with a hole saw. There's probably a way around this. Whether it's less work than fetching cans from under the truck, I don't know. Whichever method you go with, I would come up with a heat shield between the fuel tank and the muffler, and consider installing a trailer hitch (if you don't have one already) to protect the fuel tank from a rear-end collision. I doubt the unibody was designed to protect the spare tire the way it would've been to protect a fuel tank. I'll bet the tank off one of those oilless pancake compressors would fit in there real nice.