Slartibartfast

Sorry, WD21 is the Pathfinder chassis code ('87-'95). D21 is the pickup. What's your original look like?

Yeah, they won't work at all if the hazard switch is borked. The plastic does get fragile. I see a few WD21 hazard switches on eBay for $30 used. Try searching D21 if WD21 doesn't pull much up. There are a few styles, though, so make sure you get the rocker version for the square dash rather than the round-dash push switch or the weird early pickup one.

Got a picture. Naturally I can't embed the damn thing, so click here. Looks like the dipstick is about 21 1/2" from the tip to where it seats in the dipstick tube. The Hot marking starts 1 7/32" from the end and extends to 1 19/32". (I'm sure these would be nice whole numbers if I had a metric tape.) Hopefully this helps make a temporary one at least.

A wrecker is probably your best bet. I'll try and get a picture of mine tomorrow, though.

I removed the ABS from my '93. There's not much to it. The computer is under the driver's seat (the rounded box, the square one is the alarm), though I'm told earlier models have it under the radio. The valve block is on the passenger's side frame rail, about even with the B pillar IIRC. If you're running new lines anyway, just remove the valve block and run your new line. The hard lines on mine were in good shape, so I cut the squiggly bits off the ends, then scabbed in a straight section of line with flare nuts and unions. (I tried working with the lines as-is, but the result looked like a rat's nest, and I didn't like the idea of it vibrating around.) The fittings are M10x1 invert flare. If you have trouble finding them, try a Miata supplier. The ABS block flows straight through when it's not powered up, so removing it shouldn't change how the brakes operate under normal circumstances. I never got mine to kick in under any circumstances, though I never locked it up at highway speed just to see what it would do. I deleted it both because I thought it might be contributing to another issue I was having (it wasn't) and because it was coding for a $250 speed sensor that looked like a pain to replace.

If the hazards don't work either, you can rule out the headlight switch. +1 on the turn signals going through the hazard switch. I worked on a clapped-out VW a while back where the turn signals didn't work unless the hazard switch was in just the right spot. Fuses were a good place to start, but brake and turn are fused individually, so both would have to be bad. This is not impossible, but assuming both issues started at once, you probably have one fault causing both. The flasher unit is shared, so that would've been my next check. I've got the '90 service manual up and there's a diagram of the hazards and turn signals on EL-48. You can download this free from cardiagn.com. I can suggest some things to check, but you will need a test light or a voltmeter, and a piece of thin wire you can wrap around one lead to get down into electrical plugs for testing. To be clear: are the turn signal lights on the dash coming on but not flashing, or are they not coming on at all?

I did all the small-diameter ones with bulk hose. The molded lines for the PCV and whatnot were okay, so I didn't mess with them. You may be able to find them on nissanpartsdeal, or at least get a part number to search elsewhere. Failing that I would bring the tricky ones to an auto parts store and see if they've got a molded hose for something else with the required bend in it that you can cut down to suit.

Ah, now I see what you're saying. I found a couple of threads on that issue and as near as they could work out, it was just the cluster acting up. I had a brief look at the service manual to see if maybe it meant something and didn't find much. Troubleshooting for the 4WD warning lights starts on TF-135, but naturally there's no procedure for your symptoms. EL-139 and 147 show what I assume are the wheel lights wired individually to the unified instrument control whatsit, but it of course doesn't mention why. The lights are also wired to the transfer case computer, but they're spliced together on that end, so it can't control them individually. I see no mention of the 4x4 display for the ABS or the traction control. Mechanically, the truck has no way of engaging one wheel at a time even if it wanted to. TL;DR, yeah, it's probably just the cluster acting up. Unless it's making something else freak out, I'd file it under "old electronics doing weird things," like the clock in my dad's Tundra that displays letters in place of numbers sometimes. Why does it say it's 4:3H? Nobody knows! Don't worry about auto hubs, I don't think the R50s ever came with them. Nissan got that out of their system with the WD21, and good riddance! They were unpredictable and irritating to live with, even when they were working properly. AFAIK all R50s came with drive flanges (perma-locked). I don't think auto hubs and auto mode would play well together. I think my dad's '03 was KX0/bronze. It was very brown. I'm not a big fan of beige, but, yeah, faded out it's actually not that bad. Until you have to match it, anyway!

That is one calm cat! Mine hates car rides, though to be fair I haven't tried putting him on the dash. There shouldn't be anything to engage in your front end. If you tested with the front wheels off the ground, you might see one wheel spinning and the other not if one wheel has a dragging brake or something, because the diff applies the same amount of torque to both sides--so if one wheel is dragging and the other isn't, it'll spin the easy one. Same issue when the wheels are on the ground and one is on something slick. If you can spin a front wheel without the CV spinning, either it's got manual hubs that aren't locked in, or there's something very wrong with either the CV or the drive flange, and I wouldn't expect a mechanical failure like that to be intermittent. 4x4 not engaging until you're moving sounds more like a transfer issue to me. I'm guessing by your description that you've got the ATX14A (with the knob on the dash). I haven't had one to bits, but from what I've read there are two pumps inside, one driven mechanically when you're going forwards and one electric to fill in the rest of the time, and they're what makes the wet clutch engage and send power to the front end. If it won't grab until you drive forward, maybe that electric pump (or its wiring, or whatever turns it on) is getting flaky. If you haven't yet, start by changing the fluid, even if it looks okay. The fluid in the manual box in my '95 looked alright, but it quit sticking in 4x after I changed it. If that doesn't work, and there's no obvious damage to the electrical harness, the best I can do is point you to the TF section of the '03 service manual. I feel your pain on buttoning it up and having a vac leak. I didn't know VG30 and VG33 intake gaskets weren't the same when I did mine, and Rockauto sent me the wrong ones. At least it goes quicker the second time!

Coastal's website has an option for '96-'99 vs '00-'04, but it looks like it only changes whether it has cutouts for the turn signals. I don't remember an early/late split coming up in Hawairish's bumper bracket thread either.

Rolled over 250k yesterday.

Replacing the headlight switch isn't a bad idea, especially if you have a spare. Usually it's the headlight circuits that have issues in those, though.

Brake fluid is commonly neglected and usually looks like hell unless something in the braking system was replaced recently or the owner decided to do some preventative maintenance. The fluid absorbs moisture from the air, and the cap is not airtight. Moisture in the fluid is not a good thing (corrosion, lower boiling point), but I wouldn't expect it to do what yours is doing. And, yeah, I'd expect any leak that would allow mud puddle water into the brake lines would blow brake fluid from hell to breakfast. My first thought is electrical. When the speed sensor for the ABS in my '93 started to go, the ABS light turned on pretty much whenever the sensor was wet. The ABS is able to release brake pressure to stop a skid, so I would not be surprised if moisture in a damaged harness or actuator opened the wrong valve and nerfed your brakes until it dried out. If you don't see any obvious damage to the actuator or the harness, I would get a helper to pump the brakes (engine running) while you spray various things with a hose to try and make it act up. Seems like the ABS computer should be throwing a fit (or at least an idiot light) if it was malfunctioning that badly, but I don't know the R50 that well. My only other thought is that you can get a long pedal travel if the rear drum brakes aren't adjusted right. Obviously a tadpole didn't reach in there and spin the adjusters while you were in the puddle, but maybe some mud and debris got in there and did something? Long shot, but if you run out of ideas, pull the drums and make sure everything is in order. Oh, and if you can get it to act up again, see if you can figure out if any of the brakes are still functional. Dual-circuit brakes means a fault in the front can't take out the rears (and vise versa). Might help track it down. Also, when you bled the brakes, did you bleed the load sensing valve as well? That's a bleed point on the US R50, I assume the NZ spec would be the same. I doubt that's the issue, but, might as well get all the goo out if you have to bleed it again anyway. Good luck! I hate working on brakes.

I found the lock washers for my rear wheel bearings through Partsouq. Will have to check out Amayama, first I've heard of that one.

Sharp looking truck! Always liked the green/chrome. Rear bumper looks like mine when I got it, looked like a replacement that wasn't plated or painted on the inside. The alarm system is really easy to get rid of on the WD21. A few wires are scotchlock'd in, the rest just unplug and the harness plugs back into itself like the alarm was never there.

Nice design! Looks hell for stout.

I've loaded mine well beyond what I should've done, but it's hard on the interior and kinda sketchy when you've got a log splitter aimed at your head. When I need to move something that I can't/don't want to fit in the back, I just bring a trailer. My dad picked up a homemade pickup bed trailer at a yard sale many years ago, and we have gotten so much use out of that thing. Dump runs, engines, moving boxes, floor tile. It's great. And it's half a Ford Ranger, so who cares if it gets dented up? There's no anxiety that you're gonna mess up your nice truck, provided you don't overshoot and hit the tow vehicle. I'll bet you could get a front-end-wrecked D21 (or any small pickup really) and make a utility trailer out of that way cheaper and easier than cutting up your Pathfinder. I'd expect the leaf springs to handle the load better than the WD21 coils, too. The trailer lights could be interesting (standard four-pin combines brake/turn and D21 taillights don't), but it wouldn't be hard to rig up some non-standard five-pin wiring for that.

Are you looking at drum or disk cables? There's a different PN for the disk cables. Looking on Nissanpartsdeal it looks like there are actually three cables--early drum, late drum, and disk. PNs for disk are 36531-42G11 for left rear and 36530-42G11 for right rear. Both discontinued, but the PNs may show up elsewhere. Some info and (old, probably dead) leads here.

The pulley (with the timing marks) is bolted to the balancer, but there's no key or uneven bolt spacing or whatever to prevent you from putting it back on with the marks in the wrong place. It's entirely possible that the shop took the pulley off the balancer and reassembled them incorrectly, which is why the marks are showing up wrong with the timing light. This would not cause running issues, though, unless someone tried to time it to those marks after reassembly. To find approximate TDC (good enough to check pulley position), pull the #1 plug and stick a dowel or something down the hole, then turn the engine over by hand (making sure the dowel doesn't get caught as the piston comes up), and stop when the dowel is at its highest point. This can be tricky to judge, and there are better ways to do this, but this method should get you close enough to see if the pulley is bolted in properly. The ignition timing does change when the engine has warmed up. I set mine cold once, to get it in the ballpark after having the distributor out, then checked it again after it warmed up, and it was way out. I don't remember how far, just that I was surprised at how far out it was. If the marks are in the right place, maybe it was set up cold? That said, should've been no reason to adjust the spark timing after a belt replacement. This has me wondering if they got the belt timing wrong and messed with the ignition timing to get it to run afterwards. To check, you'll have to remove the timing belt cover. First, get the crank to TDC, then check either the marks on the cam sprockets or the rotor in the distributor to make sure you're on top dead compression (cam dimples near the bumps on the back of the cover, rotor pointed generally towards the #1 spark plug terminal). If not, turn the crank 360° and check again. When it's lined up, remove the balancer and cover and count teeth. Should be 40 between cam sprocket dimples, 43 cam to crank. The marks on the cover are approximate, so trust the teeth, not the marks. Pull codes and see if the computer can tell you what the CEL was for. Knock sensor, maybe? I'm not sure what would cause intermittent knocking on startup. The lifters make noise sometimes but I've never heard of that triggering a CEL. The rich plugs I've seen were dry but carbon-fouled. Wet with fuel suggests flooded/misfiring. Has it been running like this since you got it back, or is this more recent/preexisting?

Given where the dipstick sits, the broken part is more than likely down in the deep part of the pan, and unless the oil pickup screen is damaged or you turn the truck upside down, it can't really go anywhere from there. I'm not sure how you'd get it up in the shallow part unless you whipped the dipstick out like Zorro and it caught on the guide and pinged off just right. It's probably fine--but, yeah, if it was mine, I'd want to at least know it was out of harm's way, if not get it out of there, preferably without taking half the truck apart to get to it. If the dipstick is like the one in my VG30, it's a steel cable with a crimped or cast lump on the end of it. I haven't checked but I assume that bit is nonmagnetic, and unless there's a gremlin with a die grinder in your crankcase, I'm guessing that bit has simply come loose (cracked?) and slid off the cable. If that's the case, the magnet's not gonna do crap. I would drain the oil, make sure the lump didn't come out with the oil (long shot), then stick a borescope in there and see if you can find it. You might be able to grab it with one of those spring steel claw tools. Just be careful you don't lose the borescope and the claw tool in there, too. You asked about wet-sump, so, yes, your engine is wet-sump, but no, that doesn't mean the crank is submerged in oil. I don't know of any engine that does that. For one thing, the crank would whip air into the oil, which is bad for pressure-oiled engines. For another, that would be hell on efficiency (like running through knee-deep water). Even splash-oiled engines (like lawnmowers) keep the crank out of the oil, and throw the oil around using a small flinger sticking off the end of the conrod or a spinning bit geared off the camshaft. Wet-sump just means the oil collects in the oil pan, and the pump draws it from there to feed the bearings. This works fine for most engines. Racing engines that get flung around a lot tend to have trouble with the oil sloshing away from the oil pump pickup, which causes the pump to suck air instead of oil. Most engines control this with baffles and deeper sumps. Dry-sump systems pump all the oil from the pan to a tank, which provides a more reliable source of oil to a second pump, which feeds the bearings.

That fender should straighten out alright if you're careful about it. Looks like it's the usual case of the bumper folding back and bending the core and fender. When this happened on my '95 (similar deal, locked it up in slush, though luckily all I hit was a ditch), I took the bumper and fender off and straightened everything off the truck, then had a hell of a time lining the bumper back up. When my '93 took a similar hit from a hoof rat, I didn't want to go through that again, so I pulled the bumper straight-ish with a strap and just sorta shoved the core and fender back to where they were supposed to be. It actually worked pretty well.

I've never had a strut suspension to bits, and I've seen a few threads about strut top issues, but I'm not sure I'd fire the parts cannon just yet. Having it still make the noise when it's on jackstands makes me think it's not load-related, which isn't what I'd expect for either a strut top or a TRE. I'm also noticing you said both tie rods seemed like they were making the noise. Maybe both outer TREs failed prematurely, at the same time, or the noise is transferring really well from one side to the other, but noise on both sides of the rack has me wondering about the rack. I'd pop the outer TREs out of the knuckles and repeat your jackstand steering test. If it doesn't make the noise, steer the knuckles by hand to check the strut tops, and if those seem fine, check it again with one tie rod, then the other. If on the other hand the steering still makes the noise when it's not moving the knuckles, that suggests an issue with the rack, steering shaft U joints or rag, steering transfer box whatsit, or possibly the column. I would double-check the rack bushings, too, though again that seems like a long shot given how little load they're under with the truck in the air. If the feel-stuff-while-it-makes-the-noise test fails, disconnect things one by one until you find the problem. Obviously be mindful of the clockspring while doing this. I think the shafts are keyed so you can't reinstall them cockeyed, but I would still put a paint pen mark on them before pulling them apart just to be safe.

If the trans was rebuilt properly, the fluid level is somewhere close to right, and the torque converter isn't dead (is it the original or did you replace that when you had the trans rebuilt?), it's gotta be electrical. If the "power" light on the dash (or in the E-AT switch, if yours is round dash) flickers when you turn the ignition on, the trans computer is unhappy about something. There's a procedure in the service manual for pulling codes from the trans computer, that's where I'd start.

Check whether the cargo area light is on. The cargo light only comes on if the rear door is open. (At least this is how my '93 was set up; I'm pretty sure '95 is the same.) If the cargo light is on, it's the switch in the rear door, which is a common problem that I had on my '95 too. I've read you can fix it by shimming the striker. Mine was beyond that (or I did it wrong) so I ended up disconnecting the wire and teeing it into the switch for the tire carrier warning light instead. This worked great once I figured out it needed a diode to stop the dome light from backfeeding the tire carrier light on the dash. If the cargo light is not on, it's a door switch. To track down which it is, disconnect one at a time until the lights go out (obviously keep the other doors closed until their switches are disconnected). Start with the one that looks torn up. If it's one of the side door switches, you may be able to get it working again just by popping it apart and clearing it out. Something to try before ordering a new one, or a temp fix until the replacement shows up.

The switch is a common failure point, but it's got one contact for each filament (left low, right low, left high, right high) so usually you'll only lose one side, in one position. At least that's what mine did. Yours sounds more like the switch isn't getting power. Do the parking lights still work?