Slartibartfast

I haven't set up a winch on a truck, but I've wondered about fusing them too. I did a little poking around and it looks like there's some debate as to the "right" way to do it. Some people just run it straight to the battery (like the starter, which isn't fused either) and call it good. It's simple, and simple is good, but it means you're gonna have a bad time if the cable rubs through or gets pinched in an accident. The risk of it shorting out can be mitigated with careful routing, but you also don't have an easy way to kill power to the winch if something goes wrong, which strikes me as sketchy. Some people run a manual shutoff switch or a relay between the cable and the battery. You can also get circuit breakers that these guys seem to like, which can be turned on and off manually but also click off if overloaded. The breaker seems like a great idea to me, provided it's properly sized so that it won't click off during normal use, and provided it can handle life in the engine bay. One commenter raised the concern of what happens if you're in a sketchy situation off-road and your breaker trips and leaves you hanging, which could be a reason to go for the basic switch over the breaker, depending on how hard your mom intends to send it. +1 for the voltmeter, that should give you a better idea of what you're up against.

LOL yeah, it's awkward but it doesn't look like it's on its way to a jungle deathmatch with Arnold Schwarzenegger.

I think what these guys are are doing is dropping the voltage to the alternator's "sense" wire. That wire goes from the battery to the alt's regulator to tell it what the battery voltage is (which is how the alt knows how hard to work). If you can make the alt see a lower voltage than what's at the battery, it'll charge harder to compensate. That GM part number comes up as a diode (not a fuse), and the Arclight product looks like two diodes on a circuit board. Diodes have a forward voltage (typically 0.6-0.7v), so I think what they're doing here is adding those diodes in line with the sense wire, causing the regulator to think that the battery voltage is lower than it is. If this mod works the way I think it does, either the GM diode or the Arclight on its low-boost setting would give you a 0.6-0.7v increase at the battery, and the Arclight's high boost (which I assume puts the two diodes in series) would give you a 1.2-1.4v increase at the battery. Comparing the output voltage spec in the '03 R50 manual (14.1-14.7v) to the 4Runner output shown at the start of the first video (13.6-13.7), it looks like the 4Runner owners are doing this mod to achieve the charging voltage that yours already makes. Century's website suggests 14.6-14.8v, so your charging system is probably right about where it needs to be already. If it's towards the low end of spec, you could probably boost it using the same method (looks like the R50 has a conventional alt and the same 7.5a fuse on the sense wire), but if it's working now, it's probably not worth messing around and potentially boosting it too far. Worst case (high end of spec plus an Arclight at full chooch) would be pushing 16v. At least the Arclight has a fuse, though--as clever as the GM diode mod is, unless that diode happens to pop at around 7.5a, that circuit isn't properly fused anymore. As an aside, why do people making Youtube videos think they need a backing track while they're talking? And why does that one sound like an ice cream truck with something wrong with the cassette deck?

My mom's got an '04 GX470 and loves it. It's an odd-looking critter and some of the "luxury" stuff is kind of ridiculous (the mirrors that adjust down automatically when you put it in reverse, the steering wheel that motors out to meet you when you start it, the stupid touch screen), but it's got proper four wheel drive, it's got all the power it needs, and the seats are comfortable. It replaced a '13 CRV which was reliable and good on gas but had awful seats.

WD40's better than nothing. If they loosened a little, try tightening them again, see if working them back and forth (with plenty of WD) will loosen them up. Also blow out around them if you can, the plug wells like to fill up with crap.

Ah! That's what you guys are talking about. I completely forgot that the home page existed.

Learn something new every day I guess! Is there a secret handshake I don't know about too?

PM sent. For sure I'll try and get the '87 out there if I do scan it, not much point otherwise. The only difference I can think of off the top of my head is that some of the '87 codes are different, just to be that way. 42 is throttle sensor circuit, 43 is injector circuit, 44 is no malfunction indicated, and there's no injector leak, ECU, EGR, or EGR temp sensor code. Other than that, same as '89.

My '95 was pretty rotten back there. We found a solid donor at the wreckers and they cut a section of floor out of it for us. We didn't strip the interior before welding it up. I'm not even sure we took the seats out. If the rust isn't too extensive, you could do the job pretty easily with flat sheet metal, but don't be surprised if the hole is bigger than you think once you start chipping away at it. My '95 didn't look too bad until I tried to clean it up. I had the same plan as Mr. Reverse for my '93, then discovered that it wasn't actually rotten there, so I left it alone.

If there's some kind of membership here beyond having an account, it's news to me. You can change your title on your profile page, there's an "edit profile" button near the top right of the cover photo.

Yes, '87-'89 is TBI. The '89 is 1,370 pages in PDF form. The '87 doesn't have a page numbering system from start to end (it's done by section, and I can't be arsed to add up all the sections), but it covers a third engine option that the later manuals don't mention, so I'm sure it's longer. It's a single paperback 1 7/8" thick. (Would you believe I haven't found the motivation to try and scan the SOB to PDF form yet.) If you need something in particular, let me know and I'll see what I can find. I can also send you a download link for the '89 if you want.

Nice! I thought '03-'04 had the drive-by-wire, but Nissan's model year changes tend to happen mid-year, so I'm guessing yours is early '03? The strut towers look great. Smoker schmoo's no fun, mine was like that too. I've heard good things about using ozone machines to kill the stank, but I had a clean(er) donor handy, so I just swapped out the smelly bits. When I dropped the headliner over the driver's seat, it was grey where the trim covered it and brown where it didn't. The window's a common issue. There's a procedure to reset it. Looks like the '01-'04 Pathfinder was included in the Takata recall, so, yeah, good idea to check into that, see if it's been done or needs doing. Looks like there are websites where you punch in your VIN and it tells you if you've got the good bombs or the bad bombs. I think the radio in my dad's '03 had a similar issue. I couldn't figure out what was wrong with it, so he bought a used one. That one turned out to have a scratched faceplate and a borked CD changer, so I swapped those parts over from the original and ended up with a working unit. That was as close as I got to figuring out what was wrong with the original one. Good luck!

TPS sounds like a reasonable guess. A code should've lit up the CEL, but he might've found a pending code or seen some indication through live data that the sensor was glitchy or had a dead spot or something. Hopefully the TPS fixes it. My dad's '03 developed a weird bucking issue under load which felt like the throttle was snapping open and closed repeatedly. It was fairly violent. No check engine light, and I don't think it ever threw a code (I didn't have a scanner at the time, so I was going off what the mechanic told us). IIRC the mechanic he took it to replaced the swirl control valve control solenoid valve (seriously) and that fixed it. I have no idea what was wrong with it or why it made the truck lurch like it was trying to shake something off the roof rack. Looks like it's supposed to set a P1130 if that component goes bad, but I don't know what the computer checks for.

I'm guessing you've got the ZD engine? I don't have the service manual for that one, but every other manual I have says nothing about replacing the crank bolt. I'd be surprised if Nissan didn't sell them, looks like they're still making that engine.

+1 to the leakdown test. You can also get test strips to see if the coolant has exhaust gas in it. If the head gasket is bad enough, you can pull the radiator cap, start the engine, and look for exhaust bubbling out of the coolant. You can get a '94/'95 manual from Nicoclub that'll cover most things, but the '90 manual from cardiagn.com covers the square-dash trucks better. That's my go-to for my '93. The engine rebuild info should be about the same, though. The first time I did head gaskets was on a friend's POS Astro van, which probably had 200k on it at the time. It was a miserable job, mostly because there was a van wrapped around the engine and we were working outside in the snow. Other than that, it really wasn't too bad of a job. I haven't been that far into mine. The timing belt will make the job a little more complicated (versus the pushrod 4.3 in the van), but the access will be much easier! I removed the hood before I took my intake manifold apart and would recommend doing the same, it doesn't take long and it makes the engine bay much nicer to work in. If you decide to go the engine replacement route, and don't mind a little extra screwing around, you could do the 3.3 swap while you've got it all torn up anyway.

I wouldn't bother warming it up. Either the plugs will tell you where your problem is or the compression test should work well enough to tell you where the problem is. You're not looking for good numbers across the board, you're just looking for the one weak hole. #6 isn't fun, but it's mostly a matter of it being hard to see. If you've got some extenders and a U joint, or the stock toolkit from under the back seat, it's not too bad to remove. The compression tester took some screwing around before it would thread, partially because it was bent, partially because I wasn't holding it at the right angle. Blow out around the plugs before removing them if you've got compressed air, they tend to accumulate dirt and rodent crap in the wells.

That looks great! Having painted a Ford with a roller I think your paint setup looks perfectly legit. Thanks for the paint recommendation. The shift surround plate looks good too, makes the boot look less like Grandma's purse. Funnily enough I made a similar plate for the roller-painted Ford, though that was mostly to hide the spot where I messed up cutting the vinyl flooring. Good idea with the lube on the stainless bolts, stainless likes to gall if you don't put something on them. Did you have to mod the speaker adapters in the doors? Both sets of speakers I've installed in WD21s fouled enough that the adapters needed trimming. Related:

Nissan has a service bulletin on this (though it's listed for 2005+). It assumes you have their special service tools, but I'll bet you could do the electrical checks they show without their fancy breakout box if you've got a multimeter and steady hands. This source suggests checking ground points in the engine bay and under the dash. The service manual should have diagrams of where modules are, where the CAN wires are run, and where the ground points are. Like the bulletin, the later manuals spend a lot of time walking you through how to press buttons on tools you don't have, but there should still be some usable information in there. Good luck!

My '95 taught me to never shut the door with the keys in it unless the window's down.

You can get a '90 service manual from cardiagn.com that covers my '93 pretty well. Nicoclub has a '94/'95 for the round-dash trucks. The EL section is your friend for wiring issues. I doubt the ignition switch is causing the issue. The headlights are independent of the ignition (at least they are on mine, IIRC the Canadian trucks had DRLs, which might complicate things), and an ignition switch stuck on accessory would leave a few other things on. Something's powering up the marker light circuit that shouldn't be. Unplug the headlight switch and see if that makes the lights turn off. If it does, clean and adjust (or replace) the headlight switch. If it doesn't, +1 for deleting the alarm. Like Mr. Reverse said, the alarm itself is pretty easy to remove. It's the square box under the driver's seat with the sticker on top (or the round hole in the middle with a pushbutton under it, if the sticker's gone). Jump the two black and yellow wires labelled "starter" together, unbolt/unplug/chuck the alarm brain, and abandon the rest in place. I electrical-taped up the harness connectors so they couldn't short out later if something ended up under the seat, and also removed the wire tapped into the marker circuit (look for a wire spliced into the headlight harness, near the switch, with a Scotchlock connector). I had just about forgotten about the various beepers these came with! I completely de-beeped mine when I got it. No dinger, no beeper, seat belt switch bypassed. I was impressed that the dinger had actual mechanical bells inside, but not impressed enough to want to listen to it for minutes on end when I was tracking down some issues with my headlights.

Yeah, there is that!

The manual transfer case will grind if you're slow to shift between low and high range, even with the transmission in neutral. There's enough drag in the transmission clutches to spin the output if it's not being held by anything, and when the transfer is in neutral, there's nothing holding it. If you're slow, it spins up and grinds when you try to couple it to the transfer output, which isn't spinning. If you linger in neutral, and it won't to back into gear without grinding, you can shut the engine off, finish the shift, and then restart. It shouldn't grind if you're quick about it. I've fumbled and barked mine a few times, but if you shift quickly from low to high, and it grinds anyway, every time, then yeah, something ain't right. The 4x light not going out as soon as you move the shifter isn't unusual either. When you move the stick back to 2HI, you're not actually pushing the selector out of 4x, you're allowing a spring to return it. I think this is to prevent you from reefing on the shifter when the transfer is under load (or torque-bound) and damaging the shift fork or the splines (like trying to pull a manual out of gear without letting off the gas or pressing the clutch). You move the stick when you want, and the selector should pop back when the load across it is released. My '95 was balky about disengaging 4x until I changed the transfer case fluid, after which it was fine. I don't know what percentage of R50s burn oil, but I know my dad's '03 did. I never opened it up, so I don't know if the screws fell in or the valve stem seals were shot or the bores were tapered or what was wrong with it, but the damn thing used a quart/1k miles before it had 100k on it. He had no idea it was burning oil until he noticed the lifters making noise and checked the oil level. The dealer certainly didn't mention it. (I assume the oil consumption was why someone traded it in, and I doubt they said anything, either.) I can understand being skeptical of a rebuilt engine, but if whoever rebuilt it knew what they were doing, it might still be worth considering. They may well have done a better job than Nissan did. The VQ R50 slushbox is a good unit from what I've heard. I haven't heard any complaints about the manual, either, though if it's the same box the earlier trucks used, you have to be careful about what kind of oil you put in it. A more basic truck with manual controls means there's less to go wrong, which is not a downside IMO. Speaking of which, the '03-'04 trucks got drive-by-wire throttle bodies. My dad's '03 had just enough throttle lag to piss me off. If I had to get a VQ, I'd look for an earlier one. Look for rust around the front strut towers, that was a big issue on the R50s. Good luck!

Those don't have the cutout at the bottom for the vent shutoff flap control, but they'd work if you didn't mind deleting that roller and flap or if you did a little trimming. Let me know how they fit if you go for a set!

Should be on the transfer, not the trans.

Common issue unfortunately, and yeah, the sellers on eBay want a whole awful lot for them. Seems like somebody could make a 3D-printable model and make a killing undercutting the overpriced stuff. Let me know if you do find something cheaper, my middle one's still holding up but the other two are long gone. On the plus side, the space between the dash and the ducting is great for storing plastic shopping bags. Need a trashbag? Boom, right there.