Slartibartfast

With the new glass, the rollover hardly shows! Nice score.

Is the front braced to the body anywhere other than the bottom? That's a lot of leverage on the lower mount points otherwise. I like the rear. Nicely finished, too.

Looks like it's a dedicated wheeler now, if it wasn't already! Hopefully the hydrolock didn't hurt the motor. As an aside, I had no idea what RAC was, and was therefore confused until now as to why you were excited to take it to the rent-a-center.

Yep, OSB nailed it. The auto trans works with clutches, which I assume have a slight drag to them when they're not engaged. That drag isn't enough to move the truck, but it's enough to spin up the output shaft when the transfer's in neutral and there's nothing holding it back. Then you go to finish the shift and you're trying to couple a spinning part to a stationary part with no synchros in between, and it just grinds. Make the shift in one fluid motion and it won't have time to spin up. I fumbled mine and had to shut it off to finish a shift just yesterday, so don't feel like it's just you! It's not usually an issue once you're used to it, but it can be a pain at times. Changing the transfer fluid in my '95 actually cleared up a different issue I'd been having, where it wasn't reliably disengaging from 4x. It's a fun box to get fluid into, isn't it?

If you count the Strawberry Milkshake of Death and CVT failures, that club might have more members than some political parties! Acronym might need work, though.

I'm not sure, but I'd be surprised if it gained enough power to notice. I wouldn't worry about the wear so long as the screws still went in all the way and the assembly moves without binding.

I don't know much about the R51, so, grain of salt here. I'd say check codes but I'm guessing that's the first thing the shop did. If it's not coding, the computer doesn't know there's a problem, which probably indicates a mechanical problem rather than an electrical one. From my limited knowledge of the inner workings of autotragics, I'd say either something's hung up in the valve body (preventing pressure from going where it should) or maybe a sprag clutch gave up. If you put it in manual first or second, does that change anything? The AT section of the service manual (which you can get here) may have some relevant troubleshooting info, though with the later manuals you have to wade through a lot of hand-holding for how to press the buttons on the dealership CONSULT computer before you get to anything useful. Failing that, you could drop the valve body and look for anything that doesn't move like it should or is obviously damaged (broken springs, cracked pistons). Hopefully it's just a valve body problem and you don't have to drop the trans. Good luck!

Noise is gone too?

I had a sprocket jump too, scared me but didn't hurt anything. The spring tension that makes them jump wants to close valves, not open them. I doubt it's a valve issue. Might be a lifter not pumping up? Also check the exhaust manifold gasket, my friend put one in backwards on his Blazer and it had a very unhealthy sound that neither of us recognized as an exhaust leak until I started poking around and saw what he'd done. In the last picture you posted, there's no hose on the passenger's side valve cover nipple. I don't know if you've addressed that since, but if not, there's a vac leak right there. I had vac leak issues with mine after using the wrong intake manifold gaskets. The set I bought turned out to be for a VG33 intake, which uses crappy stamped-steel gaskets that are thinner than the steel-and-rubber gaskets I should've bought. Nothing lined up and it ran like crap until I got the right gaskets.

The hinge pins in mine were a massive seized-up PITA. I oil them whenever I think about it in hopes that I never have to do them again.

I remember having some trouble getting mine set right after I had it apart. Took a little screwing around. Once it runs, let it warm up and set it to 15° BTDC. I set mine cold to get it in the ballpark, let it warm up, then set it properly with it warm.

Maybe? Wouldn't hurt to test the sensor. A TPS on its way out could explain it shifting harder or softer than it should, or at odd times, but I don't know that it could cause the trans to slip like you describe.

While it's apart, check the power valve screws, if you haven't (if it's an automatic).

That's a very trusting dog you've got there!

Wow that's nasty. Mine was a smoker car too, but not nearly that bad (and they did at least try to clean it before selling it). I still swapped out most of the interior. If everything else is alright, I'd say you did alright for the price!

I don't know that it would burst but I also don't know that it wouldn't, or that it wouldn't hold for a while and go out later. I'd go with reinforced for peace of mind if nothing else.

You can get the '99 manual here. The info you need to diagnose the problem should be in the AT section. Good luck!

Due to the design of the fuel pickup, the pump can't fully drain the tank. I'd suspect the tank float/level sender too. There's probably a spec in the service manual for what it's supposed to read full/empty that you could check against it before throwing parts at it. Good to hear it was something simple though!

Lokka's website lists NIS-FO-319 for a V6 Pathfinder. Looks like you need to confirm whether you have a two or four-pinion carrier first, though.

Fortunately (?) the electronics on these trucks are fairly basic, and the manual does a reasonable job of walking you through it without calling for special equipment. The Xterra/Frontier transmissions are supposed to bolt right up and be stronger than the stock trans, so look into that as an option. Good luck!

Looks like progress! To get the crank seal out of mine, I made a hook in the end of a straight screwdriver, polished it so it wouldn't garf the crank, and then slipped it under the seal to hook on behind. Then I used a socket I'd slid onto the screwdriver first to hammer against the handle until the seal popped out. Worked great for the cam seals, too.

When you turn the ignition on, do you get any flashing lights on the dash? If there's an electrical issue, the "Power" light on the dash should flash out a code for what it's upset about (assuming the "E-AT" switch is off). If not, either the auto trans computer sees nothing wrong (suggesting it's not an electrical issue) or the computer's not getting power for some reason. There's a check connector under the dash where you can jumper a pin to ground to force it to flash if you want to make sure the computer's still awake. The AT section of the '90 manual (which you can get here) should cover that procedure. The '94/'95 manual on Nico should have pretty much the same info, though the light was moved from the dash to inside the E-AT switch for the round-dash trucks. When the pump in my friend's S10 Blazer gave up, it was a similar story. He went to accelerate and it just revved. We had to winch it onto the trailer to get it to the shop. (For the record, a WD21 can pull an S10 Blazer on a flatbed, but it probably shouldn't.) When I tore down the trans I found that the pump rotor had split into three pieces and one of the vanes had escaped and somehow ended up in the filter. The pan, valve body, and the screens on the solenoids were covered in metal bits. We didn't even consider rebuilding it.

I got lucky, the correct bolts came with my duck's foot puller. Worst case, a piece of allthread rod and a couple of nuts should do the trick.

Good luck! Reminds me of when I had mine torn down. Take your time. Sounds like you might even get a performance improvement out of it!

Check the fluid level in the front diff. If it's low, you'll need to replace the seal at some point. If it's not, check around above the diff, could be the valve cover gasket or something leaking down onto it. Also ask the seller when the timing belt was done last.