Slartibartfast

I reused the old gaskets on mine.

Looks like these are the same type.

I can understand wanting to replace what's easy to see if that clears it up without a major teardown. If it wasn't an interference engine, I'd say go for it. But it is, which means there's a chance of crashing the valves if I'm right and it jumps again. The recent timing belt replacement means the belt itself shouldn't be worn out, but it still could've skipped time if the tensioner wasn't done up properly or if a foreign object ended up in between the belt and one of the sprockets. Devonianwalk's engine jumped time after some mud got into the timing cover. Advancing the timing got his to start again, just like yours, though it turned out he was two teeth off on one cam and three on the other. I doubt your timing cover is full of mud like his was, but maybe a fastener backed out and fell into the belt? The only other ways I can think of for the timing to have suddenly changed would be a loose hold-down for the distributor (which you probably would've noticed when you adjusted the timing), the dizzy trying to seize up and slipping its drive gear (check that the pin that holds the gear on is intact and the distributor spins freely), or the woodruff key that holds the crank sprocket in position on the crankshaft has sheared (though AFAIK that only happens on the VG30, which has a smaller crank snout).

If the engine was running fine, then suddenly wasn't, and adjusting the distributor got it to start again, that suggests that the engine quit running because the timing changed suddenly. If the dizzy was failing, I'd expect inconsistent spark or no spark, not a sudden change in timing. I suspect your timing belt jumped a tooth or two on the crank sprocket, causing the cam sprockets (and the distributor, which is driven off one of the cams) to lag behind the crank. The retarded ignition timing would explain why it died and refused to restart until you adjusted the distributor (correcting its relationship with the crank). The retarded cam timing would explain why it runs like crap under load. I would set the engine to TDC and check the timing belt (should be 40 teeth between cam sprocket dimples, 43 from driver's cam sprocket to crank sprocket) before running the engine again.

Strato's approach is probably easiest, especially if you're running wires for the camera to the back of the truck already. With a little staring at the wiring diagrams, you could follow the reverse light circuit forward, find the same wire closer to the dash, and have a much shorter wire to run. You can find all the wiring diagrams in the EL section of the service manual. This might help with the antenna. Looks like you're on the right track unscrewing the top of it. Maybe the mangled stub of the antenna mast is holding it down?

How the hell did you get that pivot pin out with the tabs intact? I quickly lost patience with mine and gave it a very aggressive haircut. I'd almost forgotten about it until I saw your picture and wondered why it made me angry. What went wrong with the booster? Also, nobody chooses the piss-bottle life. The piss-bottle life chooses you.

I've been told there's a browser extension to make Photobucket pictures display properly, but I haven't looked into it. If that doesn't pan out, I used this writeup when I did mine. It's for an R50 but it's still a VG and the pictures still work.

Something ain't right. I've never heard of someone having to shim a balancer on one of these. Some guys mill out the VG30 pulley to a larger diameter to fit a VG33 crank, but AFAIK the length is unchanged. Besides, the length of the balancer shouldn't matter. The crank sprocket should bottom out against the step on the crankshaft regardless and not clamp against the oil pump. I'd pull the crank sprocket back off and make sure the step on the crank is sticking out past the pump. If the step on the crank isn't sticking out past the oil pump, something is very wrong in the bottom end. Alignment issues on both ends of the engine (flywheel hitting the starter and now this) makes me wonder if the thrust bearings might be backwards (I don't know the VG bottom end well enough to know if this is even possible) or if your crank had something weird done to it.

I'd check the switch first, could be it's just dirty/worn/needs adjusting. The switch for the e-brake light is towards the bottom of the handle assembly. You'll need to remove the center console to get to it. I remember mine was filthy the first time I had the interior apart. Also check that the wire going to the switch isn't pinched somewhere. When I had the interior out of my '93, I cut and looped the wires going to the driver's seat belt buckle so it thinks the belt is always in. Could be the PO did that to yours, too, which is why that light doesn't work as expected. Mine doesn't come on key on/engine off with the e-brake light, not sure if that's a difference in the '93 cluster or if I pulled the bulb at some point.

Did you set the timing after replacing the distributor?

I'm not familiar with the R50 throttle body, but it sounds like they adjusted the throttle stop to crack the throttle open a little, like you'd do to set the idle on a carburetor. I would run that screw in or out (again, not familiar with that TB) until the throttle butterfly shuts completely (leaving the IACV as the only path for air to get into the manifold) and see how it likes that. Hopefully someone with an '01-'02 can check theirs to confirm, but that's where I'd start. The EC section of the service manual is your best bet if that doesn't work. Looks like EC-48 has an idle diagnosis procedure, including what to check if you don't have Consult (Nissan's proprietary scan tool), so hopefully that'll get you somewhere. Looks like there's also some kind of idle relearn procedure you might have to put it through. Good luck!

Sounds like you have a vacuum leak. I had a similar problem after taking mine apart, because Rockauto sold me the stamped-steel intake gaskets meant for a VG33 instead of the thicker steel-and-rubber gaskets meant for the VG30. Surprise, they didn't seal, and it shook like hell in gear. Also make sure you got the PCV, brake booster, all of that hooked back up correctly. And yeah, I'm pretty sure the computers on these just set a check light and retard the timing for safety if the knock sensor reports that the engine's making bad noises. Not like newer rigs that use the knock sensor as feedback for their tuning. I was reading the other day about some new cars measuring the resistance of the spark plug gaps between sparks to monitor combustion as it happens. Crazy stuff. Makes the WD21 computer look like stone knives and bear claws.

Under the intake manifold, unfortunately. The '90 service manual (which you can get here, I don't have a link to a specific '92 manual unfortunately) should get you started. Looks like EF&EC 114 and 155 both have test procedures for the wiring harness, and EM shows how the intake fits together if you do end up having to dig out the sensor. (The '95 manual also suggests loosening and re-tightening the ground point for the knock sensor harness.) You'll need new upper and lower manifold gaskets, and this would not be a bad time to do your valve cover gaskets too if you haven't. When I had mine apart, I also cleaned the crap (literally) out of the spark plug wells and replaced the plugs, because they'll never be easier to access than they are with the intake off. Before I put mine back together, I relocated the sensor to the back of one of the heads. I don't know that it'll do its job as well from there, but its job is limited on these rigs, and I did not want to take the whole intake apart again if the sensor died.

Driveshafts shouldn't go out of balance on their own, but IIRC a few people on here have had issues after replacing U-joints and had to mess around to get them centered properly or something. Tire balance could also be an issue, but I'd check your recent work first. Is this related to the front driveshaft play you were looking at earlier or is this new?

Definitely sounds like you've got a bad fuel line. At least the quarter tank will be easier to drop than a full one. Hopefully it's a section of hose or steel line that's easy to replace and not the top of the sending unit or something.

Yikes. Probably a good call to avoid poking it until you're ready to fix it. It's probably worse under the rubber. You might keep an eye out at the wreckers for an R50 that's not rusty above the windshield and cut out a chunk of that like a patch panel rather than trying to piece that back together from flat stock or putty. Good luck with the inspection, hopefully the strut towers don't look like the front fenders!

Sounds like a loose connection rather than a short. A short would blow fuses. Showing power until you load it also suggests a weak connection. Check the ground wire from the headlight, that would take out both low and high beam at once. Look for anything obviously wrong with the wire itself and any obvious heat damage or corrosion where the bulb plugs in. I don't know off the top of my head where that black wire grounds to the body/frame but that would be the next thing to check. If you can backprobe the connector (stick a test lead or a thin wire in the back of the plug while it's plugged in), turn the lights on and either check for voltage between that ground and battery ground or just run that wire straight to ground. If the ground is good, you should see basically no voltage or no change from bypassing it. The WD21 headlight switch is a little odd. There are five sets of contacts in the switch. Two sets of low beam contacts, two sets of high beam contacts, and one for the parking lights.The headlights aren't relayed, which means that the switch contacts carry full power for the lights, and the wires are very thin. Each headlight is also individually fused. I would not expect both lights to run off one set of wires. Because the headlight switch has to carry full power to the lights, they do tend to have issues with the contacts inside. They're a little fiddly to work with but can be cleaned and adjusted to work again. That might be what's wrong with your high beam, though if smacking the fender used to bring the low beam back, it's probably not the cause of both. A common mod, one I've done to mine, is to relay the headlights. The wires that used to feed the passenger's side headlight on mine now control a pair of relays which switch battery power to both headlights (one relay for both highs, one for both lows). This reduces load on the headlight switch and should also increase the voltage at the bulbs thanks to a much shorter run of much thicker wire.

From what I've read, a torque converter with too high of a stall speed causes symptoms that sounds an awful lot like the lunging you guys are talking about, but I have no idea how/why an R50 Pathfinder would've ended up with a high-stall converter or where you'd get one with a lower stall speed. The '03 manual says the stock converter should stall between 2,440 and 2,640 rpm, for whatever that's worth. The torque converter lock-up clutch isn't supposed to do anything unless you're cruising in overdrive, so I doubt messing with that would help you crawl. And yeah, doesn't sound like it's the trans itself. I haven't wheeled drive-by-wire, but I remember how laggy it was in my dad's '03. If you've got a scanner/app/whatever that'll draw graphs, I'd be curious to see the throttle position plotted against pedal position to see if the computer's playing silly games with the throttle angle. See if you can catch the computer spiking the throttle when the truck lurches. I've seen adverts for products that supposedly let you modify the behavior of e-throttles in some vehicles, though I'm not sure stacking another nanny on top of the one that's currently causing problems sounds like progress.

Good to see you got it! Again I'd be interested to see what's gone wrong in the old one, if you decide to tear into it.

I remember seeing pictures a while back of a blue Yota FJ with a bunch of screens above the windshield showing various angles below the car. This isn't that build thread but it's pretty much the same idea. You could trigger the system from the 4x4 light, but I'd just put it on a toggle switch so I wouldn't have a bright screen in my face whenever it snowed. Which raises another issue: how do you keep the under-car camera lens clean? It's no good if you have to stop, get out, crawl underneath, and clean the snow/mud/dust off the lens before you can use it. As for making the screen pop up, my first dumb idea involves a pop-up headlight from an 80s sports car mounted into the dash (I did say it was a dumb idea). Some touch-screen double-DIN stereos take a video input, I think some people do backup cameras that way, so that would be an easy way to go and hidden when you don't need it. Or just strap a small screen to the back of the sun visor.

Sounds like the ground for your passenger's headlight is bad. Look for any obvious heat damage at the plug or damage to the harness.

I was surprised when I first saw that auction and it was at $9k. $18,5 is just ludicrous. Bet the seller's happy! That they're the only thing propping up the economy at this point?

I don't think the ratio is printed on the axle, unfortunately. AFAIK only the manual trucks had the 4.3 gears, so unless the donor was manual, you do probably have the right axle. You could check either by taking it apart and counting teeth or by turning the pinion to see how many turns of that equals one turn of the wheels. The limited slip means you won't have to check both sides like you would with an open diff (assuming it's still good). If you turn the pinion four and a half times, and the wheels turn a little less than once, that'll be the HG46 you're after. If it turns less than once, you've got the wrong gears. I have heard of wheel bearings failing a while after a collision. The other evidence you've found does suggest that the truck took a hit. Again, I'm curious what's inside your old axle. Nice trailer!

Also IIRC the WD21 axle is a different length, and the panhard rod mount is on the wrong side. Also the wrong spline to hybridize a WD21 diff into an R50 housing. Looking at the diagram for the rear axle, if you've got the axles out, I'd grab the bearing cages (what you unbolted from the axle housing to free the axles) and see if either of them has any end float, weeble-wobble, bad noises, anything that reminds you of the noise you heard. I can't think of anything you'd hurt by spinning the rear end with no axles, though I'm not sure how well the oil would stay in the diff. The ring gear's supposed to throw it all from hell to breakfast, so I wouldn't be surprised if it ran down one or both axle tubes and made a mess. Again I very much doubt it's the diff, but I understand wanting to check under every possible rock before putting it back together.

I don't have a '92 manual (or one for my '93, unfortunately), but cardiagn has a '90. Black/red/white should be the oxygen sensor, yes.