Slartibartfast

Coolant temperature

Banned for being the same age as me!

Banned for assuming I'm old enough to get junk mail from AARP!

micro controller

There was no info in the post, just pictures. Looks close to the same width as the top of the fender, though.

Yeah, I think the group got set to private at some point. Here's a screenshot of the finished product. I like that Flatout kit. A friend of mine used plastic lawn edging for flares on his S10 Blazer. It was cheap and quick, and it does keep the mud off the sides of the truck. It does however look like plastic lawn edging.

No aftermarket ones that I'm aware of, but a guy on the Farcebook page (what are the chances that link actually works?) made up a set a while ago. Looks like sheet metal and tubing, pretty simple. Also looks like the guy has a pet monkey.

Sounds like junk to me then. I'd be surprised if you got more than the core charge out of it.

fair game

Banned for making me feel as old as him!

If you're throwing a computer at it without knowing for sure that the old one is the problem, might be worth keeping it, or at least stalling on sending it back, until you're sure the old one is in fact roached. If it is verified junk, send it in as a core and let someone else deal with it. I doubt anyone but the rebuilder is looking for a blown up computer for a '98 Pathfinder.

Banned for watching old Dukes of Hazzard re-runs instead!

fever dream

Banned for suggesting time is exponential!

The fuse links are intentionally undersized. That's what makes them the weak link, so they burn up before the harness does. Looks like they're usually four sizes smaller than the wiring they interrupt, which matches your observation that a wire which should be 12ga to take the rated amps appears to be 16ga. Blade fuses would be more convenient, but might be tricky to size properly. They don't work the same as fuse links. Fuse links are slow-blow. A blade fuse might pop for brief overloads that the fuse link never noticed, and if you fixed this with a bigger fuse, it might not fail for a lower-but-sustained overload that would've taken out the fuse link. I'm not saying that it can't be done, or that it would definitely change the failure point enough to matter (surely it's not on a knife's edge if they trusted it to fuse links in the first place), but I don't know how far I'd trust it. I've never had to replace a fuse link on mine, so I'm inclined to leave well enough alone. If I was going to reengineer them, I like your idea with the screw terminals. Make sure you get the special fuse link wire, sounds like its got special insulation so it doesn't start a fire when it blows.

Banned for clinging to a dead past!

Makes sense it's momentary so you don't leave it disengaged by accident.

Pipe wrench

Drop-downs and a VCR would've been pretty impressive in the late '90s.

Those two switches are for entirely separate systems. The interlock switch is for the starter motor. If the starter interlock is on, the starter will only run if the clutch pedal is down. The interlock's meant to stop you from running into parked cars/garage doors/etc if you forget it's in gear when you try to start it. With the interlock switched off, you can move a disabled vehicle a short distance using the starter motor, or reach in and fire it up without getting into the driver's seat if you're sure you've got it in neutral. I've read you can also use it to drive out of precarious situations off-road where you don't want to slip the clutch and risk rolling backwards. The switch for the adjustable shocks powers a little motor/solenoid at the top of the shock, which opens or closes a bypass for the piston inside. There's a motor/solenoid in the can on top of the shock that opens and closes a valve to allow oil to bypass the piston. You should hear a little click from the can when you switch settings. Very simple system. It might've even done something when the truck was new. I couldn't tell the difference from the driver's seat in my '95, but the truck was a little harder to rock from the outside when the shocks were in sport mode (valves closed). If the PO replaced the suspension, that likely included the shocks, and they likely used regular non-adjustable shocks rather than trying to track down the originals. That's what I did on mine.

If one hole was weak enough to strip, and they're in the same area on the same truck, I would not be surprised if the others were similarly compromised. And, yeah, lubed threads can cause overtorquing (if the spec assumes they're dry). You may be giving weakened threads more torque than they wanted when they were new.

If the noise went away for a while, that makes me think you were on the right track. Could be the zip tie isn't around the end that was rattling, or the engine moves under load in a way that slackens the zip tie, if it's on the engine mount. IIRC the service manual has a procedure for resetting the computer (some Konami code entered by turning the key on and off and pushing pedals). Took us a couple of tries to get it right on my dad's R50, but it did work in the end, though of course it did not fix the issue we were chasing. Unhooking the battery for a while should work too. If it was pinging that hard, I would expect it to pull timing until it wasn't, or go into some kind of limp mode. I haven't done belts on a VQ. If they're like the belts on mine, they're a little fiddly to get to, but otherwise not too bad. If you're happy with the tension now, you could mark or measure the adjusters and just shoot for the same point when you put it back together, assuming you're re-using the belts. Not a bad idea to check the accessory drive, but again, if it's only making noise when it's in gear, I would not expect it to be an accessory or timing component.

News to me too! They look similar to the adjusters in the WD21 adjustable shocks. I had no idea they carried that design into the R50.

Might be the relay, though I can't say I've heard of one flashing like that. Easy enough to swap and see if that clears it up. Is it flashing slow, fast, irregularly? What year was the harness donor? I'll look at the diagram and see if something jumps out at me as a possible cause. Does sound like you've lost an injector. I have not heard much good about the eBay ones. I can't think of a way they'd mess with the battery light, though.

camping stove