Slartibartfast

I got my trans cooler off a WD21 at the junkyard! Good to hear the cooler made a big difference. Too bad it's still acting up, though.

The spray cleaner is alright for getting out oily gunk, but won't do much for corrosion. Fine sandpaper works well. I've used the end of a pocket screwdriver to scrape pins before. Make sure before you plug it back in that the pins are still tight, sometimes the female end opens up a little and doesn't grip properly. Dielectric isn't strictly necessary but a little dab of it won't hurt anything, and might help keep moisture out.

Score on the compressor! And yeah, the earlier WD21s have the I-beam shaped trailing arms instead of the tubes. I've read they're tougher to bend, but it looks like the PO of that rig managed it just fine! I'd look for a straight arm rather than trying to straighten that one. They're not exactly rare and I don't think I'd trust a straightened cast metal anything.

I wish it was as easy as the caster being out of whack. The steering is noticeably stiff under all conditions (even when it was on jack stands and I was turning the steering so I could access the centerlink bolts to torque them). Hit a bump with one wheel, the steering wheel doesn't move. Something ain't right.

I've got the NGK wires on mine and they've been fine, apart from when some kind of furry vermin chewed part of the insulation off of one of them. Ignition coil seems like a rare failure on these, so I'd probably skip that unless you have reason to believe it's crapping out. IIRC I used NGK platinums on mine. No issues there either.

New adjustables! Damn. I don't even want to know how much those cost. The Gs do feel a little soft, just from bouncing the truck by hand. I'll update when I've driven it on the road. To that end, I did something approaching an alignment this evening. I don't really have a way to measure caster but I got the camber somewhere in the ballpark and the toe to where the tires won't shred before I get to the tire shop. My only concern at this point is that there's enough drag in the steering that it's not self-centering. It's not locked or anything, but if I let go of the wheel, it doesn't center. To those of you who've installed Grassroots links: is this normal? Does it wear in? Or is this something I should dig back into before driving this thing?

Only other thing I can think of is that maybe the throttle position sensor's way out of adjustment, but I'd expect that to make it shift hard in the other gears.

Yikes! Yeah, that's not good. Hopefully it only bent the parts you can replace, but I would not be surprised if the door and pillar were both tweaked. I guess the question then is what stops the door ran into. Was it held just by the little stay thing that holds it open, or did it max out the hinges? If it was just the stay, the damage may be limited to where the stay mounts at the ends (though that sounds unlikely if the door won't shut right). If the hinges themselves got maxxed out, you may have some work to do straightening their mounts.

There's an overdrive lockout button on the shifter. Make sure that's not on. This should also light up "O/D Off" on the dash, which you probably would've noticed by now, unless the bulb is burned out. If it's not that, watch the light in the power mode switch for the trans after you start the truck. If it's flashing, the computer thinks something is wrong. The service manual has a procedure to decode what the TCU's unhappy about. (Should be in the AT section.)

That is a really weird little blip, especially given how steady the line is otherwise.

KYB Excel-G.

Front end's back together and greased. New ball joints, TREs, Grassroots link, CV boots, and shocks. The steering feels really stiff, but hopefully that's just the joints in the Grassroots needing to break in. Next up, DIY alignment to get it straight enough to drive to a shop for a real alignment.

Chevy's got some really dumb designs. So does Nissan. (Seriously, what rocket surgeon designed the WD21 steering linkage?) If you've got an engine you like and know how to rig up, I say go for it. Yeah, pushrod V8s are old tech, but I'll bet it's a whole lot more compact than the twin-cam VH. Looks like the guy who tried VH swapping an R50 had to delete the steering box and go full hydro just to get the engine to clear. I'm helping my dad cram a Ford 302 in his Triumph TR4a, so you can guess how much I care about brand loyalty.

Yeah, that SOB was on there! Even with the half-inch impact I had to heat it up with the torch before it budged. And that's on a truck from a non-salt state. I don't have a handheld drill with a big enough chuck to take the 5/8" bit, though, so it had to come off whether it wanted to or not. The drill press had a hard time with it. I can only imagine what a PITA it would've been with a hand drill.

Front end's coming together. Passenger's knuckle and re-booted CV are back where they should be. Idler and pitman modified to fit the Grassroots link. The pitman wasn't sure it wanted to come off, but the fire wrench convinced it in the end. And yeah, I'm running the zerks in just far enough to point them in the right direction. I got a different brand of lowers that are threaded, but don't come with zerks for some reason. Luckily the zerks from my clapped-out centerlink fit those.

I remember somebody on here put the original 4.3 in a WD21, so I'd be surprised if you couldn't fit the new one in an R50 one way or another. Weird that they're sticking with the 90° V6 thing, just cutting down a different V8. A friend of mine's got a couple of the earlier 4.3s in his trucks and I've gotta say, they are rugged little buggers. Hopefully GM found a solution for the shake at idle.

That's one hell of an improvement from the acid flush! Very cool that you've got the tools available to get that kind of data. Interesting that it was shedding more heat without the heater on in the second test. Hopefully the remaining coolant loss is just a pinhole in a hose or something. A friend of mine's van went a long time with a torn coolant hose somewhere that leaked but not enough to see (except when it overheated and vented steam). How's the rad cap?

You sure it's bent? Both of my WD21s acted like that when the door hinges were worn out. I could grab the door and wiggle it up and down on the play in the hinges. If it's the actual sheet metal that's bent, I'd just open the door a little, put a rubber pad or carpet scrap or something on the floor jack, and then lift the back corner of the door until it lines up again. Might take a little trial and error to get it perfect. Obviously keep an eye on the door to make sure you're not deforming it. (A 2x4 or something under the door might help spread the load.)

I had the same problem when I was trying to figure out the 4x4 in my '95 for the first time. (Different gen, but the same transfer case.) When the transmission's in neutral, in theory, it's not putting any power to the transfer case. In practice, everything has a little drag, and the trans still outputs a little force even in neutral. It's not enough to move the truck, but it's enough to spin the output if there's nothing holding it. When the transfer is in neutral, there's nothing preventing the trans from spinning. If you spend too long in neutral, the trans will spin up, and then the transfer will grind when you try to engage the spinning input to the stationary output. (The second grind you got was because the trans was spinning when you put it in park. This brings up an important point. Because the pawl's in the trans, not the transfer, the truck will roll freely in park if the transfer is left in neutral and the parking brake's not set.) Shift quickly between 4HI and 4LO with the trans in neutral and it won't grind. If you stuff the shift and get stuck in between, shut off the engine (so the trans will stop spinning), finish the shift, and then restart. It's actually pretty easy to use once you get the hang of it.

Looks clean! Duct tape blackout's a nice touch LOL. Hopefully the adhesive holds up. And yeah, I don't know what makes the interior plastics chalk up like that, but a few pieces in mine are doing that too.

Nice when someone leaves you an easter egg, right? Those do strip easy. Just checked one of mine (front end torn apart anyway) and the screws are 4mm-0.7 thread, a little less than 7mm long (not including the head). I tore into my front end, finally. Discovered that the Moog Problem Solver UBJs come with zerks, but aren't tapped for them. Screwed around for far too long trying to reboot a CV joint. Next time I'm just buying CVs, this is ridiculous.

There was a guy on here a few years back (can't remember his username but his truck was olive drab and black) who deleted the markers and filled the holes in the fenders with sheet metal. Looked like an easy enough process if you don't mind a little bodywork. You could incorporate something into the grille to replace them, or maybe get the round projector/conversion housings with the LED halos in them and tie the halos to the marker circuit. That is a good-looking Patrol!

No idea, and it would be the first I've heard of one of these leaking there. I had an oil leak when I first put my VG30 back together after doing the timing belt but it turned out to be the crank seal (which I'd skipped replacing). I imagine oil might collect in those holes if it was getting past the cam seal. When you were changing seals, did you check for damage to the sealing surface on the cam? That's about all I can think of unless you were sold the wrong seals or something.

I've wondered about this myself. Infamous Duck Man tried it with what look like aux lights (second pic). It's not a bad look, just kind of odd, especially unfinished like that. Maybe you could modify a Hardbody grille (one of the ones with the little rectangular sealed beams) to take round lights so the lines flowed and they wouldn't look so out-of-place with the markers. Maybe draw inspiration from the fourth-gen Patrol. Or a Lada Niva.

I could be wrong but that looks to me like Nissan sealed off a couple of oil passages by pressing in ball bearings (hokey but cheap alternative to tapping for a plug). Apparently leaks from this kind of plug are common on FJ60s, so maybe check out what they do about it. A machinist I talked to once who was rebuilding some Ford motor or another said he was grinding a flat spot on each ball, drilling a hole, tapping it, threading in a bolt, then pulling each one out with a slide hammer. They all had to come out so he could clean all the passages, and he was not happy about it! I don't know if he ended up resealing them with balls or drilling/tapping for proper plugs.