Slartibartfast

No, the cams don't have to come out. I used a flathead screwdriver with the end bent like a paint can opener basically the same way OSB used his pick, except the screwdriver was long enough that I slid a big socket onto it and used it kinda like a slide hammer to pull the seal more easily. Worked great, but yeah, be careful of the sealing surface on the cam. I spent a little time polishing the end of my redneck seal puller before using it.

Rattle gun = impact wrench. And yes, they should be standard right-hand threads.

You're onto something there! I told them about the SMOD issue ages ago and suggested they bypass the cooler. The response was something along the lines of "huh, how about that, guess we oughta look into that," which I'm pretty sure translates to "I have no idea what you just said and it's not currently on fire, so I'll just assume it's fine and let it ride." I'm probably judging R51s too harshly based on a neglected example. It's just hard for me to wrap my head around a daily driver being that clapped out that quickly, even apart from the trans damage.

Three tranny rebuilds! Is it still under warranty or are you paying out of pocket each time? I know a lot of guys run and love the R51. Hopefully one of them can chime in and tell you why. Having looked at a family friend's R51, I wouldn't take one for free. Theirs had SMOD, which is easy enough to prevent if you get to it before the cooler lets go, but of course they hadn't. What they had done was drive it over a mountain pass with what they thought was a misfire. :doh:We took it to a local mechanic, hoping he could just flush the trans and at least buy them some time on it, and mentioned that the oil light came on sometimes. He ran an oil pressure test (with an external gauge, because the dash gauge is fake) and found out the engine was only making 8 PSI when warm. At that point, he advised scrapping the pile rather than spending money trying to prolong its suffering. Walking around it while we were waiting for the owners to get it out of our driveway, I found that the rear wiper motor was busted, the driver's door sagged worse than my WD21 did before I fixed it (Nissan found a way to make the hinges cheaper: no bushings!) and IIRC the driver's seat fabric was coming apart as well. To be fair to the car, I don't think it had seen a lot of love in its time as a daily commuting appliance. Still, that's a lot of hoopajoop'd for an eleven-year-old car. If you find a clean one that's been looked after, it might be worth a look. At the very least, it shouldn't eat transmissions like your wife's R52 (provided you bypass the faulty cooler). Honestly, though, I don't know that you're gonna find what you're missing from your WD21 in an R51. I'd have a look at other makes/models with the seating you need and see if something jumps out at you.

What I did was weld up a long F shape from a piece of thick rod I had laying around. The two short bits locked into the holes in the sprocket, and then I just held the far end with one hand and the breaker bar with the other. I used the same arrangement to re-torque the bolts. Worked great. I've also heard of using the old belt and some vise grips like a strap wrench.

Wow! Yeah, that's not supposed to do that. Smart deal with the Go-pro. Years ago I made a ghetto mount for a Flip camera that bolted on where my tow hook was to watch the front end and see if I could spot what was loose in my suspension, but it didn't give me a smoking gun like that.

Does JCW have a seal profile that would fit a Pathfinder? That could be nice. I've read that silicone grease is good for seals, so that might at least preserve them where they are. I've been meaning to look into the vac line trick, but I suspect the whistle on my driver's side is that the drip seal sorta deal is coming loose on the far rear.

Hmm. Disregard that suggestion, then! I don't know the 3.5 well enough to know if there's a good spot to drill/tap for a proper sensor.

Damn, that's looking good!

Ick! I had some water in mine recently and tracked it to the sunroof. We'd had a lot of snow, and it had sat on top of the truck, so I think either the drains froze up or it just overwhelmed them (plus my external seal is kinda hooped). I started noticing condensation on the windows inside, which was getting worse, and then noticed drips on the console under the sunroof. I pulled the sunroof shade off and found that the underside of the sunroof glass had big water droplets all over it. There was no sign of water on the headliner or pillar (none visible without tearing it apart, anyway), and even the sunroof shade was dry, so I think it was just running to the edges, down the inner seal, and then dripping into the cabin. I wiped it out, pushed the snow off, and haven't had an issue since.

And a car phone, no less!

Looks pretty good for a first run! I haven't run CNC plasma (just the hand torch, I'm envious of those straight lines LOL) but I'm guessing those fat spots showing up in the cuts are where the plasma starts up and has to pierce the plate. If you want to get rid of those, maybe you could set it up to pierce the plate a short distance away from the line and then move out to it--basically move the stab mark onto the piece you're removing. This wouldn't help with the bend line for the front plate but I assume that'll get welded/ground after it's bent, so cut quality won't matter so much there. I have no idea if the software you or the shop is using lets you screw around with tool paths, but there's probably some workaround. Maybe model the cut areas with a thin whisker sticking into the area you're cutting out that would be easy to snap off and dress with a file? Again, I have no idea what you're working, with but I'll bet the process can be tricked into providing a cleaner result.

Hmm. Yeah, if the solenoid is good and the valve is functional, I can't think of what else would be wrong, at least not that the smog check guy could've found without disassembling it. Only other thing I can think of is I remember my '95 had a little short hose going to the BPT valve, and that hose was dry rotted clear through on the back side. I found it because a mechanic said he thought the valve sounded like it was fluttering. I never figured out what he was talking about and saw no change in operation after fixing the leak, but it's an easy thing to check anyway.

Looks like you checked vacuum to the EGR valve, but I don't see a test of the EGR valve itself on that list. Pull vacuum on the EGR valve (I've heard you can push the diaphragm with your fingers, I just put a scrap vac line on it and use my mouth) and you should notice the engine stumble or at least change its idle as the valve opens. The passage between the EGR valve and the intake tends to accumulate carbon, and if that was blocked off, it would make the EGR not work even if individual components checked out.

Makes sense it would bubble less when you hold it up--if it's drawing in bubbles around the bleeder, it's doing it because the fluid going down the tube is creating suction behind it. Reduce the vertical distance from bleeder to bottle and you reduce the suction. If you've bled everything (including the ABS block or LSV or whatever else is under there), I'd be suspicious of the master cylinder.

How far did you move the probe? If it's in a colder part of the radiator, that could explain the difference you're seeing in when it comes on.

The power light coming on when you floor it is normal--the trans goes into "power mode" if you floor it (changes the shift points). The rest, obviously, not so much. I don't know the older TBI models very well, but the next time it won't start, check for the basics. Make sure it's got spark, make sure the fuel pump's kicking on. Make sure your fuse links are in good shape and the connectors are tight/clean. Intermittent makes me think it's probably electrical. You can also try running codes on your ECU to see if it has any idea what's wrong. And yeah, lots of guys have issues with tapatalk!

When I was a kid, a family friend had a zebra-striped VW Bus. Cool old thing, until he went to jack it up to fix a tire and the jack went through the floor. Having seen Nissan's official fix procedure for the strut towers, I think you did a better job than they did! Did you seal up the back side too?

Sounds like you've got it! The lines help you align the belt to the marks on the sprockets when you first put it on, but yeah, you'd be at it all day turning the engine over trying to make them line up again. So long as the count stays at 40 and 43 between the marks on the sprockets, you're good.

I don't see anything like that in the '03 manual, and I know the pump in my '95 wasn't held down by anything at the bottom. Pumps do tend to be tricky to get out, though, because you've got the float in there too. Maybe that rod's fouling against the hole in the tank as you pull?

No worries and good luck with it! You're thinking the noise you were hearing was from the diffs, then?

I think OP has the 3.5L. My dad added a quart a week to his '03 and we never saw a drop of it on the ground. Hopefully your external leaks are all that's wrong. I'd expect to have to pull the engine to get to the pan and rear main, but never having torn into a 3.5, I don't know.

Nice! I always liked the compass feature in my dad's R50s. I picked up one from a Chevy a while ago to try and fit to mine but couldn't get the wiring sorted out. One of these days I may have to give the R50 system a try.

Air conditioner idler pulley. Sounds like you found your problem!

I don't know the ATX14A but I don't think it's supposed to mind that sort of thing. My understanding is that it's like the transfer in a modern AWD car or crossover, and it just monitors the front and rear wheel speeds to see if the rears are slipping and engages a wet clutch to send power to the front wheels if they do. It's not like driving around in 4HI. Even if you did somehow manage to roast the clutches inside, I don't see how that would've eaten a bearing. I'd check fluid level and condition. Maybe a seal went bad and enough fluid escaped to starve that bearing? If it did, I'd expect more problems, given that the unit is hydraulically operated with a pump and a filter and everything. Unless you're up for a challenge, maybe see what the local wrecking yard wants for one.