gv280z

Hey Harbinger don't get me wrong I'm loving my tough new coil, it feels really smooth and powerful on the freeway, I've been racing around with my power switch turned on just for the fun of it! However, when I consider the reason I bought my Pathy, that's when I feel a little low because I potentially compromised my family's safety via possibly frying my car because of a frivolous upgrade which I didn't really know how it would affect my truck. Hey how do you like your Yoko Geolanders? Been through any deep crud? Oh and are the Cragar Soft 8s the same back spacing / offset as the stock nissan wheels? Banx thank you for letting me feel a little less crazy, I have considered this topic at length and coincedentally have also used Google Earth to look for secluded hidden spots near bodies of water that my family and I could use as a home base to hunt, fish, have a water source and live long term. I'm not sure about a cb radio if I'm going that route or not but I do have two hand wind generator emergency radios that we can use at any time regardless of batteries to hear the status of the outside world. I do also have a sawed off (18" barrel for you law enforcement) 12 gauge shot gun with some double 00 buck shot wad cutters and a little bit lighter ammo for use inside the house (you know so you can kill a bad guy without also killing a member of your family when the buck shot goes through the drywall into the next room) Also have a .22 that my 12 year old son knows how to shoot (he also knows how to drive the pathy offroad, I put him behind the wheel, stuck in 4 wheel drive and let him slam through a water mud hole a few times ) He and I have already reconned an area on the water we might be able to utilize safely removed from others. As I stated above I have meditated on this topic for hours and hours over the last few years, so much so that I could write a horror novel about it. I realize this is not the proper place for me to ramble on at length about such things, I know you all don't want to be subjected to that, I am even now in danger of going on a tangent and am trying to keep it reeled in (I have just deleted my 3rd waay too long paragraph!) Please take steps to protect yourself, some extra canned food and water. Everytime I walk into a cvs or walgreens for a quick item I get atleast two cans of Spam and a case of water. Living in a hurricane zone here in Houston Texas, going through evacuations, I can tell you MILLIONS OF PANICKED PEOPLE ARE SCARY! Other people are the most terrifying thing there is. This is the 3rd and last time I will discuss this topic in this forum, I apologize to those of you who I made feel uncomfortable. I welcome any questions or comments at my email address and I'll talk with anyone about this in that manner: gv280z@yahoo.com

Hey thanks for the tip HardBody but I've got a couple issues with the Falken offroad tires, although I actually do have a set of Falken's on my wife's Altima! Those Rocky mtns have an aspect that I can't get my mind around and so it kills it for me. I've got my choices wittled down to Cooper Discoverer AT/3, General Grabber AT2 or maybe a Hankook tire. I got a really good review today from a Hankook Dynapro AT and MT owner, full size z-71 4x4 said he had burried and the AT tires pulled him out of it, also said the MT's did really well offroad and wet traction wasn't bad either. Just when I think I've finally made up my mind I read a really bad review about that tire and makes me switch back to the other one.

For My1path: I did go back and take another look at the plug harness after it had been on there for a while and I couldn't percieve any "ovalness" to the electrical contacts in the harness, I think they may have a little springy action to them to help keep their shape. Tungsten I'm sure you have probably heard this before, but let me assure you I mean it when I say I'm not ever going to actually do any serious engine work on this, unless it's for a repair like a blown head gasket or something and then it wouldn't even be me doing the work, it'd be my trusted mechanic. The most I feel like I want to get into it will be purely bolt on equipment. If I did anything to the engine, it would be to have it swapped out for a turbo diesel. I'm 37 years old, I'm trying to get a loan for a house and take care of my family, I cannot be dropping thousands of bucks into this. Hell I'm having to budget out a set of tires (cheap tires, like $120 each!) 2 at a time piece meal. With the exception of some good offroad tires that won't stick me in the mud at the worst possible time (say for instance when running from people who want to kill me and my family for our food and water supplies) I know in my heart my truck is already capable performing the task for which I bought it for which is to have a tough vehicle for emergency evacuation amid chaos and be able to protect us and all our gear and supplies. Sorry for going on a negative tangent but I have been over run with doubt regarding our economy and I fear the chaos that would / will ensue there-after, meaning a crash. In my mind I have become the crazy homeless guy holding a sign screaming "The end is nigh!!" No, the MSD was totally irrelevant and unnecessary and I was stupid to take the risk. I'm lucky it worked out. Sorry NPORA for going political and negative on you.

But I want more power / gas mileage and I have to mess with stuff! It's in my nature, I can't help it I just have to tinker with stuff and try to make it better. To buy a toy like this and then never play with it or put my own spin on it, leave it completely bone stock original is just sad, even though I'm totally aware that this vehicle in bone stock plain jane form was 100 % fantastic on it's name day. My truck is bone stock with 4 wheel drive, and a k&n filter (no lift, tires, suspension work, engine work or exhaust) and with weak sidewalled highway tread 235 75 / 15 Kumho Solus KR 21 crappy tires, this truck has taken my son and I on some terrifying adventures and gotten us through unscathed. We have been through some scary crap and never got stuck, close though. I love it, and I acutally bought this thing with the intention of having it serve as my family's Arc when things get crazy, socially speaking. It's our escape pod.

I got this at a speed center for $47 plus tax so right at $50, I think the OEM is about $10 - $15 cheaper. Okay, I will fix the coil wire and yes, I guess I am lucky the polarity matched up, I'm not sure what would have happened had it been opposite. I mean the voltage is only going one way, I don't think it would have come back into the electrical system through the harness but who knows.

I read someones post in this forum a little while back and showed a pic of the MSD coil 8228 and mentioned it looked like a direct match up for our coil mount and harness setup, so I looked into it. Yesterday I picked one up, took a look at it while still sealed safely (and return-ably to get money back!) inside the plastic. Once you open one of these up and try to hook it up, that's it, it's yours until you can sell it to someone else, no returns. Anyway I immediately noticed the little round prongs / posts inside the harness plug and was concerned that the coil on our wd21s had some kind of flat spade connector and it wasn't going to fit, damnit! Well, I'll leave it in the packaging and take a look at my coil and see if it could possibly be a match. This morning I got into it. Removed the harness connector and couldn't really get a good idea of it from looking at the receptacle, so I removed the coil and looked in the end of it. It has two posts the same distance apart as the MSD coil, So at this point I'm kinda at a loss, it's not an exact match BUT it looks close enough that it may still work, the only way I can know is if I open up the package and take the new MSD coil out and try it, all the while hoping and praying that A. it doesn't burn anything up and B. It works! So I mounted it up, was able to get the harness to fit in the plug receiver, and get the coil wire end to snap on to the male post, so far so good... And voila! It worked! Yay! Nothing is smoking or damaged and it works In the pic below you can tell the engine is running by looking at the fan, it's a blur as opposed to the pic above with the engine turned off, fan stationary. here's a little video: [media=]http://youtu.be/78-aleJoX1w[/media] I did go for a test drive after this and it ran great. It ran great before though also so I won't actually know the real benefit until I can start to get a read on my mpg, but it did feel pretty tough. So now you know, those of you who had any question on this before, you can add 40,000 new fresh MSD'EED volts to your ride. Greg

But I did learn how to test if you have a bad idle air control valve: When standing at the left side of the engine bay and the oil filler cap directly in front of you, there you will see a quad group of harness connections, two on top and two on bottom. The little one on the top, closest to the oil filler cap is the wire harness that plugs into the idle control motor/valve at the other end. Unplug that small harness connector and using a multi-meter test that connection for Ohms, it should read 10 ohms, I guess with the engine running, the mechanic I was talking to didn't specify. If you get anything other than 10 ohms, it's bad, supposedly. This is what the mech at kwik kar told me. I did pay for the two step process but the guy doing the work was cool and threw in a throttle body / plate cleaning for free. I can definetly tell a difference in how my truck is running, seems to have more power now. Also, one other thing, I did turn the idle adjustment screw about 3/4's of a full turn counter clockwise before I had the fuel service done.

Hi everyone, I wanted to share my experience with this problem that a couple of members have been having, Kyle94 and Ejnn??? not sure the rest of his name. So your driving down the road and come to a stop and your truck has died, or is running horribly loping around 300 rpm. You check and replace all the normal stuff and still doesn't fix it. I replaced my ignition coil and ignition control module, and pcv valve, battery with all the grounds hooked up, nothing worked. Through continued research I narrowed my problem down to the idle air control valve (and no, unfortunately it's not the little tower looking thing near the firewall on the side of the intake plenum, that is an auxillary air valve) the idle air control valve is directly behind the aav and is mounted on the underside of the plenum. Apparently I'm one of the lucky ones because my truck is now fixed, I hope this will work for you guys. Went to my neighborhood Kwik Kar service center and had them perform a Gunk two step fuel system cleanout with IV drip for 15 min. Truck runs great now, not dying anymore when I stop or slow to turn.

How can you run without a catalytic converter? I mean, I know you can do it but how do you keep the law off your butt? Tell me about that Thrush muffler. Is that the same I can buy in the auto parts store? The Thrush turbo muffler? Do you get any kind of drone from the exhaust note while going down the freeway? I want a free'er flow muffler but don't want a loud braaap or drone. Was considering putting in a High flow cat from car sound but you just bypassed it all together!

This is a fair statement. You are right, plugs and wires are easy, basic. However (and this is coming from a guy that's had well over 10 cars since I was sixteen) There are some vehicles, many now these days where when you lift the hood, there's nothing even slightly recognizable that you can begin to wrap your mind around. It's just all engine cover screaming at you "Don't you DARE touch me!" That's kinda how I felt looking under the hood of my new 94 pathy. I saw those three wires disappearing beneath the intake plenum and I struggled to make some sense of it. It's very daunting at first, UNTIL you learn that there's really nothing to be afraid of and this thing is actually possible. Possible and no excuse to pay someone more than 30, 50 bucks to do it for you. 10 minutes, no, not at first. Now that I've done it once I might be able to do it in half an hour, depending on how easy number 6 is to deal with. Which, now that I've got die-electric grease on the plug and boot, should be a cinch.

Oh man I guess I forgot to mention my spark plug socket seems to be magnetic! It held perfectly in place so I could just lower right down into the well at the end of the extension.

Hey all, I'm sorry if I may be double posting but I felt this needed covered. I changed my spark plugs myself! Yess! What a great feeling it is after looking under the hood and eyeing the intake manifold for a month and talking to several different mechanics all telling me "oh yeah it's going to be atleast 3 hours labor and cost around $200 cuz see we're going to have to remove the manifold" Yeah, that's a lot of BULL CRAP! I searched and searched trying to find a procedure or instructions as to how to get this done by myself without removing the manifold but couldn't find any help. Then I got to looking around in here and finally came away with enough info and clues (and confidence) that I could do it. Yes, it did take me a while especially because it was dark and I was holding a flashlight in my mouth but that only drives my point home for me. This isn't as scary as it seems at first. If you're a Pathy newbie like me but have atleast socket / wrench / ratchet level mechanical experience and have changed your own plugs before on other vehicles like a four cylinder front wheel drive honda or nissan where the plugs are on display for your right in front, don't worry you can do this one too. Here is what I did (remember it was dark) You need a standard ratchet (I use 6" handle with 3/8" drive) 10" extension, universal joint and maybe a 3" extension and plug wire puller pliers. Also having small step stool helped big time. Obviously the 3 on the left bank (closest to the battery) are not an issue. Use the plug wire pullers to pry up the two long boots going through the manifold one at a time of course. Then using the 10" extension and plug socket just feed it all the way down through and voila! You're on the plug zip zip wham bam that's it. Both of these go really easily. The notorious number 6 way in the back is the little bugger that makes this a pain. For me the absolute worst part was dealing with a plug wire that was just about heat welded onto the plug. I ended up breaking the wire loose from the metal clip which I did repair later on. Once you can get the plug wire off that plug by either reaching down and back with your left hand and tugging on it or using the plug wire pullers. (There really is no easy way to get at this, you just have to work on it and mess with it but it can be done.) This time I used the 3" extension with the plug socket and the universal joint snapped into the top of the 3" extension with the 10" extension coming off of that to the ratchet. In this manner, you can easily remove the number 6 plug. Voila! Magnifique That's it, you're done. Gap all the new plugs correctly and I personally put dieelectric grease on top of the plug and inside the plug wire boot. I said earlier I broke a wire (almost pretty much had to just to get it out of the way), if this happens to you, don't worry it's not the end of the world. This morning I was able to take my work truck and drive up to the auto parts store and get another new metal clip (I dropped the other one inside the front of the grille and couldn't retrieve it) I also got a replacement wire that I could have used had I needed to. I didn't know you could buy just one plug wire but yes, you can. Anyway get the new metal clip, insert the end of the plug wire inside it and using a strong pair of pliers (for me it was vice grips) crimp the clip down very firmly and tight onto the wire and draw back inside the boot, put your grease and snap back on the plug and that's it. Thereby saving yourself atleast (at the very minimum) $100 - $150 if not $200+ because you changed your plugs yourself. Oh yes, I almost forgot, I was able to get myself a little bit more room to work by lifting the hood up as high as it would go and pry the hood "kickstand" against the hood in that sort of padded / cloth area, it will hold firm. I was under my hood like that for hours last night. I think this is almost a requirement because you need to get all the way over and back to get your hand on the number 6 plug wire boot. Having the hood out of the way helps.

Now hold on just a sec, I just went through a plug change and every time I asked about the NGK Iridium plugs at the auto parts store, they always said "Oh no Sir, your vehicle was tuned to run it's best with standard resistor type plugs, it wouldn't run as well with the iridiums installed" So what gives? Are they required to say that because of liability reasons or is there real science behind it? Did you experience an uptick in mileage gains and performance with the iridiums ?

Hi all, my name is Greg and I'm the proud new owner of a 94 SE 4x4. It's my first Pathy and my first 4x4 ever. I got it off Craig's list today, just brought it home and I'm very happy with it. Do these trucks tend to have noisy lifters? Mine seem to clatter alot. I haven't had my truck for 6 hours yet and I've already got a laundry list of ideas I want to do to it. Well, you know since it's got a bit of a leaking exhaust manifold I should probably go ahead and replace it with a set of headers, free flow cat, half an inch (3/4?) larger dia. exhaust... And I need to replace the nerf bars that used to be there but now there are only mounting brackets....and I think the front could use a battering ram, err..I mean brush gaurd....iridium spark plugs, msd wires and box, CAI...jeeez this is gonna lead to a divorce huh... Glad to be here!