gv280z

I mentioned I called up Rob in Dallas, this is what I meant: http://www.nissanpathfinders.net/forum/topic/18653-genuine-nissan-parts/?p=315059 If you have 31" tires or just stepped down from 31" to 235 15s and need to correct your speed, he can get you the right pinion gear you need

If you have had experience with either of these quirky sensors before and know what they are, where they are and what they do, then you can stop reading now. I wanted to relate my personal experience with these items even though I'm pretty sure they've been covered countless times before. My truck broke and I did try to research and find answers on here, I didn't come up with too much to go on, so I guess that's why I wanted to just kind of do a reset on a little bit of information. So over the years of owning my truck, occasionally it wouldn't want to shift from 1st to 2nd (autotragic) and my wife would say "HEY! Why does it sound like that?!? Hmmmm????" And then it would eventually shift and drive normally. But then while going down the road, sometimes the transmission would start frantically trying to figure out what gear it was supposed to be in and the speedometer was totally off, not even in the ball park.... Plus, on an unrelated note, most times when I'd start the truck up, like a minute or two after the engine has been running, the tachometer would start flipping around crazy like, I had no idea why, and this was after tune up and alternator replace, ok so there's that...let's move on. Fast forward about two years, driving along and then suddenly the speedometer hits the deck completely, down to 0.0 and the transmission kicks down out of 4th or 3rd, overdrive or whatever...so ofcourse I pull over to the shoulder, flashers on and do the whole turn off the engine, start it back up again and drive, oh now the check engine light is on....ok, now it's not shifting into 2nd AT ALL, no matter what, unlike before if I just gave it a second, it would shift....uh uhh...not now. 1st is all I'm getting and I'm committed, no offramp, no exit, no where to run to, so I limp over a huge bridge in first gear, go somewhere safe, waste the entire rest of my day waiting on a wrecker to take me home. Okay, I get home and start reading and trying to learn. Someone has posted a autotragic diagnostic sequence to count the flashes and find out what's wrong with your transmission. Mine came out to 8 flashes on the led light on the power shift switch which led me to the code Engine speed circuit, which translates to the Crankshaft position sensor which is located under the distributor rotor, under the gold cap, it's the thing that "reads" the little disk with all the holes in it. Ok. So I replace this sensor for $135 thinking this is going to fix my truck. WRONG. It didn't fix the TRANSMISSION.......ahh, but it DID fix something else that I didn't even mean to fix, but once I realized it..I let it ride. The Crank sensor translates directly to the tachometer and probably some other really important ignition timing type stuff as well. So now my tach doesn't bounce around anymore. So, back to the drawing board. I come online and find anything I can on the VSS vehicle speed sensor and finally I'm able to learn definitively the location of the VSS on 4WD Pathfinders, is located in the transfer case on the passenger side, almost directly above the cross member support, and is just held in by a tiny little 10MM bolt. Honestly the hardest thing about this is crawling under the vehicle, and then getting that damn connector to let go. I spent more time on that stupid plastic connector than I did actually fixing the truck. That was one thing that had always stumped me everytime I looked, I was looking in the wrong place, it's not in the transmission, on 4wd the speed info comes from the TRANSFER CASE The OTHER thing that always gigged me everytime I tried to look into buying a speed sensor is it's God awful confusing trying to figure out which one to get: http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/search/Vehicle+Speed+Sensor/01879/C0033.oap?year=1994&make=Nissan&model=Pathfinder&vi=1211971 Look at this link for O'reilly auto parts, they show like several different speed sensors! Some have with manual transmission, some are for automatic trans but 2wheel drive only...uh huh, then there are without 31" tires, and then with 31" tires and automatic transmission...but...it doesn't say 4 wheel drive? Oh wait there is one with 4 wheel drive but NO MENTION OF TIRES!!!!!!!!! Arrrrggghhhh!!!!!!!!! And they all look different, some are short, some are long what the hell is going on here? This is very off putting! Here is what I did. After pulling mine out of the transfer and saw the giant blue pinion gear I realized that I needed the longer style armature, like this one here : http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/detail/IDI0/130122/01879.oap?year=1994&make=Nissan&model=Pathfinder&vi=1211971&ck=Search_speed+sensor_01879_1211971_524&keyword=speed+sensor&pt=01879&ppt=C0033 this is the 4WD speed sensor designed to ride in the transfer case, I'm guess the short armature goes directly in the transmission itself on 2WD However, I didn't pay $115 for mine, I got mine for $38 shipped off ebay at this store: http://www.ebay.com/itm/130978267624?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT Okay so they've gone up on then a couple bucks but it still beats paying $100 for it. This arrived today, I removed the locking washer from the top of the armature and removed the blue pinion, and put it on the brand new one. I inevitably destroyed the lock washer go I super glued the pinion gear firmly on to the armature and let it dry, popped it back in and hooked up and took it for a spin. The first thing I noticed was the check engine light went off immediately when I started moving down the driveway in reverse, ohhh what a feeling.....and it it drove great. Fixed. Now the last thing I'm waiting on is I called up Rob in Dallas and ordered the 19 tooth WHITE pinion gear so as to correctly match the speedometer to my 31" tires, when it gets here I'll yank it back out and pry / split the blue one off the armature and put the white one on so my speed will hopefully be dead on. So to recap, below I have listed everything that gigged me and held me up and what I learned about that item: CRANKSHAFT POSITION SENSOR -- under the distributor rotor -- monitors engine speed for ignition, feeds the TACH VEHICLE SPEED SENSOR 4 Wheel Drive -- passenger side transfer case 10mm bolt -- feeds the speedometer, tells tranny when to shift -- LONG armature 31" tires requires the White 19 tooth gear (this is totally optional, no harm no foul here, your speedometer will just read incorrectly)

Research Nismothunder and see if he recorded his build because he did it and finished it, I just read his profile. He stuffed a 305 into his Pathy. He's the man you need for this.

Isn't this Nismothunder's realm? is he still active? If you want to go big and put lots of work into high HP you can still do that with the VG30 block without going turbo. It's all about the cam / head work and bore out to make into a vg34. Even if you stayed with the original bore and stroke, just the head flow with 3rd angle to 5th angle valve job and big cams with port and polish, combined with the lower weight of the smaller mass engine, and throw in a lightweight flywheel, and then go with all the Jim Wolf ecu, pop charger etc...you could build a little screamer.

This is great! Haha I'm bookmarking this website, I likey.

I just tried this and I got 8 flashes and a long pause before the rest of the sequence. So according to this, I've got a bad Engine speed signal circuit..

I have another vote for the Manual. Yesterday while driving down the freeway, I'm pretty sure my vehicle speed sensor went out completely, speedometer hit the deck and the transmission shifted from 3rd to 2nd. I pull over to give it a minute, turn off the engine and turn back on. Now that I'm stopped, and in 1st gear, that's ALL I've got! The transmission computer didn't know when to shift gears so it just left me in 1st because it thought I was going 0.0 miles an hour! Ohh how MUCH would I have loved a manual transmisson at that point, let me TELL you. I had to get towed back home, 29 miles that I could have just easily driven had I been able to choose my gears. And there are times while offroad, wheel spin shifts the transmission up into 2nd occasionally, but doesn't downshift back to 1st so all of a sudden it's very sluggish and you think, WTH? Am I stuck? So there goes the transmission ecu throwin you a little turd cicle there for ya. Usually I have to stop and turn off the engine completely, and then start up again and it would shift back to 1st.

Hey Jason that's great bro! So when do we take him muddin?

I'm sorry, how did this happen again? I've watched this 5 times and I cannot figure out what actually started the tip over and roll. At around 10 or 11 seconds, you can see the rocky slope ahead and to the left that I think is what they drove up but...okay? So what? I've driven up and down and crosswise on steep inclines without problem, and so have all of you. Oh and then, if you look at 2 and 3 seconds, the way forward is clear!?! As far as I can tell there's no reason to veer hard left, to go around what? There's no obstruction on the pathway. What happened here? When he starts up that rocky slope ledge and then flips over its like a 30 or 40 degree angle....I mean..I dunno, I guess I would have stopped if I felt tippy, or turned the wheels hard to the right. What gets me is how quickly all of a sudden they're tipped over. And then the whole way down, after the first "Oh Shiza!" it was dead silent, nobody said a word for 2 or 3 seconds until they stopped. I smell a rat. To what end, I don't know...but this doesn't make a lick of sense to me. I guess it looks legit, I don't know why someone would want to stage a dangerous roll over while out on a multi vehicle run.....the Jeep is totalled at this point, I can't help it, this looks totally contrived to me, from beginning to end. "Are you alright? Are you alright? Oh I'm so glad you're okay!"

Those shiny steel rims you are referring to are one inch narrower than your Legos, they are 15x6, the Legos are 7" rims. I'd like to jump up to 32x11.50 /15 too but you gotta know it's gonna put a bit of a damper on your highway speed and HP plus those tires are heavy, and any existing problems you've got from worn out suspension, steering, tie rods and bushings will be magnified.

Wow, and uhh,,, nobody died...after all this? That's one hell of a story Bro I just don't know where to start or even what to say....God must have beat you about the head with the Stick of Patience. Unbelievable. Glad all that madness is over with. Like waking up from a horrible nightmare. That 15w30 doesn't fry the oil pump? Seems like it would put a load on it. How long have you been running diesel oil in a lighter weight engine like that, without an issues? You ever feel like making the trip down south, Jason (TXPath4x4) and I can take you out Bro, we just found a great place to go wheeling this past weekend over in Baytown.

ahhh.....ooooh, that is a tough one....I was about to tell you how to replace the broken handle but to do that, the lift gate needs to be OPEN! Haha....ummmmm......I wonder if you could use a pair of pliers, like needlenose to put in there and try to twist the latching mechanism so it'll disengage. ....hmmmm, no I guess that wont do it, you might be able to use a flat head screw driver to mimic the lever action the handle was intended to provide and push the connecting rod down so it'll open? That whole "no latch on the inside" thing is a real pisser.

You're right, 4500 for a WD21 would be like, mint perfection. I think this guy has modded it up, it's got a clutch on it and that engine is not a vg30, the egr is sitting where the intake manifold should be! It also looks lifted. I think that's why he had it at 4500 and now he's getting rid of either because he's bored with it and wants to do something else, which I completely understand....OR he has come to a fundamental disagreement with it, like it needs a new front end or maybe just the fact it's not a single axle suspension. I'm really suspicious of that engine pic, but he doesn't mention any engine swap in the add, that looks like a v8 but it's hard to tell. I'm in Houston, if he were near me I probably would have gone and looked at it but he's about 5 hours from me, sorry man.

I tend to float between Mobile 1 10w30 Synth and Castrol synth. But always go with the mobile 1 synthetic oil FILTER. A good filter is just as important as the oil. On occasion I've just changed the filter halfway through an oil cycle just to freshen it up. I used to think Royal Purple was the answer and God's gift to engines, until I blew an engine while running it. However, in retrospect that engine blew after I had been making multiple consistent 120 mph runs in my Honda Prelude and I'm guessing I'd been burning oil the whole time and didn't know it...finally it just went. I haven't gone back and tried it again since then.

Wow that is a nice one, very good find. You live in a beautiful area.

Lol, nevermind. Manual. Next please!

Boy this brings back memories, A very long time ago I replaced a slave cylinder and bled atleast twice. It's easy to do by yourself if you've got a bleeder tool, you can get from an auto parts store, they're not expensive. It looks like a large plastic tube with a hose coming off of it and a "squeeze arm" on the back to suck the fluid out while not allowing air to flow back into the line. Or you and a buddy can do it, one person sits in the car and pushes the clutch petal down while the person underneath has the valve open, this will push the air and fluid out which you will need a drain pan to catch. Close the valve, announce to the petal guy it's closed so that he can bring the pedal back up, if the valve is open when you do this you'll only succeed in sucking air back into the line again, so: Petal goes down while the valve is open to bleed the line, close the valve, petal goes back up. Repeat process until only fluid is coming out and petal guy reports there is proper feedback / pressure in the clutch petal. Needless to say this job requires an outstanding level of communication. Good luck!

Chadius does your truck have the power option? Mine does and sometimes, not all the time, mine will beep like that for some reason, usually I'd been driving in power mode like a day before and then I switched back to economy. I have no idea why it does that, and also the light on the switch flashes too.

Hey Reggie, nice to meet you. Your truck looks good, I like the two tone paint scheme. I don't really have any answers for you on the exhaust or rust stuff, I don't know anything about body work and I have to go to the exhaust guy to get any work done. However, here lately I have been mulling over the idea of trying to a little of my own "cut and splice" work with a saw and blow torch and some rods. I'm here in Houston as well out in Webster / Clear lake area and we've got another guy down in Dickenson. Nice to have a local guy come on board, not many of us around here.

I seriously doubt it, why not just try going to a tire dealership and first just ask to compare the two side by side and you'll see the difference is almost imperceptible, it's about maybe a 1/4" to 1/2" difference, and then ask for a fitment test. If they do charge some kind of a tire mounting labor fee, I can't see that it would be that high and that would probably be only after they removed the new one and put your tire back on the rim, if you were to buy a set then I don't think they'd charge for a clearance fitting. Even if you do end up owing $40 - $60 bucks atleast you'll know for sure.

Try not to worry about the jury duty thing, they can't ever prove that you recieved the summons, all they can do is threaten you. I've been there, I skipped once and then recieved a letter wagging a shame shame finger at me with a re-scheduled jury duty date..so I went, heh. Never heard a word about it. The yellow bellied slugs who ripped you off, first thing is I could almost guarantee you it's someone you know, I think it's just part of being a teenager, I'm sure you know and are known by others whom you'd probably otherwise choose not to associate with. Second thing, you're going to school, you're on the right path, you're going to be a high powered engineer probably writing schematics on a jet engine while those turds who ripped you off are just trying to find a couch to sleep on. Don't give up Bro, keep slugging it out, you'll be alright.

I just checked out the Nissan lift for the Pathfinder on the Rough Country page and all it shows for the front is the upper control arms, so what actually provides the lift in the front? Aren't the UCA's just for leveling out the suspension geometry? So is it just assumed that the owner / buyer knows that he's supposed to re-index and crank the t-bars or does the lift automatically happen once the UCA's are installed....?

Nice, I like it. How you like those Cooper mud terrains? Ride, noise? Any offroad time yet with the new mods? Truck looks good.

I wish I had the money for these kinds of mods and the experience to go with it, but I don't. I cannot comment on any of them but of course I do recognize the ARB brand and that's the whole point. I seriously doubt this has anything to do with product quality, but more so it's the psychology of a hugely recognized brand name and all the macho mod guys out there are really happy to buy that NAME with their locker or manual hub or whatever. ARB has the market share because they've always had the market share, it comes down to PR. I'm sure there's no reason TJM wouldn't have 90% of the market share if they had been able to woo spend happy gear heads first, and then (the 2nd half) wage a really good PR campaign through branding, look and feel so when a couple of guys show up to a rock trail climb in Lostinthedesert, Utah, some dude can brag about his new TJM locker and everyone will say, "Oh cool..sweet man, yeah I love mine, it's been great!" It's just there because it's always been there. I just bought the house I'm living in from my Mom and with some few little odds and ends still left hanging around and I still find myself saying..."uh, why do I have this random thing here? How long have I just been overlooking / ignoring these random dishes in the cabinet?" It's like stuff belongs to the house, that's been there for so long that we've just accepted it and live and move right around it without even noticing. I think this ARB deal is the same thing. Who knows, maybe TJM is bunk, maybe they're not paying their R&D department 10% of what ARB pays their guys, all anyone can do is research whatever there is to learn and then throw em a bone and see what happens. It'd be great to get up the same trail just as easily as the guy infront of you for half the price and let 'em all know about it.

Installed a filter charger Yay! Sounds great, power seems to be up a little, really good engine response. Total cost like $38 for 3" adapter and Spectre cone air filter from O'Reilly Auto parts. Question, the MAF adapter has a port for the installation of pcv valve, should I take advantage of this? Is there any benefit to moving the pcv from it's stock location into the air intake tube?