Mr_Reverse

Did a lot of Takata airbag replacements while I was at the dealership. I did notice a report a while back that in some cars, the replacement inflators are being recalled for the same problems the originals had. I always was suspicious of the whole idea of putting an explosive device a couple feet in front of me for my safety. Now, the average car/light truck has an average of 6-10 explosive devices packed around the occupants and they still have issues with them. Did a lot of reprogramming of the airbag control modules in Frontiers, Xterras, and Titans because it was discovered that when the truck was tilted far enough and hit a bump right, it would think that it was rolling over and fire all the airbags and pretensioners off. Was told that it kinda ruined a trail run when it happens.

When I bought my Pathfinder (1993 SE) in 1999, it had 128k miles on it with no records of any maintenance on it. I figured to replace the timing belt just for safety sake. A year and about 10k miles later, had the water pump lock up in Sam's club parking lot. I was just picking up stuff for a week of camping that my family did every year for the 4th of July week. Told my mom that I would fix my truck and meet up after. Got the truck fixed there in the parking lot but did turn into a long day of disaster that wound up stressing me and me getting to camp a day and a half late. About 6onths later, I was back in there again because I developed oil leaks from the seals. Oil and rubber are not good together. A couple years later, the sprocket key chewed out the keyway in the crankshaft leading to the cam timing to go out. I patched it up with JB Weld and got a almost a year more before it got very bad and the valves and pistons introduced themselves to each other. By that time I had rounded up a replacement engine and had the fun of swapping in a 3.3 from an Xterra that had taken a side trip in a R50 before it got to me. Long story short, would have saved myself a lot of time and money if I had simply spent an extra $60 when I had first replaced my timing belt. That key after taxes cost me a whopping 97 cents at the local dealership. For the cost of a dollar, I destroyed a rather expensive engine that wound up costing me about $900 and many hours. While in there, makes sense to replace rubber and moving parts. Hoses and thermostat are right there, easy to get to while apart and cheap, why not replace them then?

Strongly recommend a full kit. Belt, tensioner, water pump, cam seals, front main seal, and new key for the crankshaft sprocket. The real expenses in the timing belt replacement is the labor, book is something like 5.2 hrs. You really don't want to have to go back in there in a few months when the water pump fails or an oil seal starts leaking. Not replacing the $1 key has wrecked 3 engines I knew personally, first one of them was mine.

I have replaced that seal before. I believe I got it from my local Nissan dealer, but that to have been at least 10 years ago, so it is possible that it has been discontinued.

Last time I did mine, I used a ball joint press to push the old bushing shell out of the arm and press the new ones in. Also used a bit of grease on the outside of the bushing shells to help them slide in a little easier. Still a lot of work and swearing involved. One other tip, do one arm at a time. Otherwise you will really be swearing trying to get them all to go back where they belong. Learned that lesson the hard way the first time I did my link bushings.

That is not something that even California will worry about. That padding in there is simply noise insulation. It is in there to reduce intake noise and will not affect the engine or emissions in any way.

I haven't seen a rebuild kit for the MC, but as has been said, replacements are not very expensive, though it does seem to be a crap shoot with the aftermarket ones. I have gone through a few for my 93, one was bad out of the box. The latest one has lasted for about 14 years though. Also as has been said, there are 2 versions for the WD21. One is 4 wheel disc and the other is for rear drum. The disc version runs a bit more fluid at higher pressure to the rear circuit than the rear drum version. They should not be mixed up, or there will be imbalance in the braking system preventing proper operation.

Is that a Mazda cab?

They bolt to the underside of the control arms with the stud facing down.

Was eating dinner and trying to recall a spec I haven't used in years. I deal with many different years, brands, and models at work so my memory is not the most trustworthy. According to the manual I have stored on my computer, the pressure regulator is supposed to keep it at 43 psi approximately. That is for the VG30E in the Pathfinder/pickup application.

With hot soak, a couple things to check. Check for spark, sometimes the ignition module in the distributor will fail when hot. Check your fuel pressure, but also watch for pressure drop. Fuel pressure I think should be 30-40 psi range if I recall correctly. It should hold the pressure for a while after the engine is shut off. If it drops more than 10 psi in 5 min, it is possible you have a leaking injector that is flooding the cylinder making hot starts hard. You can try holding the throttle open while cranking and see if that helps. Have heard reports of injectors failing when hot also.

My personal experience is that even with a press, it is a major PITA to get the old bushings out. Also, for me, poly bushings are frustrating. My front upper control arms had poly bushings. I was lucky to get 10k miles out of a set and that was with frequent cleaning and lubing. When the 4th or 5th set wore out, went back to stock rubber. My environment and use caused the rapid wear, I live in a dry environment with a lot of dirt and sand. Very abrasive and frequent use on rough roads made for a lot of movement for the grit to work with. I wish that replacement links for the WD21 were as easy and inexpensive as the R50.

You can carefully put a prybar between the ball joint and the CV where you are against the steel housing of the CV joint and not on the boot and apply pressure down on the ball joint so the stud will be pushed harder into the knuckle.

I hear you, never understood why Nissan put such a low output alternator in our trucks. Just like the compact spare on the trucks with the swing out tire carrier. Have to admit it was funny seeing the "temporary use only" warning on the tire that was larger than the road tires on Jeeps of the time.

I believe the compressor is pulling more energy from the engine than the alternator ever could. The pair of electric fans on my truck have a 20 amp breaker feeding them, and they have never tripped it. I don't notice a power difference with the fans on or off, but to be fair, my truck is not a good baseline. I am running factory gears with 33x12.50 MT's, auto trans, 3.3L transplant with an oversized battery, and 110A alternator. My E-fan conversion was not to free up any lost power, it was to free up some room and better cooling control of the engine. With my 1977 200SX, I had the bearings in the fan clutch fail while traveling about 90 mph. Felt like we hit a 4" deep water puddle and the fan howl was incredible. Drove like that for another year before I got fed up with the noise and pulled the fan and installed an electric. Got rid of the supercharger howl and got better temp control. Got a bit more response back in the engine and saved a bit of fuel. That isn't the best example either, because the fan was locked and turning faster than it ever would with a functional clutch, since at full engagement, fan clutches still slip so fan speed never gets as high as mine did. Looking back, I am impressed at how strong that plastic fan was. Engine redline in that car was 8k rpm. It saw 7k regularly and I suspect that the tips of the blades were going fast enough to create some interesting air flows, let alone the G-loads.

Didn't know there was any adjustments possible with the TBI other than the base idle speed.

Spent part of my day off yesterday wandering a salvage yard looking for bits. Found an 87 Pulsar NX that was in very good condition. The steering wheel is now residing in my Pathfinder. Being a black wheel, it doesn't match the grey interior the best, but years of neglect and UV have been hard on my original. Also got the truck a bit muddy seeing how far up a local mountain road that is snowbound. Discovered the right rear lower shock nut has wandered away so replaced that today. Not much, but something while nothing else was occupying me at work.

Strongly recommend getting the auxiliary trans cooler for your car first. It is pricey, about $600 just in parts if I recall correctly, but your CVT will live longer with it. As far as I know, it is a Nissan only kit. Might be able to build one but won't be much cheaper or work as well.

I have Firestone Destination MTs on my Pathfinder. Been very happy with them. Bit more expensive but they are worth it. The first gen that I put on in 08 were quieter and had better road manners than the BFG AT's they replaced. Finally replaced my rear tires with the new gen version and they are even better. They are unbelievable in the snow, where MT's struggle and very good on pavement and dirt. When I finally get the front sorted out again, I will be replacing those 12 year old tires with the new and improved ones like on the rear. Been pretty happy with how well they have held up with a few week long Moab trips, lots of pavement and the mix of clay, rock, sand that the mountains have here. Also with the lockright in the rear and a front end that is way out of alignment more than it is in. Great tires, that most people that try them love them.

Nope, no laws against mounting up front. I have seen them mounted on the front with many cars. When I had my CB in my mom's 1990 Isuzu Trooper I had it mounted on the hood on the left side, opposite of the radio antenna. That was definitely in my field of vision there, right in front of me. I chose to mount my antenna on my Pathfinder on the upper hinge of the spare tire carrier simply because it was convenient for me and I simply liked the look of it back there. I don't have a bullbar or even good bumpers, so a good mounting point took a bit of thought since I hate putting holes in the bodies of my cars.

Don't know with the R50, but with the WD21, the gearing in the axles was based on the transmission rather than the tire size. The manual trans trucks had the 4.3 and the auto trans had the 4.6 in the 4x4 versions at least. My 93 SE rear diff center section was swapped with my friends 95 XE because they were both geared the same. I wanted his open diff and he was happy with my LSD. Only problem we ran into was we litterally did the swap during the night before we went on a week of wheeling in Moab. No problem with mine, I have the rear disc and the lockright dropped right in with no issues. However, my friends XE was rear drum and we neglected to transfer the thrust block into the diff from my truck. Result was damaged axle seals that leaked gear oil into the drums, so his truck spent most of the week sitting in the camp. We got home, installed the block, replaced seals and brakes(again, thought it was just a fluke and did it in camp while in Moab and had the seals start leaking again while on the trails) and problems solved. His XE was originally equipped with 235's and mine was 31's. We put 31's on his stock 15x6 steel wheels and they fit fine. Did run the pressures at 26 psi to get a proper contact patch, but that was the spec anyway. He replaced the 95 with a 99 LE, and we put a set of 31x10.50 on the stock wheels. Other than some light rub at full lock, no problems there. His R50 is bone stock other than the tires, so 265 75 16's should fit the stock wheels just fine since they are very close to the same size as 31x10.50's.

I know with the WD21, Nissan got weird with the SE and XE. There were a lot of SEs with chrome steel wheels wearing the 235 75 15 tires, open diff, rear drums, and lacking the skid plates. While more rare, saw XEs with the off road package. I found a lot depended on planned location and dealers wants. It seemed the intermountain west was about the only region that a SE could reliably be equipped with the off road package with all the bells and whistles like the larger tires, skid plates and 4 wheel disc brakes. I think the R50 was probably similar at least for the first few years. For what it is worth, the 31" and 265 75 tires originally were mounted on 7" wide wheels while the 235 75 tires were most often mounted on 6" wide wheels. The LE was odd in that they were often the small tire mounted on a 7” aluminum wheel.

Possible you got the distributor off a tooth.

Never noticed any thread locker on Nissan intake bolts. I haven't used it on them either.

Sorry, not much help here. My 93 came from the factory with 31's and auto trans. The speedometer read a little high. Since I changed to 33's, it has been dead on, tested by comparison with a couple gps units and timed at indicated 60 mph between mile markers. All have agreed that measured speed matches indicated, so haven't gone looking for a gear change. Seems almost like yours was for the 235 75's rather than the 31's.