Mr_Reverse

Sorry, you probably already figured it out, but yes, they have a tapered stud. For me the easiest way I have found to do mine is to unbolt both the upper and lower from the arms, knock the tierods out of the knuckle, remove the caliper, and the snap ring from the end of the axle halfshaft(4x4 only). Then I pull the knuckle and hub/rotor as an assembly off the truck and remove the castle nuts for the ball joints. Then it is a simple matter to knock the ball joints out. Install is reverse of disassembly. Have a jack, jack stand, or some other support under the lower control arm to help keep the torsion bar tight, makes it easier to reassemble. Sorry, just noticed that I am in the R50 forum. It is easier to just undo the castle nuts, and with a long prybar pushing the lower arm down, hit the knuckle next to the ball joints with a mini sledge or other small heavy hammer until the stud popps out of the knuckle. Then unbolt the joint from the control arm.

Everything goes through the fusable links.my 93 SE has a total of 6. 3 brown, 1 green, and 2 black. One of the black ones is a short loop by itself. The black and the green ones are a unit and the 3 brown ones are a separate unit. They protect all the wiring harnesses from a catastrophic thermo event from happening. I don't recall where, but I had found a Nissan Z forum where someone had the specs for the various link wires and had converted to modern style links using maxi fuses I believe. I might go that route myself some day when I feel like messing with my wiring again.

It should, 4 qts to a gallon and all that.

Thanks. Yes I was referring to the trailing arms. I have always just called them suspension links since it is a 5 link suspension in the rear. Good to know the WD and R50 use the same bushings. I have looked at poly in the past, but not a big fan of them for my truck. I like the extra compliance the rubber give me when the suspension is flexing. I also don't care for how quickly they wear in my environment. I was getting about 8k miles out of my front UCA bushings before they would be so loose I couldn't get close to an alignment. After the 4th set I called AC and found that the factory rubber bushings would fit their UCA's. I pressed on a set and have put at least 20k on them without them hogging out. Now I need to go under my truck and measure the links there and see if the R50 links would push the axle too far back. Probably will and I should just give up and build some using Jonny joints or heims. The 4.5" of suspension and 3" of body lift in the rear has made things interesting as far as the back end goes. I still need to talk to a local shop and find out just how much it will cost to have a pair of park brake cables made. I have run out of slack with my left one. Thank you for the measurements, they are a help

No rush on it. It is going to be a while before I can do anything anyway. The whole time and money thing you know.

Shake while braking is completely different than a cruise vibration. I can't imagine a diff problem that would cause vibration only at high speed, but no other symptoms. Brake drums sometimes have balance weights welded to them, but usually they make no difference when they fall off. Generally drums don't have enough variance to make balancing them worthwhile. I suggest doing the simple thing first and get all 4 wheels rebalanced and see what happens. Most places that you buy tires from include balance maintenance in the warranty, so it generally just a matter of time rather than expense to get the balance checked.

If it is just a vibration at a certain speed range, odds are that it is a wheel balance issue or possibly just the harmonics getting in sync. With it being a new issue, I would suspect a thrown weight from one or more wheels. Did you have any service work or anything changed just before this problem appeared?

Ahh, wasn't aware of that with the R50. Haven't looked inside the rear axle on them. My experience is with the older and the newer. Managed to skip dealing with the axles on the R50s somehow.

Mostly the basics, lengths from eye to eye, width of the bushing center sleeve and diameter of the hole in the bushing sleeves. It is much appreciated, thanks!

Was wondering if anyone has tried using R50 suspension links on a lifted WD21. I currently have about 4.5" of lift in the rear of my path and the bushings are shot again, so I either need to replace the 8 bushings (expensive and a PITA) or just replace the links. I found a set of new ones for about $80, but they are for R50s. Did a quick and dirty measure while in a salvage yard Thursday and found they are a few inches longer than the WD21 links. I was thinking I needed longer ones anyway due to the lift and was wondering if anyone else has tried this before. I need to take a tape measure and go visit a friend of mine who has a 99 and get a better idea of what can of worms I am considering opening now. I had thought about trying to adapt an R50 center console when I found one in very good condition, but decided to defer that challenge for a while.

I agree, replace the water pump, seals, hoses, and the woodruff key while you are in there. The parts add just a little more to the cost and a little more work, but you won't have to go back in in a few months when the pump or seals let go. The pattern on the injectors is normal and not anything to worry about. I have had only a few failed injectors over the years of working on these things so should be ok. One thing you might want to check if your engine was refusing to start or run is the distributor. I have seen a few with failed bearings and when I was working in the dealership, the guys I worked with who had been in the dealerships for years said it was a common problem in the VG engines. Take the rotor off, then remove the dust seal so you can see inside. If there is any rust or grey dust in there, it is a sign the bearings are going bad. Also you can turn the gear by hand. If it is smooth and easy, it is ok. If you feel any roughness or binding at all, it is time to replace the distributor.

The 2wd has a different tail shaft housing that is longer than the 4wd. It would not hurt to give the 2wd trans the same treatment though. I had an 85 300zx that had input shaft bearing problems just like the trucks did.

I got a year and a half of use out of mine with JB weld when it first happened, but over time it got a little bit of play in it and wound up tearing out the slot in the crankshaft. I wish you better luck than I had. Mine didn't have much play at first either. Apparently that sprocket has a lot more loading on it than it looks.

The drum brake axles have a spacer in the center of the differential that is REQUIRED to keep the axle bearings properly preloaded. A friend and I made that discovery years ago when we traded center sections in our Pathfinders the night before we left for a week in Moab. Mine had disc brakes and lsd, his was drum and open. We swapped centers and I puzzled over the odd metal block in the center when I was installing the lockright, but just tossed it into the box with the gears I took out. We got half way to Moab (6 hour drive for us) and noticed his right axle seal was leaking. Figured out after replacing the bearing and seal in Moab and having it fail again the next day on the trail. Looked in the manual and found that the disc brake axle has a different bearing setup that doesn't use the spacer that the drum axle has.

Yep, it is simply a weight that is there to dampen and change the frequency of the vibration for noise control. You find things like that all over the underside of modern autos.

I put some Hikari LED conversion bulbs in my Sorento and have been very happy with them. They aimed and installed well. My 93 Pathfinder has some Sealight 9004 HB1 LED bulbs in it and they are working great. The lights have never worked so well and I haven't had anybody flash me with them. Now the yellow aftermarket LED fog lights from Nilight are painful to look at even at midday, so I don't run them much as a courtesy to on coming traffic.

Something else to add to my list of parts I need to find. I have discovered that the rear link bushings are among the parts that nobody has. I replaced all 8 about 15 years ago, but they are bad again. I just might have to build replacement links since it seems that when I do find bushings that might fit, they are running $25-30 each. Right now, not cost effective for me.

If you have access to a timing light or in line spark tester, you might want to see if the ignition system is firing normally or if it is dropping spark when it is acting up. I had a distributor give me problems in my old 200sx when it got hot. You might be having a similar problem or the coil could be breaking down. Possible injectors could be failing also. Could get a few cans of canned air for blowing out things like computers and with the can upside down, spray suspect components to cool them and see if will improve. You did mention that it will idle poorly when it is acting up, the tests I have suggested are not recommended when driving.

Is the slot in the crankshaft where the key goes ok? That is what happened to the original engine in my 93. The key failed for the crankshaft sprocket and damaged the crankshaft. It couldn't hold the new key tight enough to keep the sprocket tight. If the crankshaft sprocket is able to move at all, the cam timing will not be correct with the crank and the engine will be very unhappy. My solution was to transplant a 3.3 engine in my truck.

EGR system is used to reduce the NOx, but at idle and light loads, the valve should be closed. The intake leak you found may not be the only one. Check the pcv and breather hoses. I found one of mine had split on the underside sometime, but found it last month while working on getting mine ready for registration. It only expired 3 1/2 years ago. These trucks really don't like to just sit in the back yard. Lots of work to get it back to working again. If you can, try and find some low octane ethanol free fuel for your truck. The compression ratio is low and it won't burn the mid or premium fuel as well. The ECU is not calibrated for the E10 fuel either and so it tends to get the air/fuel ratio wrong. Contrary to what the Government claims, ethanol is a poor fuel for our old cars and trucks that were not designed for it and it actually causes higher emissions because the engine can't burn it properly. To check your base timing, have the engine warmed up and at normal idle, with a timing light connected to #1 plug wire, make sure it is running at about 10° before top dead center. If your altitude is above 5k feet, add about 1° for every 1k higher as a rule of thumb.

For the camber bolt question on the R51, Nissan did the same thing as with the Frontier. They simply put regular bolts in the lower control arms but if camber and caster required adjusting, the bolts are simply replaced with adjuster bolts. They are available from the dealer and aftermarket. In the rear, they all have camber and toe adjusters, but they tend to seize in the control arm bushings after a couple of years unless they get greased before installing. The front suspension is the same as the Frontier, and the rear is a slightly smaller version of the Armada,as is the whole truck.

My 04 Sorento has been a very solid and reliable truck. The first gens (03-06) are a lot like my Pathy, body on frame with truck suspension. Also like my Pathy, not the best on fuel. It averages about 15 mpg mixed driving, but is amazingly good off pavement even in stock form. I know mine well because it has been in the family since it was new. Mom bought it and drove it until she passed away in 11, then my sister had it until she gave it to me 3 years ago when she bought a new one. Other than a failed front axle seal when it was 3, a couple of expansion tank failures, and a power steering hose that sprung a leak, all it's problems have been caused by me treating it like my Pathy. Rocks are hard.

The A/T temp warning light is run by a thermometer switch in the trans valve body. When the temperature is high enough, it will turn on the light. The original coolers were a poor design that was prone to clogging. I believe starting with the 94 model year the cooler was changed to a different design to address the clogging issue. When the cooler would get restricted or clogged, the only solution was/is to either replace the radiator and or use a large external cooler and bypass the original. If the engine temp was normal but the trans was hot, the problem is likely in the trans. If the torque converter clutch is not locking up when in cruise, it will cause elevated temps. If you simply shut off the engine when the trans is over temp, then it will take a while for it to cool down again because the fluid is not circulating. Best thing if it goes hot is to let it sit at idle either in park or neutral for a while to cool down. If a sprinkler is handy, can always spray the trans pan with cold water to help speed the cooling. As far as the fluid everywhere, if there are no leaks, likely it was getting pushed out of the breather. How big is your external cooler, and what style is it? Is it the tube and fin type or the plate type. The plate type is more efficient at heat transfer. Are you running stock size tires or over size? That will have an effect on the load the trans is dealing with. Finally, you won't find any trans codes with the ECU. The WD21 is a primitive truck and the engine control unit doesn't have much interaction with the transmission control module like the OBDII systems. You have to go to the TCM to get information for the trans, and without a scan tool that can interface, it is very limited in the information you can get. I don't recall the process for getting codes from the TCM, but I think I still have it squirreled away somewhere in my computer. It is a lot more involved than the ECU, but it does give flash codes like the ECU using the trans temp light. Oh, forgot to mention. Unless you are replacing a leaking pan or gasket, replacing the "filter" is a waste of time and money. It is simply a fine mesh screen that essentially cleans itself when the engine is shut off. As the fluid flows back out the filter, it carries the debris with it. Regular drain and fills do a good job of keeping it clean. I do mine about every 15k miles, because ATF is relatively cheap and my truck is used as a trail ride more than a daily driver. Also she is a bit over weight and turning 33x12.50 MT's.

High O2 and high NOx numbers indicate a lean condition. Can you provide the HC, CO, and CO2 numbers? That would help a lot. I have been doing emissions testing for about 17 years and most of those were done with a test and repair certification rather than test only, so have some experience reading the data. Your ignition timing is probably advanced a bit more than it should be, but the only adjustable part of the timing is the base idle. Might want to check the fuel pressure, intake and exhaust for leaks, the coolant temp sensor for accuracy and the MAF.

Wonder if your ignition switch is bad. So the injectors are spraying while cranking, and the spark plugs are firing while while cranking, but it all stops when released back to run, seems like the main relay is not getting power in the run position. Sorry, it is hard to do long distance diagnostic on old trucks like ours.