LittleFR

Welcome, good luck bringing her back to life.

I have an 01 with 32's and never honestly have had or noticed an issue with low power. It has the 3.36's too. When I did it i was worried and wanted to regear like my other lifted trucks, but unless I go SFD and get over 33's I'm not worried about it yet. I do want mechanical lockers if I ever do any gear or diff swap though. I wonder if it's not brought up a lot because so many people had the 3.63's to start with.

I got my pathy out of body shop... she's got new shiny paint is is slick as a greased whistle. I had a buddy do some work on her on the cheap because I don't drive junk and I love my R50. Then my brother and I went to pick up my old car an 1989 LTD that the title got tied up in some nasty legal junk for over a year... We changed the oil in the Vic went over the tires fluids everything.... jumped in and hit the key, NOTHING... cleaned the solenoid... nothing!!! crawled under it to beat the starter and holy crap... literally nothing, somebody had stolen the original freaking 30yro starter!!! So we hooked it to the pathy, hauled her home (the car weighed more than the R50) we put a starter on the LTD and my brother is driving it now.

I did front and rear on mine by myself with sway bar end links. Struts springs and spacer lift. I did rear on a Friday afternoon and front in one long terrible Saturday afternoon. I have power tools and multiple racing jacks but no lift. If you can do hubs on your own and brakes you can handle this alone. Soak everything in penetrol 90 the week before.

I have new MOOG stock springs in front and 2" spacers... so 2.5 inches ish of lift in front. ( it brought my sagged front end up probably 3" though) I bought camber bolts off Amazon they were 1.75 degree bolts. I gave the alignment shop two sets of bolts for the front and they only needed one bolt in top hole. They were pretty much turned to max camber, but it lined up and drives perfect. I installed all the suspension components and the 1 set of camber bolts for them (eyeballing it) and they just tweaked the alignment they got it dead on and only cost $60.

I had to run 1" spacers with my 01 with 32's... and it lets me clear the Warn Manual hubs and retain my factory center cap (with no hole cut in it) Sounds pretty par for the course. You either need different backspacing on wheels or some sort of spacer. I lifted right at 2.75inches and with the spacers had to relocate the front of my splash guard... just drill 3 holes on each side about 1.5in further forward than your stock holes. then cut the bumper corner off with a cutoff wheel on an angle grinder (you cant tell mine isn't stock without crawling under it) and trim the lip off the back mudflap and no more rubbing with 32's and 1" spacer (even in reverse over bumps).

This has had a crazy amount of response. Glad to hear from everyone. Recently I was at a wedding party, I let my brother (a dedicated pickup man) drive the R50 home (my wife and I stayed late and we brought him) he went on and on about how he loved the ride and couldn't get over the pickup and handling. He wants one now (not for the farm but for his daily teips) My truck got t boned when it was new. Lightly in the rear. The dealership did a poor job fixing it. I just got it out of the body shop. The painter a (Mitsubishi) driver cracked me and said my truck wasn't worth fixing. When he delivered the R50 he went on and on about the handling and the ride. He said he absolutely loved driving it. Kind of makes me wander.. I guess the bank would loan me whatever I wanted but in the cash price range I honestly think my Pathfinder was the absolute best vehicle I could have gotten. 2001.5 Pathfinder. Loaded with leather. 4,000 with 110k If I had more money and could do it again I'd still rock my R50.

I personally drive a Pathy because I came across a sweet deal on a low mileage R50. I'm married with a baby so I'm broke. Just curious if there are true dedicated Japanese fans or if we are all literally just poor.

I used 265/70r16's with roughly 2.75" lift. I has to use 1" spacers to clear manual hubs with stock dust covers. And I had to remove fat off mud guards on rear and relocate inner wheel cover forward 1.25" on front and cut off offending bumper parts to have no rub in reverse. Do what you want but I saw plainly that 265/75r16's were gna make me a nightmare on rear of front wheel well clearance. But I retained stock wheels and center caps with Warns.

Your rear has a locker... The front is open diff... Whichever front tire has the least traction is the one that's gna turn. You need a locker in the front to have true 4wd. Most open diff (4wd's) spin the right rear and the front left. Doesn't sound broken, sounds open as in unlocked.

Welcome, I'm a hundred million miles from you but I do like Aussies and am a fan of y'all's vehicles. I may have a spot of information if you have questions or issues.

You put in the correct ECM? I don't know about pathfinders but I put in a computer from a newer 5.0 once in an older 5.0 and the engine raced and my timing was so advanced it spark knocked. It seems like if it ran fine then you changed the ECM then it doesn't run fine that is the common factor. Unless it was broken down for the last ten years and you just got it running. Just for kicks I'd also look for vacuum leaks and wires you may have knocked loose recently.

Good looking truck. I'll trade you my 2001 R50 auto for your 5 speed. I've had good luck with the TreadWrights. I've had 5 sets and just 2 failures (on the same hell-given toyota Hilux) 'they were also retread blem tires' I always got guard dogs with kedge or the Claws though. They paid shipping and for new mount and balance. Just wish they were the same price now as they were when I started buying them... Nowadays I just get cheap MTs.

Fixed it for you. My tires are $800 a set not mounted or balanced. Soooo.... Yeah I paid the $60 for an alignment. I always do. It's like changing your oil, it's just preventative maintenance. I'm cheap so I did the Warns, end links, struts, lift, springs myself... But I don't enjoy rotating my tires every 3k miles to save under a hundred bucks.

It's really not too bad as long as you aren't lifting it while your in there. Be prepared to cut off the sway bar end links and just have new ones. They are made out of Tungston or some experimental metal, cutting them off slowed me down and really made me unhappy. Also get the arrows lined up proper on the strut braket cup things, I put mine on 90 degrees off and one side was lifted like an inch higher until I compressed the springs and twisted it. The easiest thing to do is pull the tires and spray paint straight down each strut so you can refer back for assembly. As stated I pulled a CV apart by hand.... don't do that. Good luck.

You can use 4wd unlocked... I use it to get trailers moving with 4 low it's fine... Just don't use the auto function because if it senses slip it will apply power at the t-case at whatever speed your rear is going to the front end (which is stationary) You'll only do it once, I promise. Don't expect big mileage gains. But it does make steering more nimble, coasting easier and saves CVs which is worth it by itself.

The only issue you will have is taking off and hauling balls uphill. Once you are going the tires are just extra rotating mass to slow down and a mild gear reduction when (taking off and going uphill) I would pull what I needed to pull, kick out my OD for any grade and not look back. I have 32's and tow regularly we have hills not mountains but I kick out the OD and use a lighter foot.

You may be better off tapping a size larger and using a different plug... I don't trust the heli-coils. They can work, I've seen a ball of thread tape hold in a plug but it just makes you nervous for the remainder of ownership.

Left turn

If it's only doing it during a nose dive ie: hard braking going fast it makes me question that it's the brakes at all..... And not front suspension issues like anti-sway end links or something.

A few weeks after we got my wife's new car I got her a remote start for it... My mom drove it to get it done as my wife and I both have jobs we can't miss unplanned... My mom backed into a pole leaving the shop. The car has a backup camera and my mom was watching it. Still haven't figured that one out. And this past week a truck put a rock into the windshield of that car and the ins won't pay for tint replacement that was 2 days old when it happened!! Last brand new car I'm ever buying, ever. Everytime I look at it there is a new parking lot ding or scratch. I owe more on the dang thing than my house and I want to set it on fire because I can't (have anything nice)

Jam Nut

I weld a lot of sheetmetal for body work with flux core. It just takes technique and practice. I even drug my welder to work and put wheel arches in a truck. Cab corners in another and rocker panels... Then got to paint them and a dump truck it all on the clock. Best week ever. I use .30 flux core it seems to be perfect for thin metal. .25 is too hot and any bigger you need a better 220 welder than mine to properly utilize. A lot of people hate flux core because it pops and burns you, I personally keep welding until I'm on fire enough it lights up the inside of my helmet. It just doesn't bother me anymore... Except overhead welding in a tight place with no helmet just look close your eyes burn off your eyebrows then do it again. I have a friend that stick welds old rusty exhaust pipe and sheetmetal, he is the best welder I know (I'm not a welder... I'm a guy that can weld and he is proof) Welding galvanized is bad... My brother and I have both got ten 'welders flu' from cutting galvanized culverts at our jobs. It's bad all the way around. I'm glad your going a different way on that, I still do it when it's required but all the ventilation in the world can still catch you in the end. I'm ready to see some metal on an R50 on this project underway. Are you replacing the flimsy slider racks too to keep it lower?

I live 6 miles from work.... Not exactly optimum as I usually don't get OD or lockup until the engine is up to temp, halfway through my drive. My wife and I did some long road trips lately and we broke 300 miles on a tank still never got into the 16mpg range. I have an auto so it's not going to do as well as a manual (could potentially do driven properly) but I tend to play harder in anything with a clutch. Still nowhere near the 620miles he wants on a 20 gallon tank. Auxiliary fuel tank would be the only way to achieve this in an R50. You could spend 10k dollars on an engine trans and gear vendors and have a very expensive R50 on 32's that sometimes breaks into the low 20mpg range.

Just thinking off hand of the last time I looked at mine.... Yes, I think I remember checking my brakes and rotors over and thinking, what a freaking nightmare, please don't ever warp on me little rotors. actually yep I was right, here is a video that almost makes it look enjoyable if you fast forward it to the end.