jyeager

Does anyone have 'custom' seat-covers for their R50 and feel as though the quality and fit are great? I'm considering getting some, but am concerned they will look like a ghetto style band-aid. Thanks for your recommendations!

If you are going to get your lift from spacers, you don't really need to buy new springs. But with that cost savings comes the 'cost' of not having the quick swap you are after. You could just buy inexpensive generic replacement springs. As for tires...you can do without wheel spacers if you limit your new ties to 31". That size clears the strut. If you wanted bigger, you would probably have interference problems even with the spacers since your lift won't be enough to avoid your fender under full compression, I would guess. You may not need camber bolts either. After the swap I would take it in for an alignment and let them figure it out. And you're done.

Years ago my Pathy would stall when I came to a stop, and I could only keep it going if I put it in Neutral as I approached the stop and kept the idle high. It was behaving a bit like a stuck EGR valve. Turned out to be a cracked ignition coil if I remember correctly. It doesn't seem intuitive that a failure like that would have that symptom, but it did...and the tech who fixed it was flabbergasted too.

No you don't. Everything will work if the engine is at TDC on the compression stroke (both valves closed) and the distributor rotor is lined up with the #1 plug wire. Here's a trick to use to find the initial timing advance. With plug fuel injectors unplugged, crank the engine with a timing light on. You can get the timing in to the ballpark before trying to actually fire it up.

Bushnut, kudos on being clever enough to consider the issue with your rear wiper. At first, I was just thinking that your story was going to describe how 600ccw just isn't enough in your severe temperatures. It's very smart to have that handy little jumpstarter! So easy to carry in the car. I have a larger jumpstarter, not nearly as convenient to store in the car, but I keep it in the back.

Pat, isn't that just your voltage regulator doing what it should do based on the state of charge/discharge of your battery?

No need for new rear trailing arms.

It had 130,000 I believe. I think that was 2008? Yes, it's still going strong. The only issues I've had with it in all this time is a cracked coil a stripped front hub flange and a slow coolant leak from the water pump. I had a full service done 110k ago... timing belt, water pump, plugs/wires and filters. That's really about it.

My '97 has 312k miles. Take basic care of it and it should last and last.

Double check your coils and connections? If the root cause were fuel related, then you wouldn't have noticed it getting so much better once you changed plugs and coils. And you would have other codes thrown in addition to the miss fire code (such as O2 sensor and Catalyst). Did you have the codes read again to see if you are still getting the same cylinder misfiring? If it's the same one misfiring just to be sure I would swap that coil with another one and see if the misfire moves...just to determine whether you did or didn't get a faulty coil. Otherwise, I would start looking in to the possibility of an internal engine problem with that cylinder. Run a compression test on that cylinder in case you have a bent valve.

Rear axles can be considered bullet proof. Front axles? They are plenty strong enough given the engine's torque. But they fail when the cv joints are outside their operating parameters...meaning that when you lift the vehicle for large tires you will be increasing the cv joint angles and they can become a failure point if you aren't careful about how high you lift the front suspension.

The reverse thing is normal. It's just how transmissions work. The syncros are spun by the input shaft and when you let out the clutch in neutral you get the syncros spinning which helps you go in to reverse. When you start your car with the clutch pressed and try for reverse, the syncros are never started spinning so can't help you get to reverse. As for grinding first and fifth, that would be the syncros becoming worn out. Doesn't require a trans rebuild unless that bothers you. It is possible that a fresh change of fluid with helpful additives can 'rehab' the deficiency you are having with the syncros right now and perhaps restore it's function.

If you are lengthening the control arm to increase travel, then you would also need a custom steering knuckle too. But perhaps that can be handled by an adapter that bolts to the knuckle where the strut does and bridges to the strut which would be in the same place it always is (same angle...a must or else you would need an angled top spacer and then you negate the benefit of the longer control arm because you'd need a longer travel strut....) That's an interesting idea. Custom lower control arms aren't hard to build.

Toe in is necessary for stable tracking. Toe in results in wear on the outside edge of the tire. It's normal and is why you are supposed to rotate your tires at the proper intervals. You can ask for an alignment that places the toe in at the MINIMUM end of the recommended range to help with this. You can also make sure that your camber setting tips the tire to the inside slightly (standard alignment specs probably do this). But if that outside edge is feathering (meaning it's creating a cupping pattern of wear on that outside edge...or all the way across the tread), that implies your wheel balance is bad and/or your strut's damping isn't working right. Feathering or cupping only happens if the wheel is vibrating up and down at a very high frequency that shouldn't be allowed by the strut's damping.

weathertech dot com?

Yes, it's very easy. I have done it. Off-hand I don't have that information for you, but perhaps tomorrow if no one else has answered (and if Google hasn't helped you), I can gather up that information for you. It's a simple, inexpensive and VERY beneficial upgrade!

Bushnut, you must be saying that full droop would cause the CV joints to exceed their maximum operating angle? What IS their max operating angle? I'm curious because I know of a CV joint specialist that should be able to rebuild/customize CV axles for tighter angles.

Remember that as your suspension compresses, the axle will be swinging up and back. After you recenter it at ride height, you might hit the back of your wheel well or fender lip when you compress the suspension. Nonetheless, to recenter, you could make your own longer control arms. Pretty easy and reasonable cost too.

Since you weren't driving it, you should first check to ensure it wasn't overheated...as in a water pump failure. If so, your engine is destroyed! So check your oil and check your coolant for any signs of cross contamination which would be the case if it had overheated and seized due to thermal expansion. After ruling that out, I need to ask....when you say it wouldn't 'crank', that says that the starter wouldn't even turn the engine over. If the starter would turn the engine over, but it just wouldn't catch and run, then you should not say that it "didn't crank". Since it stalled 3 times, but restarted 2 times the initial problem was not a problem with battery voltage or the starter. If it truly wouldn't CRANK after that 3rd stall, then you probably do have a seized motor. But if you stated that wrong and it just wouldn't restart the 3rd time, then you should consider fuel filter, fuel pump and ignition coil. Assuming it cranks, a simple way to figure out if the problem is fuel or spark is to get some starter fluid and spray it in to the intake while cranking it. If it lights up and runs for a few seconds, that confirms a problem with fuel delivery. If not, that confirms a problem with spark.

I believe they are 5" inner diameter with a wire thickness of .53". So that would put the outer diameter at 6.06".

Are you sure these gears will fit? I know the site says so, but I am under the impression that our front differentials use reverse cut ring gears and NONE of the aftermarket ring gears are reverse cut....they are for the other R200 differentials that Nissan used in other models. Or is this not true of all R50s, just some of the model years?

Rubber is more compliant and you might (just maybe, in theory) prefer that when off-road. But the poly bushings will control way better and probably give you noticeably sharper steering response on road. You do NOT need a press to change sway bar bushings. It's definitely a do-it-yourself-in-your-driveway-with-a-socket kind of job. You should replace the front sway bar end-links at the same time.

While listening to your video it seemed like the clicking was coming and going at times. If that's right, then it's not an electrical arc, but something actually ticking, so find out where that's coming from. Make sure it's coming from your distributor... I say this because the WAY your old distributor failed, it could have resulted in firing a cylinder REALLY early and pounding a connecting rod, or even bending a valve? So consider the possibility of some internal engine damage. If it's coming from the distributor, then I would suggest that your new distributor is bad, or perhaps the camshaft teeth are damaged from your distributor failure.

Yes, that is correct. Unless you recalibrate your LSV. The FSM has the procedure. In a nutshell, you can change the spring or add an extension to the spring to bring the lever back in to the appropriate position.

98's could be different, but I have a 97 LE. And as others have said, I have the side molding and leather and sunroof. But I have no clue if the sunroof or leather were standard on the LE (probably were). As for parts though...unless you are shopping for interior trim parts, the SE/LE designation doesn't matter.