Scottzilla

I was going to suggest using lighting gel to make the VFD on the climate controls match the rest of the blue lighting. It's almost blue anyway so you should be able to do it without making it too dark. Maybe the fluorescent tube (I think it's a cold cathode) could be replaced with one of those cold cathode tubes they sell for modding your PC case. They have lots of different colors and lengths...

They've got direct replacements for so many different styles of bulbs now that it should be pretty easy to do.

Good. Let me know if you run into any troubles. I've got schematics now!

Well, the shop couldn't find anything wrong with it. I asked, but apparently they aren't certified to remove curses. I guess I'll play with the TPS tomorrow (good thing I gots a spare!)

I think the pre-94 FSMs were pulled due to copyright problems. It sounds like you're just going to have to trace the length of the wire between the fuse box and the gauge cluster. There's probably a bad spot in the insulation or a pinched spot or something somewhere along that stretch of wire causing your problem. Look for places where it might be coming into contact with a metal chassis part. The short is downstream of your fuse box so it shouldn't have anything to do with your alternator/charging. That is most likely a separate issue. You may want to pull the alternator and have it tested.

Are the wires that connect to them still hanging around? From what I recall of my '89 there is at least the following: Two 2-pin connector that go to two sensors that screw in the passenger's side (park, reverse, 4WD, neutral switch; I've heard different things) A bundle of wires that goes from the switch near the shift linkage that makes the shift indicator lights work. These should go up into the engine compartment and get connected there. A bundle of wires that are hard-wired into the tranny (these make it shift/work) that should get connected in the engine compartment. The sensor on top of the transfer case you already mentioned. There's a bracket up in the engine compartment (on the passenger's side, kind of by the wheel well and the wiper motor) with some tabs that hold several connectors in place that are for the tranny. The wires from the tranny should get routed up to these connectors. Hopefully everything is there and connected and you can just re-plug everything. Again this applies to an '89 and is entirely from memory. I know you need more info than that but hopefully it will at least get you started. I've got some FSM schematics coming so maybe I'll be more help later.

You may be on to something. I have some clues now. Today the ECU threw the following codes: 21 Ignition Signal 43 Throttle Position Sensor

That will teach you to say "go go gadget wheels"! That would have been pretty scary I bet. I saw that happen to a truck in front of me once. The axle was almost completely out by the time the driver figured it out and stopped.

Yikes! What all has happened to her since the first compression tests? Is there any chance the T-belt slipped?

So I've got a brand-new (to me) gently-used engine that was recently swapped into my '89 Pathy. Mostly it works fine, but when it gets hotter than it normally does (say 3/4 on the temp. gauge instead 1/2) because I ran the AC on the freeway then stopped and let it idle for a while, it starts having problems. It still idles just fine, but when I give it any gas the RPMs start going up then drop back to idle. It does this over and over again. If I get out and disconnect the battery, wait a few seconds and reconnect it the problem gets a little better, to the point where I can at least get moving a little. After a bit of forcing the rig to drive the problem eventually goes away. I did try searching and couldn't find anything that exactly matched my situation. The ECU is only throwing a 55 (Everything is fine. Nothing is broken.). Has anyone ever seen this? I'm going to call the shop that did the work tomorrow to see if they will fix it for me but I figured I'd run it by you guys too since I need something to do while I'm sitting on the side of the freeway waiting for the problem to go away again.

I haven't, but I have been considering it. I did a search for "9004 HID conversion kit" and was amazed at how cheap they've gotten (found one for <$60 on eBay).

Sweet. Thanks other Scott!

I'm hoping some of the folks that own multiple Pathys can answer this one. When they switched from 2-door to 4-door did the width of the front (only) doors change at all? I have an '89 but I like the newer style door panels / arm rests / window controls much better and was wondering if there was any chance of doing a direct swap without much fabrication? (I know the wires will be different)

Here are the radio wire colors for my '89 Pathfinder. Hopefully they match yours. (The colors in () are the equivalent color on standard aftermarket stereos) Brown = Left Front Speaker + (White) Brown/White = Left Front Speaker - (White/Black) Black = Right Front Speaker + (Gray) Black/White = Right Front Speaker - (Gray/Black) Green = Left Rear Speaker + (Green) Green/Black = Left Rear Speaker - (Green/Black) Gray = Right Rear Speaker + (Purple) Gray/Red = Right Rear Speaker - (Purple/Black) Red/Green = Constant Power (Yellow) Green/White = Ignition Power (Red) I connected the ground wire (Black) to a metal chassis part. Hope that helps!

Man I wish I had seen this earlier. I just did a radio swap last night. If I pull it again I'll look at the colors.

SE for me. I like buttons and switches. Did any '89s come with heated mirrors?

I pay $7.50/sheet for my gels. You get a much better deal. I'm not sure you could print on a gel with an inkjet printer without it running or smudging or something. I know inkjet overhead transparencies have a rough texture to prevent this and the gels are smooth. Speaking of gels and overhead transparencies, you could also print out your design on an overhead transparency, put a layer of diffusion gel behind it and then your colored gels behind that. This would give you a nice even lighty-uppy part of your graphic without it looking like paper grain.

The guy who had it before me had done lots of "creative" wiring, but I didn't realize he'd gotten to the starter too. Now I'm wondering what other weird stuff is lurking in my electrical system. I'm still digging through the massive cut bundle of wires where the Super Stega Alarm 3000 used to be. I'm surprised the thing runs at all really...

Then pictures you shall have! So I dug it out of its many layers of tubing and cleaned it up a bit. It turns out it's a 470-ohm 1% 1/4-watt resistor. The color bands are in bad shape but they are yellow, purple, black, black, brown. I also verified this with a meter. I'm still wondering what it's for though. The second picture shows the terminal it's connected to. I don't have any of my books with me or I'd dig through schematics to try to figure it out from them.

One of the smaller wires going to my starter has a part that looks just like a resistor in line with it. I know if this wire isn't hooked up the Pathfinder won't try to run the starter. Does anybody know what exactly the part is and why it's there? Mine is broken and I need to either replace it or bypass it.

Yeah, that's why we used the chain hoist for getting it in and out of the rig. The tractor is fine for lifting engines and carrying them across the yard but if you need any kind of precision it probably isn't the best way to go.

Heh, it's already back in. No swinging engine any more. I just need to finish hooking everything up. I did separate the transmission so that I could bolt up the new engine, but I did it outside the vehicle. Didn't touch the RMS tho... Well I'm not pulling it back out, that's for sure!

Well, I got the engine, transmission and transfer case back in my Pathfinder in one piece. Having a tractor, a hoist and a really beefy swing set helps. Hopefully next weekend after I finish hooking everything up it will run. I put up a few pictures on Flickr. Here's one I took right about when I was thinking "Please don't drop. Please don't drop."

Well, I decided to limit the amount of engineering I had to do. I sold the Maxima engine and picked up a VG30I out of an '88 that dropped right in (I haven't started it yet but the install was straight-forward). I did decide to keep the Maxima alternator so I'd have a few extra amps to play with. I had to make a spacer in order to get the pulley swap to work but the mounting stuff and the connector were exactly the same. Thanks for all the help everybody.

mws: I know what you mean about the torsion bars. I was this close to pulling one of mine but I found just the right combination of wiggling things around to get the diff out without removing them. unccpathfinder: I'm going to (hopefully) do the reinstall this weekend the same way. The guy I'm working with has pulled and reinstalled an engine/tranny before and that's how he did it. I guess you just have to lower everything a few inches, jack up the back a bit, and keep repeating that until everything is back in place.