Vehicle speed sensor question

[Kensai]

A couple months ago I bought a '96 with a very loud manual transmission. Based on what I've read here and what I saw come out in the fluid when I drained it, I'm pretty sure the PO used a GL5 fluid, which of course totally ate up the inside of the transmission. Long story short, I'm just about done swapping in the transmission from my old '92 but have run into an issue with the vehicle speed sensor.

 

The transmission from the '92 has a cable driven speedo, where as the '96 has an electronic speedo. The speedo sender for the 92 came out just fine, and looks like the typical speedo sender I'm used to seeing on the old British cars I'm used to working on. I can't get the sensor out of the transmission from the '96, and have no clue what the end of that one looks like. I'm assuming that I can just get a new sensor for a '96 trans and it will plug into the '92 trans just fine. The question I have though, is do both sender types use the same gear? The '92 sender has a plastic gear on the end, but when I go to buy a '96 sender, none of them appear to have that gear on them. They all just have a black shaft where the gear should be. They appear to have a flat spot on one end that makes me think that they do use the same gear, and it's just sold individually, but I'm unable to find a listing for the gear.

 

So, do you guys know if the sensor for a '96 will fit into the trans from a '92, and if so where do I get the gear for the '96 sensor?

[hawairish]

Sorry, can't answer whether the 96 fits the 92, but since the 96 does also have a gear, perhaps it needs to be swapped onto the replacement VSS? In that case, sounds like the new VSS wouldn't be necessary if you can get the 96 one out (and presuming it fits). Perhaps some penetrating oil, slight hammer taps, and time will help?

[Slartibartfast]

The gear varied by tire size and final drive. If you can get your speed sensor out intact, I would expect it to bolt up. I haven't heard of anyone having issues putting the later transmissions into WD21s so I assume it's compatible the other way too. Just remember to overfill as the WD21 trans has the fill hole too low.

 

Oil and light taps is where I'd start too.

 

Some of this might help:

 

http://www.nissanpathfinders.net/forum/topic/28934-speedo-gear/

http://www.nissanpathfinders.net/forum/topic/26690-95-trans-into-92-speedo-cable-question-searched/

http://www.infamousnissan.com/forum/showthread.php?t=24906

 

 

[Kensai]

Thanks for the replies guys!

Hawairish - No way that old sensor is coming out of the 96 trans. I think I've applied penetrating oil to it over a dozen times now and have only been successful at breaking off the little arm that the bolt goes through. That guy is STUCK, but I did manage to get the other two sensors towards the rear of the trans out, which is good because those two use different plug types than the one from the 92 trans.

 

Based on the info I got from the threads you posted, I'm planning on ordering a new sensor and trying to re-use the gear off the 92 sender. That gear is the cream colored guy (18T?) and looks to be in good shape. Hopefully I'm able to get it off the old sender intact as is seems to be stuck on there pretty good at the moment. The 96 had 16" rims with I think 235s on them when I got it. These were (imo) too big for the wheel wells given that there is no lift on the truck and the PO had removed the rear mud guards to keep them from rubbing. I swapped them for the 15" wheels off my 92 that have almost new tires and fit great. Given that I'm going to be using the same diameter wheel setup I had on the 92, as well as the pinion gear from the 92, I'm hoping the speedometer will read something close to the actual speed.

 

 

 

I took a break from the transmission swap yesterday to replace the upper and lower trailing arms bushings. What fun that is. Two of the trailing arms had bolts that were seized into the metal sleeve in the bushing, which needed to be cut out with the sawzall. Then came the fun of getting the old bushings out of the trailing arms XD Several of the arms had bushings where the center had totally separated from the rubber!

[hawairish]

When all else fails, there's always a BFH eagerly waiting its turn.

Head to nissanpartsdeal.com, enter your 96 VIN, and go to Power Train > Speedometer Pinion. It should return the part number of what came with the vehicle. Won't tell you what color it is, and it's looking like 19T may have been the only option anyway. A long time ago, I recall seeing a table that paired all that info...but that was a long time ago.

 

Could always throw the 92 sensor in and take it for a spin with a GPS. If the GPS says you're going faster than the speedo, go down a tooth. Speedo faster than GPS, up a tooth. It's also possible to calculate the new tooth count to account for tire size and gearing changes, since it's all just ratios.

[Kensai]

I took a closer look at the sender from the 92. The pinion is a bit different than the type available for the 96 sensor. Its is splines run it's entire length, where the 96 pinions I've seen have a shoulder on them. Counted the teeth and there are 19, so I figure I'll just order a 19T pinion and new 96 type sensor.

 

I got to use my BFH plenty yesterday on the old trailing arm bushings >_>