Ross

Sure, ill take a look tomorrow - its dark and rainy at the moment. Its a bit annoying having no height adjustment sometimes, I have to really watch out when driving off road. Sweet on the road or gravel though. Does yours have much more traction in front wheel drive than the non turbos? Mine grips much better - ive got a carb motor in it at the moment, and i find that it wont spin the wheels in first (without letting out the clutch fast) in the wet, with the cheapest tyres ive ever seen, and with really bad alignment! Even the turbo motor didn't spin the wheels much, unless i was trying.

I reckon you should still take it for a drive with the maf unplugged. My reasoning: If the pinging is indeed being caused by a lean mixture, one thing that could cause it is an inlet manifold leak. Without the maf connected, this leak wont effect the amount of fuel the computer puts in - it is set to run rich. If your car still pinks with the maf disconnected, you can all but rule out a leak as the cause.

Thats interesting, mine are completely different - no adjustment and shorter when fully extended. Must be aftermarket. Very stiff ride, a fair bit stiffer than a ea82 rx.

Have you tried running it without the maf yet? Results on that would rule out a whole lot of stuff.

Are these struts/springs the same as any other ea81 model, like the 2wd ones or something? Just wondering really.......

Definitely get that diaphagm fixed and time it to 8-10deg. You can get them reconditioned fairly cheaply, and if you take it to someone good it wil last longer than the original.

The reverse problem is inside the gearbox i think. Mine has always done what you describe, and i have fixed the slopply selector shaft problem, no change. I have just got used to it and hold it in gear when im putting much torque through it. I think its quite common. The second gear buissiness sounds like it may be related to the slopply selector shaft connection.

have a look at the post by TurboSPFI "like technical info?" (its just down the page a little).

Just use a bolt or similar and your eye. As long as you have good light you will be able to get it close enough.

Diesel isn't much easier to combust than the mix of engine oil and petrol thats normally in there. I have heard of people getting a lot of Dirty crap out when they fill up the entire engine with diesel.

You need to measure the clearances between the two rotors and bore to know if its time for a new pump. Any manual should have this procedure, if you havn't got one download that online fsm section.

Your camber will look much better when you get the engine in and let the suspension settle.

Agreed . Undo the small screws and you'll see it. If you do that, you will need another small o ring as well.

Agreed, but my main point was that no matter how lean the mixture gets, it should never cause detonation at low throttle.

The shudder is only under braking below 30mph? Any noise?

RS injectors, probably not. Nissan injectors? Yes. Look at the retrofitting forum, a thread called "Nissan Injectors?" should explain all.

I think i may have seen that center on a parts shop (Repco) shifter (a really cheap one probably). I've definitely seen it, thats the only place i can think of.

Don't drive eblow 50km/h! Seriously though, you have replaced everything? What exactly is everything?

Well, theoretically the computer should go into "limp" mode so that the car is driveable. Should increase the idle slightly and increase the rate of fuel going in according to rpm and tps only - it will run quite rich at low throttle, but may lean out under full load, i dunno. My ea81t (VAF not MAF) runs ok without vaf connected - slow and crap but it doesn't detonate and you can drive it ok.

Would the TPS have such a dramatic effect to cause this detonation? Does the injector use a coil to open? If its had too much curent flow or something the coil could be partially burned out, opening it less for a given input voltage?? Got the right spark plugs in there?? Just thinking about it, a lean mixture shouldn't cause detonation at low throttle. The computer will already have it running on excess air under low throttle.

Unplug the MAF, and go for a drive. Without the MAF, the computer should run too rich and wont detonate. If that fixes it, i would say it is a bad MAF. IF it still pings without the MAF connected, i would suspect an injector problem maybe?? Carbon build up???

I have seen that knob somewhere............???

Pity about our CRAP diesel. Has hundreds (perhaps even thousands i think) of times the allowed sulfur level for diesel in Europe. Hence we don't get most of those frugal euro diesel cars. Not sure if I would call importing japans second hand 'rubbish' in absolutely huge numbers Logical! A huge majority of cars here are second hand Jap imports that have never seen any service in their lives in Japan. Not uncommon for them to be rubbish about 50,000kms after they are imported. And still people buy them.....

250 miles actually. More like a 4.5 hour drive with the twisty NZ roads. I havnt seen or head of a ej18t.

I had a similar problem. The shaft on the end of the starter on which the gear slides on had become so dry and crappy that the solenoid no longer had the strength to move it. I took it apart and oiled it up, now it works fine. (Apart from a few other problems....)