GeneralDisorder

*quality* zip ties don't have that problem. And if you periodically check the belt tension then you are replacing them every 10k or so. Don't buy the chinese zip ties. GD

Basically that's the idea - upgrading the wire from the alt to the junction and from the junction to the battery as a safety measure is a good idea. Especially if some future owner of said vehicle were to run his 5,000 watt staduim lighting system directly from the battery with no fuses. Yeah - I would agree with most of that. The Nissan alternator is for those casual EA series owners that want a stricktly bolt-in operation with no metal-work or other modifications. The GM alts are nice but when it comes time to sell the vehicle or move your stereo/lights you may have to buy another one or unmodify, etc. For those of us that tend to change cars like we change underwear, a bolt in operation is preferable. I don't like spending a lot of time on modifications to the woman's car for example - I would much rather just install the alt and send her to the stereo shop . The GM is a bit cheaper as well in the aftermarket, but not by a lot. The Maxima alt is considerably cheaper than the XT6 90 amp unit. About $85 for the Maxima alt minus the core charge from rockauto. Yes - there are advantages to both and it may depend on where you live. For me, with the abundance of self service wrecking yards as well as early Maxima's (and me not knowing sqaut about american cars in general) the Nissan alt is the way to go. Plus it's a good feeling to be replacing a Hitachi with another Hitachi. Not that there's anything wrong with the GM alt, but the fact that it's all put together with non-metric fasteners makes me cringe. You're welcome as always. GD

That's not a stock air filter - we will need pics to identify it. If it's really that small though it's probably the stock carb. Don't think you could get a 3" round filter to fit the Weber. Swapping to the Weber is pretty simple. You just buy the carb and the adaptor plate and bolt it on. The PCV has to be routed correctly as well. That's all there is to it if you buy the carb new and already jetted. If you buy a used carb then you may have to change jetting. GD

I meant at the connector to the alt. With the Nissan unit you just plug it into the stock wireing connectors. The GM has a different connector that needed to be changed. Perhaps not all GM alts use the same connector but the one I used (the newer, small-case GM alt style) did require a connector swap. No matter how big of an alternator you install, the draw off it will be the same as long as you don't change what you are running off it. If you are adding lights, stereo's, and other higher-draw equipment, then the output wire running from the alt to the main junction (the fusible links) should be upgraded and any additional circuits should be properly fused with their own run from the main junction. The existing circuits in the car aren't going to draw more than 50 amps as that's what they were designed to use - you could install a 1000 amp alternator and it wouldn't make a bit of difference to the wireing sizes unless you started drawing more than the stock equipment. I find that the stock 55 amp units are not really powerful enough at idle. They *can* produce 55 amps but only once they hit several thousand RPM. At idle they are lucky to make about 20 amps and that's just not enough to run the lights, stereo, cabin fan, etc. When you are wheeling you spend a good deal of time idleing and having the extra power availible at low RPM's is desireable. Add a few spot-lights and some decent tunes while you are on the trail and the stock units are almost unbearable. GD

Sounds like you have an '85 through '87 EA82. If it's running the stock carb then it should be one of those years. All the carbs are pretty close to the same on the EA82's - it's going to be a Hitachi DCZ-328. The kits they sell for these commonly fit all the years and models. The carb could have been replaced - Weber 32/36 DGV's are the most common swap as there is a commercially available adaptor plate for them. Is the air filter a kindney bean shaped black unit, a small chrome rectangle, or something else entirely? GD

Sounds like a throwout bearing on the clutch or the tranny input shaft bearing. Does it stop if you push in the clutch? Perhaps it's time for a 5 speed swap. Very easy with the lift. GD

He says it changes with engines speed though - that wouldn't be an axle. GD

What fluid was low? Engine oil or transmission oil? Do you have an EA81 with hydro lifters? If the oil is really low they can tick. GD

Do you mean it clicks in relation to RPM? If not, then what gears make the noise and how does it change when you switch gears? GD

Anti-seize isn't enough for those silly things. Zip-ties are easier, quicker, and you know they will come off. GD

Don't install the outer cover bolts - just use zip-ties. GD

You would have to find washers exactly the right size to fit the shaft and no larger in OD than the spacer I show in the pictures - in theory yes it could work. In practice you will never find the right size - you would have to make them which would be a bigger pain in the butt than just changing the spacer. I can think of a dozen ways to shorten the spacer - do you have a hacksaw and a vice? How about an angle grinder and some vice grips? Hell give me an hour and a course draw-file. Dremel tool? It took me about 5 minutes to shorten that spacer - I used one of those 10" circular bench sander's from harbor frieght. This is the one - got it on sale for like $39 IIRC: http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=47404 You just have to get the job done - you only need to make one. Even if it takes your entire saturday - it would still be worth it. GD

I posted a more comprehensive post about it with pictures.

Well - they came stock with t-type spares anyway so it's no big loss. I guess I have forgotton as I run SPFI on everything but my hatch and that doesn't carry a spare as i never go far from home with it. GD

Why aren't you able to carry a spare with the Weber in place? I don't beleive I've had that issue. Perhaps my mind is going but I'm not seeing why it wouldn't fit. GD

You used the wrong timing marks for the belt if you lined it up with 0. There are seperate marks for ignition (the numbered marks with the 0, etc), and valve timing. The valve timing marks are three lonely hash marks all by themselves about 1/4 of a revolution away from the ignition marks IIRC. You need to reinstall both belts using the valve timing marks. Only then can you time the distributor as I outlined above. And yes - often the aftermarket manuals for these are good for little more than emergency toilet paper. The factory manuals are sometimes difficult to understand due to translation issues and that may account for some of the very poor procedures I've seen in the "$20 special" parts store manuals. GD

LKQ is national now - check their web site and see if any are in your area. They bought up a chain of about 5 yards here and are killing the competition with thier low prices. Alt was $14.99 with a $5.00 core. So $20 for an afternoon of fun! GD

EA81's are factory with 50 amp alts, EA82's are factory with 55 amp alts. Most replacement EA81 alts are actually EA82 alts though so pretty much all of them are 55's by now. The stock units don't seem overly reliable and when you add a few lights and maybe a decent stereo they really don't cut it at all. As I understand it these came with all the SOHC V6 maxima's from 86 to 94. As long as it has a serpentine pulley it should be the one you want. They are mounted under the engine - accesible from behind the passenger side front wheel - just forward of that. They also have a neat tensioner bracket that I grabbed - I'm going to modify the stock EA81 alternator bracket using the tensioner system from the Maxima. GD

You REALLY need to print out the entire PDF. Seriously there's a TON more to it that I don't have time to bring over as images in order to post here. I'll give you the procedure so you have an idea as to what you need to do, but I can't copy the whole thing here. GD

Picked this up from an '87 Maxima at the yard today - these are 90 amp units. It's a Bosch reman (which I've had good luck with) - the Maxima had 282,000 miles on it . I swear if I didn't care about 4WD/AWD I would totally rock one. Loved the talking digi-dash last time I rode in one.... I digress. This pulley has got to go.... I pulled it off with my cordless impact (120 ft/lbs). They aren't tight. Looked through my box of alternators and parts and after trying a couple pulleys I found the fit I wanted in the EA82 twin-groove pulley. These are very common on EA82's with air conditioning. There needs to be a spacer behind it to space it out from the shaft's drive-end bearing race so it doesn't contact the case. The maxima alt has a pulley with a built-in spacer so you have to use the spacer that comes with the EA82 pulley. Unfortunately it's too thick. I rectified this easily by clamping it in a pair of vice-grips and running it against a belt sander. I then cleaned it up with a draw-file and lapped it as flat as I could with a peice of glass and some 120 grit sand-paper. It's slightly less than 3/8" thick now. I took off about 1/8" of material. Here's the setup I used (before I modified the spacer): And here's the spacer next to a stock one: At this point I was all ready to get to work on the wireing. I'm not a hack-wireing kind of guy so I was about to pull out the soldering iron & heat shrink to install the Maxima's deutsch style plug...... then I realized that this isn't neccesary. In fact NO modifications to the vehicle wiring are neccesary other than removing the female spade connectors from the white plastic plug they are installed in. The Maxima alt has two male spade terminals inside the deutsch connector - the stock female spade's on the harness slip right on . Even the Maxima's wireing was the same color and size. It was obvious what went where: Put the belt back on and fired it up. I got lucky at the yard - the dirty thing even works! And the output was excelent from the VR: Probably the easiest, quickest swap I've come across. WAY simpler than the GM and XT6 conversions (I've done both - XT6 requires shims on the mounting ears and I had to turn a spacer on the lathe for the pulley - GM required mount changes and wireing). And in fact it is 100% reversible since all you would need to do is reinstall the plastic plug over the spade terminals and bolt the old unit back in. Slam. Dunk. GD

As an update to this - I pulled an '87 maxima alt from the yard today. After taking off the pulley I tried out a few combinations from my alternator parts bin and came up with a pulley that works. I used the solid, two groove pulley from a later EA82 alternator - uses the exact same shaft diameter (I have need of two grooves for an upcomming EA81T power steering pump and crank pulley swap anyway). I then also had to use the spacer from behind the pulley but I had to take about 1/8" off the spacer to get the pulley on far enough to line up. No big deal - being the weekend and not wanting to go down to work to use the lathe I just clamped the spacer in my vice grips and took it to the band-sander. I made a mark all the way around and carefully sanded down to the mark. Then I smoothed it all out with a draw file in my bench vice. It bolts up with absolutely ZERO modifications to the mounting brackets on my EA81. Now I just have to do the wireing on it. I'll post pictures and a new post about it as soon as I'm done. GD

There is no differences in the basic engine gaskets - heads, intake and exhaust, valve covers, oil pan etc will all be the same. The turbo kit might include some extra gaskets that the NA kit does not. The rings may be different - that I don't know. The pistons are lower compression so it's possible they used different rings on them. GD

The D-Check is an entire procedure - including driving the car while it is in this mode so the ECU can check all it's systems. What you are using is refered to as U-Check and that's just reading the *simple* codes that the ECU already knows about. The 7 flashes is your model code - it means nothing. It's quite a bit of information - I sugest you get your PDF viewer working or maybe print it from the library so you have the whole thing to reference. GD

Well it does say "Loyale" at the top of the section he pasted on here. Much of the data does in fact mirror the FSM for the Loyale. The fuel pressure for example is exactly correct - which it wouldn't be for the EJ22 - the EJ's MPFI system runs higher pressure than 20 to 24 psi. I concluded that being the outright say the info is for a Loyale and it is *most* correct for the SPFI system given the metrics they claim.... it's a mistake at the most generous. I agree - they do tell you that often in the aftermarket manual's. I am more often dissapointed by them than not. GD

Read the PDF I linked in your other post. It will answer your questions. GD