I've been working on my maxima for about a year and a half now. I have been dealing with a domino effect of broken parts since my clutch went out. It was in my parents backyard until three days ago, when I had it shipped to my new home.

It started with my clutch going out, I had no idea why it was making that whining noise in first gear and reverse and why it seemed to miss gears every once in a while. I later found out how bad the clutch was when I took the transmission off to replace it. I had worn the clutch down past the rivets in the clutch disk. So I went and got a new unit hoping that would be the end of my troubles. WELL, it wasn't. Because of the faulty clutch I ended up wearing out a few of the hard parts in my transmission. Namely, the 1st syncro and baulk rings, the 2nd and 3rd gears were worn down and both bearings on the input shaft were severly spalled. So I took it apart to rebuild it, got a price quote from a few shops during the same time, and decided to rebuild it myself. I had never rebuilt a transmission before so I was a little worried about it. I ended up getting everthing off fine, I checked all of the parts and got priced them out through the dealership. I decided to replace the 3rd gear while I was doing the input shaft. I took it down to a shop that had a shop press and started having them press the gears off. Well we didnt realize that there was a snap ring above the 4th gear and we broke the gear and the syncro. Tuff luck. SO I got lucky and found a guy selling a 88 maxima with a 5 speed. The car was hashed, but the transmission was working when I called him. Went to his house and the day that I went to get the car from him the car got stuck in reverse. No problem, I could get the transmission off in an hour. Took the transmssion off and pulled it apart. The thing looked brand new inside (except that it was stuck in reverse and 1st gear at the same time) So I pulled the shift forks off and the shafts out. Checked all the gaps and tollerances. Everything was golden. Paid the guy for the transmission and told him I'd be back for the car when I got the tranny in my car. Got it in, the car ran fine. I never road tested it, but the wheels turned in all gears. Sweeeeet. I never went back and got the car from the guy, I went to his house to pay him for the car and he was never home, so I stopped trying. The car would have been drivable at this point, but I decided that I should do the routine matinence, timing belt, waterpump, oil, belts, sparkplugs, fluids etc. Started on the timing belt and I noticed the left head was kind of burnt looking and it smelled like gasoline. I didnt think too much about it and did the timing belt. Lined everything up with the original marks that the previous person had done. (DUH ALWAYS USE TOP DEAD CENTER AND THE MARKS ON THE PULLEYS) On the left hand head it was hard to see the punch mark on the cam, I had marked where the previous owner had put the timing belt and lined the marks up with that, thinking it was the right place. Line up the other side and the crank gear. Put it all together and started it. boom tick tick tick and the car wouldnt start again. As soon as I heard that I knew what I had done. ARGGGG! What a pain in the ***. So I took the left head off to see how bad it really was. I had bent all but two of the valves. SO I took it off of the jack stands and parked it. I was out of time and money, I left to work in sun valley (my current residence) for the summer. Well I had a few times when I went home, managed to remove the other head and get everything ready to put new ones on. I got a really good deal on ebay, I found some rebuilt heads for $250 with everything but the camshafts and cam gears included and I already had those so SWEET. Purchased all of the corresponding gaskets, some injector wires because I didnt have the toold to take the little retainer clips out and broke them all, and some other parts including a torque wrench which has given me alot more confidence. Went home for another week and reassembled everything, almost.... I found that my exhaust manifold was cracked when I was putting it back together. Called a few junk yards on my second to last day home and found one that had a manifold and would remove it for me. Drove ~60 miles to the place only to find that manifold was also cracked, worse than my current one. SO again, again I parked it and waited. Well the day came when I convinced my dad to tow it up to me. We are now in the present week. I have been working on it for the past few days and things are comming along. I had a close call today with one of the rocker shaft bolts, it broke when I was torquing it down. Luckingly I heard the snap and got it out before it had broken completely. The heads are finnished, I need to install the new manifold, the new timing belt is on. I opted not to change the seals in the transmission and now it is leaking a little bit, so IF I get it running that is my next task. Third times a charm right. The point of this was not to make you feel sorry for me, but for me to show that I AM NOT GOING TO GIVE UP DAMMIT! So many times ive been so close I can taste it. I still remember what it was like driving the beast. I had so much fun with it. So maybe I will inspire a few of you. Or maybe a few of you out there will have more sense then me and just buy a new car. Im not going to let it go though, not yet, ive come to far.

 

damn that was long, sorry I had to get it out. Your the only ones who would understand.

 

You definately get a point for sticking with it.