95 truck info/advice

[Gravehunter]

I have been looking for a toyota truck for a while with no luck really.
I keep seeing some Nissan pickups around though and per $ in my area you are getting a newer, less miles, less rust.. and just overall a nicer condition truck for the money in a Nissan.

I am not familiar though with the Nissan trucks and would like some advice on them.

I am looking at 1995 reg cab, 4x4 with the 2.4L, manual shift.
no rust, very nice condition for its age. 175000 miles on it.

Is the 2.4L a good solid engine like the Toyota 22RE is?
I see it makes about 20 more hp with a loss of about 1mpg according to the EPA estimates.

Would just like to make sure it is a good engine with no major issues like Toyota's 3.0 of those years.
Any other tips or thiings i should look for on it when i go see it in person tommorrow would be great.

Thank you

[junior3382]

It is a japanese engine, so i would guess it would run forever with proper matinence. I have a friend with a 84 Nissan truck still runs strong.... My concern though would be the tranny. Those mid 90's were not known for long lasting transmissions. It helps it is not an automatic, but with 175k miles I would be leary of it. JMO.

[75K30]

Welcome to the site:

The nissan powerplant is a tried and true little engine. It is suprisingly strong, and very reliable.
Luckily you are looking at the 4 cylinder. so it does not have auto locking hubs which were a little bit of a pain for the V6 models. You also have a very reliable manual shift transfer case. These are all good things.
Things to look for, would be the tie rods, and center link. Pay particular attention to the driver side frame where the center link attaches to the tie rod end. There should be plenty of clearance here, and there should not be any defects in the frame.
A truck that has been riden hard, and put away wet will have a very distinct groove in the frame from where the TRE hit the frame.

[Gravehunter]

Originally Posted by junior3382

It is a japanese engine, so i would guess it would run forever with proper matinence. I have a friend with a 84 Nissan truck still runs strong.... My concern though would be the tranny. Those mid 90's were not known for long lasting transmissions. It helps it is not an automatic, but with 175k miles I would be leary of it. JMO.

How do the manuels go bad? bearings going out, gears stripping, etc.?? This will be the first and only one i have driven so won't have anything to compare it to.
thank you for the advice

[Gravehunter]

Originally Posted by 75K30

Welcome to the site:

The nissan powerplant is a tried and true little engine. It is suprisingly strong, and very reliable.
Luckily you are looking at the 4 cylinder. so it does not have auto locking hubs which were a little bit of a pain for the V6 models. You also have a very reliable manual shift transfer case. These are all good things.
Things to look for, would be the tie rods, and center link. Pay particular attention to the driver side frame where the center link attaches to the tie rod end. There should be plenty of clearance here, and there should not be any defects in the frame.
A truck that has been riden hard, and put away wet will have a very distinct groove in the frame from where the TRE hit the frame.

Yah the less electrical gizmo's to go bad the better on an old truck.

I always crawl underneath the vehicles to look at them. but knowing what to look for is good.
Toyotas have some bad frame rust issues so knowing where to look on them is a good thing. So these trucks don't have any abnormal frame rusting issues then i take it?

What is a TRE?

Thank you for the tips!

[mudseeker]

What is a TRE?

tie rod end

[Gravehunter]

Originally Posted by mudseeker

What is a TRE?

tie rod end

oh...
LOL never been part of truck boards till the last month or so.. i'm a bit behind on the abbreviations!

[junior3382]

A few people I know of that have those trucks have lost the gearing for the top gears all together. unable to get it into 4 or 5.... One guy I know has an automatic, it only has the first two gears. he leaves it that way since he does not drive it much. Leaves the keys in it, and the thing has been stolen seven times.... police always find it less then a mile away.... seems no one wants to keep a truck with a toasted tranny....lol... But I would think, as long as you do not burn the clutch and stay up on lubrication intervals on the tranny, you might be okay. I have just seen it to many times.... there was something about the mid 90's that just was not built to last last... is all I was saying. But any mechanical component will fail w/o matinence... so be kind to it and you may be fine.

[Gravehunter]

The one i looked at today was a 1995 pickup 4x4. It was by far the best condition for the money in a little truck i had looked at so i bought it.

Its got some things that need to be checked out of course. Tacometer somtimes works, somtimes not, temp guage doesn't work at all etc.. i will check it all out and search the boards for answers later one.

Rode the bike down and hauled it back in the truck on the way back. She did "ok" for a 4 cyl. I did 109 miles straight shot with no stops going from 70mph interstate down to 55(i'm in Iowa) on the way home and i stopped to fill her up and check gas mileage just to see what she got and get a feel for the state of tune of it. She got 20.36mpg. I'm pretty light footed to.

Heres a couple pics of her and my other 2 toys. I think my ATV tires are bigger than on my truck. LOL

Thanks again for helping out the

[87c10slammer]

yeah i had a 95 maxxima that did the same tthing. i only paid 200 for it so i wasnt really concerned with it untill i had it for over a year and the tack never moved and i had to get it inspected. i didnt know they would be so picky abou tsomeing like that. i had only put one mile on it in a year. it wound up being a bad cluster and through lots of research nissan is know for that so thats more then likely where your problem lies. its a nice truck though. i like em low and slow so coming from me thats a complimaent and a half