Winch, Heated Seats & Breaking Stuff

Hmm, I'm actually surprised that the last update was done before Christmas. Weeks fly by seamlessly. Since, I've actually unemployed, again, for the last few weeks. Still waiting word on the army, they seem to be taking their time, but it seems at least they are doing stuff. A few people got e-mails this week to fill out an online form for being my references. Heading to a job fair this weekend anyway for other options, but I'm actually leaning considerably towards the forces. I was told that there's a hiring freeze until April by a friend so I decided to give them a call just to make sure and that is indeed true.

Considering that I haven't done an update after Christmas, one thing that I haven't mentioned is that my parents surprised me and got me a winch as a gift. Ideally I wanted a Titan Winch, but this will definitely do. Well, if you've noticed on the Xterra, I don't have a winch bumper, and I don't plan on getting on either. With the body lift, there's plenty of room for a custom winch mount. Mind you, even without the body lift, it actually could fit, probably with some trimming of the bumper in that case. Regardless, my dad just needs to make a mount for the winch, which we've been working on this week. Did some test-fitting and some tweaking and the mount should be close to being bolted in. Next step is to remove the bumper and drill the holes in the frame. Last step is to modify the front crossbar to put the fairlead on it and weld that to the mount. Than to finish it off, to paint it using my process. My yellow top ended up going into my aunts van temporarily. Once I get that back, I'll be put into the Xterra, and hopefully coincide with wiring up the winch.

I also foolishly decided to tackle the sending unit for the oil pressure gauge. I knew it was going to happen and it did; I snapped the OEM sensor trying to take off the connector. I called Nissan and they wanted $130 for a new one. It's cheaper that I thought but it would still hurt right now, so I called my mechanic and he got me a price on a new aftermarket sensor; less than $20, so I was happy. As you can see, we actually didn't use the last NPT-BSPT fitting. We did it for a few reasons; 1) leass leverage/stress on the OEM mounting point, especially if mud gets pushed up in there and 2) there's a piece off the motor what would of been in the way of the aftermarket sending unit. The thing with MPT and BPST is that the difference is only 1-thread-per-inch, so you can make them fit if you want. The adapter is ideal to not ruin the OEM threads, but with the new aftermarket OEM sensor and the fitting costing $25, it really not an issue if they need to be replaced in the future. We also used a liquid sealant rather than the Teflon tape because the OEM sensor is a 1-wire and grounds through the chassis. The Teflon tape could actually insulate the sensor, causing it to not work. I still need to run wires from the sending unit to the gauge, but that's all that's left.

The heated seats have been working great. On my last week of work, the rep came in and I picked up a few sets of pads from him. One pair was suppose to be for a fellow CNTC member, but he hasn't set a date for the installation yet. It's about 3-5 hours worth of work. The other set I got was for anyone potentially for anyone else, but no one seems interested, but also the rep said that there's a possibility that he won't be carrying them anymore, so I decided to do what I also wanted to do and put heated seats in the rear. To say the least, putting them in the rear is actually ALOT harder than the fronts. I plan on getting another set of Pathfinder switches and they'll be mounted on each side of the 12 volt outlet behind the center console. Well see how soon I can get some Pathfinder switches, but I think the round switches that come with the pads are narrower, so I can use those in the meantime until I get the switches I want, but we'll see.