97 pickup 4x4

[97truck4x4]

Hello All
97 Nissan Pickup XE 4x4 2.4L M/T 250,000+miles.....rebuilt motor about 100,000 miles ago...

Truck will barley run...been trouble shooting for a week now. I will go into details later, after i get some info on 3 main things that are bugging the crap out of me!

1. CEL does not come on when you turn the key...it never comes on. Can someone please help me trouble shoot this? Im going to get to the bulb today and check it...the other lights on the dash work.

2. Bought a code scanner...works great on my 2000 xterra and 2001 Maxima but doesnt work on the 97 truck...OBD port appears to not be getting power. Ohm'd the power wire. How do i trouble shoot this?

3. During all my "inspecting" of TPS, MAF, and Vac lines, i noticed that 2 of the thicker vac lines (not any of the 1/8 lines) were very "crunchy"...so i unhooked them and they were completely filled with what appeared to be activated charcoal or something...is this normal?

Thanks Boss
justin

[deerhurst]

I can probably only help with diagnosing #2.

Since you know which wire is hot you should be able to find a common or ground pretty easy. See if you have a voltage difference between the two. Ohms will just tell you the resistance between the two multimeter prongs. Youll have to be on each end of the wire to get a resistance reading on it. If you measured Ohms between hot and ground you should have infinite unless they are shorted somewhere up the line.

I can ask my roommate more specific stuff as he built an OBD2 scanner from scratch and coded it.