shift220 Posted December 8, 2009 Author Share Posted December 8, 2009 awesomeness!! Now that i have a good idea, i can focus on the steering problem...(which i'm gonn do differ from you. Not because i can't, but to see if there is a way to do it without welding...) Looking forward to see how you do the rear (that one has me stumped. But i guess if i actually took the spring off and looked it might be obvious). My best advice would be to look at old Nissans in the junkyard and see what parts you can use off the steering. A lot of the splined shafts are the same between years/models. The main thing is to maximize the distance between the u-joint and i'm pretty sure you can only use two total without any sort of "awkwardness" in the linkage. The back is going to be interesting. I just got a nice SS braided line made up today with the tee on one end. Ran me about $60 parts/labour. I'm going to cut and weld in pieces to extend the swaybar links. And my plan right now is to just make some 4" spacers for the springs. They will be pretty simple and I have plenty of scrap metal to throw together for them. Ideally we could find some spring in the junkyard that would be a direct swap but I'll save that for another time! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
180sx Posted December 9, 2009 Share Posted December 9, 2009 Why 4" spacers? Since you got 4" up front, why not do 3.5 or 3.75 to help level the truck out? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shift220 Posted December 10, 2009 Author Share Posted December 10, 2009 Why 4" spacers? Since you got 4" up front, why not do 3.5 or 3.75 to help level the truck out? Well.. I did make them 3.75" because the back end was 1/4" higher then the front stock so yup that was my plan. Now I have everything together and on the ground and the back end is 1/4" lower then the front . Probably due to new struts on the front. I'm sure it'll settle a little. I'll try to post picture soon. The spacers seemed to work ok, but they make weird angles with the springs. It looks good with the weight on them though. Time will tell! For everyone's information, I went with Max-Control shocks by Gabriel on the back. They measure 28" extended and 16" (i think) collapsed. The ones that fit are off the rear of a 99-04 F350 Superduty 2WD. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tekazgtr1984 Posted December 10, 2009 Share Posted December 10, 2009 Awesome work! Major kudos for doing all the research; you've clearly invested a hefty chunk of time (and $$ I would imagine) into this project. Well done! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
01silvapathy Posted December 10, 2009 Share Posted December 10, 2009 Let us know how those shocks work out for ya, and how the ride is! You could also play around with some F250 springs and get rid of the spring spacers...just an idea Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shift220 Posted December 11, 2009 Author Share Posted December 11, 2009 Awesome work! Major kudos for doing all the research; you've clearly invested a hefty chunk of time (and $$ I would imagine) into this project. Well done! Thanks! I'm glad to share it with everyone. Let us know how those shocks work out for ya, and how the ride is! You could also play around with some F250 springs and get rid of the spring spacers...just an idea I went for a quick drive yesterday and it seemed good. Our roads are all snow covered and I didn't go to far. The shocks were on the expensive side but have better valving that should help hide the application difference. Hmm I wonder which way they mount on the F350's Its going in for an alignment tomorrow with some cam bolts to adjust the camber back to spec. The report should tell me how close to stock the spacers kept it. Do the F250 springs have the same ID and OD as ours? I'd imagine the ride would suck after buts it worth a look to find out for sure. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
01silvapathy Posted December 11, 2009 Share Posted December 11, 2009 So u wanna post up some pics Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shift220 Posted December 16, 2009 Author Share Posted December 16, 2009 Ok ok so the weather finally cooperated today and I was able to get the Pathfinder washed. First off, here are the spring spacers I fabricated. They are nothing pretty but seem to do the job. I didn't have much time and had to get this thing back on the road. They only got a quick shot of some black paint. I didn't get any pictures of how I attached them but I basically drilled a 1/2" hole in the center of the spacer and bolted them down to a nut I welded below on the axle spring perch. Very simple and keeps them in place. Here you can also see the bottom of the shock I used. Again, its from the rear of a F350 Superduty 2wd. The ride is excellent and doesn't seem much if any rougher then stock. The shock was a direct bolt-on with some extra washers on the axle side. And finally... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shift220 Posted December 16, 2009 Author Share Posted December 16, 2009 A little more on the technical side, I got an alignment done and had a set of camber bolts ready for the guys to use (it looked off). Turns out the spacers keep the camber dead on (even with the addition 1/2" of lift). The toe was way out but that was before the lift as the SFD doesn't change anything with the toe. As for the rear end, it is offset by about 1" from the front wheels (towards the drivers side as expected). In the next couple days I'll make up a drop bracket Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
180sx Posted December 17, 2009 Share Posted December 17, 2009 Bad@$$ indeed. Could you explain the rear spacers a little bit more? I mean,how wide is the spacer itself (Inside diameter is mainly my concern). And why did you weld on spring bits to the bottom? Thanks! Jose Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
01silvapathy Posted December 17, 2009 Share Posted December 17, 2009 That looks sick bro Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
new4x4r Posted December 17, 2009 Share Posted December 17, 2009 That looks flippin amazing dude! I'm jealous as hell! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tekazgtr1984 Posted December 18, 2009 Share Posted December 18, 2009 That looks just wicked! Awesome job! Thanks for the pics! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edicer2 Posted December 18, 2009 Share Posted December 18, 2009 looks great man you did a fantastic job! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tekazgtr1984 Posted December 18, 2009 Share Posted December 18, 2009 BTW, what kind of wheels are those? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shift220 Posted December 19, 2009 Author Share Posted December 19, 2009 Thanks for the comments everyone. I'm very glad how it turned out and i'm excited to test it out off the road. Bad@$$ indeed. Could you explain the rear spacers a little bit more? I mean,how wide is the spacer itself (Inside diameter is mainly my concern). And why did you weld on spring bits to the bottom? Thanks! The spacers consist of 4 main parts. The pipe was I believe 5" (I will check for sure) but it basically sat within the ID and OD of the spring. I welded the 1/2" metal rod on the bottom just to make it sit more like the spring did in the perch. The pipe could have just sat on the perch and it would have probably been fine. The reason it's in little sections is because 1/2" solid metal rod is quite hard to bend into a 5" diameter circle without a torch Third was cutting out a circle from some 1/8" flat plate with the plasma and welding it into the center of the pipe right up flush to where the spring would sit. This gave the spring more area to sit on and allowed me to bolt the spacer down like mentioned before. Then I welded some 1/8" x 1" flat bar around the spacer to keep the spring in place. I could have done it on the inside as well, either way is fine. And the wheels are 17" x 9" MKW Offroad M56 with 4.53" backspacing. You won't find them in black though The 255 width M/Ts clear the strut with tons of room to spare and I have only minor rubbing on some plastic drivers front. Some more heat gun will take care of that though. I will compile all the info and maybe make a PDF so it sticks around Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
new4x4r Posted December 20, 2009 Share Posted December 20, 2009 I will personally send you a case of beer (or coupon for a case of beer) for your troubles if you send me the measurements! ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shift220 Posted December 20, 2009 Author Share Posted December 20, 2009 Here are the plans for the blocks. I recommend drilling these with high quality drill bits for accuracy and a drill press is definitely the way to go. As for hardware, I went with fine-thread grade 8 imperial bolts. (4) 9/16" x 1.5" bolts w/ washers & nuts (4) 7/16" x 1.5" bolts w/ washers & nuts (4) 3/8" x 1.5" bolts w/ washers & nuts Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
new4x4r Posted December 21, 2009 Share Posted December 21, 2009 Thanks for the specs brother! We really appreciate it... NOW GET ON TO THOSE STRUT SPACER SPECS!!! ahahahaha PM me your addy too so I can send the Beers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanAK Posted December 21, 2009 Share Posted December 21, 2009 Awesome Job Mate, I am really impressed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shift220 Posted December 23, 2009 Author Share Posted December 23, 2009 Here is the plan for the strut spacer positioning. I have the real Autocad file posted up back on page 3 to get the flanges cut out. The pipe I used was 4" ID and probably around 3/16" thick or so. I cut my pipe at 8.5 degrees and it seemed to work not bad. The alignment specs are within specifications. It didn't sit flat on body/spacer when I jacked the strut into place but the mount flexed and closed the gap. Time will tell how well it holds up. I can say I have put on around 2000 km since then (mostly highway) and everything is still good. The very "tips" of the pipe are what line up with the strut flange that you need to weld to the pipe (marked by the 45 degree line). It does take some thinking to get it all in line and positioned the correct way. I know I had to cut and re-tack a few times, so don't fully weld until your very sure you have everything going the right way 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanAK Posted December 28, 2009 Share Posted December 28, 2009 Hey Man, Thanks for all the updates. I was just wondering after looking at you steering setup it looks like you might be able to take about 1/2 an inch of the whole setup and do 3" blocks. What do you think, would that mess up the angles to much? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shift220 Posted December 28, 2009 Author Share Posted December 28, 2009 Yup you could definitely do a 3". It should work better since the angles would be less steep. I'm curious how Alex and others did the linkage for 4"+ SFDs. Any further and it seems like mine would bind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
180sx Posted December 28, 2009 Share Posted December 28, 2009 Well everybody else used 2 universal joints (the pathy one and usually a honda one or another pathy one) to do theirs. Doing it this way meant it had to be at least a 4" lift. With it this high though, you would have to either drop the panhard rod or extend it (as you already know from your 3.5" lift) and the driveshaft would probably have to be extended about an 1" (as Alex said from his experience with his black R50). Extending the driveshaft alone is about $200 though, and then there is the down time from it (unless you want to drive in FWD, which is not recommended at all). I was talking to my buddy today, and he asked me if there was a way I could actually rotate the steering rack to help the angle out. This sounds easy, but then I realized the driver side bracket and the sub frame and the rack itself is shaped to keep the rack at that angle, which would make that an extremely difficult job to accomplish. What do you guys think about that Idea? Jose Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shift220 Posted December 31, 2009 Author Share Posted December 31, 2009 Yea the steering rack has D-shaped clamps that hold it in place. I'm not sure how it sits on the subframe as I never removed it, so i'm not sure if it can be rotated with new clamps or not. I'm sure someone could machine pieces to fit in there to make a new seat. On the other side, I was looking at possibly rotating the 90 degree steering gear box. Things are sure tight up in there though so it would take some R&D. Just some things to look at... With a ~3.75" lift in the back, my driveshaft seems to be doing good. No funny vibrations and the angles don't seem to bad. I should really check them though and maybe look into some adjustable link bars. I AM getting a vibration in the front end while accelerating in 4wd. I'm thinking its my pass side CV axle and hopefully not the driveshaft. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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