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Funny you mention the decision maker - same for me. I was removing it and broke a link, instead of replacing it, drive a week and tossed the bar in the garbage. I do not actually notice any difference at all. Yes keep front for mentioned reasons, and stability.

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Haha, I guess that makes the decision easy! Does it really make no noticeable difference? I'm just a little cautious about removing the rear swaybar because the highways near my house have a couple of nasty S-curves. I could always just take it a little slower I suppose... I guess I'll just decide once it's all apart.

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That's what we were thinking when we did the front first. We figured it would be best to get the hard/time consuming part out of the way first.

 

Thanks for the kind words everyone!

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You could try running without the rear sway bar just to try out the road. I don't remember the disconnect method, but it should be easy to disconnect one side without causing damage. Drive for a day without and see if you notice a difference.

 

I did it when I upgraded my springs (OME MD) so the increased compression rate may have helped me. Also... my OEM shocks were both gone, and replaced them with OME nitro chargers. It still handles well everywhere I drive.

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I noticed a difference when removing mine. It's too loose around corners for my liking, even with OMEs. My articulation was fine with it on, and I'll probably put it back on soon.

 

Had a recent freeway event that puckered me up a bit. Guy came into my lane pretty hard at 70mph, I hit brakes and did a minor swerve, but the truck sway and countersteer almost took me back into the lane rather viciously. Close call to clipping another vehicle. I don't think it would have behaved like that with the bar still on.

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Hmm, I hadn't considered the issue of 'emergency scenarios'. I had just been thinking about how the truck would handle under normal driving conditions. I think just because of the occasional emergency, it would be nice to have the swaybar in place.

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Just to keep y'all updated, here's what's going on: I am planning to install the back half of the lift this Saturday, the 11th. That's a good thing, since I just cut my head on the trunk. :fail: 6 foot 3 problems I guess. :laugh: The Cali-lean is kind of annoying, as is the awful alignment. I can't wait to have those both fixed up!

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BTW, about the sway bar...not really advocating one approach over the other. After all, it's just another one of those personal things. I liked how it cornered before taking it off with an open diff...after the LSD swap, it was great...it just hooked up and stayed straight. After taking it off, it was just a bit more difficult to finish turns in the closest lane. The on ramps near me are long, gradual, curved ramps, and sometimes I need to tip-toe which leaves less time to get up to freeway speeds. Took it off-road a few times, but doubt I'd have noticed an real articulation loss there (besides, the lack of a PHB drop probably already limits droop).

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hawairish, your points are very valid and I think I am certainly leaning more towards leaving it on. On road handling is very important for something that spends 90%+ of its life on pavement. And as you mentioned, articulation from the rear axle seems plenty adequate even with the sway bar in place.

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Well, this update isn't all happy and cheery-there is some bad news. :( However, there is also some fun stuff, so I'm going to cover that first. I have one day left of school, so I got together with a couple of friends to ride bikes. One thing led to another, and before we knew it we were offroad. (Yes, we did actually ride bikes; about 45 minutes. Lots of fun there!) Here are some pics. The other truck is my friend's new-to-him 2006 4Runner.

 

Flexing%20at%20Bass%20Creek%206.9.2016_z

 

Lake%20at%20Bass%20Creek%20with%20Sam%20

 

Lake%20at%20Bass%20Creek%206.9.2016%20ms

 

So that's all of the happy fun stuff. On the way home, I heard a scraping noise. Turned out it was this clip that had come disconnected...meaning it was no longer clamping the outside passenger CV boot on! :ohno01:

 

CV%20Joint%20Clip_zpstxtzjrgj.jpg

 

Of course, this was the mess it had left by the time I made it home! :wacko:

 

Leaky%20CV%20Boot_zpsgyqv9iaa.jpg

 

I guess this is another thing to have to fix this weekend. It should be repairable with just some new grease and a new clip; less than $15, so I guess that's good. My theory as to why this happened is this: over the past few months, I had noticed some strange substance splattered onto the passenger side of the QX4. I just assumed it was some kind of nasty road stuff, but it continually returned. I hadn't thought anything of it until now. I think that the boot was already leaking, and when I was moving everything around during the installation of the lift, it just got make worse, and when I put the truck in 4wd and pushed power through the driveshaft, it popped off. That's just my theory though. Whatever happened, the fact is that it needs fixing. :thumbsdown:

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Also, I hope you all can forgive me for putting a picture of a Toyota on a Nissan forum! :laugh:

 

In my honest opinion (although biased) I think our generation of Pathfinder is a better suited for offroad than his generation of 4Runner. Not that the '06 4Runner is any kind of a slouch, but its major negative to me is a rather low handing crossmember. Although 4Runners do have that awesome rear window... My friend's has a center locker and a V8, which is nice.

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Check this guy out for how to replace your boots. If your axles are clicking it would be easier to buy a new axle. You can buy them pretty cheap off rock auto. Some people say that their products are not up to par but i've never had a problem with any of their things and i've ordered plenty of their parts. Good Luck!!
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Check this guy out for how to replace your boots. If your axles are clicking it would be easier to buy a new axle. You can buy them pretty cheap off rock auto. Some people say that their products are not up to par but i've never had a problem with any of their things and i've ordered plenty of their parts. Good Luck!!

Thanks! That will be helpful. Hopefully I don't have to replace the whole boot, but there's lots of good information in that video. :aok:

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Well, I got some work done today! First I went to Advance Auto Parts and picked up some parts for fixing my CV boot. I got grease and a couple of clamps.

 

CV%20Boot%20Parts_zpsatxixwas.jpg

 

After picking that stuff up (which I will be installing tomorrow) I started digging into the rear end so I could finish my lift. After disconnecting the shock and sway bar link from the driver's side, I discovered that I still couldn't get the axle to move down far enough; I could get the coil out, but there was no way it was going back in with another 2" added to it! I decided to head down to Auto Zone and see what they had in the way of a spring compressor. Neither I nor my dad wanted to use one as we understood there was a reason they had earned the nickname of "widow-maker". It turned out Auto Zone has an awesome system where you can borrow tools! This was great, because it didn't cost me a dime to use a tool I will probably never need again. :aok:

 

Widowmakers%20from%20Auto%20Zone_zpsgfwl

 

This allowed us to finally get spacers in the rear! The lift was nearing completion; needless to say, I was getting excited! :lmao: After driving around with gangsta lean for a week, I was anxious for it to be level again.

 

Rear%20Spacers%20Installed_zps9mtod5o8.j

 

You'd think that after doing the driver's side, where we figured out what we were doing and any parts/tools that needed to be gotten had been gotten, the passenger side should go quickly. We ran into one issue though; the sway link wouldn't come off! The darn bolt just spun. And yes, I was holding it on the other side with a wrench. Ended up just hacksawing it off. When the coil compressors were returned to Auto Zone, a Duralast link was purchased. Don't know when that will be installed; maybe tomorrow?

 

Cut%20off%20Rear%20Sway%20Link_zpsvjpwgp

 

Of course, there was one last surprise in store. Nothing much, but it still counts as something. I lowered the axle too far and the differential breather tube popped off. Thankfully, my dad was watching and noticed; I may not have. Somehow we both forgot to watch hoses. At least it wasn't a brake line!

 

Diff%20Breather%20Tube%20Disconnected_zp

 

I will try to get pictures up of the full lift tomorrow. So far all of the pictures I've put on here have been cell phone pictures. The before/after shots were/are being done with a proper camera. I will also put my before/after numbers for height at wheel wells on this thread.

 

One last thing. Something in the back end is making a dinging sound, like a bicycle bell. Anyone know what it could be? It sounds too crisp and clear to be coming from inside the axle or something. My current hypothesis is that it is a part of the heat shielding (which was already falling off) that is touching the driveshaft or something. I haven't had the chance to look too closely yet and don't intend to until I wash it-everything has a nice flaky layer of clay on it. I wonder how that got there! :tongue:

 

Also, I am finally on summer vacation, so hopefully I can spend some more time taking care of little details here and there. I'll probably end up getting really bored and detailing it a few times over the coming months.

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Nice work on the rear end. I would have expected to see the spacers stacked - but I guess that works also. I tried mine on the top, then moved the m to the bottom. Steve said they are fine either location (I did ask him once).

 

Nice spare... (I have the same one)

 

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Nice! Nothing like progress. But yeah, clean that stuff!

 

The most bell-like sounding thing in the rear that I can think of is the metal boot on the shocks.

That would make sense, except it was doing it at very slow speeds on perfectly flat ground; the suspension wasn't moving at all. I'm just going to have to take a close look later. And yes, I will clean it! It's 90°F right now though, so later.

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Nice work on the rear end. I would have expected to see the spacers stacked - but I guess that works also. I tried mine on the top, then moved the m to the bottom. Steve said they are fine either location (I did ask him once).

 

Nice spare... (I have the same one)

 

I decided to separate the spacers because I've heard it mentioned before that stacking spacers directly on top of one another could result in the spacer failing. I'm sure its fine enough either way, I just decided to do this. The spare is really nice, I wish all my tires matched it! The tires I have on right now do not have a very aggressive tread unfortunately...

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  • 2 weeks later...

Now that I've had 2 alignments done, it finally drives straight. Now, without further adieu, before and after pictures!

 

Before:

 

Before%20Lift_zps6xuqde5z.jpg

 

After:

 

After%20Lift_zps3k5ibqsg.jpg

 

I'm pretty happy with the results myself! It sits almost exactly 2" higher all around, which is nice. I probably won't be doing many/any major mods to it for a while, but hopefully I'll have a few more things done by summer's end.

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  • 1 month later...

Well, it's been about a month and a half since I last updated this thread. Unfortunately, not a whole lot has happened with the QX4 in terms of mods. However, it has been doing its usual daily-diver stuff perfectly fine. It's pulled some trailers, gone camping a few times, and gone offroading once or twice. The next mod I have planned is to get OME coils for the rear to increase it's ability to take weight, as the back end sags quite a bit when weight is applied. And just to keep y'all happy, here's a picture from the offroading I did this yesterday (wrote this yesterday, lol) morning. I went with my Uncle (Jeep JKU) and one of my friends (Toyota 4Runner).

 

IMG_20160806_104856_zpsyafva5kf.jpg

Edited by mjotrainbrain
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I just drove down to Venom Motorsports, a local offroad shop, and ordered OME springs part #2610 for the rear of my QX4. They should be here in about a week, I can't wait! I still can't decide if I want to have ~1 inch of rake or only use one rear spacer and have it stay level.

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If you plan on doing any kind of offroad or camping trip, I always suggest my customers to keep about 1" of rake... because once you pack your truck for the trip, you'll be level and not pointing to the sky ... :-)

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