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mjotrainbrain's Build Thread


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Hi all!

I have had my 2002 Infiniti QX4 for about 8 months now, have been reading forums on NPORA very often since I discovered it, and just today finally decided to make an account.

 

My R50 has the 3.5L engine, an automatic transmission, about 125,000 miles, a locking front differential, and a limited slip rear differential. Also, I am fortune in that it has very little rust, especially for a Michigan vehicle.

 

Here is a picture of it on my very first wheeling trip from fall of 2015. At this point zero mods had been made, bone stock. This was the day that I realized what a capable machine it was. And yes, that is a Hyundai Santa Fe behind it. So no, I wasn't pushing it very hard that day.

Offroad%20with%20Drake%20Fall%202015%20P

 

Since then I have done a couple of upgrades:

-Westin step rails (stock parts rusted away so I needed something, rock sliders were too expensive)

-Weather Tech floormats

-Tail light guards

-Reese trailer hitch

-Resonator delete

 

This is a picture of it a few weeks ago on my second wheeling trip.

Offroad%20Mothers%20Day%202016_zpsgh9xen

 

Now that the school year is almost over (only 4 more weeks!) and summer is upon us, I hope to get a lot more opportunities to go offroading and enjoy what the R50 is best at. I don't know when it will arrive, but I ordered Fleury's spacer lift a couple of days ago - 2 inches rear, 2.5 inches front, so I'm looking forward to that.

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Nice looking Q! Fair warning when you wheel it a bit if those fogs are anything like the ones on the pathfinder they will end up very cracked. If you care about the way it looks I'd recommend you remove them before doing any mudding or serious wheeling.

 

Also, I didn't realize that there was ever an option for a factory from locker, can you elaborate?

 

Good luck with the build :)

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Thank you very much for the compliments and the warning, I'll have to be careful with those fog lights. Under what conditions do they crack? Is it when the bumper is bumped?

 

In response to your question about the front locker, I actually haven't looked into it very much beyond knowing that my truck has one. It very well could be an Infiniti exclusive feature. All I know is it is there and it works, as I quickly found out the first time I drove on dry pavement with 4wd engaged! :lol:

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I was going through my phone and found this picture from a couple of months ago. It's a neat little spot on the shore of the Grand River. Looks like it might be a pretty good fishing spot, so I'll have to try it out some time.

QXploring%203.22.16_zps15ogsq9q.jpg

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Decided to stop by a fun little place called Bass Creek to celebrate it finally being the weekend. It's not a place that you could spend more than 30 minutes at, but it's closer than any trail that I know of and is a great way to get in my off-road fix. :lol:

 

I didn't have anyone else with me, so I couldn't get any pictures or videos going through the mud. Sorry guys, I'll try to get some next time! Anyways, I did manage to get some flex shots on a convenient pile of dirt.

 

Flexing%20at%20Bass%20Creek%205.20.16_zp

Flexing%20at%20Bass%20Creek2%205.20.16_z

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Looks like a solid, clean Q. I like that color blue but I've never been a fan of the gold lettering Infiniti uses.

I was running Fleurys spacers until just recently and while they do as advertised, which is add extra height, the springs in the QX are so soft that you can't have anything much heavier than a few fluffy pillows before you start sagging in the rear. When I went wheeling with the stock springs, they were so mushy that I'm surprised I didn't damage the undercarriage of the truck because I bounced off of every rock on the trail.

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Yeah, I'm going to have to do something about the spring eventually, especially considering a tow a trailer fairly frequently. I just went this route because it was a cheap way to get the job done, and I can't afford a full set of coils at the moment. It's funny how it looks kind of blue in the pictures, but it's actually black!

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I know it has locking hubs, and I am referring to the differential. I can't find anything anywhere that would suggest that it has them either, but from experience using it (both in the dirt and on dry pavement) I feel quite certain that the front differential locks when I engage 4HI or 4LO. Perhaps the PO modified it? I can't imagine that they did though, as it seems as if they had never taken it offroading, let alone hard enough to justify a upgrading to a locker.

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When in 4wd it will not turn as sharp, and if on pavement it will seem like it is binding and the front is skipping during turns. This doesn't indicate a locking front diff, it just indicates that it is in 4wd.

 

It is a very rare modification on these, and only done by those who *really* wheel them. I'd put $$ on it yours doesn't have one.

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So is the difficulty when turning on pavement due to the center diff being locked? My parents never owned 4x4s and this is my first one, so I'm still inexperienced with what they're like in the real world.

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Thanks for helping to clear this up guys! I had the knowledge about 4 wheel drive and Ackerman steering and whatnot, but for some reason my mind got a little too excited and convinced myself that I had a front locker. :fail: Would have been cool if I did, but anyways, thank you to all of you for helping me to clear up this issue. :aok: I guess that's one more thing to add to the ever-growing list of future upgrades!

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The request for lots of pictures has been noted; I'll do the best I can! The front might be a little harder to get pictures of, as I may need to take it to a shop so the coils can be compressed. Memorial Day weekend couldn't work out better, because now I have 3 days in case something goes wrong! :lol:

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well, lift things started happening yesterday! Seeing as this is the first major wrenching I've ever done, I had both my dad and an experienced mechanic with me to help get tough bolts loose (I need to work out apparently :D) and provide instruction. Also, we were able to drive over to the mechanic's shop that he work at to use their wall-mounted strut compressor. Somehow just the front took almost 5 hours, so we called it a night at 9:00. Still not sure when I'll have a chance to do the rear so the lift can be finished-hopefully soon!

 

Regretfully, this is the only picture I've gotten so far.

 

Front%20Lift%20Spacers_zpsumi08e8v.jpg

 

The hardest part for this part was wrestling the struts into/out of position without causing damage to the brake lines, CV boots, etc. It was awfully cramped near the bottom! It looks like the sun is starting to come out (it was storming this morning) so I'll go try to get some pictures of how the truck looks with half of a lift.

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This is how she sits with only the front half of the lift installed. Unfortunately, it looks like I'm going to be driving around with some minor Cali-lean for the next few days.

 

Halfway%20Lifted_zpshz0m59ji.jpg

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Looking great. I will say the rear is much easier. My process (only put in 1.5" spacers):

1. Drive up on ramps

2. Remove shocks (2 bolts easy) and Panhard (1 bolt used some thread cleaner)

3. Jack one side up - remove wheel and ramp

4. Lower that side until spring is loose (Watch brake line carefully)

5. Remove spring and clean around all mount locations (optional cleaning but may need it)

6. Insert spacers/spring back into location

7. Reverse 4,3,2,1.

8. Repeat for other side.

 

The first time I did it for only springs and shocks - OEM to OME. The second time was to add the spacers. Both sides took me about an hour and a half (alone in my driveway). I used: 2 ramps, 1 jackstand, 1 floor jack, various bricks/wood spacers, socketset, torkwrench, cleaner/degreaser/lube.

 

PS: my rear sway bar is also removed.

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pepperjack26, thanks for those instructions! That's more or less how I was planning to do it, but I had forgotten about the panhard bar. Also, thanks for the warning about brake lines-those would be a disaster if they broke! I'm still torn on whether or not I want to remove my rear swaybar. I intentionally left the front because at full extension the CVs bind and I don't want that to happen while flexing on a big obstacle. The rear on the other hand will probably just be determined based upon how hard it is to remove.

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