2001 Pathfinder control arms

[ryjaytay38]

Does anyone have any tips on replacing the control arms, ball joints, tie rods, struts etc on a 2001 Pathfinder? I've been getting parts off of ebay motors because they are so much cheaper than anywhere else I've looked. Just replaced the rear trailing arms after I experienced the death sway/wobble. Got that done but need to do the front end worse. Alignment place said it needed 3k worth of front suspension stuff done before they'd align it. I won't pay for what I can do myself. It's got 210k miles but has creaks and groans and all of that fun stuff. Steering is sketchy although I do have a new rack on there. Are there any tricks or helpful hints when putting struts, control arms and ball joints on?

[bushnut]

spray everything down a few days prior with your favorite penetrating lubricant, have a handy breaker bar around. power tools are useful but not necessary. a friend to hand you a beer is. start from the bottom up.. ie remove lower control arm first. also fore ease of work remove front drive shafts as well. finish with removal of strut. to reassemble start with the strut top and work your way down. remember to torque everything when the truck is sitting level on the ground. I'd replace swaybar bushings and end links as well while i'm in there. and may as well do the brakes if necessary.

I've done this work a few times now with no powertools on my front lawn. I have invented new bad words to yell at nissan enginerds. but I have save hundreds of $$$ and gained the pride of doing it myself.

best of luck.

[mjotrainbrain]

Wow, that's a lot of work! Good for you to have that kind of ambition. When you're putting it all back together, make sure the CVs didn't come apart or anything while sitting around not attached to anything. The only time I've had issues with mine is shortly after messing with suspension, so make sure they're OK. Double check them once everything's back together.

 

Good luck!

Edited September 29, 2016 by mjotrainbrain

[ryjaytay38]

Thanks Bushnut and mjotrainbrain! I'm new on here and really appreciate some good advice! I'll let you know how it turns out

[LittleFR]

It's really not too bad as long as you aren't lifting it while your in there.

 

Be prepared to cut off the sway bar end links and just have new ones. They are made out of Tungston or some experimental metal, cutting them off slowed me down and really made me unhappy.

 

Also get the arrows lined up proper on the strut braket cup things, I put mine on 90 degrees off and one side was lifted like an inch higher until I compressed the springs and twisted it. The easiest thing to do is pull the tires and spray paint straight down each strut so you can refer back for assembly.

 

As stated I pulled a CV apart by hand.... don't do that.

 

Good luck.

Edited October 5, 2016 by LittleFR