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1994 Pathfinder lift with pics


evan55
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Hey guys,

 

I just finished installing a suspension lift on my pathfinder. Front is new Rough Country UCA's with Rancho RS5214 shocks. Rear is JGC V8 springs, which I just bought new (MOOG CC782) and Rancho RS5116 shocks. In the front I adjusted the torsion bars to give a 1.5" lift, and the rear springs gave me 2.5 inch of lift.

 

I think I need to raise the front a bit more to match the rear, but the issue is the UCA's are 1/4" from touching the bumpstops. Maybe I need lower profile upper bumpstops? any ideas?

 

Also the front has excessive positive camber, hopefully the alignment shop can get it back in spec.

 

WyJCNT.jpg

 

WyJ63z.jpg

 

WyJkg5.jpg

Edited by evan55
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Lift it some more and it will get rid of some of thr positive camber. Cut down the bumpstop until youre new low profiles come in. Drive around a bit with sandbags or weight in the back to help the springs settle in the rear.

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Thanks I'll try lifting it some more. Also, when I installed the RC UCA's I left the alignment shims/washers on the uca bolts. They were about 2mm thick. Should I have removed these?

Edited by evan55
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I lifted it up another .5", that seems to have helped out with the positive camber problem. It still has a bit of positive camber and both wheels are pretty toed-in. I'm thinking I will bring it in for an alignment in the next day or two once I get the low pro bumpstops installed - these are the ones i ordered for the uca - https://www.summitracing.com/int/parts/ens-9-9102g 

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Removing the shim will help with the positive camber. When you crank up the torsion bars it lift the front which pulls the tierods in closer giving you neg toe.
You can do a diy alignment to get thr alignment closer to spec until get it professionally done.

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On 7/22/2019 at 7:36 PM, Cuong Nguyen said:

Removing the shim will help with the positive camber. When you crank up the torsion bars it lift the front which pulls the tierods in closer giving you neg toe.
You can do a diy alignment to get thr alignment closer to spec until get it professionally done.

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Thanks again for the info. I got it aligned today at the shop. Everything is now within spec except for caster which is a bit out. The pathfinder drives pretty good overall. My only concern is the ride height is even on both sides but the driver side UCA is 1/16" from the bumpstop and the passenger side UCA is 1/2" from the bumpstop. Not sure what could be causing this difference from side to side.

Edited by evan55
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The distances should be relatively the same for both sides. Was the caster issue related to the side with little space between the bump stop?What is your alignment numbers? There were some arms (welded badly but cannot remember the brand) that caused funny alignment issues.

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W5Q2ne.jpg

 

So I guess the left side caster is out of spec, which would be the drivers side. Think that might be why there is little space between the bumpstop?

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Looks like all they adjusted was the toe. The slight changes on the camber and caster is what you will get from setting the toe. Many shops don't know how or are unwilling to adjust the camber and caster or will charge extra for those. 

From the numbers, I would expect a pull to the left while driving, but if you are not, take the win. 

 

With the spaces at the bump stops, that is actually where the front hight measurements are performed. If you are happy with the way it is driving and looking, I wouldn't worry too much about the space difference.

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2 hours ago, Mr_Reverse said:

Looks like all they adjusted was the toe. The slight changes on the camber and caster is what you will get from setting the toe. Many shops don't know how or are unwilling to adjust the camber and caster or will charge extra for those. 

From the numbers, I would expect a pull to the left while driving, but if you are not, take the win. 

 

With the spaces at the bump stops, that is actually where the front hight measurements are performed. If you are happy with the way it is driving and looking, I wouldn't worry too much about the space difference.

Right, that makes sense they just adjusted the toe. The shop seemed a bit hesitant about touching the camber/caster as they didn't even know which shims to use.

 

There is no pull to the left thankfully. It drives great so far, and feels good offroad too. I think I'll leave it as-is and maybe lower it a touch in the future once I need to do the center link, tie rods, and idler arm.

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Yes, adjusting the camber/caster using shims is a PITA and even with the Hunter alignment racks that run the calculations for me I use is still a tedious process when stock and a nightmare when lifted. I would assume the same when lowered, but haven't had to deal with that on the Pathfinders. 

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Nightmare is an understatement lol. I helped the last mechanic do mine. It still took 4 hours of adjust, drive around the block to settle the bars, recheck, etc.

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So after driving around for a couple days I re-torqued everything with the wheels on the ground. Today I did a check after a drive on a bumpy forest road and 1 spindle nut on the UCA was about to fall off and the others were a tiny bit loose. I re-torqued both spindle nuts on each side of the pathfinder to 65 ft/lbs. (FSM specs 52-76 ft/lbs.). I took it for another drive and the nuts seemed to have loosened up again.

 

I figured after cycling the suspension and re-torquing these nuts a few times already they shouldn't be loose anymore. Do you guys have any suggestions? The only thing I can think of is backing the nuts off a bit and applying some blue loctite to the threads.

 

WaDqkZ.jpg

 

 

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Do the threads have good engagement? How much of the bolt is threading in? You may want to get longer ones. M14x1.5x60mm instead of 50mm. A little loctite won't hurt.

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If you are planning on wheeling the truck, I would strongly suggest this as your next upgrade:

 

https://www.grassroots4x4.com

 

The stock one does not play nice with suspension lifts. As well as an idler arm brace. Then your steering is pretty much bombproof.

Edited by adamzan
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I will definitely get an idler arm brace, either the 4x4 parts brace, or make my own. 

 

The grassroots centerlink looks pretty beefy. I don't plan on doing a lot of hard offroading. I'm mostly going to use the pathfinder for overlanding and light trails. Do you think a stock replacement centerlink would be fine for that?

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Stock CL gives up long before you will bend an idler arm spindle. That is all the brace helps with. 

The steering linkage in our trucks is ok as long as everything is kept stock. When you change the angles with even a 2" lift and/or swap to wheels with less backspace than stock, the CL wears out quickly. 

 

In my opinion, you will quickly save money by upgrading the CL rather than replacing with a stock type. Not only the cost of the CL itself, but reduced tire wear and improved fuel economy adds up. I have seen a 3 mpg improvement just from aligning alone with mine. Granted that is a bit more extreme than you would see with yours since I run 33x12.50 MT's and a bit more lift, but it does have an effect even on stock vehicles that is eye opening for people who track their fuel economy.

That said, the upgraded CL does involve extra work to install and still doesn't fix everything, and does cost more, so you are really the only one who can honestly make that decision. 

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A stock CL at my local parts house in Canada is over $250 (I get a commercial discount so I wouldn't pay that, but still). So in my mind it's an easy decision.

 

The stock one would last a month worth of only driving when I lifted the truck. The idler and CL would start twisting and wear out very fast.

 

You don't have to do it now, try the truck out and see how it feels. Maybe it'll be fine, but I never had good luck with it.

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Yeah I think I'm going to drive it as-is for a while since it drives fine. Steering wheel has always had about 1/2" of play. I also need time to save up for the CL, TREs, and idler arm.

 

In your experience, which steering parts are the first to go? Centerlink? And is it something that gets gradually worse overtime? I'm trying to plan what to look out for. I'd hate to be suddenly stranded.

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The centerlink and idler arm. I've only ever had to replace one set of tie rods and those were the original 1995 ones. And I only replaced the loose ones as they wore. I think I still have one original tie rod. Since you've got the RC arms like I do you won't go through tons of upper ball joints like the 4x4parts UCAs. Just make sure to use good parts and keep them lubed. After upgrading the CL I find the front end is pretty stout. Rebuilding the idler arm every other season is a pretty small price to pay.

 

Grease those UCA bushings at every oil change.

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  • 1 month later...

I'm still finding the UCA spindle nuts are loosening up as I mentioned above with pics.

 

I did blue loctite on the nuts and retorqued them to spec, and when driving down rough forest roads I had to tighten the nuts every couple miles because they were about to fall off!

 

I think I'm just going to buy new nuts and lock washers and try that. Any idea what the nuts are, M14 x1.5? Same as the uca bolts?

 

Thanks!

Edited by evan55
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