tmorgan4

You will find that steel prices depend GREATLY on where you source them. One shop vs. another has a huge difference in pricing. What materials are you pricing out? Sheet? Plate? Round tube? Square tube? If you get an idea what to expect on prices you can tell who's ripping you off and who's just trying to make a living. There's one place where I live (within an hour) that sells steel and they're ridiculously expensive. Sadly, it's usually cheaper to order online + pay shipping for small quantities vs. driving 2 minutes to the local place. I try to buy local whenever possible, but sometimes it 's just too much.

Sounds great! I think the steering modifications are what hold a lot of people up from doing the subframe drop. Nobody wants something that might fall apart on the road and it's often tough to track down parts when you don't know what it needs. I'd like to see what you did when you have some time to get pictures and maybe even get some measurements. I found a couple sources for parts that might work well.

I must have missed what you did for the steering extension. Any pictures???

Soon! I'm working on getting steering hooked up and I can finally roll it out of the garage again.

Wow...I'm impressive work for sure!!! Will any of you guys do side jobs for a fellow NPORA member? I need a few things made......

Ok...name aside. Look up an automotive strut and notice that ORIs don't fit the description. What are your plans to keep the spindle where it needs to be? If you take off the strut and replace it with an ORI or coilover the spindle will be completely unsupported up top. Most coilovers and ORIs aren't made to take side loads like actual STRUTS are. What size shocks are going to be used? The smallest ORIs are 8" travel which is way to much for stock suspension arms and CVs. Running separate limit straps and bump stops?

Good thoughts so far, but you REALLY need to do some research on the front suspension for the Pathfinders. Even though ORI calls their shocks "struts" they technically are NOT struts. Take a good look at your factory suspension and you'll notice that the strut doubles as the upper arm on our vehicles and locates the top of the spindle. You definitely CAN mount coilovers up front (Calmini already did it on an R50) but you need to find a way to attach the spindle to the shock body or add a separate upper arm. Either way can be done. I might even have some shock mounts for you. I built a set when I first mounted coilovers that bolt onto the factory towers but ended up not using them when I changed plans for the 599th time.

Wow...don't know how I missed this! I'm really glad to see this being done! And yours is being completed at warp speed compared to mine. Sorry if I'm asking repetitive questions, but I'd really like to help you fix your issues and get this thing on the road. After looking through the FSM, it looks like the ABS on your 2003 was just like the ABS on my 2000. It's rare that you can just hook up a sensor from another vehicle and have the system work like it should. Whether your ABS, TCS, and VDC system ever work again depends on getting ABS sensors hooked up. If it were me, I'd pull the fuse and dash lights. You can surely get it to work, but it's going to cost you a fair amount of $$$ and obviously more time. I'm assuming you're still running the OEM power steering pump? Couple options for steering. Hopefully the pump didn't get screwed up when the shop messed with it. You can try over driving the pump a little bit with a new pulley that's a little smaller than the stock pulley. You could also have a shop that specializes in this type of modification look at it and see if they're willing to work on it. The absolute best idea would be to swap the pump for a pump that will move more fluid with a higher bypass pressure. PSC Motorsports is a FANTASTIC shop that specializes in steering systems and they build great pumps. This would mean building a new mount for the pump but after doing it 4 or 5 times it's not as difficult as I used to think to get all the pulleys lined up perfectly. What front calipers are you using? Factory waggy D44? First step would be to make sure the brakes are bled well but I'm thinking it's still going to have a soft pedal. The master cylinder bore needs to be upgraded to a larger unit that will move more fluid if you're using calipers with bigger pistons than stock. Other Nissan guys have had luck swapping in Dodge master cylinders and some others. Good info on Nissan4Wheelers.com. Your stock bore is 1.0" and the stock calipers have 2 1.75" pistons. Front driveshaft....You're going to need a CV driveshaft. This will mean a fair amount of modification to the axle and spring perches because your pinion will need to be pointed at the t-case output. Once you rotate the axle that far forward, you'll have to cut the inner axle C's off and rotate them to have a suitable amount of caster or your steering will not want to return to center. High Angle Driveline is very good. You could send him that picture and he could probably tell you a lot more about what you need than I can. Good luck! I want to see pictures of this out 4wheeling soon.

Nice to see another one "done"....Please get a hub to fender measurement for me! Mainly the front. Or even just frame to the ground would work. I'm trying to figure out how much I've lifted mine.

Wow...you're right! Never noticed the headlights and turn signals were one piece....This will be SOOO much easier to mount than the separate ones I've got now. Thanks!!!

Curb weight on a 2000 R50 SE according to Motortrend is 3,887 lbs.

What did I miss?

You're correct that you've got 4.3 gears. Switching to 4.6 gears should be pretty noticeable. If you just want the ring and pinion swapped into your current axles, plan on paying someone $150-$300 per axle to set them up. Setting up used gears (correctly) is much harder than setting up new gears since you want to try and get the contact patch as close to what it was. The right way to do that is to get the specs off the old differential before pulling the gears. The Nissan gear setups are about as good as you will ever find. They never make noise unless they are damaged or run low on oil, and they're built to last 250,000+ miles. There are guys that can set up gears this well, but don't assume that everyone who advertises gear install labor to be this good! It is 100% worth it to buy a complete differential with the gears already installed IF you don't plan on putting in a locker or modifying the LSD at the same time. The Xterra 4.9 gears won't fit our front differential, so that's out of the question. If you want a tighter LSD, your only option is to modify one from an R50, Xterra, or Frontier. The older WD21 Pathfinders with the better LSDs have a different spline count and it won't fit your axle shafts. Source a 4.6 front differential from an R50 (they should all be the same). I have one but it's heavy and probably cost a lot of $$$ to ship. What you do in the rear is up to you, but I'd plan on buying a complete rear third member with a LSD and 4.6s. Then bring it to someone to modify by adding clutch packs or do it yourself and double check the pattern afterwards.

Awesome!!! Thanks for the help guys. For some reason my profile has always showed a 2001 but it's really a 2000. I swear I've tried to change it!!! It looks like buying part of the core support would probably make my life easier. Our lights are a pain to mount without it. The SAS is going slowly...mainly because of $$$. I've got a bunch of parts in the works right now that I just have to sit back and wait on. I'm going to a dry sump and ATI has to make a custom damper for me since nothing exists. Nothing like waiting another 3 months for a bolt on part!!!

This is a sad topic, but it has been SO long since I took my core support apart I hardly remember how it all went together. I threw away my entire core support, and now I'm wishing I'd kept it a little longer! Does anyone have any good pictures of how the headlights and turn signals mount to the core support? A few pictures would really help refresh my memory on how everything went together!!! It looks like the OEM Nissan part is sold as a few different parts (left side, center, right side) but aftermarket core supports are one piece.