Tungsten

Then I encountered another issue. The stabilizer center link bracket was sliding on the frame. So I moved it down and found it to be interfering with the differential mount. After a bit of adjusting back and forth, I finally got it to be in the right place. Away from the differential mount as well. I also found out that by angling down the bracket I could put the stabilizer much more perpendicular to the frame. The law of physics is the more perpendicular the damper is to the force, the more effective it is. That's it! The system works great. I drove over a bunch of broken roads today and found it to perform more than adequately. In fact it felt much nicer than the stock steering system.

PICTURES PICTURES PICTURES As you can see, the 91 pitman arm fit perfectly on the 95 box. Now I had a different problem. The damaged boot... To fix it I took a foam insulator and cut a ring off then wrapped it around the gap and secured it with a zip tie.

You should swap it ASAP while your boot is still there. You really don't want to drive with that joint being loose. It will get destroyed like that and cause you to lose control and possibly roll over. That's right, all older steering boxes will work up to 1992. If you are using the 1993+ box, then swap the pitman arm from the 1991-1992 box.

Yeah I wish I spotted that sooner when I swapped up to a 95 box. I ended up loosing a boot from the pitman compressing on the joint. Good thing for me I already had a 1991 box so I just grabbed the arm from there.

Yes, it worked. The arm fit perfectly. Just took it off my old 91 box and put it on my freshly acquired 95 box. Now the truck is in the shop because the center link angle changed and it needs re-alignment. The only thing that went wrong is that the boot on that side seems to have exploded. I will just substitute that with more heavy grease around. Sure is better than losing control and dying because of one stupid joint!

I remember that 4x4 badge from this video:

You can always send a PM to the member that did it. Personally, I think it's not a good idea. If you ever roll over that extra metal will protect you so you don't die. If you have a roll cage then that's a different story. This is just something to consider.

Yeah I have that center one and my current 95 one must be the bigger hole. DERP! Why does Nissan have to do these things? At least it's a good thing I kept the old stuff. Found that pic in the thread. Going to swap the arm now.

Yeah upon a closer observation it seems that later year 4WD trucks use larger tapered holes. Swapping the pitman arm over from my 1991 box should resolve this issue. I'm pretty sure that the amount of splines are the same on both the 91 and 95 pitman arms for the box. The 2WD center link (for all years, mine was a 1997) will apparently only match up to older taper style holes. You will need earlier 4WD pitman and idler arms. The newer 4WD arms have taper holes that are too big. My idler arm was for 1991 so it works flawlessly with the 2WD link. I am going to verify this by swapping my pitman arm from the older 1991 box over to my new 1995 box. Also, the inner 4WD tie rods that go on the outside here will probably depend on the year as well. I'm pretty sure the knuckles have slightly different tapers.

Some pics of the stabilizer now... Then the filter...

Got some photos and discovered an interesting problem. The taper of the pitman arm seems to not work properly. The joint of the center link just spins around in the pitman arm taper hole yet the idler arm side works as it should. The boot on the pitman arm seems to have exploded and gone missing too.

Yep! My bump steer is no longer there. The steering wheel does not move anywhere flying over rough roads. Pics tomorrow!

I did not know where else to post this but I realised something interesting today. If I turn the wheel at standstill the truck rocks in the opposite direction of the wheels turning. For example if I turn left, the truck leans right, and if I turn right, the truck leans left. Is this normal on a Pathfinder? Or is this a caster alignment problem? Quickly turning the wheel left and right I can make the truck rock side to side. It looks funny from the outside but not sure how much this is going to impact my steering. Before anyone asks, no the shocks are NOT blown.

The resistor is in the cooling unit behind the glove box.

You can really use whatever you like but I am happy with the MOOG parts I got. Everything else is the same but for some reason for 1991, MOOG has a slightly different tie rod listed for 4WD. So the parts that I got were as follows: 2WD Inner Tie Rod - MOOG - ES2998RL (need 2) 4WD Inner Tie Rod - MOOG - ES3051L (need 2) 4WD adjuster - MOOG - ES2900S (need 2) 2WD center link - MOOG - DS1061 Some other info: The idler arm is an ACDELCO 45C1086 and I also used a steering enhancement package from 4x4parts. The steering box was from a 95 hardbody, the power steering reservoir was from a 93 hardbody, and the power steering lines were for a 95 pathfinder. I did not change the pump as that still looked fine to me and I remember replacing that about 4 or 5 years ago and did not want to risk getting a junk reman. The filter I used on the return steering line is a Raybestos Magnefine in 3/8".

That setup looks badass.

Ideally you want at least 14 AWG stranded wiring. The stock wiring is definitely not that great for speakers. If you aren't planning on any amplifiers and just want to replace the deck only, you could just get an adapter and be done with it.

There must be a reason why Nissan switched to rack and pinion on the second generation Pathfinder. Something tells me that they already knew about this problem but didn't think it would be a major concern. Not sure why they carried over the awkward design to the Xterra though. The 4WD link design only works properly if the tie rods sit parallel to the center link. To get that, the torsion bars have to be cranked down to their lowest limit and that makes for almost no travel room to the lower bump stops on the lower arms. If you crank it down that low, which is how I had it, you will be hitting the bump stops every time you go over a bump, which makes the ride quality as bad as an old Jeep CJ5. You could shave down the lower bump stops but why make the truck a low rider? The 2WD link with its longer inner tie rods allows for a better angle. At stock height the links are still more straight looking compared to the 4WD link design. The new 2WD system should definitely hold up much better on my roads. My old 4WD link system was finished in just under 8 years! That was without any off-roading what so ever. Anyway, more pics will be here soon when the torrential downpour of rain stops.

UPDATE: Got the truck back from the shop today. The entire thing fit together better than I thought it would. Now all I need is for them to crank up the torsion bars and re-align. This steering setup is excellent.

Is it possible to do the swap with coil springs instead? Leafers are really not that great for ride quality or flex.