BOKER420

I check on the pacesetter headers. I can only find one place that has them and they are 380.00. Is this a good price? Thorley are just too much unless there is a cheaper place to fine them. Does anyone have the ones from AC. they are only 330.00

My stock wires are not bad but I want to get a little more performance out of my truck. I've intalled a K & N intake. I just put in Bosch 4+ plugs. And in the near future I'll be getting headers. What brand, part number spark plugs wires will fit on my 95 pathy? Does a bigger diameter wire help any? I want to get the most out of my engine so any help or comments would be appreciated. Also what brand headers are good for my application and where I can buy them? And do you really notice the increase in performance? Any other suggestions on how I can increase power of my pathy would help. After I put my 3" sl and 3"bl with 33" tires my truck has been weak. Now I took the sl lift off and went with 31" tire and the truck still feels like I'm towing something when I'm not. Thanks in advance. Bill

Just checked my steering yep no room for a drop arm. The bearings i found come with a housing. It's the housing then the teflon liner then the bearing. There not cheap though. There 36.99 for the bigger ones for where you mount the pitman/idler arms and 31.99 for where the tie rods go. I guess as little as I could save doing it myself I'd be better off getting the L&P one with the 5 year guarantee.

Well I did a bit of searching and found some teflon lined bearings that will work. It would be about 135.00 shipped for the 4 bearings for the centerlink. So if I did the work myself I'd only be saving 130.00 bucks from buying the L&P one. Which isn't a bad deal. I know this has been asked probably a thousand times but like someone suggested earlier about once a pathy gets a suspension lift the steering starts to go bad. Why don't they make a drop pitman/idler arm for pathy's. That would put the steering back level wheel to wheel with no arc. Just recalling from memory but I think there is enough room to drop the steering down a bit. So why don't they make one?

Well If you were refering to me talking sh*t I guess if saying their centerlink is 300+ and not 290 is talking sh*t then I guess I was. I wasn't trying to start a big quarrel here. I just wanted some feedback on if this could really work. So since the centerlink is the weak spot then Why replace the idler and pitman arms. Would just buying the L&P centerlink fix my problem? If thats the case then it would be way less hassle spending a few hundred extra dollars then trying to fab up my own. I'm also thinking of going down to 32's next time I need tires also something less then 12.5 wide. That should be better on my steering and my gas mileage. One more thing. Does this L&P steering upgrade stiffen the steering enough where you don't have to turn the steering wheel a 1/4 turn before the tires move or do I have some other problem.

It will take some time searching for a worthy tie rod and as for the next weakest link I would hope nowhere. Whats the weak link on the LP or calmini systems? I'm just trying to save some money and also give me something to do. I do have a friend that has all the tools a machine shop does so I could ask and see what he could do for me. If you could find out what part L&P uses for that ball swivel thing you would be able to do the changover yourself. I'm sure they don't fab it out of a solid piece of material. I'm sure its an off the shelf item. I'll keep you posted.

Here's exactly what I'm thinking. find heavier duty tie rods that have either the same size ball joint nipple or a size just a bit bigger then stock. Stock nissan tie rod ball joint nipple is a hair over 1/2" so find one that is maybe 5/8" If I retappered the center link and the spindle where the tie rods hook up then I could put the bigger tie rods on. If the tie rods are too long then I would just cut some of the threads off. Either leave the ball joints that are pressed in the center link alone or find some bigger ones that can be put in there. But with my steering the weak spot is the tie rods so I think if I just do the above then It might be strong enough. If you go with a tie rod off of lets say a ford truck. Those are cheaper then stock nissan ones and would be stronger I would think. The little bit of material that would be taken off of the center link shouldn't weaken it much if any. This could very easily be a waste of time but since I have a spare center link I'm going to try. If this fixes the problem I'd be looking at 125.00 or so for the tie rods and adjuster, thats way cheaper then buying the L&P or Calmini steering system. And if it doesn't work then all of you will have learned one more thing that doesn't work. I just don't have the money for the $400-$500 steering upgrade. I'm still saving for a tranny since I haven't had reverse for over a year now.

One more thing. My dad also suggested to buy a jeep wrangler that is already all tricked out and then put my pathfinder almost back to stock for my daily driver. There is a jeep wrangler in my local auto trader that has a 427 hemi in it. It advertises being the fastest jeep in Minnesota. sweet.

Back to the steering talk. I told my dad about L&P's steering upgrades and he suggested why not just find a full size truck tie rod set that is a little bigger and beefier than the stock nissan stuff and then take the centerlink and drill out the hole to fit the full size truck tie rods. Ans then take the idler and pitman arms off and fab up some kind of U shaped metal piece to wrap around them and weld it up. That way you would have strengthened up the arms and would have tie rods that are strong enough for a fullsize truck which should handle 33's. Or since there is soo much after market stuff for certain trucks you could buy a set of after market tie rods that you would normally put on a lifted truck. Using those guessing that they would be stronger then stock it would beef up the pathy steering even more. This all said. I just can't get over how L&P can charge 300+ just for putting hevier duty ball joints in the centerlink. Modifing it at home and buying off the shelf tie rods from a full size truck would be cheaper if you go with an american truck and you could probably do this all with a drill press and hand drill. I still have my old centerlink from when I replaced my steering with stock stuff before so I'm going to try it out on that and see how it works. If anyone actually reads this whole thing let me know if this has been done before and if it worked or if it hasn't been done then if you think it would work. Thanks

Yeah and who else wants to jump on the dream wagon? My biggest problem is that I'm a college student making college students wages so I will have to save awhile to do that kind of change over. If I did the SAS it would be with leafs until I could afford and have the knowledge to do coilovers. That would be awesome to have coilovers in front.

Yeah that's another thing. Does doing an SAS change your steering system? I'm sure it does so if I decided to do the SAS I would be wasting my money on the nissan steering upgrades. The problem is that my steering is in pretty bad shape and I don't have enough money to do the SAS yet, but I don't want to be driving down the road and have my steering break and roll my truck or whatever. I'm going to look around at the local junkyards and see if they have a 78 bronco or 88 waggy sitting around and maybe I can get the axle cheap. It was cool when I was in the navy stationed in Norfolk VA there was a junkyard that had certain days of the year where you gave them 100.00 for anything you and a friend or 2 could carry out of the yard. It might have even been 50.00 or 75.00. Some people were breaking their backs carrying out engine blocks.

Yeah sorry i read about the centerlink after i posted that. It still seems crazy that they charge 300 some just for upgrading the joints in the centerlink.

Why do they have a core charge? If I send in my stock stuff they can't modify them to re-sell. When i bought my replacement centerlink and tie rods Napa didn't even have a core charge. And these steering system look almost like stock. My problem isn't in the center link or the pitman/ idler arm its in the ball joints that are on the tie rod ends. So with this steering upgrade I wouldn't have to worry about the tie rods getting loose? Why don't they make an aftermarket heavy duty outer tie rod? thanks

I already have 33/12.50 MT baja claw radials. I was hoping to gear it down so I would get more horsepower out of it. I've been reading on how 33's will wreck your steering system. I was thinking mine was just out of alignment but I jacked up my truc and there is a lot of play with the outer tie rods. I've already replaced the whole steering system once with stock parts and I really don't want to have to pay 540.00 for the calmini steering system especially because that still uses the stock outer tie rods. It there anything else I could do to beef up my steering system? I also already have the rancho steering stabilizer. thanks, Bill

ok these are probably more stupid questions but I just looked up what gears are on the wagoneer and the bronco and found out they are 3.92:1. Then I went to AC's websit to see if they had a matching set for my rearend. They only go down to 4.11:1. I found out mine is 4.625:1. Also I went to calmini's site to see what they had and they sell a transfer case gear set. My questions are Do you need to change the gears in the transfer case too? And is 4.11:1 really going to make a difference in horspower and torque gain? And do they make gears for a pathy that are in the 3's or would that bust your axle or something? By the way the lower the number ratio the faster the wheels turn right? I'm sure transfer case gears are altogether different but calmini says that their 3.92:1 gear set for the transfer case is for rock crawling. Wouldn't you want a high ratio like in the 5's for rock crawling? Thanks again to whoever helps my unmechaniceducated self out. Bill