Mr. Pickles

Nothing a bored guy with some snips and basic tools, as well as a low G.A.S. factor (Give A Sh!t factor) can't resolve on a lazy Saturday afternoon. Ummm, and some lift... and some more lift.... and a B.F.H.

Like has been covered many times before, 31's came stock on many Pathfinders. Some aggressive treads and/or suspension sagging may cause rubbing, but this can easily be cured by mildly cranking the torsion bars and/or trimming the fender flairs. This is my 94 Pathy sitting at stock height on 31" BFG M/T before I started to go nuts on the truck.

Over the last week, the Pathy has developed an annoying and concerning trick. On left turns (and occassionally speed bumps, which I have to cross several at home) I get a pop/thump that can be heard and felt under the right um "cheek" and the center console when leaning on it. It seems to mainly occur while in gear while turning, and especially while at lower speeds in 1st and 2nd gear. Its a solid whack, and sometimes comes in a series like thump-thump-thump. If I slowly turn and steer gently, it won't really happen, but if I go faster it seems to excite it. I've crawled all around under and can't seem to find anything. I scoped everything in that general vicinity. Checked and cranked the seat mounting bolts, and all of the body mounting bolts because of the recent body lift. Tbar mounts/adjusters in the crossmember seem fine. Exhaust is solid. Drive shaft seems good with no apparently movement or slop. Transfer case does move slightly when I push and shake it hard, but not much. That concerned me though. Sooo... has anybody experienced this type of noise or bump, or does anybody have any suggestions?

Definately a Nissan problem. My grandmother has a 90 Maxima with this issue and probably 50K miles on that at least, cause she is cruising toward 200K now. I drove on it for the better part of a year with no issues.

Um, short of Nissan stepping in here, I'd say he's full if isht about rebuilding the shocks. I don't see how a random guy is going to be able to do this successfully, let alone to work with the adjustablilty. He surely could come up with some spacers for the rear if you want to go that route, and a Tbar crank is obvious. But the shock situation seems incredibly shady. If you're going to these lengths to save a buck, would it be better to have somebody state-side purchase them and help ship them down to you?

Diesel Boy is right on. Don't worry unless you experience bad performance, loss of oil or coolant, etc. But its perfectly normal in any climate that regularly dips below the dewpoint or has cool but moist air.

American Idiot is a solid album, had it for a bit now. Black Eyed Peas "Elephunk" is a soon-to-be classic rolling around in both of our rides. At this very moment is an oh-so-classic burned cd of N2Deep and DJ Quik ala 1992. But next week could very well be the Beach Boys, CCR, or Zep tearing up my fantastic 1200 watts or so. I will tear up 98% of the Pathy's on the street, and will bow with respect to the rest. :X

Yeah dude, those rims are waaay too wide. Going full tilt must be fun. I'm kinda doing the same thing only piece by piece. Bought a decent ride for the lady, and asked her to be patient with me and my old ride cause I'm gonna keep it after all the work I keep doing. If you're really gonna drive the truck after all this work, I'd suggest dropping some of the extra cash (a small amount) on a CB, good tow strap and/or a winch if the budget allows, a decent first aid kit (you can never be too safe) and a good all around travel tool kit just in case. Sounds like you're on the right path for sure, though.

Brackets for the front, and the rear you take the bumper off and move it up to another set of holes that are already there. The "brackets" suck, and are little more than 3" steel plates. If you have a brush guard and such already, you might do something like Mr. Jim did and find somebody handy with a welder to fab you a more solid mounting system. I doubt those brackets in the kit would support much more weight than the bumper, as my bumper is already pretty flemsy on there.

Have you actually run the computer diagnostic to check for codes? Didn't see that mentioned above.

Those Gap Guards are pretty spendy. If you try making your own and need a sheet of rubber, you might try what I'm gonna do as my next mini-project. My neighbor just cut up an inner tube for a truck tire. You can get a tube for like $10US. Worked just fine for him on his Yota.

Just a thought, are you sure your Pathy started of at stock height in the first place? Coulda been cranked up by the previous owner without your knowledge, so you baseline measurements would be off from the stock height.

Not happening, sorry. One of those was the one where the head broke off on mine, and I had to pay a guy to cut in from the top, heat the sucker, tweak/hit/crank/cut on it, until if finally came out. So... there they be, there they stay. Home Depot had one with the right threads and width, only it wasn't long enough. I can't remember the size or thread pitch off hand, but it was basically the largest size metric bolt they carried.

I had almost those same wheels on my 720, all chrome American Racing. My grandfather put them on right when he bought it in 1985, and by 2001 when I sold the truck they were still 95% perfect with almost no maintenance. They're a very solid investment, that is if they still make them like they did back in the day.

It sucks bad when it pops out! :furious: When the Les Schwab clown stripped mine, I made it about 2 miles, then it popped out a couple blocks from the freeway onramp that I was about to get on. Luckily, it came out at slower speeds while making a left in the middle of an intersection. The whole front driver's side dropped down a few inches, pulled hard to the side, and made a nice bit of noise. I actually limped it up the street like 2 blocks to another Les Schwab, only to find they claimed no fault and couldn't fix it. Stupidsunovamutha(&*%^&$#'ers!!! Oh, moral of the story: DON'T DRIVE IT until you get it fixed.

Do the body lift yourself. Chances are, things will go fine. I did mine alone by myself with my own hand tools in my townhouse carport, and it took longer, and still it went reasonably well, all things considering. Tell you what, if you do it alone, you'll test yourself in the patience and skill dept. and will learn a ton. It can be done no problemo most likely. My #1 recommendation... get a friend to help.

Its definately something where, if you're in doubt, you're better off doing it. And while you're there, do the water pump too. If you skimp, there are many issues you could face. Late T/B, lots of labor on its own. Water pump failure, might as well replace the belt while you're in there. T/B failure, you may consider a new engine as the repairs for any bent valves because of the interference engine will be steep and from now on your existing engine is suspect. I know its pricey, around $600+. But if in doubt, its cheaper than an engine replacement if you guess wrong.

Tuesday was Green Day- American Idiot, yesterday was Audioslave, today brought out JayZ's Blueprint 2, tomorrow/Friday's usually involve breaking out Crystal Method or some trance.

I wonder if you could hook up a marine style one. My dad has one on the bow of the boat that has a small little joy stick on the dash to control movement up, down, and 360 degrees around.

Mine stripped and it came apart after the idiot at Les Schwab screwed it up working on it. I ended up taking it to a mechanic who cleaned up the mess, and fixed it with a heli-coil kit to repair/replace the threads.

Mine took about 2 weeks from order to delivery, but that was for a WD21 body lift. AC seems to be hit or miss, depending on the person.

I recently recieved and installed my lift from Performance Accessored (via AC) as well, and there was nothing in the way of a t-case extension. I have a 5 speed and everbody says the install is the same, because the cable actuated tranny on the auto models. The best solutions for the t-case seems to be to fab your own extension or get a shifter from a Nissan Harbody truck. Mine shifts just fine except that the boot crushes and wants to push it out of gear. I you decide to create a different shift boot, you may not have to do anything else.

Shouldn't the need for and alignment depend on if you've recently had an alignment with the worn out stock parts and or how long you've driven on those tired parts? I've heard of people having issues where their compression rod bushings were worn out and they coundn't really get a good alignment because of the suspension slop. This is why I was wondering about it this. Could be wrong though, as 88 may point out.

I'd like to see a Chevy or Ford guy try and get one of those "stock cars" off the local dealer floor. I'm sure they'd love to pass you some blueprints on their latest engine designs too.

Heee heee, careful, or you'll start looking like me. Purple Power rocks at removing just about any grease and oil. Got some soaking an oil stain outside at this very moment.