hawairish

Falling behind on updates again... My guys' trip to Moab has come and gone, but unfortunately the truck was not ready in time for it. I still made it up there and had a great trip riding shotgun in Towndawg's truck (recently fitted with 4:1 t-case gears and a rear ARB locker...front ARB didn't get installed in time). Long story short, I was able to get the truck out of the garage and around the block a few times, but the steering and alignment didn't feel right, and the gear box started leaking. I had already rebuilt the power steering lines again (they had sprung a leak a 2nd time) so I have little confidence in their ability at the moment, but they seem to be holding now. This time around I snugged the fittings up a little less thinking maybe I was over-tightening them and compromising the liner. But frankly, if they're this sensitive to assembly, I probably don't want them. For now, they'll do. Parts are on order to rebuild the gear box, which I probably should have done in the first place. Beyond that, the setup has not been tested at all...but at least it drives now! Here were the finishing pieces of the build... The driveshaft adapter turned out great: Got the new rear 5.13 (41:8 = 5.125) gears installed. That took a lot of effort, though. I've surely mentioned it before, but the H233 used thick rings/spacers/washers of different thicknesses to set pinion height and preload, and practically all of those pieces are either no longer available, or several bucks each (and you don't really know which piece you'd need unless you have the proper setup tools). It didn't use traditional shims, and even then, there aren't really any good options available due to odd metric sizes. Fortunately, the new pinion gear sat high, so I was able to grind down OE spacer pieces on a flat belt sander. Unfortunately, it was a lot of trial-and-error to dial in the height (a lot of pressing pieces on and pulling pieces off), and I basically took the pieces down to the minimum factory dimensions to get it as close as I could. It sucked and took a lot of time, but the pattern is good. I also managed to strip some threads on the bracket that holds the actuator piston for my TJM, so I had to pull that off to weld some nuts on get some threads. I got the switches wired up for the overhead console the other week. I ran some 8-conductor wiring up the passenger A-pillar and into the engine bay. Six of the wires are for the overhead panel, and the other 2 I'll wire up for powering a USB port for the dash cam eventually. I ended up drawing ACC power, ground, and illumination from the compass module. Opened it up, soldered on leads, and crimped on terminals and harnesses. The panel is for a Patrol, and while the color isn't a perfect match for my gray "K" trim, it's close enough for me and I'm super happy to finally put it to use. Things are wired up in a way that's consistent with their usage; i.e., you can't engage the front locker unless the rear locker is engaged, and you can't engage the sway bar disconnect or rear locker until the compressor is on. Remote Air is for the tire inflation setup; it can either hold the air, deflate, or inflate. I was not able to get the compressor, relays, or solenoids wired up until last night, and tonight I needed to sort out some leaks from having to shuffle around my setup. These are not the finished pics, but close enough for now. I opted to use some modular solenoids that stack together instead of the ARB style solenoids...that 4-solenoid modular unit costs less than one ARB solenoid, but was a little tough to find. That funky rubber boot thing is an adjustable pressure sensor switch that I was hoping to use for the tire inflation (Remote Air) switch, so that it would stop inflating at a set PSI. Unfortunately, it's so sensitive that it'll just flutter at the set temperature and cause the compressor to keep cycling. So, I'll probably just retain it as a safety cut-off. Also determined tonight that gauge is garbage...it's way off. Lastly, this is how it sat as of yesterday before a powerwash. I spy something SASsy.

Well, this weekend was very productive. Wasn't able to roll it out, but we're getting close. Last update I mentioned the axle was being done. It's officially done and back on the truck. The bulk of the weekend was getting the axle back under the truck and slowly completing the final assembly. Right now, everything's torqued down and ready to go. Axle's centered, thing's aligned as best as I can get them with my eyechrometers. Got it to the point where the truck is resting on the axle, and tires were slapped on for a while. Still needed to tweak the steering stabilizer a bit. I finished up the mount v3 today and it's finally in a position where I don't think it's going to contact anything. Also figured I'd work on the center caps while some parts baked (powder coating). Limit straps, driveshaft adapter, and custom brake lines delivering tomorrow, among other small goodies. Been waiting on the brake lines to start the ring and pinion swap in the rear, so hopefully I get started on that mid-week.

Absolutely!

Alright, bit of an update... First off, I did not meet my goal of having it rolling by the end of Feb. Maybe this weekend, we'll see. Right now, the axle has been removed from the truck for hopefully the last time. Pulled it off to finish welding the bump stop pads, steering stabilizer mount, whatever touch-ups, and then paint. To that extent, axle work is DONE! Will get some pics when it's daylight. The last couple weeks have been super busy. Almost every day and/or night that I can. Updates... Finished the air conversion for the sway bar disconnect. Big thanks again to @TowndawgR50 for making the piston rod and all his support on this project! Have yet to test it on the truck (my OBA setup has been pulled for re-work) but it's ready to go. Not sure I showed this previously, but I made it so that I don't have to pull parts from the engine bay to access the strut tower/mount hardware any more. Now I can just unbolt the upper coilover mount from underneath. Maybe one day I'll pursue a strut tower brace. Finished the brake caliper mounts! Well...almost. Still need to powder coat the RH side, but the LH side is done. This f$kc!ng pic just reminded me right now that I forgot to grind the knuckle for clearance to install the lower caliper bolt, which I needed to switch out to socket bolts due to the space. Well, guess that's happening tomorrow and some repainting... ... I did have a bit of a setback with the power steering setup. I was mocking up the steering stabilizer and had the truck running with the wife turning the wheel so I could change for clearances. *SPLOOSH* ATF spraying all over. The aftermath... After assessing the failure, I deemed it operator error on two faults: Despite being as gentle as I could to push the braided sheathing back using a small screwdriver per instructions, I must've weakened the PTFE liner enough. I must've pushed the braids too far back with insufficient overlap on the ferrule. So, I can tell you that ATF absolutely sucks to clean up. It is a nasty, nasty chemical. (And for those wondering, yes, I am using ATF as my power steering fluid...it's what is spec'd.) That $hit got everywhere. I cleared the space out and power washed the engine and concrete shortly after this happened and the engine is still dropping ATF in spots...and I only worsened the mess during the repair process. I can't wait to get the truck out of the garage to really hose it down! Anyway, I ponied up for a proper tool from JEGS that pushes the braid down uniformly and to the correct depth. I was reluctant to drop $50 initially, but I paid the price and then some for not getting it in the first place. I pulled all the lines (two; four fittings total) to inspect and redo them. My original fitting installs were showing a little bit of fatigue that likely would've let to failure again. I have a little more confidence this time around having used the tool. Here's the new line, shown on the concrete where the spill occurred as indicated by the silhouette where my foam mat was. This was the direction the steering stabilizer was heading before the busted line: After doing all the other work on steering angles and such, this is basically the only place I had left to mount it. It hangs about as low as the axle tube, so it's not really eating any more ground clearance, but it will likely be the first thing to be struck. I tried to keep the brackets simple, and while this piece worked great, the plate came too close to the diff cover for my liking. I went with a different design that rotates the plate around (the u-bolts have plenty of clearance) and allows me to slide the bracket a couple inches towards the passenger side just in case. Pics to follow. ... I received my front driveshaft! Ebay special for $300, custom length for my project, intended for "hack-n-tap" Jeep applications where they do a slip-yoke eliminator (SYE). Double-cardan unit with a probably generic Spicer 211229X/Neapco N2-83-388X flange and uses Spicer 1310 series u-joints. The TX10 flange is equivalent to Spicer 2-2-1309. They're fairly similar, dimensionally, but an adapter is needed. I fired up my CNC router to make a mock-up adapter based on Nissan Nut's version. He pockets one side to hide the hardware used to attach it to the TX10, and then has threaded holes bolts to attach the Spicer flange to it. I eventually realized either it's not a good design, or I still can't understand half the stuff he writes. Probably both. There's not really a good way to get a wrench on those bolts. Use of socket bolts wouldn't be much easier. (I came up with what I think is a better design, discussed below.) As far as clearances go, this should do nicely! Clearance over my crossmember is perfect. At full compression, there's "enough" clearance under the sway bar. This is what full compression would look like (I didn't have the bump stop pads welded on, but you can see I'm nearly maxed on the coilover), but I will be limiting compression beyond what is shown in this pic, so my max compression will be less than this. After confirming the driveshaft fitment and clearance is good, I went back to thinking about the adapter and bastardized my v1 to make it v2: This actually uses rear wheel studs for the truck and the leftover axle shaft studs from when I did the disc brake swap. The lengths on these not only end up being perfect, but they're the same size and thread as the OE hardware for both the TX10 flange and the H233B flange, so I've got new OE hardware on order to replace everything (I still need to pull the rear diff to swap gears). This adapter will be 3/4" thick, with 1/4" pockets for the stud heads. Master TownDawg will be producing the finished piece from aluminum, since neither of us are convinced redwood is a suitable material. And unrelated to the SAS, I bought new terminals and really like them. I made something similar using replacement lugs and terminals, but this is way cleaner and better for some of the stuff I need terminals for. Ok, that's it for now. Getting closer to having it back to being on the ground.

Thanks fellas! Yeah, it's a big push right now and I'm stressing about it a bit. My next "Brodeo" trip with the guys is coming up early April and we're off to Moab again, so this has to be on the road ASAP, particularly to get it through emissions, registration renewed, and of course, at least one shakedown run...hopefully two. Current goal is to have it able to roll under power by the end of this weekend, but it won't be streetable quite yet. I still need to do the bump stop pads, limit straps, steering stabilizer, and a front driveshaft, but I can at least move it out of the garage without those. More to come soon!

Lots of progress since my last post! Got the caliper brackets designed and ready. Waiting on some hub rings to center up the rotors before welding them up; should have them done later this week. More pics when they're done, but here's the idea. Sway bar tab welded on. Thinking I'm might go with the H3 end links instead of the Mustang ones, so I had to weld the tab a bit lower to clear the caster bolts. The big news from the weekend was that I finished up the power steering system! I decided to use most of the low-pressure line all the way to the reservoir. It was becoming too much of a challenge figuring out where to route hoses, especially factoring in the cooler. But, works out great. I picked up some new OEM hoses off the reservoir from Japan to really freshen things up. This pressure sensor was a bit of a thorn to deal with. The ECU uses it to idle-up the engine when high-side pressure increases enough. Nissan uses an M12x1.25 thread on the sensor, so I needed an adapter. There wasn't really a good way to mount it, so I made a bracket with some angle iron and found a convenient way to tuck it out of the way without needing to relocating the wiring too much. Everything's pretty tidy...as tidy as I can get it. I have ample clearance from moving parts, but did need to shim the air box up about 1/4" to give a tad more space around the high pressure fitting. It's tight, but it's going to work just fine. The final highlight is that I got everything back into the engine bay and fired up the engine! It's been over a year since it ran. 1st try, it didn't do anything. Click. 2nd try, click. 3rd try...fired up! Rough start, and sounded awful. Bad tapping/ticking noise. I figured it was from just dry lifters from sitting for so long, but I had a gut feeling that maybe somehow I screwed up the timing when I changed the water pump. Shut it off. 4th try, less noise, still a little tick, but otherwise smoothed out soon after. At that point, I played with the power steering and topped off the reservoir. Power steering works and no leaks! In other news... Ordered a built-to-length double cardan driveshaft and am waiting on it. I'll need @TowndawgR50's machining magic to make an adapter to mate it with the TX10 output flange. I spent some time exploring other options, but that seems to be the best approach, which is also the approach Nissan Nut recommended. Towndawg's already got a box in the mail for me with some off-the-shelf aluminum hub centering rings that have been machined to be custom fit for the project. They'll center up things nicely and allow me to finish the caliper brackets. Also anxious to get the remaining parts for the sway bar disconnect.

Just repled to you, @M_a_D. I'll post up some dimensions in the coming weeks when I have a bit more time. Need to get the SAS done!

Those are the OME HDs, FYI.

That's very unfortunate. But sounds about right. Don't the TMs still have a lifetime warranty?

Not sure if there are many converted owners here who've specifically jumped to the V8 given how brief that option in the R51 was. Hopefully someone can weigh in better. But the main things to know about the R51 that might help the decision is that its front suspension is practically identical to the IFS of the D40 Frontier and N40 Xterra, but has rear independent suspension (IRS) like that of Nissan RWD/AWD cars. The R51 is essentially on a truck frame but with IRS...sort of a flop of what the R50 was with its car-like IFS and rigid rear axle on a unibody (and practically identical drivetrain to all Nissan trucks at the time). The R51 suspension is a significant departure from the R50 suspension, much like the R50 was to the WD21. We're not even going to discuss the last two generations. That said, and having no personal experience, I'll speculate that the R51 will likely fall right in between both your vehicles in terms of size and road comfort. The only way to confirm will be to test drive the one nearby. In terms of your adventures, the R50 IFS will be as much of a restriction as the R51 IRS. Both are poorly supported, too, but one upside to both applications is the use of rear coil springs and availability of inner-spring air bags to improve ride quality a bit if needed.

The VIN plate says VG33DE? All R50s were made in Japan, so nothing rare about that.

Today had enough progress that it deserved its own comment. After spending a couple weeks designing a few ideas that gave me some adjustability, decided the other day to just get on with it and make a static mount in what I seemed like the right spot. Pretty straight-forward at this point. This is the first mock-up with a tire...finally! There's so much space in there, that it makes the 2.0 coilovers seem puny. But hey, no more farting around with the stupid coil bucket on the McPherson strut! There's about 4" of space between the springs and tires, and about 2-3" from the inner fender. The first two pics in this post show a different attachment method, but this will be the end result. There will be a strut 'ring' atop the strut tower with bolts welded in, then the coilover mount attaches from underneath. This way I won't need to remove all the crap above the strut towers to change anything. After getting the mounts all welded up, I decided to see if the spring selection was the right one. So, time to see if it can support itself! Ride height compression... And so, I have coilover mounts! Right now this is about 1.5" taller than I predicted. I'll eventually put a bumper and winch on to pull things down another 0.75" or so and hopefully they'll settle the rest. I can't lower it any more unless I change springs, so I'm going to see how this does. Overall, I'm satisfied. I'll eventually make some changes to the rear suspension to level things out better, but I think I'll have some squat for a while. Painted the steering links today, too. Panhard and radius arms refreshed with bushings and paint the other week. In this pic, the axle is supporting the truck, so I must be doing something right! The axle is at ride height so I have some pretty good clearance.

Couple updates since the last post... Got the Rubicon sway bar mounted. Still a few more things to do before that whole component is done, but for now, it's at least mounted. Awaiting some parts to finish the pneumatic portion of it, and need to make the mounts to attach the end links to the axle. The end links are from a late model Mustang, to add to the Frankenstein parts collection. Also finished the radiator shroud. Turned out well enough, I suppose. Tasked my CNC router to make the ABS panel and then spent some time heating it into shape before riveting it on. At this point, all the radiator is back in the truck and the engine is basically waiting for coolant. I'm waiting to do that until I figure out how I'm mounting the steering lines. Ordered new switches for the overhead console. Not sure who remembers, but a few years ago, I picked up an overhead switch console made for Patrols. I installed it in the truck long ago, but it's only had blank panels installed since. Looking forward to putting it to use, but not looking forward to redoing the wiring. I'll also be overhauling the pneumatic setup...and also dreading that, too. Got these from https://www.otrattw.net, except the ARB cover. Found sway bar "diconnect" switches all over the place, but since OTRATTW lets you customize the text, I just decided to make it spelled correctly. The remote air switch will be used for my tire inflation/deflation setup. Ordered all the power steering line kits and fittings. I have a pretty good idea how that's going to work, but still figuring out how I want to route the lines. No real update beyond that.

@Lock Glad you found this useful! No ban on posting links. Amayama is a great source for these and many other parts that are difficult to acquire or not available here. In fact, I actually have two open orders with them right now. I have purchased clutch pieces from them in the past, though at some point the supply was exhausted, particularly for the thicker pieces. Looks like there are many in the UAE at higher/normal costs, but it's the less expensive supply from Japan that was always questionable or long lead times. As for the ramp-angle LSDs, those were in Patrols. There's not really as much of a difference between those styles and these in terms of functionality, though. The spider gears in ours will apply outward force on the side gears to compress the clutch pack, because the clutch pack rests directly on the side gear. In the Patrol units, the clutch pack rests entirely on those inner housings, which compress the pack when the cross-shaft ramps up on them, which means the side gears might not exert significantly on the housing (or it's a combination of both). In both cases, there's varying outward force when differential action occurs. Might also be the case where less, but bigger, clutch pieces has about as much friction as more, but smaller, clutch pieces. Speculation in the absence of factory specs and dimensions. That all said, I'd surely rather have the Patrol units because of the beef factor they add, but I'd be curious to know if it's a drastically better solution that what we have available. Just another thing I wish they'd have here.

Fitting, no. Bulbs were in different locations and different lens colors, but I presume the bulb sockets and fitment into the housings were the same (might be able to swap the pigtails if the bulb sockets were different). Though I don't think you had the Infiniti models there (where there Regulus models there or was that just another Terrano trim?), the QX4 models here also fit all the same, except they lacked reverse lights, which were located on the liftgate around the license plate. You probably wouldn't want those, if they existed there.