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hawairish

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Everything posted by hawairish

  1. Go figure...my image host is being wonky so I can't upload a pic or find one I already have that probably shows it. I'll try again later. It's easy to find, though. It comes out under the rear quarter panel, not around the door or wheel well...further back. Look for the bracket that mounts the leading edge of the bumper's side cover to the underside of the quarter panel and it's right behind that. It'll be a tube with a rubber boot/grommet on it, sticking down about 2". If the boot goes AWOL, the hose should still be dangling there. The pic you attached is accurate for the B reference and exists on both sides of the vehicle. If you've got water dripping under the door, I'd think the hose detached at the rearward point A. Might have enough slack in the headliner if you pull the b-pillar trim and door gaskets, but the headliner is somewhat rigid in that space and there's some other insulation items to deal with.
  2. That's been my understanding, too. Upper sensors control A/F, lower sensors determine upper cat efficiency...at least that's what I believe. System doesn't care about the lower cats (or resonators if Fed-emissions equiped; mine has lower cats). But to that extent, that's why I've always attributed P0420/P0430 to possibly faulty sensors. If the upper and/or lower sensors are buggy, I'd think the delta would be askew. Of course, I could be totally wrong since there are separate codes to assess the sensors themselves. The cat bolts aren't too difficult...it's getting the stupid heat shields off that really sucks, especially on passenger side. A couple 10mm are hidden, tend to be rusted in, and only accessible with small wrenches. After that, just need some sockets and extensions to avoid busting knuckles. I think I only sheared off two or three bolts on the driver's side, lol. In general, exhaust work sucks. In the case of our trucks, you basically need to remove the entire system to pull the cats...at least in my case, there was not enough slack in the hangers to push everything rearward to clear the studs on the components.
  3. The last few days have largely been spent measuring and CAD'ing things. Latest efforts have been towards designing the plate work on the driver's side chassis rail in the engine bay. In general, I'll plate the top, side, and bottom of the rail about 24" to provide the provisions for the steering box, panhard mount, motor mount perch, and bump stops/limit straps. The passenger side will be different since I only need a plate with provisions for the motor mount perch and bump/limit components. This plate will be bolt on, though. There's vast difference in working space between the LH and RH sides of the rail. I'd have to tear down the engine further (coolant pipes, exhaust manifold) to have better top access, but then there's still an AC line right on top of the rail that I'm not going to relocate or weld around...can't even slip 3/16" plate under it. But, I have a good bolt-on plan. Speaking of motor mounts, I finally welded up a poly set. This will be the gear box placement. Hard to see with shadows, but there's clearance at all points so zero need to cut the wheel well. Placement is 1.25" above the rail, and 0.5" off it. The rail tapers in that area so my plating approach will also square it up. However, this placement will have the metal edge of the radiator right up to it and obstructs the fan shroud. The radiator will be moved 1/2" over and planning to heat the fan shroud up and reshape it. I also forgot to mock this up with the airbox initially, but it cleared just enough. The high pressure line will be routed under the engine. Should work great because it'll be tucked up with other oil lines, is within reach of the pressure sensor, and the pump's OE hardline already points downward in that direction (assuming I can use part of the OE line). Reamed out a tie-rod and the pitman to accept the larger GM TREs. That was sucky process, but it got done. This is one thing where I need to keep in mind that some trail spares need to be modified in advance. Work on the brakes and ABS design still a work in progress. I discovered the R50 calipers mount a lot closer to the hub center than I thought they would...my initial (mis)calculation showed me they'd be fully obstructed, so I had a small panic until I realized I used the wrong measurement in my math. Still, fitment is tight. Going with 4th Gen 4Runner rotors (also FJ Cruiser and 05+ Tacoma) instead. Same nominal thickness as R50 and H3 (28mm), but slightly larger diameter than H3 (300mm vs 315mm vs 319mm). I'll take any additional clearance I can get. Plus, I figure there will be more support for Toy parts in the long run...or in my case, more RockAuto clearance options. But, before I could pull the trigger on returning the H3 rotors and buying the 4R ones, I fired up the CNC router to make a bracket to visualize the general placement. This isn't the exact depth the caliper (it is the exact distance outward it will be), just a general placement so I could confirm things clear. That's right: I can wear sandals in my garage during the winters here. Though, I do wear steel-toed shoes for projects like this. Saw one thread of a guy SAS'ing his Tacoma...he dropped a Dana 60 on his big toe. "¡Adios!" - toenail. I don't know the physics behind caliper placement, but my understanding is it matters. The R50 and D44 calipers are mounted higher, but I have obvious constraints here. The mock-up put them vertically, but I should be able to rotate them up a few more degrees. The main problem with doing these brake mockups is that can't fit the rotors until the hub is turned down to fit inside the rotors (D44 brakes normally mount to the back of the hub). Fortunately, unlike the H3 rotor, I was able to attach the 4R rotor to the backside so I could good reference distances. I'll need to go a slightly different direction for the tone ring. New plan is to make larger tone rings that'll move the sensor up and out, but also avoid taking too much meat off the hub, particularly where it'd overlap where the inner bear race is installed. The general idea:
  4. No change, unfortunately. Right now the radiator and hoses are off the trying while I work on the SAS project. I still have the "new" 170F thermostat I originally installed and I may toss it back in, though I don't expect it to make any difference. Per my monitoring on my laptop with Nissan Data Scan, engine temps were nominally 220F and would creep to 230F. This would occur while cruising at freeway speeds even on cold nights...don't laugh since you're in Canada, but cold here this time of year is 40F. They'd also creep while stopped, but then drop a little once I got moving. I think either way, 220F is too hot, but I will note that the gauge needle is just slightly below half way, which has been its normal place for as long as I can remember. So many other thoughts. Maybe the fan clutch isn't pulling like it should (it's pretty easy to stop when the engine is >220F). With the radiator off I may try to flush it or replace it. Maybe the water pump isn't circulating. The R50 VQs have an upper thermostat for 203F bypass that I may even just remove, since it didn't exist on other VQs, including the JDM R50. Anything to ensure that coolant is actually pumping. Given the procedure I did for bleeding, I had rather high confidence that I got air out, since the tube approach I did offered visible proof...but I was pretty pissed to see it doing this all over again.
  5. The things I'd do to get 15.5 mpg on my truck... ... It's a little curious that both cats are throwing codes, but as Slart mentioned they could've eventually been damaged. I know on mine I had the cats off back in 2022 to confirm they weren't clogged, but no real means to test for efficiency of course. Still, but codes is odd...even with my woes, I only ever got the bank 2 code. From what I understood when doing my investigating, if the STFT is staying under +/-10% and can closely meter around 0% at idle or cruising, then that seems healthy. When I was diagnosing mine, my truck would just creep from 0 to 25 over 30s intervals and then just "reset" back to 0%, which is when the engine would stumble. What I had realized is that each bank would do that on separate intervals...the hard stumbles were when both banks were in sync. But, it became clear that each bank could meter fuel independently, which was a new concept for me (engines aren't my thing). Before dropping coin on cats, I'd do a leak test. How are the O2 sensors?
  6. Not sure my recent woes align with this, but I had multiple air leaks at the o-rings on my fuel injectors due to them being slightly undersized (seemingly my mistake). The excess air would eventually cause the engine to stumble every 30s, regardless of gear selection. RPMs would drop to 600 and engine would run rough. I've also been throwing a P0430, but it's been deemed unrelated to my issues. I threw P0507 and P0171 codes previously, which are what suggested a leak. Dropped $80 on a smoke machine from Amazon and it exploited the issue. The economy is in crisis when baby oil is $10. I also initially thought my issues were alternator related. The original one crapped out back in June and I slapped a cheap replacement in. I had never noticed an issue before the new alternator (I had serviced the injectors a year before), but I have one of those voltmeter pods and it indicated things were healthy (around 14.3V engine running). It sometimes see the voltage drop when the engine stumbled, so had concerns of what was causing what...was bad alternator causing the engine to stumble, or was the engine stumbling causing the voltage to drop? In the end, alternator was not the problem. Other things I had done: Cleaned/moved around plugs, coil packs. Swapped/cleaned MAF (they have aerosol cleaners at parts stores) Checked compression Idle relearn Throttle position relearn PCV check Throttle body clean Obviously none of the above solved anything, but looks like you've done most of those. May be time to check for leaks.
  7. Usually the only reason to replace the valve covers are if the spark plug seals are leaking. They are not are not intended to be serviced, and as such they are not replaceable unless you want to do surgery on them. They were replaceable on the aluminum covers. Other notable is that the #1 ignition coil on the aluminum covers is different from the other five, and none of them are the same as the 02+ trucks with the plastic covers. On the plastic covers, all the coils are the same. I can confirm you can use an older style coil on a plastic covers, but it there's a small gap between the coil and the cover where the mounting screw goes. Stands to reason that if you tried using your coils on the aluminum cover, you'd have to turn them a little to ensure they were fully seated, and wouldn't be able to use the mounting screws. Long story short: keep the plastic covers and just change the valve cover gaskets. Don't forget to seal the front corners as prescribed in the FSM.
  8. Slow progress yesterday and today. CAD'd up the poly motor mounts and am going to try to get the pieces cut tomorrow. Made a bit of a drive today to pick up some FJ80 radius arms. Had been eyeballing a crusty set on eBay, but with tax and shipping they'd be about $250. Fortunately, the guy's not far from here so I got in touch with him offline...done deal at $80. They were as crusty as expected, so they needed some wire wheel'n. And now I have RAs, into them about $140 after gas and new bushings. And here's what we're shooting for... This orientation is how the FJ80/FZJ80 is set up. In that world, some guys will flip the RAs to be atop the axle, and I was hoping to do the same but the rear subframe mount would ultimately limit up-travel unless I put a lot more lift back in. But, this setup works fine for me. I need to drag the axle back out to cut and grind the leaf spring perches to tuck the arms up. Passenger side shouldn't be too bad, but the driver's side is integrated into the cast so it's just a big chunk of steel I'll need to get through. I'm going to see if I can move the arms outboard so that I'm just dealing with tube, but I think the tires will just scrub on them. As far as rear mounting goes, that bushing is almost directly under the transmission crossmember, which is perfect. Plan there is to build a new crossmember that has the mounting provisions, and also clears the driveshaft. I plan to reinforce the mounting area and add more attachment points.
  9. Not sure if this counts as point of no return yet, but the truck has officially been modified. The pivot box brackets are gone. Spot weld drill bit did the trick for the most part; fought keeping it centered sometimes. Radiator had to be removed to gain access, of course. I did a brief mockup of the steering box and I was initially hoping to not have to cut the wheel well for clearance, but it might be inevitable. It'll be tight in that space. Hopefully it doesn't require me to move the axle back further, am liking where it sits now. Tubing got cut today for the GM TREs and the bungs tacked in. I'll cover steering links at a little date when I have more mocked up.
  10. Initially, I looked into threaded fittings and I think I identified all the ones I would need, so the hope is that a crimper isn't even necessary. Main concern is just the high pressure side as I will retain the pressure sensor on the line. Main parts are just the banjo at the pump, a tee for the sensor, and fitting at the gear box. Low side is just hoses through a new cooler and hose clamps. ... Slow progress yesterday, mainly just a full mock-up day. Right now, axle's looking real good 2" forward. I originally had the truck lifted about 5" higher than it was previously, but lowered it down to about 3" higher. Supposing I can get it at that height, that'd net about 8" of lift from OE height which I guess feels low for a SAS project, but in reality meets my project goals better. The rear is currently about 6" over stock and at this 8"/6" stance, the truck is perfectly level according to my sliders. When the front is done, I will be redoing the rear suspension to also move the axle back about 2" to center it up in the wheel well and at that point I'll probably lift another 1-2" to get some rake back.
  11. Phase 1 (Disassembly) complete! Finished removing all the power steering components, basically leaving only the steering linkage at the firewall. Little leaks and dirt saturation all over the pump and reservoir, both of which will get cleaned up, rebuilt, and new hoses. Leaning towards buying a hose crimper just to do the high pressure line myself when the time comes. First fabrication of the project was making engine slingers. Once I pulled the p/s pump I could see where the holes are for factory slingers, but it basically mandated use of those specific genuine tools and it's a pretty lousy spot. Instead, I made a bracket to mount where the p/s pump was, and another that attaches to the motor mount bracket. With engine supported, I could drop the subframe and spacers...clean slate! One thing's to be said about preparing the space on a unibody vs. a framed truck...there was zero grinding or cutting involved. Everything just unbolts and that's it. I'm going to try to keep other things as bolt-on as possible. For sure, the area where the steering gear box will go will be plated and sleeved, so welding required there. Phase 2 (Mock-up) began by dropping some plumbs and getting the axle in place. For now, I just needed to get a solid feel about how much space I'll have between the tires and the wheel well skirts. Looks like it's almost 7", but that might be a generous number. Coil springs I'm eyeballing (likely a Jeep WJ or JK spring) appear to be about 5" OD. I'll get a little more space if I run the 1" spacers I already run, and I prefer that stance overall. Initial observations are good overall! For now, I'm using the Heim steering setup for mock-up since it's already the correct length, but it'll get chopped up a little to use the GM TREs. The JK adjustable track bar looks like it might be a really good match length-wise for the drag link, but numbers still pretty rough until I can mock up the gear box. Plenty of oil pan clearance, though I still want to move the axle forward another inch or two than shown in pics. Good clearances so far. As for the radius arms, I've been looking into either making custom arms or using a OE set from an FJ80. I'd prefer to minimize work if I can since pretty much everything else has to be fabricated from scratch. There's a set somewhat local to me that needs some cleaning and new bushings; easy enough. Length looks to be about perfect, too. The tails should end up around where the transmission crossmember is, which will work out great building up a new crossmember for the mounts and driveshaft clearance. Next step is to start mirroring the subframe mounting points so I have an idea of how to reattach the motor to the chassis and space for mounting provisions. Also need to pull the motor mounts, get them jigged up to make poly versions, and clean up the chassis rail where the gear box will go.
  12. All good. Yeah, our VQ is just too complicated and so poorly supported to justify changing things, unlike every other VQ35DE that's actually supported well. I've given far more thought to turboing the KA in my Frontier, but recently I've been looking into EV swapping it instead. I really wish I could find those videos again. Truly amazing work. Lost in the ether. 12 mpg is very rough. Was 10 for a while, which made it just miserable to want to drive it anywhere. I'm sure it's because my tire/gearing setup right now is nearly 8% under-geared, so dropping to 3.5% over-geared will lighten loads up considerably until it's time for new tires. And thanks for the support! I'll take all I can get!
  13. Well, project officially began today. Had some helping hands: Just need to figure out how to sling the engine up. No good attachment points on the passenger side at all. Once I figure that out, I can pull the subframe and finally have a clean slate for mock-up.
  14. Ha, hopefully not too crazy, but surely not the craziest. There were videos of this one R50 that surfaced the other year of probably the most amazing Pathfinder out there. SAS'd, dual axle steering, and an amazing suspension setup I can't even describe. The work was pro. Dude even had a pet duck. F'n hero. Wish I still had the links. Define power train upgrades, though. I do have dual lockers and crawler gears, and it's been an amazing setup so far. Engine performance wise...there's not really anything available and mine has been such a hog the last 2 years that I don't think I want anything from it beyond stock performance and better fuel economy (I'm barely at 12 mpg after fixing a major intake air leak that went undetected for a while). I have a few side quests that hopefully I can address when there's down time, including changing (or attempting to change, 2nd try) at least the upper cats. "SAS" and "fuel economy" probably shouldn't be bundled together, but I think the new gearing's going to help a bit.
  15. Looks like I've talked myself into doing a radius arms setup at the 11th hour. I'll just have to keep things on the cheap affordable side as best as possible. Conveniently/suspiciously, my Facebook feed today showed a local Marketplace listing for an adjustable track bar (panhard bar) and OE sway bar with disconnects from a JK Wrangler. Met up with the guy, talked shop, observed the cringe-face when I mentioned "unibody", and made the deal for $100 for everything. Track bar could be a $115 Amazon knock-off, a $150 Rough Country unit, or $325 Teraflex unit because they are identical. Key thing is that it's shaped to wrap around the diff cover and it's adjustable...and within the range I'd need it. Does need to be freshened up and bushings replaced, but that's easy stuff. The JK sway bar is straight and beefier compared the R50 unit, which I was already planning to reuse but poses some complications because of the shape. I'll probably toss or sell the disconnects that it came with; they're worn, but appear to be a rather expensive Teraflex set. I plan to run disconnects either way. Engine support bar arrived the other day and the garage is as clean as it's getting. I may start tearing things down in the morning. To be honest, this project terrifies me more than any other I've done so I'm dragging my feet to dive in. Pulling stuff off is easy, but there will eventually be a point-of-no-return moment that I hope I don't dread.
  16. Damn. That’s terrible, man. Great looking truck! Sorry to see it this way. Keep us posted how it works out, please.
  17. Ah yes, let me expand on that. This part of the project is one of the main reasons I became more willing to move forward on it. In short, I'll be using the R50 tone ring. I had a junk R50 spindle and hub laying around. Ring pops off with a little effort, and the ID is just barely large enough. The backside of the D44 hub will get machined down to about 1/8" thickness (about the thickness of the flat lip at the top). Since the H3 approach was already laid out at the time, I did look into using the GM ring initially. But it's 55-tooth vs. the R50's 48-tooth. Any mismatch would/should screw with the ABS and ECU. Tried to find suitable matching rings that could maybe be machined down to fit the rear axle shafts, but that sort of search proved difficult. One more notable about the brakes: whenever I've read about Nissan guys using the D44 brakes, they always need to jump to a larger brake booster and/or master cylinder. The D44 calipers are monster one-pots. I was stoked to see that the H3 rotors were the exact same thickness as the R50 rotors, and very similar diameters. Using the R50 calipers means not having to change anything about the system, which is huge. The next hope is that both the ABS and brake hose are long enough to support axle droop with my setup. It looks very promising considering that the lines snake around the strut and have a lot of slack. Thanks for the offer about the WD21 shaft dimensions. The FSMs have so far provided the base dimensions, except the slip distance. I was also really surprised to see in the FSM (and echoed by Nissan Nut) that the WD21 driveshaft also uses the oddball u-joints the R50 does. All the other trucks had the 1310 joints (same true for the rear shafts). What gives, Nissan?
  18. A few teaser pics... The axle and springs, all rebuilt and mostly painted up. Outer hubs. Nice part about this axle is that it has the same 6x5.5 pattern. Uses these smaller 7/16" studs, though. If I changed nothing, I could just put my current M12x1.25 spacers on it to adapt the thread pitch, but I will be changing these to use M12x1.25 studs. You can also get an idea of how the rotor is attached to the backside of the hub (the wheel studs press into the rotor, which has a tall enough shoulder to also press fit into the hub. Backside of the hub and knuckle. No space to squeeze an ABS sensor in. This is the idea on how to incorporate ABS into the axle: These are parts by a guy/company called THOR Parts. Very clever solution where he modifies the backside of the hub to accept a tone ring, machines the hubs down so Hummer H3 rotors can fit over the hub (note the studs pressed into the hub first), and then adapter plates to hold H3 calipers and a GM ABS sensor. Again, I plan to keep the R50 caliper and hopefully the 45° angle on the ABS sensor leaves room. End result should be something like this: GM 1-ton TREs. Pic doesn't do justice on how fat these things are. The treaded ends are 7/8", compared to the R50's 14mm (9/16") threads. And these may still be the weak link in the steering! ARB and 5.13s installed, new bearings, slingers, shims, everything: Beefier diff cover, nice deal on it from a local guy. Mock-up of leaf placement: The perch width on the axle is almost perfectly the same width of the radiator crossmember, so the spring would reside almost perfectly under the wheel well skirt, directly under the subframe spacers so to speak. Notably, when using the narrow-track D44 I'm using, it wouldn't leave a lot of space for a conventional coil spring between the tire and wheel well, which is one reason I like the leaf spring approach (coilovers aren't cheap). Less of an issue running the wide-track version, though. I do plan to retain the sway bar and I have a pretty good idea on how I'll achieve that. Another downside to using leaves is the loss of clearance up front in small section. I'll likely lose a little departure angle unless I move the front hanger position back. With the low SAS, another issue is just exposure to the axle and steering. The tie rod will reside above the springs, but still be fully exposed in the center. I've hit plenty of obstacles with my skid grate, so it'll be a concern. Could go to full high-steer, but it's costly and doesn't do anything about the axle still be exposed. (Notably, these issues exist for any straight-axle truck, regardless of suspension type.) The rear mount will be interesting. The chassis starts to widen halfway between the rear subframe mount and where the leaf eyelet is, leaving mostly nothing directly above the eyelet. The transmission crossmember holes are still a good 12" past that, and there's no useful existing bolt holes and a bunch of overlapping sheet metal in that space (i.e., around where the OE jack pad is). I imagine I'll need to get a lot of that flattened out and cleaned up, then will probably weld in some sort of support plate. I'd like to tie it in with the cross member if possible. You can also see that my CV boot has given up the goods and slung grease. I don't want to deal with that any more.
  19. Sort of. They'll be plate and I've started a few designs, but stopped short a while ago. Buddy of mine with a Q had a custom rear bumper done that I'd like to mimic to some degree in terms of having dual swing outs (tire + a pannier box for a motorcycle), integrated hitch, and drop down tables. High quality build. I didn't want to trek too far ahead on the front because I want to make sure it doesn't interfere with whatever mounting I need to do for the leaf hanger.
  20. One more thing. Driveshaft: TBD, kind of. The pinion flange on the axle straps directly to a common Spicer 1310 u-joint. The R50 driveshaft uses an uncommon joint so I can't mate them, but the driveshafts in D21 Hardbodies and 1st and 2nd Gen Frontiers and Xterras did use 1310s. The D21, D22, and WD22 all run TX10s so they'll mate up perfectly, and the TX15 on D40 and N40 trucks has an output flange with the same pattern. I suspect the older driveshafts will be too short (I think they're about 1" shorter than the R50's), but the 2nd Gens are about 6" longer. Presuming they have enough slip on them, they might be perfect donors. Also, this is where the SUA has benefit. Hopefully, I won't need a truly custom driveshaft or a double-cardan joint since this will sit relatively lower than a SOA setup. This should also minimize the amount of clearance needed on the transmission crossmember, though I think the 2nd Gen driveshafts have a larger diameter than the 1st Gens.
  21. Time to give this subforum some love... In a couple weeks, I will have owned my Pathfinder for 10 years. I bought it as a birthday present to myself, having traded in a 2008 Wrangler 2-door several months prior for an SUV that could actually fit two baby seats (unlike a 2-door Wrangler). My kids just turned 10 and 11 the other day, so I'd say we're way past that point. Time flies. I purchased the truck with just under 166K miles, and in another 400 miles it'll reach 200K. It just turn 20 yrs old. Some milestones here. You could say I've done a few things to the truck over the years. As it sits today, it's got front and rear air lockers plus 3.97:1 crawler gears, among other things. I've finally sorted a few gremlins that have plagued me for the last year-plus. Sold the bumpers a few months ago; need to build new ones. But right now, I've been hankering for something significant, and if I don't spill it here, it may never happen. So, here goes! I think it's time to SAS my truck. I've been stewing on this for a long while. In August 2021, I bought an incomplete SAS project from a guy that included a Dana 44 axle, a bunch of new parts including matching gears for both the D44 and H233B diffs, an Xterra TX10, and even the 2000 Frontier everything was destined for. I mainly bought the SAS parts for $1000, but the truck with a blown headgasket was only another $700 so I bought everything. The axle was rebuilt (sorta). The truck overall was disgusting, but at some point I at least considering repairing the truck and possibly completing the SAS on it. I literally gutted the interior to clean out layers of filth in the form of dog hair and caked-in dirt to clean everything, but in the end, I didn't need a 3rd truck and sold it to a buddy. But, here I am with all the SAS parts still...and then some. Since then, I have properly rebuilt the Dana and bought and sold a few other parts towards the project. I've not officially started it yet, but I plan to soon especially since a few suspension and steering parts are already due for repair and replacements. At a very high-level, these are my project goals/objectives: Keep costs low. To date, I'm already in $2500 in parts (factors parts bought and sold), and another $500 in tools/consumables. I expect to spend another $1000-$1500 in parts and tools, but also probably recoup another $1200 in parts. $5K seems like a reasonable cap. I am tracking all my transactions. I've also bought several parts either on clearance, or from others who've abandoned their SAS projects. Restore gearing. I swapped in 4.63s long ago, but as we know, this is the end of the line for R50 owners. SAS opens up gearing options, and this might be the number one reason for me. Keep the ride reasonable. I am not doing this to go overboard on lift or tire sizes. In fact, I expect and want to end up a little higher than where I am (currently about 5" of lift between OME HD and 3" SFD up front, and 9448s and 2" spacers in rear for 6" lift). I do not ever expect, nor want, to run more than 35" tires, and I have plenty of life left on my 33" tires. Build confidence in parts. I've never had trail failure with CVs, TREs, shocks, springs, bearings, hubs, etc., which is great. But...I'm also at my max comfort limit. Without any beefier steering and suspension part options available, it may just be a matter of time. The axle, suspension, and steering options I have in mind will give me a ton more confidence. Not regress on things. I expect everything I install will be better than what it's replacing, though probably the most debatable part might be my choice of leaf springs vs. IFS in terms of ride comfort. But going to a straight axle will inherently change the ride comfort, regardless of the suspension type chosen. Breakdown of components: Axle: The D44 I have is from a 1981 Jeep Wagoneer SJ. It's the "narrow-track" version with a WMS-WMS width of 60.75". According to my notes, I measured 62.25" WMS-WMS on my current stance, but can't recall if that includes the 3" worth of wheels spacers I use (I don't think it does). So, this should be pretty close, and if I have to run spacers again, no sweat. It's also a low-pinion axle; the high-pinion R200A is preferable here, but the slightly larger D44 gears might make it an even trade-off. Suspension: The axle is set up for spring-under-axle (SUA) using leaf springs, and that is the approach I plan to take. I mulled over all the other suspension types, and while something like a linked or radius arm setup seems great, it's simply out of budget. I've read no shortage of past and current comments about how dumb leaf springs are, how dumb they are on a truck/unibody with 4-link rear, how old-tech they are...blah blah blah. I'm not trying to ignore such advice and comments, but realistically, it's how I want to allocate my money and effort, and it aligns wonderfully with what I want out of a finished truck. That said, the SUA approach greatly simplifies a lot of things for me and that's why I like it. I plan to use OE leaf springs for the Wagoneer (I have new Dorman units). With an offset center pin, they should allow me to move the axle about 3" forward from the current driveline. Instead of shackles, I will use leaf spring sliders. Mounting everything will be a challenge. I intend to make a subframe that uses the existing subframe mount points and has the provisions for the front leaf eyelets. The rear sliders may be incorporated into a new or modified transmission crossmember. Plan to make everything from scratch to keep costs down...plus I have a CNC plasma table and small press brake, so there's that. I will also not do a traditional u-bolt setup to attach the axle to the leaves. Instead, planning to make a u-bolt eliminator kit to minimize parts hang-down under the perches. I'd love to do a RA or linked setup, but the decision alone instantly adds $1K-1.5K to the budget between joints, coils/coilovers, and material. There are savings here and there, but it's not significant. I've also considered going to a spring-over-axle (SOA) setup, but this will also greatly introduce costs, namely needing to buy a high-steer knuckle, potentially needing to "cut-and-turn the C's" to correct pinion and caster angles, and also adding about 5" more lift than what I want. Gearing: I will be going to 5.13 gears. On 33's, it'll be about -3% over-geared, but on 35's, it'll be about +1%. The axle originally came with 5.89's installed and in-box for the H233B, but I sold those. Too much for my needs. Differential: I already run an ARB in the R200A, so of course I'm locking this one. Axle came with a Spartan lunchbox locker, but I sold it and bought an ARB instead. In between, I bought an Auburn eLocker/LSD combo (LSD when it's not locked), but it arrived with all sorts of damage so I returned it. Hubs: Axle came with old Warn Premium hubs, but bought some new Mile Markers on the cheap from Amazon Warehouse. Warns will serve as backups. Brakes: The axle came with all new/rebuilt brake parts, which is great. They're beefy. However, this setup means defeating ABS braking since this is axle is 40+ years old. Many people won't care and just plan to delete or omit ABS, but I don't like defeating or ignoring systems, especially not considering how pleased I am with the braking performance on my truck with the rear discs. Plus, I think the speedometer factors vehicle speed by the wheel sensors, since there isn't a speedometer pinion on the t-case. To get around this, I'm going to mimic a setup a guy uses where he machines down the Dana hub to accept a tone ring and use Hummer H3 rotors and calipers on it. A new caliper bracket adds the provision for the wheel sensor, and it's a perfect a solution. In my case, I would do pretty much the same, except I will keep the R50 calipers. Comes to find out, an H3 rotor is the same thickness as the R50 front rotor, and the diameters are very similar (H3 315mm vs R50 300mm) to the point I can just move the caliper out a little. Also worth noting is that on the Dana hub setup, the rotor is mounted behind the hub, kind of like our R50 setup. In taking this approach, the rotor will install over the hub, which will increase the WMS a small amount (about 1/2") and make rotor changes easier. Steering: The axle came with a 3/4" Heim steering kit, which is pretty beefy. But, I didn't like that it was essentially going to be a straight bolt in a tapered hole on the knuckle. No way that won't wallow out in time, and it seems most people suggested modifying the knuckle to make it double-sheer. Instead, I'm going with a GM 1-ton tie rods. These are beefy, too, and I have less worries about shearing. I will have to ream out the knuckles and pitman to get things to work, but I have the reamer. The kit also included 1.5" OD x .25" wall DOM tubing, and although the previous owner already got the tie-rod to the perfect length for the setup, I'll need to cut off the ends to weld on new bungs for the GM setup. For the steering box, I'm planning to use a one from a 2001 Jeep Grand Cherokee (WJ) 2wd. This will sit inside the chassis rail. Would've been nice to stick with Nissan and use a Frontier or Xterra gearbox, but those sit outside the their frames and I didn't feel like cutting through the wheel well. Fortunately, these WJs use metric fittings, so hopefully adapting the lines won't be difficult. Shocks: TBD. I have three pairs of shocks once fitted to R50s, including the last two longer sets from my own truck while lifted. I plan to use them if possible to keep costs down. Mounting them will be a challenge. Easiest approach would be making new plates that mount where the strut does, but I think it'll be too high up from the axle. I don't want to make the mounting tabs from it extend too low, but I have other ideas in mind. Subframe/Motor Mounts: This will be the most complicated part. Won't know my exact approach until the OE subframe and everything else is out. I also plan to make some new motor mounts using poly bushings I have around. ... Right now, I'm waiting for an engine support bar to get delivered sometime next week. I may start pulling things off the truck and get this going very soon.
  22. Here I am 9 months later and I think I've finally sorted the issue. Last straw was it getting too warm the other night while it was 40F and rainy outside and driving freeway speeds. I mentioned previously there's a vent tube at the back of the engine. In the past, I felt I've followed the FSM well enough to bleed air out, but this time I went a slightly different route. Rather than just open the port and warm it up hoping all the air would come out before coolant started to, I instead attached a clear vinyl hose to it and kept it elevated a bit before looping it down into a water bottle (acting as a catch can). Started up the truck and let it idle to temp. Some coolant filled into the tube a few inches, and there was a steady stream of big bubbles, before smaller streams of bubbles every few seconds. Cycled the heat a few times, revved a few times and prolonged at 2K RPM, and bubbles seemed to stop for a while. Let it cool down for an hour or so, then idled it back up. Couple more bubbles, but nothing major and eventually bubble-free. Buttoned it up and drove it around today. Seemed fine, but on my next longer drive I'll hook my laptop up and do some data logging to confirm it's finally resolved.
  23. I had a set of 2x 6-gallon "Trail'd" tanks that are designed to be hoisted up in that space, but I personally never got around to using them. However, my buddy does use them on his QX4. The hoist plate opening is intended for slightly-larger Toyota applications, and the factory hoist plate will work fine, but I did make an aluminum adapter plate that increased the hoist's footprint a little for some piece of mind. Other notable here is that if you have a considerable amount of lift (my buddy's truck has 4" of rear lift, while I have 6"), then the chain is too short to lower the tanks fully to the ground. You can carry around some 4x4 blocks to lower the tanks onto them so you can work the hoist plate through, but keep in mind these sort of tanks when full weigh about 50 lbs each....bit hard to lift both and manipulate the hoist plate through if the tanks aren't fully on the ground. In this particular case, I took the chain from another Nissan hoist and used it to extend the existing chain. The chain size isn't common, hence another Nissan donor. To extend the chain, I made a cut in the end link, twisted it to open the link, put it through the other end link, twisted it back, and welded it closed. Plenty of chain now to lower to the ground and drag it out from under the truck for better access. I did once try to mock up some sort of dual jerry can tray that would use the hoist mechanism. It's tight space, but seemed like just enough.
  24. You do have to have the CV fully removed. It's supposed to be in tight, so putting up a fight isn't unexpected. Most of the time, I will resort to the following processes, in this order: 1. Loosen the nut, but leave it in place at the bottom of the stud. Smack the knuckle with a sledge hammer a couple times, then smack the bottom of the nut upward. Repeat. 2. Ball joint tool on the joint, tightened up so that there's tension on the joint, then sledge hammer to the knuckle. Joint tends to pop here. 3. Pickle fork. People seem to dislike them, but I've never had it not work, it's just usually a little more aggressive. 4. Heat the knuckle for a little bit, then do #1. Smacking the knuckle a few times is key. Just changed my passenger ball joint a few days ago. #1 was all I needed, but I'm fortunate to live in a dry region.
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