hawairish

Hardly an expert, but I’ll throw an opinion out. My exposure to the 3.3L is limited, but it’ll move the 32”s on stock gears. The MT will allow you to put more revs to it when needed, too. However, I’m a proponent of gear changes from a wheeling perspective, and the cost of used gears is relatively cheap and usually justified. I did mine and a buddy’s for about $300/ea truck.

Yep, @RainGoat, that brother. He sold the GTR a few months ago, but recently won an Japanese auction for a 91 Nissan Figaro that should arrive there in a couple months. But yes, we’re still working on the details to get the truck up there. I might drive it up, or we might meet halfway in Sacramento.

One thing for sure that is annoying is the difficulty routing anything from the front of the truck to the rear. Having done both electrical and air lines on mine, I've had to settle mainly to everything on the passenger side. But even getting a 4-pin trailer harness in required drilling through the body in my setup. But yeah, not to make it a Toyota vs Nissan thing, but there's been nothing on my Pathfinder that's proven too difficult to address in some form or another. Still, I think every make has some bonehead design(s). I still think Volkswagens are the worst. It should be criminal the designs they use. These are the latest I have from the other week after getting most of the lift done. OME 3" + shocks, IronMan 4x4 front and rear panhard/trackbars, poly bushings. 31"x10.5 Cooper Discoverer AT3. It's my brother's truck that he bought off a buddy for a great price, but since he lives in WA and his buddy lives down in Tucson, I've been the middle man transporting it up here, storing it, repairing it, etc., until we can figure out how to get it up to WA. I still need to swap out the bushings on the radius arms, do the RMS and oil pan gaskets (leaks!), and get the A/C plumbed and charged. I rebuilt the compressor for it months ago, but it basically has to be the last thing done because Toyota sucks. I'll put it this way: if you had to replace the passenger motor mount or the TWO lower radiator hoses, you would have to disconnect the A/C system and pull the compressor because they're in the way. It's crap like that that thoroughly pisses me off, and just about everything on the truck is like that. Front shocks took me 2.5 hrs to replace, rear sway bar about the same JUST to replace the bushings. BS all around. I honestly think all those LC guys are too chicken-sht to go against the grain and complain about this "iconic" vehicle. I suspect it is durable, but the only way it gains field-serviceability is due to parts simply being available. I'd argue there's quality, but serviceability gets a failing grade. It's been an absolute pain to work on. My mom had an FJ40 when I was born, and my dad always reminds me how much he hated that thing. Everything inaccessible, exhaust manifold kept cracking. I share his disgust from my own woes. At this point, I think the only thing I like are the looks. Once this truck leaves my garage, I'm probably adding Toyota to my banned list, joining Volkswagen.

While I can't attest to brake controllers, I will say this much about a Nissan vs. Toyota. One of my project vehicles since Dec has been a 91 FJ80 Land Cruiser. At first, I was stoked...plans to redo the suspension, do the rear main seal, re-install A/C, and just some other items along the way. Fast forward, and I hate the truck. I hate Toyota for making the truck. Everything on the truck is in the way of some other item, despite "tons" of working space, things are damn near impossible to remove, and the most trivial items end up taking hours. I can't stress enough how much working space appears to exist on the truck, yet it's wasted space. This truck was made specifically to be dealer-only serviced. I'll take wrenching the Pathfinder over this truck any day, and you'd think an older truck would have been far more basic to wrench.

Throwing my opinion in, and echoing other comments, gearing probably not necessary if you have the 3.5L. I swapped to 4.636 when I put my Lokka and re-packed LSD. Don't recall if I did that when I had 31" or 32" tires. My distinct opinion on that first test drive was that the truck was that it had a lot more get-up-and-go than before. However, my MPG has been poor (I'm blaming the O2 sensors) for a while and the RPMs tend to run a little higher than I'd like at highway speeds. However, I re-geared for trail usage.

01-04 all 4.363 only, actually. 96-00 had both gears, though 4.636 was part of an optional package.

4.363...only thing that came in 04's.

@patbastard Many Nissan battery cables are harness assemblies, so if you need to replace part of it (like the terminal, or the red terminal block that's integrated into it), you're usually looking at replacing the entire thing. The part number for a 96-00 positive battery cable is 24077-1W200, and it's a fairly pricey part ($250+). You can confirm by going to either nissanpartsdeal.com or parts.nissanusa.com, keying in your VIN, and going to their Body Electrical > Wiring section. The diagrams will indicate the harnesses. A JY harness would be a cheaper route if choosing to replace the whole thing, at the risk of fussing with 20-yo harness connectors, though. I'm sure there are custom alternatives, but you'd probably invest as much in a parts and tools to make that work as you would a new OE harness, and would still need to bastardize your OE harness to retain all the various component harnesses.

CDN went to the dark side. IIRC, it was folded sheet metal.

Sure, but unless the hub has a centering lip, it's not relevant for use on 108mm wheels. I'm sure it's intended for universal usage, and it comes in handy for most of the manual hubs out there. I was just saying if it were really "for Nissan" it'd have both the right bore and studs. Otherwise, they seem fine (I'm not against spacer usage).

How do they label them as fitting Nissan when they have the wrong center bore?

I thought it was the horn behind the battery?

As long as you have a gap between tire and strut perch, you're good. That gap won't change, short of adjustment by camber bolt(s).

Good luck, hope that’s it. My grease had also seemed to disintegrate, but seemed intact. It was previously greased when I did my disc brakes. As best as I could tell, the noise only came from my driver’s side of the axle. But now, is your noise constant? Mine only occurs under that slight load on/off, and that’s it, and it’s more like a rapid rumble noise. Beyond that, nothing I can hear or feel.

Not sure I'm familiar with the broken line/hose you're talking about, but if it's got brake fluid in it, heat shrink tube isn't going to help. Got a pic?

I still have a noise on deceleration with at 6" of rear lift. Been that way ever since 9448's and 2" spacers. Have torn everything apart, too, with no resolution. Rebuild my diff, locker, pulled axle shafts, everything. It's relatively tiny, only occurring at very low pedal on/off, but it's there. May try adjustable/longer upper links and some point, or possibly a driveshaft spacer to get the yoke into the t-case a little more.

The OEM ones are just as weak as the aftermarket ones.

Hoping it'll be ok. The lower perch metal is thicker than the upper perch metal, and the bumpstop has that steel plate to distribute load across the upper perch, too. With rust up top on the perch, and reduced contact area, could become a problem eventually.

Gotcha. Keep us posted with the results.

Nice. Yes, I just used the same approach over the weekend to lift my brother's FJ80 (well, rear springs only so far, work in progress).

I think we can help you out there and provide the pieces you need. Not sure how soon, but hopefully soon! Kudos on the project, too!

Not sure if you're asking about extending bumpstops, or using F250 bumpstops, but I've extended mine using 2"H x 3" dia body lift spacers and longer bolts. However, the OE bolt diameter (M8?) was a bit smaller than the hole, so nuts were used to center it.

Mind detailing the failure? I run them, and they've done well for me, but I know they're not a premium option so I'm curious about potential failure points.

I think he was just saying we've not done an install with this method on a pre-facelift truck. It should be exactly the same because the carriers are coming from pre-facelift trucks. It should also "fit" QX4 trucks but the issue there is that the liftgate contour is different and the reverse lights are on the liftgate, not the tail lights. @malacandro If you want to make it happen here, I'd be up for that. I'll be doing @Astrorami's setup in the near future, though I'd like to let @TowndawgR50's continued R&D occur and apply those methods here when ready. They're a definite improvement on my original approach. Also, this is all great info! Be sure to add some stuff to the Tire Carrier thread (linked in my signature) if you've not already.

Torque alone (even with thread locker) is insufficient for that application, especially with the incorrect fastener arrangement you've got. You've put a standard nut over a hole without a lock and flat washer; you have no locking method and have significantly reduced contact area on a fastener that demands it. Expect subframe shift, the edges of the nuts wallowing out the spacer holes, and a loose contact area over time. Proper—and properly installed—hardware is cheap insurance for safety. I'd be worried about it.