Charlie_Brown

Replaced upper balljoint on passenger side and clearcoated spindle. Seperated tie rod and began disassembly of the hub so I can torque the balljoint down.

Primed and painted the spindle so it can be nice and pretty hidden behind the tire lol. Pointless but whatever, looks good.

I recommend changing tensioner regardless just because I've heard talk on how an old tensioner can degrade the life of your new timing belt by 50 percent. Take that how you will but it's a cheap part so I just changed mine, plus I broke the stud while tightening it to spec anyways so had to wait around regardless. As for the tensioner spring you do not spun it full circle. The hole for the stud is offset so when you move the wheel you'll see it goes in towards the timing belt, likewise as you move the wheel you'll feel the tension build. I think the reason you need it is either to make sure the belt can't back the bolt off via vibration but I'm not sure. Don't forget to use your feeler gauge to put the belt tension on correctly

Monthly to keep fears properly lubed and ready to go. Too much sitting around is bad for the motor and gears

Drilled uca bushings more and torched them till the sou die was finally free. Sanded it down so I can paint it later and had my dad help me take the balljoint castle nut off by having him swing a sledge hammer against the wrench. Worked, it's off, now time to fight the ball joint off the truck.

Removed ice and shock. Fought the ball joints the the better portion of the hour I had and finally gave up trying to twist the nut and just install the control arm. Nobody talks about how &^%*ing hard it is to get the bushing off in order to get the spindle on the new control arm. Drilled for longer than I should have, didn't get it out and had to rush over to my buddy's house. Ordered new ball joints upper and lower also. Didn't get much done in that hour.

Hope you got a 2000 xterra engine so you don't have to mess around with alternator and power steering. If you do it's not hard just another thing. You can use vg30 distributor, you just have to swap the vg33 mounting plate. It is slightly different than the vg30. If you have manual trans don't even touch the trans, it doesn't help getting the engine out. Just drop the front diff, you can't get around it easily (I tried and succeeded but it was more of a PITA) Replace your water pump and timing chain now while it is out (you will regret it if you don't later on) The swap is tedious and at times a major pain in the ass but pretty straight forward and well documented between various forums. Will be nice to have a step by step like this with pictures with all the i formation in one single place for others. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

Replacing the crank?

My search would say otherwise lol.

That is good to know and very helpful. Thank you Red

I was under the impression that the plating is at a different angle as to support higher lift with the 3in lift super lift vs the 1.5-2 in rough country. Or am I wrong about this?

Superlift that are designed for a 3 inch lift since automotive customs as described on here do not correct balljoint angles and are pointless to me.

Alright so check it out, I bought my current arms wanting to lift the truck 2 inches. I ended up lifting my truck already 3 inches by t bars. Now I have control arms that are designed for a 2 inch lift MAX to correct balljoint angles so they do not wear as quickly as you know. Putting that on a 3 inch lifted truck I was curious if the ball joints would be fine since its just an inch and I have heard of other lifting 1-2 inches without any problems but in the end decided I would rather help my ball joints as much as possible and get the correct control arms that are designed for a 3 inch suspension lift. I understand you are trying to help and help me understand but what you are not getting is I'm not trying to go higher with control arms, I'm trying to save my balljoints and use the correct hardware for my now taller than I had originally planned.

Read the description of the add. The UCAs are for 1.5-2inch lift. Trust me I know UCAs don't add lift. Read my original question on this thread. I wanted to know if anyone had used UCAs for 2inch lift MAX on a 3 inch lifted truck or would the bjs still 've at a bad angle. Decided I'm not wanting to buy more bjs just because I'm cheap and would rather do it correctly. Yes I know RC are superlift, again I had already stated that in this very thread. Describing the brand was for the selling purposes so others know what they are getting.

Drilled two new holes in the bumper and threw paint on for added mounting spots and security, greased bolts for UCAs for swap when that gets here. Rinsed off the truck and shot inside the frame to get some of the mud out. Really just waiting on parts

If only I knew how to weld 😔 Yeah I am going with superlift, just wanted to make sure they were not like AC and do nothing for the ball joints since I had not been able to find anything like that about them before deciding

Sweet thanks! Much better than paying calimini and not knowing when you'll even get it

Do you know of any others, other than having one made (not against that option as it would be cheaper anyways) Yeah I just got done doing a 3in SL so I'm trying to address steering issues now rather than later and ruin new ball joints.

Hahaha unfortunately I still have yet to learn how to post pictures here with my phone lol plus the truck is so far from being finished it's laughable. Wait till I paint it, I'll be posting a few photos on the fb site for sure and figure out how to get it on here. Mounted winch inside the bumper, more drilling and making things work. Reclocked the winch and accidentally pulled the damn brake cap completely off the engine. Wasn't hard to reinstall but certainly frustrating. Winch control module is mounted on bracket I bent and mounted on top if the bumper, I think it looks pretty good honestly. Remounted bumper on the truck and installed panrod drop bracket. Opted against installing my current (1.5-2in lift) RC control arms, seemed like a waste of time so instead ordered diff drop bushings and looked into new carpet for the truck. I really hate red on red on red. Ran out of parts to install. Going to drill more mounting holes into the bumper for some added support tomorrow.

I've been considering modifying the steering setup with the calimini idler brace (only one ice found still in production) and doing the 2wd conversion. Should be more than strong to handle anything I ever throw at it and be able to run 33s full time.

Thank you! I was leaning towards superlift over calimini for sure anyways. As for SAS, I don't know how to weld unfortunately otherwise I would be tempted to take on that project and paying someone to do it is far more $$$ than I like to spend. For now SAW is a dream for future.

My stock arms are sitting about the same as yours so that is good to know. I'm definitely leaning towards getting proper UCAs regardless of the fact it's another 200$. Would rather do it right and not have to buy new ball joints as soon as I hit dirt. Searching on forums I've seen people say AC control arms do nothing for the ball joints (one individual said it makes it worse!) While superlift and RC are the same but have not heard much on how well they correct angles. Calimini I've heard good things but Jesus who wants to spend 400$ for UCAs!?! I don't even care you get new ball joints will it, not worth it plus dealing with the hassle of making it for on the truck. But I'm rambling, question is just how each of them perform to correct bj angles (3in suspension).

I thought that might be the case when I first discovered it and more behind the interior of the door. It also collects a bunch of hair and makes the truck look hella gross! hahaha Installed 3 inch suspension lift, painted and sanded rust spots on bumper, driller new holes to allow the fairlead to align as it should and threaded a mounting spot on top for the winch control module. New torsion bars look awesome on the truck. Decided to throw on the 35 tires I have from a Craigslist buy, truck looks super good and it worthy as a head Turner finally. Shot bolts with penetrating oil for UCAs for tomorrow

Before I blew my motor i had planned to lift the truck a modest 1 to 2 inches just for some clearance, well I just got done installing a 2 in BL and 3 in SL with HD Tbars. I still have the UCAs for the 1.5-2in lift and was curious if they still might work. My thought is they would work better than stock but the bjs would still suffer since they wouldn't be exactly correct however I've heard others running 2 inches of lift without changing the stock UCAs so maybe I'm wrong? The UCAs are from RC. Hoping someone more savvy than I can help guide me.

Installed a 2in body lift. I'm surprised how simple doing that was, hardly have to remove anything. Cleaned up a bit of the mess the PO left me on the rear passenger door. Not sure if it is some really crappy and still gummy kind of adhesive or what but it is everywhere, behind the door cover, under the kicker panel, all ran down the door to the bottom. Scrapped most off, figured I'll do an actual real cleaning of it when I'm done wrenching on the truck. Odorless and not super noticeable since I'm in the driver's seat so it can wait a month or two lol. Tomorrow I'm going to try mounting my winch, hammering back my bumper and fixing the turn signals on it, re mount and start on torsion bars.