RatioCynic

lgranch, Here's a heads-up on the lower ball joint replacement! I'm in the process of replacing the ball joints on the passenger side. It took a bigger sledge hammer than I had to break loose the upper & lower ball joints. [Haven't had the time to buy the air hammer/pickle fork!] Once loose I discovered there's no way to get the lower ball joint off the spindle [nor put a new one back in]. The outer joint housing prevents the lower ball joint from backing out of its mounting hole on the spindle. So the only solution is to remove the spindle -- same situation that I went through on the driver's side. darn! RC

Jim, I have the passenger side ball joints to do yet. With what I am going through, I can easily see it being worth it. Thanks for helping me justify the purchase! I've been wanting an air gun toy. RC

That was exactly my thought. I went into this project with a C-type ball joint remover and a pickle fork [one with 1"x3" gap between the tines]. You can "rent" these tools from AutoZone. I discovered that the typical C-type tool doesn't work on my Pathy. Its different from the Nissan C-tool shown in their shop manual. The pickle fork fits right in there and a good size sledge should be able to break it loose. I couldnt break either one loose with a 2# sledge so I had to remove the spindle from the drive shaft, mount the spindle in a bench vise and whale on the pickle fork with the sledge. If you do need to remove the spindle then there is a simpler procedure. It maybe obvious to you, but being a newbie at this I did it the hard way the first time. Since then, I've discovered that you only need to remove the hub assembly [auto hubs], the first snap ring and the next three rings [two washers and a "brake" ring] on the drive shaft. No need to remove the lock washer [held on by two screws] that rests over the spindle shaft. Once ball joints are removed from the control arms and the brake caliper and tie rod ball joint are removed, slide the spindle and brake rotor off together. This way no chance of the bearings falling out. Hope that helps. RC

Nissan shop manual said to lightly rap the end of the drive shaft to free it from the spindle. I used a rubber mallet. My next thought [now that the inner drive shaft is free from the diff] is to open up the CV joint, clean it out and see if anything is out of the ordinary. RC

OK, I'm no closer to solving this. I did the easy one first which is jacking up the spindle from under the lower control arm. Taking it up as far as it would go brought the drive shaft to just above horizontal but didn't gain much more leverage pulling the drive shaft outward. Next I removed the 6 bolts holding the inner shaft & inner joint to the diff which did give me a better grip on the shaft to pull outward while someone tried to work the snap ring into thte groove. But no luck there. Could I have done something to the outer CV joint when I rapped on the end of the drive shaft? Anyone else have a suggestion? RC

Cool! Thanks for the replies. I'll give 'em a try in the morning. If it works, my wife thanks you too. She's getting a little tired of the Sanford and Sons driveway decor. Hmmm, ...maybe she'll make the case again for a Nissan Titan. RC

I replaced my upper and lower ball joints [driver side] last weekend. Really not a problem removing them if you use a pickle fork and 2# sledge. The biggest PITA is having to remove the knuckle spindle from the drive shaft to remove the ball joints. I wasn't able to break them loose while on the truck. To my problem: The manual said to lightly rap the end of the drive shaft to free it from the spindle. When I did I noticed that the drive shaft moved about 1/8" toward the diff. I didn't give it much thought at the time. When reassembling, one of the last items to slide over the drive shaft end is a snap ring that rest inside the 2nd groove from the outer end of the drive shaft. Well,....apparently that 1/8" movement was enough to prevent the snap ring from going back on. The groove that it sits in isn't visible now. Any idea whats going on here? I pulled hard on the drive shaft -- doesn't budge. I've cleaned out the road grim from around the grease seal behind the spindle [where it mates to the joint assembly] figuring that was the obstruction -- nada. I reseat the wheel bearings. I looked inside the CV joint. But don't know what I'm looking for. The manual says the wheel side joint can't be disassembled [Type ZF100] and doesn't provide any detailed illustrations. Could I have done something to the CV joint? The drive shaft rotates freely [in neutral and out of 4WD]. I've popped the hub off the passenger side and confirmed that the drive shaft should have the second groove clearly exposed about 1/8" beyond the end of the spindle. Any suggestions or explanations would be appreciated. RC

Thanks Simon. I'll look into them. 88, the photos clearly explains the difference and answers my questions. Thx. RC

Thanks for clarifying that the JGC coils are not variable rate. I must have gotten some bad info. Has anyone looked at installing variable rate coils on a Pathy? I would think they offer a softer ride with no/light load. RC

Nice Job! Can't wait myself as Im giving some thought about this as well. Its my next project IF and when I EVER get my ball joint order in the mail! and get it installed before something snaps in the front end. Couple of questions for you [or anyone in the know]... Whats the reason for cutting off nearly a full coil on the small diameter end? Is it so that it'll fit between the seats? Why cut off the small end? As I understand it, the JGC coils are variable rate coils. Any reason why I couldn't/wouldn't want to take advantage of that feature of the coil and cut off one coil height on the large end? I probably loose some lift compared to what I can get if the small end was cut off since the soft end is the smaller end of the coil and it'll compress more with the weight of the Pathy on it. Appreciate any insight on this. RC

I called AutoZone to see if they sold ball joint presses [C clamp style] and to my surprise they will rent them for free! There is a $99 deposit, refundable on return. I'll give em a try when my ball joints come in. They should be here tomorrow if Im lucky. RC

Hey fellow Coloradoan! I'm located outside of Boulder up in the foothills. When I first came out to CO twelve years ago [darn, its been that long ? darn near a native] we did a lot of 4x4 trails before the kdis came along. People were amazed how well the all-stock Pathy handled the trails. One of my favorites are the Flat Tops north of Glenwood Springs. RC

That's the sound I'm hearing now...like a metallic ticking and at times a high pitched clank that occurs only on turns [left or right]. Checking under the front end, I found dried out ball joint dust covers on the upper and lower ball joints. I have the ball joints on order for my 92 Pathy [4x4]. My question is how do I get those ball joints off the knuckle spindle? I went out this morning and tried to pry one of the upper ones off but no luck. Aside from using a Nissan special tool, is there a garage tip someone could give me? Nissan service manual says to remove the hub and drive shaft in order to "press off" the ball joint using their tool. Gotta be a Cro Magnum method to this madness. RC

Just wrapped up a two day project that probably would have only taken one if I stuck to the plan. Yesterday, install of the new front Powerstop rotors, Axxis pads and front Rancho 9000s were planned. Well, I had a general idea what I was in for but didn't think it involved the wheel bearings. As I removed the Auto hubs, I realized the wheel bearings had to come out to get to the rotor, guess there was no better time to repack them. So I did. Having never had the front end tore down to this degree, it took me nearly 8 hours....just for the drivers side! Today everything on the pasenger side was done in four hours. Pretty darn good for a newbie I thought. The test drive didn't find anything unusual...yet. Powerstop/Axxis combo certainly is noticeably better over OE setup. Powerstop recommends a 200-500 mile break-in routine with no highspeed or excessive braking. Thats gonna be pretty tough since I live on a mountain. Let you know how this setup works out. I do need to flush out the brake fluid ASAP. 130k on the clock; Never been done!. I settled on Ford's Heavy Duty Dot 3 which is rated pretty good for its wet boiling point [$3.50 - $4.40/pt in this area]. Yakking with the Ford service manager about the procedure for brake system flushes. They didn't recommend it because of the ABS and sensitivity of the computer to air [? -- sounds like BS??] on the Ford Escape [wife has a Ford for a company car]. But he agreed if I used a turkey baster to remove most of the fluid out of the reservoir, refilled with new fluid then bleed at each wheel while keeping the reservoir full -- that would be acceptable. SO I thought I better read the Nissan service manual on that procedure. While the manual doesn't specifically state not to completely drain the system, it does say to keep the master cylinder full at all times. Anyone know whats ok here? Ranchos on all four corners are installed. So anxious to play with the settings to see what it can do. Off to a BBQ & Beer party. RC

Cool Thx for the info. I wasn't sure whether higher numbers were stiffer or vice versa. Rancho doesn't get high marks for providing documentation with their product -- nada, nothing, zippo in the box. Guess I should look on their website. RC