mjotrainbrain

I subscribed to him years ago and watch all of every video, even if it has nothing to do with a vehicle I own. He's really good at effective teaching. I've seen that his videos are used in auto tech classes a lot; if only he got a commission for it beyond whatever YouTube pays!

Yeah, he goes nuts with the attention to detail. I've never bothered to do more other than occasionally wipe down plastics personally, I wheel too often for it to be worth the effort. If it weren't for rust I'd just leave the whole vehicle (minus the interior) dirty all the time.

ChrisFix made a video on this topic. I haven't tried it, but it seems like a pretty good method.

An SFD is usually built to give 3 or 4 inches of lift, which can be paired with lift coils to go as high as 6 inches of lift or even more if you're ambitious!

Basically it's the only way to lift over ~2.5". The CV's in the front end only have so much angle they can handle, so to lift higher you need to lower the diff. On other 4x4's with full frames diff drops are common (for example, look at a 6" or 8" lift kit for a fullsize IFS truck). With the R50 platform you can't simply drop just the diff, so the entire front subframe gets spaced down to give lift. This actually works really well because in addition to moving the diff, it moves the steering and control arms down as well do maintain all of the stock suspension geometry. Hopefully that description is helpful and not confusing!

Sounds like a pretty good setup, but when does somebody fit some upgraded control arms and fancy shocks on? ?? Out of curiosity, what are you running for front struts and coils?

Woo hoo! Never sell that thing man, it's my biggest regret. I would suggest getting a JDM engine, they should have less than 60k miles and aren't all that expensive (~$600 if I'm not mistaken).

If the wheel bearings on the WD21 are anything like an R50, part of the assembly is a disk that threads into the spindle and has holes in it. Those holes align with something else and screws go through em. If you don't get the disk tightened down far enough the wheel bearings will be a little loose. It can be a bear to tighten it down until the next position where the holes align, but when you do it'll all be better. About 1500 miles after I did the bearings on my R50 I had to pull it apart and tighten it one more position, as the bearings had settled in while driving a little better than I could get em by hand.

Man, somebody needs to get crafty with the front end of an R50, because all you wizards have the rear end setups dialed in! That looks super slick @Jax99, can't wait to see what you guys do with the rig next!

Looks a lot better, now to find some nice fenders!

Pretty much nope. Other than coils and new shocks/struts all around and then an alignment with camber bolts, you should be good to go!

That is certainly doable, but I'm not sure on exactly what you'll have to do; I did 32's with a custom bumper so I don't know the details for running 33's. All I know is if you want to run bigger than 31" you'll need to either get wheels with less backspacing (shoot for 3.75") or get some wheel spacers.

First of all, you'll have to cut pretty much everything to make 35's fit with a 2" lift. Now, as far as mods needed got a 2" lift, all you have to worry about is the camber bolts. The rest isn't needed until you go higher. Steering shaft only needs extending when you do an SFD, brake lines and brake sensor should be ok (although brake lines are easy enough to replace with OEM parts from other Nissans; @hawairish knows the details for that) unless you go 3 inches or more, and CV angle will only be an issue with over 2" of lift with spacers at full droop. With a spring lift like you seemed to suggest you're planning to get, you shouldn't have any issues with CV binding since the suspension still has the exact same range of travel as before, it's just that the CV will be at a higher angle more often so it'll wear out quicker than normal; they should still last a good long time, but for under $200 you can put your mind at ease and reap some other benefits with some manual hubs.

I had mine called a Jeep quite a few times.

However, it is good to have them as an emergency back up; if you snap and axle offroad, you can just unlocked the hubs and limp home in 2wd.

That's a good point, the local conditions make a big difference. Here in Michigan the roads are usually pretty dry (minus rain, but even then not too slippery) unless it's winter, during which I leave the hubs locked.

Ok so the Xterra has auto locking hubs, but the Pathfinder didn't get them. Some first gen Pathy's did, but no second (R50) gens. Manual locking hubs are the only alternative to the stock full-time locked. You're right, maybe he's thinking about the fact that the transfer case has an auto mode? In any case, when you finally get it all straightened out and buy them, only have them unlocked in 2wd. Any other mode requires them to be locked. You can test if they're auto locking by jacking it up and trying to turn the front tire by hand; you'll see that it also turns the CV. If it had auto locking hubs it wouldn't do this.

At ride height they basically have the same effect, at full droop it's a different story though. With lift coils your range of suspension motion is still stock, you just sit in a different spot in that range. With lift spacers you still sit in the same spot in the suspension's range of motion, but that range of motion is moved downwards; the tire can't come up as high as stock, but they can go lower. Either way the vehicle sits higher at regular ride height and the suspension angles are all essentially the same, however the bottom of the range of motion for suspension lifted with spacers binds the CV's since that range of motion is lower, and overlaps the "danger zone". Sorry if I'm rambling or repeating myself, it's 2AM...

I do have pictures documenting my air intake mod if you'd like to see them, I'd have to find them though; don't have the vehicle anymore so I can't just go take more unfortunately.

Yup. When I modified my air intake, I removed everything below the air box (the stuff that goes down into the bumper/fender area), blocked off that hole, added a 4" hole in the top of the box (protected with screen mesh), and then relocated the air temp sensor to the front of the air box; just drill a hole of the appropriate size.

Very interesting. I'd be interested to know what that looks like so I can keep an eye out for em, Google here I come!

Yup, somewhere near the middle of the front shaft. If you have manual hubs you can just grab the shaft and rotate until you find the zerk. If my memory is right it's directly behind a small crossmember so it's hard to get at. I only ever greased it twice so I don't remember exactly.

As far as zerk fittings, only thing should be the slip joint on the front driveshaft if I remember correctly. There may be more depending on what aftermarket replacements it may have (MOOG tend to). As far as non-zerk items, you could drive yourself nuts finding all the stuff to cram a needle under the boot and grease up.

That's good to know, thanks for experimenting! Will you be getting the poly ones from AC now?

Those look super cool all lit up.