shift220

I have one drafted up. I can't guarantee fitment but I printed off a paper copy, cut it out and it fit good. It won't allow to me to attach it so if you send me a pm with your email, I can send it to you.

Maybe I'll explain myself a little better. First of all, our struts sit an angle of 12 degrees side to side and 5 degrees front to back (with suspension at full droop). Now I measured this on my driveway so it might be off a little bit due to the angle it was sitting at on the ground. Now, if the 5 degrees is changed, it will not have a great effect on the vehicle. But if we change the 12 degrees, then we are messing with the alignment and the tires will wear unevenly. I think most of us knew this already, that's why it was agreed that we need angled strut spacers to maintain alignment. So while making angled spacers isn't that big of a deal, it puts unnecessary forces on the strut mounts and ultimately the body. What I mean by this is that the stresses are no longer axial, but a torque is applied to the mounts as well. Basically, I'm trying to avoid making angled strut mounts to keep the stresses near stock. Anybody know how much in and out play I have in the CV axles?

I'm talking about adding a spacer on the bottom of the strut in my previous post. It will mess up the steering geometry unless fixed by the items I suggested (or similar).

All right so strut spacers it is. After drafting up our strut suspension in Autocad, it occurred to me that we would need at least a 5" suspension lift and the steering axis would be thrown off requiring us to either relocate the strut upper mount or make longer a-arms. Although longer A-arms would be ideal, but i'm not quite ready to produce a set of those yet, unless I had a donor arm to make a jig with

Coilovers would be nice but unfortunately can't be used in place of struts. Struts act as an upper control arm which is why they have a much thicker piston shaft among other things. Plus they are really expensive. I may pursue making a lower strut mount extension, I just have to check the minimum amount I'll have to lift to do it. The angle really depends on the condition of your struts and I didn't remove the wheel or anything so I just got an average over a couple measurements. If you design it around the angle when the system is fully dropped, it should be within spec at all ranges and it will be consistent.

The reason for rapid rusting after parking inside is because of the heat. The chemical reaction of rusting is almost stopped at below freezing temperatures. As soon as it gets warm enough, the rusting can happen really quickly. This is why if you live where they salt the roads in the winter, the spring time slushy crap is the worst to leave sitting on your car. I'm not even sure I want to take my fender flares off...

My blocks are all 2.5" x 3.5" with the 3.5" becoming the lift. All blocks are also 6" long. The struts sit at an average angle of 12 degrees off the vertical axis (going from side to side of the vehicle). I'm going to fab the strut spacers so the strut stays at the same degree. On another thought, although alot harder to design and fabricate, a much better solution would be to put the spacer at the bottom of the strut where it bolts to the spindle. Has anyone seen something like this before? It would provide ample tire clearance as well!

So... what do 96-97 have?

Great reply MichiganAve! That really helps with the process. I didn't even think about half the stuff you posted. Brake lines: Any performance shop carries generic SS braided brake lines. It would be as simple as getting lines the amount of drop longer then stock and buying the correct fittings. The only consequence is improved braking from the stiffer lines. Sounds like most of the other stuff will have to be fabbed up. I'll try to do some figuring on the strut spacers.

Can you elaborate on why its so much work? Believe me, I know what its like to do a project where there is no going back to stock but its hard to see why it would be like this for the SFD. I got my Pathfinder up on the ramps today and took most of my measurements to start making blocks. Just have to pick up some material. Can we use the "Calmini - H.D. 3" Rear Coil Springs" for our R50s? I found them on the Rugged Rocks website but it doesn't specify year.

Did you have problems with the blocks moving around because of loose holes for the bolts? The reason I like the other style blocks is because of the multi-direction supports in the blocks. What I mean by this is that if the subframe experiences a hit from the side then the blocks could possibly collapse on themselves (or bend into a "parallelogram" shape). I think I have a simple solution that will still be easy to produce and let me sleep at night. I also noticed that this person simply added a block to the steering shaft. I would be inclined to try this first and see if the joint will bind or not. I don't like the idea of welding anything purely for purposes of going back to stock if needed. Anybody know the minimum ID of the strut spacers? I'd like to design and manufacture much of this lift before actually taking apart my own Pathfinder so any help is appreciated! Its currently my only DD

Thanks for the excellent replies guys. The problem I see with using F250 coils is even though they might be the right length, they are probably way to stiff for our application. Jeep coils would seem more appropriate if they came in the right length. I hate to go big on the rear coil spacer but 2" wouldn't be to bad either. Do they make these for our application? As for the style of blocks, I like the way they made them in this picture. But using rectangular metal tubing would make fabrication much simpler. Alex, I think you made them with just the tubing. Was it hard to get to the top bolts to tighten them? Also I just thought of this looking at the picture, does the front driveshaft need to be extended in any way or does it extend enough?

My Pathfinder has been stock for to long and i'm looking for some solid information on the infamous subframe drop. I have collected some pictures and very little information on the actual drop. Here is what I understand is needed: - 4 blocks total to drop the subframe itself. The height of the blocks has been discussed in another thread and the limiting factor seems to be steering. I would have to investigate this personally to see how the steering shaft could possibly be modified. Any insight and/or pictures would be great - 2 blocks to raise the engine back to stock height for obvious reasons. Anybody have some close up pics of the engine mounts? Are they square with the frame or angled? Now what i'm not clear on is how the struts/mounts are changed. It would make sense that if you drop the subframe 4" that you would also have to drop the strut 4" (or drop it 3" and put in a 1" lift spring?). Any other little items that interfere with the drop? Disclaimer: I'm trying to collect as much info as possible so there aren't any surprises for me. My Pathfinder is my winter DD so it can't be out for long! And yes I do have the resources available to recreate kits should I choose to do so...

Any clearer pictures? The fabrication doesn't look to clean from that picture..

My R50 does this as well. Its pretty normal when you hit the right kind of bump. Its just due to the solid rear axle. Its even worse with my Sonoma (no weight on the back).

I would do just like you said and adjust until they are snug. The parking brake should not need to be adjusted after that. Usually drum brakes are self-adjusting in where they tighten up when you brake hard in reverse but i'm not 100% sure on these trucks.

Yea that sounds like the nature of the beast. Definitely not much on the low-end for torque but the gears make up for it.

That's definitely not the one I picked up so I can't say for sure if it is a dual speed or not. The common ones don't have that cutout on them. Also, $40 US is a rip-off for a fan like that. I picked one up at a local junkyard for $15 CND bucks and I knew it was dual speed when I bought it. I bought a flex-a-lite controller that came with everything I needed to run the fan.

Personally, I would just clamp it on if the rest of the exhaust is ok. I don't think it would be worth it to get it welded to the stock exhaust.

Ok since you are having structural problems, your only safe, foolproof option is welding in a new peice of sheet metal. Any peice of sheet metal will work. Cut one from an old car or whereever. It should be as thick or thicker then original. As for welding goes, you can't use an oxy-ace torch to weld in it. They do make MIG welders that are 110v. This is your best bet. See if you can rent one of these. If it were me, I would cut out the rust with nice straight lines and then cut the filler sheet to fit flush. You don't have to this so in your case I would make it overlap a 1/4" around each edge. There's are some more details involved but if your going to get it professionally done then that's a good idea also

Mufflers range between size, sound level and composition. If you want one that will last forever but costs more initially then get a stainless steel one. A retailer should be able to help you pick one out that's fairly close to stock if you want. Having two cats is not uncommon the least bit. Never looked into the reason for having a pre-cat so I couldn't tell you why. If it were me, I would get rid of the precat and put in a new "main" cat. As for plug wires.. just don't cheap out

Definitely post up some pics with the install! BTW, AN fittings do not need teflon tape. Just install them how they are. They seal on the flare/seat.

How big are those roughly? I have to disagree on the price also. Considering that 1" aluminum carb spacers are about $20 bucks (with hardware and a couple gaskets) and seem to be around the same size. Mass production aside, that's 10x the price. Not saying that Mike here is trying to rip people off, I just don't think you get what you pay for. I guess thats what you get with supply and demand and the fact that these are probably being made in Canada

Does anyone have a picture of what these spacers look like?

I realize that Nissan did have a diesel engine in these vehicles but is it available in North America? I didn't think the terrano's were. I don't see many Nissan commercial trucks running around either. Just curious how feasible the swap is