TrailChaser

The first welding test was conducted with a Nissan battery which is beyond reconditioning... So I went and bought two deep cycle batteries from Oreilly. Only $185... Even tho the test was done using a "bad" battery I consider it a success. The welds that I laid down before the power loss were good and hot with plenty of penetration. It was trying to burn thru in a couple of spots. Now that I have the good batteries I can really test the welding time. The forums I've read say you can pretty much weld all you want out of a single charge with deep cycles, but the RW website says about 45 mins of actual weld time using deep cycles. I can burn up 1lb of wire every 15 mins at work (pro welder here) running hardwire at about 180amps but I don't know what the FPM of the wire at work is, but that still tells you something... I'll post more time details as I play with it more. I've got lots of welding left to do on the bumper. I'm not really liking the flux core wire. It's laying down nice, it's just not my cup of tea. I'm Very Impressed with it so far... Even with a bad battery used for testing. Remember, most guys that have a ready welder for wheeling repairs wheel with more than one vehicle. So with this welder there is no need to carry around two extra deep cycle batteries for trail repairs. The deep cycles stay at home, and IF someone breaks something on the trail that needs a weld all you have to do is borrow one other battery to be able to weld. It takes a lot of welding to draw the batteries down to the point were they won't start your truck. Even then you can get a jump from a buddy unless you're one of the cool guys with a stick shift. I posted a video on Youtube showing the ready welders test welds.

I don't have a camera that's any good so I shot a little video of the bumper I'm working on for my pathy. I mainly need opinions on were to have the tire. In the middle, on the passenger side, or on the driver side. All three different locations have their advantages and disadvantages. Tell me what you think. Keep in mind that this bumper is in it's very early stages of fabrication. So I really don't need to hear how bad it looks. It'll look TOTALLY different/better with all the grinder then buffer work I'll do to finish it before painting. This bumper is made from 3"x6" tubing. The sidewalls are about 3/16". I used a torch to cut out the taper on the bottom. I really didn't like the "square" look. The recovery points are 2"x1/2". I cut holes in both sides of the tubing and welded the piss outa the back and put big pretty welds on the fronts. I didn't like the way they looked just sticking out like they were, so I welded some 1/2"thick gussets to the tops and buffed it to look like one piece of steel. I'll be using 3/4" shackles on this bumper.(WLL 7tons ) The tire carrier is made from 2"x2" heavy wall square tubing on the main arm, and 2"x2" thin wall square tubing for the bracket that will hold the tire. The hinge was the biggest pain. I though I'd be able to get away with just using two pieces of pipes sleeved together. Turns out that will work if you don't mind having either a real tight hinge or a hinge with lots of slop/play as far as up and down movement goes. My remedy to the hinge problem... I just got a Large(not sure the actual size) grade 8 bolt and two grade 8 nuts.(the nuts are about 1.5" wide at the points) I punched a hole in a piece of 1/4" steel plate then cut a circle the same size as the ID of the hinge pipe that's welded to the bumper. Then I welded the two nuts to the 1/4" plate, one on each side. Then I stuck the two nuts and 1/4" plate inside the hinge pipe. After leveling it perfectly I welded the plate to the inside of the pipe then welded the top nut as well. I then cut the head off the bolt and made a cap that fits the hinge pipe and welded the bolt to that cap. Now when I'm ready to put it together for good all I have to do is screw the cap down threw the two nuts, lift the carrier up about a 1/16" to meet the cap. Then weld the cap to the tire carrier so the bolt going thru the two nuts support the weight and totally eliminate any slop/play. The only downside is that the cap is supporting all the weight. To counter that downside I made the cap extra beefy. I used 1/4" plate with sch80 pipe for the sides, adn then after welding the headless bolt thru the hole I made in the cap then welding it all around with a nice deep bevel at the bottom I filled in most of the extra space under the cap with about 1/8" of weld just for the hell of it. IF it breaks loose the sleeved pipe will take the load and the carrier will not fall off like I've heard with others whose store bought hinges have failed. Finally

Glad to hear it was an easy fix. What exactly do you mean by "The gauge should come alive when you turn the key?" In both my 95s the only time you see the gauge actually move is right after fillng up. The rest of the time it shows the accurate level whether the truck is running or dead. Did they come both ways or something?

Two different cv's where broken on the trail this weekend. One on a xterra and one on a R50. Both where VERY noticeable. Look for the video of the Xterra soon in the video section. He was pretty much flopped and I was pulling him trying to get his front tire to grab when POP!!! :o Needless to say we ended up winching him out backwards.

If the cv's are moving with the truck while it's rolling then the problem is almost definitely one of your hubs. Sorry if I came off as dissing your families mechanic skills. All the mechanics I know of are all human and all humans are bound to screw up from time to time. If your cv's are spinning when the truck is in 4wd and moving, I'd say grab an allen wrench and take off the hub from the side that did not get a new boot. Then take off the side that did get the new boot and compare what you have from side to side. That'll only take a few minutes. Don't be scared to take the hubs off. It's really simple, no springs are gonna pop out at you or anything. David

I just finished changing my passenger side cv. It took me 2hrs to do it 95% by myself. Just a couple of side notes to speed up the job for anyone about to change one out. First, there is no need to remove any part of the brakes. Leave the calipers alone they are not in the way. Second, for those of us that are fortunate enough to have installed the manual locking hubs. Have a second person hold the brake pedal(this is where the 5% from the other person is needed) while you break the drive flange bolts loose and again when you torque them back down. It's MUCH better than dealing with the slack in the drive train when switching back and forth from 2wd to 4wd. Hope this helps someone else in the future. David

The light on the dash is just a reference type light. If your 4wd shifter is working properly and is in the top 2wd position you ARE in 2wd no matter what that light says.

Glad you got it. I was gonna suggest just that. I almost forgot to put that starter gusset back on. Sounds like you're moving right along with the swap. Did you already tackle the dash? (Someones gonna ask why the dash has anything to do with a tranny swap.)

Nope. The crack in the boot or the replacement of that boot could not have anything to do with your problem. The only thing that boot does is hold grease in. If you have a broken cv you would know it. It would sound real ugly coming from the frontend. When I suggested having a friend drive slowly I'm talking about the truck barely moving. Think .05mph... You can even test it out with your friend driving your truck in reverse since 4wd works in both directions. Now that you told us that the boot was replaced, tell us how qualified the mechanic was to do the job. I bet your mechanic put the hub back together wrong. I don't know how it could've been put back together wrong tho, unless he just plane left out the clutch. Drop a few $$$ on some Warn Manual hubs or even Mile Markers. It's a good investment.

Look at the CV's and see if they are spinning while a friend drives the truck forward ssslllloooowwwly in 4wd. If the cv's ARE spinning with the tire you have a hub problem. If neither cv spins while driving forward while in 4wd then first I'd check my front driveshaft and see if anything broke loose. If not MayBe your 4wd shifter is a little screwed up. How does it "feel" when you shift it? If not that I'd start worrying about my front diff gears. The drain plug will tell you whether that's the problem if you pull it and see lots of metal crap. Most likely you're having a hub problem on one side. Since your front diff is open only one hub has to go bad for it to seem like the front isn't pulling. Just in case you're not sure what a CV is. You're going to be looking at the rubber accordion looking things connecting to your front wheels. In 2wd they're suppose to stay still, in 4wd they'll rotate with the wheel.

Same type of setup, easier do-it-yourself guide for someone who don't know alot about the subject.. Linky Link

A buddy of mine has an onboard welder that he did the cheap easy way. This is the perfect setup for someone who wants a welder and doesn't want to buy one of the expensive kits. System-f is the guy I'm talking about. I'm not sure if he's on this forum, but his trail rig is a R50. Here's a link to the discussion. If you want to drop some $$$ I'd suggest getting a Ready Welder. It's basic mig welding using car batteries. You can get that thing to weld real nice and hot with only two batteries. I've only used one once, but I was impressed enough that I'm getting my own when income tax time rolls around. (Income tax is when the IRS "US gov." gives us poor people a little bit of our tax money back.)

The tire chirping isn't too bad on mine unless you power thru 90deg turns from a dead stop. But then I can't drive too crazy with no rear swaybar.

You just jack up the front of the truck, loosen the main adjuster bolt (19mm) till it's loose, then unbolt the three bolts(two 14mm one 17or19mm) that are holding the anchor to the lower control arm, mark where the splines are before you move the anchor, now slide that anchor towards the rear of the truck till it comes off the splines, then rotate it a couple of splines, then slide the anchor back toward the front of the truck, then bolt it back up and readjust the bolts at the rear of the t-bars till you get the height you're looking for. Use lots of penetrating oil on the adjuster nuts before you do the job. Also you might want to be careful if you're planning to use a rachet with a backup wrench on the nut. The two thin pieces of metal that connect the bolt to the t-bar are known to bend when you start applying the ole torque. It sucks using an open ended wrench on that bolt for 10 minutes, but I've got one out in the garage now that's a prime example of what happens when you get in a hurry. Grease the bottom of the heads and the top of the half moon before bolting'em back up to keep things slippery. Hope some of this helps.

That just means you had real close to equal traction on all four tires. If you want to see if you have a LSD you can just jack up the two rear tires. Then put the tranny in neutral then grab one side and turn it. If the other side turns the same way you have a LSD.(or a PO put in a locker) If the other side turns the opposite direction you have an open diff. If you look on the back of the diff and see an orange sticker that says "Use Only LSD oil" or something you most likely have Limited Slip. If you have an open diff rejoice... You can easily throw a cheap lock right in there with hardly any effort. I went thru hell trying to find a cheap open 3rd... Then it turned out to be 4.3xx gears with it. PS: There's a 99.999% chance that your front diff is open.

Mine got a new GPS.

I have a 91 sitting in my garage right now 99% rust free. I'm in Houston. If you can get someone to take the body off and dispose of it you can have the frame. I need that thing out of my garage anyway. It was wrecked in the frontend, but there was no frame damage AFAIK. Maybe you could get someone to trailer it up there whole on a car hauler??? The used car lots move cars that way all the time. It's light too... No engine, tranny/transfer case, or wheels.

My old pathy is sitting in a junk yard somewhere with a rear locker... Good luck finding it tho. I looked for it for a while after I bought my current pathy. The cheapest locker you'll find IIRC is on ebay being sold by rockyroadoutfitters in there ebay store. That's where I bought my new locker that I have now. They even had it shipped to me pretty quick. They don't stock'em, they just have them drop shipped from Richmond Gear who makes them.

I hear this argument all the time on the club trail runs. The Xterra guys don't really like seeing the kind of stock flex we get from simply adding 5112's, 3" of lift and disconnect/removal of the rear sway bar. The only way they get similar flex is running revolver shackles with aftermarket leaves. Mostly stock flex. A buddy of mine with Revolver Shackles and new leavz. Good luck with your decision.

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I was told by a mechanic that most auto trannies have an optimum operating temp. Which is usually about the same as the water temp 160F to about 190F, and if you stick the cooler on the outside of the grill your tranny will run too cool at highway speeds. Going by that advice I mounted mine on the inside of the radiator between the fan and the radiator. My tranny temp sensor always read 170deg F at when it was about 80degs outside. The hotter it got out side the hotter the tranny temp would get. Like 95degs outside would be 185f on the sensor. I'm not sure how much this matters if at all, just thought I'd throw that out there. Also, If you want to bump the engine w/out starting it just pull the coil wire. Since I did the auto to 5speed swap I have an available tranny cooler. PM me for details I don't want to jack this thread with my crap too much.

Why were you running 8psi? I get people from my local club looking at me like I'm crazy for going down to 14-16psi on runs. Most of them seem to run about 20-25psi. I had to clean mud from between my tire and rim after wheeling at 18psi. It was leaking air slowly. I thought I had a hole in the tire that I just couldn't find.

On the size tires we run anything below 15psi (w/out beadlocks) is asking for trouble. Turning fast on sand with them that low will knock'em off the bead.

I just did the swap from auto to manual tranny less than a month ago and have been wheeling once since I did the swap.(check the pics and video section for pics) I thought I wouldn't like the 5speed but was totally wrong. I LOVE this new tranny. It's worlds better than my auto. The main 2 things that you'll want to do if you get a 5speed for wheeling is: Install a hand trottle, and install a clutch safety switch bypass. The hand throttle is great, I set mine at about 2000rpms and control my speed by being in the right gear. You can have it set like that and still be able to give it gas with the foot pedal w/out affecting the throttle setting. It'll keep stalls to a minimum and also really comes in handy when you need to restart a hill climb after being stopped halfway up. That brings me to the second item. The bypass switch just allows you to start you truck while it's in gear w/out pushing the clutch. Trust me it WILL start if you are in 1st gear in 4wl. I've never heard of anyone saying it's bad for the starter. I tried it out on a steep hill just to see how well it would work. The starter turned the engine over while powering the truck up the hill with no problems at all. David PS. That forward to reverse real fast while stuck is about the single worst thing you can do to an automatic tranny. Install a tranny temp guage then go do that. You'll be amazed how fast it'll heat up, and how hot it can/will get. Doing that is the only time I've ever seen a A/T Temp idiot light come on in a pathy.

When I lost reverse on mine it just went out completly. You may just need to adjust the linkage like govols74n was saying. If I were you I'd start looking for a new/used tranny and a shop with a good rep if you can't do the work yourself just in case it is the tranny. Anyone hear of a good shift kit (link to one would be great) that might fix this type of auto tranny situation, or is the only good solution swapping a 5speed in?