Modification Help Please?`

[DreadPirateRedBeard]

I'm new to this forum but have had my Pathfinder for about two years and have many hours and miles logged offroad. I found this forum and am hoping to find like minded Nissan off roaders as well as some help with my project.

I have been having trouble with no power to the front wheels for about a year and a half. A shop did a bearing job on the front end and by the time I realized that they had messed something up, it had been about 8 months so I had no real recourse. If I simply swap out the front works from the CV shafts to the hubs I should be OK yes?

I just found a really nice parts donor truck with a motor that has a bad upper end, so I have all sorts of parts to work with now to get things working properly now. I'm working on doing a moderate lift of 4"-6", dual transfer cases, a welded rear diff, bigger tires down the road, half doors and eventually an SAS.

I am looking for help with a few tech questions also. First and foremost at the moment is a decent lift kit for the front end. I'm going with Ford coil springs from '72-'79 F100 or F150 2WD 8cyl front coils, so I need the front lift. I don't want to do a torsion bar adjustment. Is it possible to do the same in front as the rear with the longer Ford coils? I want around 2"-3" of lift from springs and/or a kit and can make up the other couple of inches with increased tire size. I've also read about replacing the upper control arms and lower ball spacers.

I also need a good place to get lower gears front and back. Does anyone know of a good site to buy gears, lockers and other mods for older Nissans? I'm very new to modding 4x4's but very mechanically adept so I can do most of these things myself including any welding as I'm a professional welder. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you very much in advance.

 

Dirkin

Edited September 12, 2007 by DreadPirateRedBeard

[88pathoffroad]

Sounds like your hubs are shot or put together wrong. A nice set of Warn manual hubs would fix that problem in about an hour for around $150.

 

You can't add coils up front unless you reengineer some stuff yourself. The torsion bars ARE the front springs.

 

On lifts: the only lift larger than 2-3" advertised lift is the 4" Trailmaster drop-down lift($700-1000). Drops front end suspension down 4" and lowers the torsion bars with a mid-frame bracket/crossmember. Other companies making lift kits are: Calmini (most spendy kit, overengineered and very strong), Superlift/Rough Country (Superlift and RC UCA's are essentially the exact same), AC (not recommended, poor fit and engineering of UCA's) and Old Man Emu(IIRC OME lifts ONLY come with new t-bars and shocks, correct me if I'm wrong). All of these are IFS lifts and are simply torsion bar crank lifts with new upper control arms. Some come with new torsion bars but they're largely unnecessary unless you add weight to the front end with a winch or winch bumper. You can also get a 2" or 3" body lift (Performance Accessories), which combines nicely with a 3" suspension lift to let you run bigger tires. The only company that sells a body lift for a 92-95 Pathy is AC in Florida.

 

There's no such thing as lower balljoint spacers, you can get upper BJ spacers but they will ruin your upper control arms. Ask me how I know about that one.

 

I'd ixnay the Ford coils idea. They're too short, fairly stiff and I almost had mine fall out of their sockets several times while offroading. I use modified front Jeep Grand Cherokee coils (.58" coil diameter, JGC's came with an assortment of different spring rate coils so watch out) in the rear of mine for about 3" of lift. I also added some rubber spacers I made myself for another 1.5".

 

If you really plan on doing hardcore offroading in a Pathfinder and have the tools and skills, you might just want to consider swapping a solid axle into the front. The stock IFS system only takes so much abuse and even with heavy mods it still breaks. There's no way to get around the IFS front end deficiencies.

 

There are only two or three places to buy gears from and they cost around $500 per axle(no install or shim kits or extras). I know it sucks but that's what there is.

 

Lockers: you have your choice! ARB or Lock-Right. ARB runs between $800-$1000 with a compressor, without install. A Lock-Right ($250-$300, Summit Racing sells them IIRC) replaces the stock side gears inside the rear diff and still allows you to make turns, yet locks up when offroad and you hit the gas. I have the Lock-Right. It works great!

 

Hope that helps.

[Simon]

Yep....at 88 said....in terms of suspension, without redesigning the whole system, a torsion bar crank is the only way to achieve lift in these rigs. New Upper Control arms help align post lift, and are stronger than stock arms, but they don't provide lift.

 

I'd say, there's no point trying to redesign the IFS to use coils, or anything else. The time and energy spent there could be put towards a SAS, and would serve you far better.