How To Replace WD21 tire carrier bushings

[Kingsizerob]

Did this repair in October with the info here as a reference ..Worked like a charm..(except for drilling out the upper pin).

This info was very helpful thank you poster best 40 bucks I've spent in a while!

[vagabond]

This How-To applies to all WD21 Pathfinders from 87-95.

 

http://faculty.ccp.edu/faculty/dreed/Campingart/nistail/

 

In case the link goes dead...

 

What you'll need - A trip to the Nissan dealer - you will need 2 Pins (P/N E7245-41G60) and 4 Bushings (P/N E7247-416G0) - Don't believe the Nissan parts guy - the listing for my 91 showed only 2 bushings total, not 4. I ended up making two trips - my own fault for not knowing more than him!

 

Tools - No sissy stuff here. You'll need a good air or electric grinder, hammers, some metric sockets, a few punches, and some quality grease. You may also wish to have a good drill (or drill press) with a ½" carbide or tungsten bit, and an air chisel. Oh, and you'll need a helper for a few seconds during the job.

 

Time - This should *should* only take about an hour, mine took longer, I'll go into detail later about my horror.

 

Process - Remove carrier, grind or drill out pins, pound out bushings, install and grease new hardware. Put it back together.

 

Space - You'll need a workbench to place the entire carrier on.

 

Step 1 - Remove spare tire (duh..) and open carrier

 

Step 2 - Remove the bolts you can see on the passenger side of the beast

 

Step 3 - Loosen the bottom bolts first on the rear of the truck, then loosen the upper ones.

 

Step 4 - Remove one of each bolt, be careful.

 

Step 5 - Get someone to help you, and have them support the weight of the tire carrier as you remove the lower bolt, and then the upper bolt. Be careful, the carrier is heavier than it looks on the end that bolts to the body. Don't let it smash or scratch the body.

 

Step 6 - Remove the carrier.

 

Step 7 - I started with the mushroom ends - I used my grinder to make an "X" in the head, and then feather it off. I did (and you will) have to grind into the bracket (just a hair).

 

Keep track of which side is up. You CAN reinstall the brackets upside-down or get them mixed up. Do one at a time.

 

Step 8 - Once it ground down, use a punch, or air chisel and pound out the old pin.

 

Step 9 - Use the punch again and pound out the old bushings.

 

Step 9.5 - (optional) - Primer and paint the brackets where you had to grind them. Sand blasting them might be nice....

 

Step 10 - I added grease to the bushings and the new pin, and installed them, pay attention to the tabs on the bushings. Tap them in *gently* with a hammer. I broke the head off of one when I was hitting it. Not a big deal, I think they are brittle.

 

It's a tight fit. Note the grease point, make sure its clear - later down the road this is where grease (with a pin style injector) can be injected into the joint.

 

Step 11 - Do the same for the other one, and then get your friend to put the carrier back on. I found it was easy to have the carrier locked into its latch. I did the left body mounts first, then the rear ones. Get all the bolts started before you torque them down. Torque bolts to 50 Ft/Lbs.

your bushing # should be E7247-41G60 instead of E247-416G0, my parts guy showed me the mistake today.

Anyway I'm half done with mine just waiting for the parts thanks for all the info

[MY1PATH]

Last weekend I drilled out the upper pin on the wifes 93 and punched it out. Pans changed and I had to put it back together so I sanded the rust off the pin and brushed out inside the busshings and knocked the old pin back in with fresh grease. It was tight before, now it feels like new (for now).
At least the upper one is ready to come out again when I decided to do the lower and all 4 bushings.

[ahardb0dy]

I lubed the carrier with WD40 and I know members on here said it was not a good lubricant to use but months later if I open the carrier and don't hold onto it, the thing will swing all the way over with no effort at all.

[vagabond]

My pins and bushings came in yesterday and installed with no probs, then had to road test its so nice not to have it rattle back there

[adamzan]

Mine rattles with a 31" spare (on a lego). My solution was to put a stock size spare on for now lol.

[Kingman]

I took a closer look at mine after reading Sewebster's post. Mine are seized to the bushings as well so the pins, both top and bottom, are rotating along with the bushings and fit very loosely in the brackets. There's about 1/8" of play in there. My dealer wants $3.04 a piece for the bushings, I think I'm going to return the pins and pick up the tire carrier I saw at the junk yard as it was in really good shape.

[Precise1]

I lubed the carrier with WD40 and I know members on here said it was not a good lubricant to use but months later if I open the carrier and don't hold onto it, the thing will swing all the way over with no effort at all.

WD40 won't last, it is basically a mix of mineral oil with a little vasoline (it's more than that but not much). I'll post the break down if I can find it again, but it is great for a light/temporary lubricant, sticker, bug and tar remover....

 

I lubed my carrier bushings with Lucas oil stabilizer (super thick oil), applying it with an acid brush. When it creeped after a few days I had to wipe some off, but it penetrated well and now the carrier swings so easily I really have to be careful.

 

B

[Canuck]

WD 40 works for me, I used it on my '95 SE Pathfinder's tire carrier since 1996, when I bought it, I used the small

aerosol spray can with the tiny red straw that comes with it, spraying directly into the lube holes, but these spit the

spray right back (maybe the are the bearing pin holes), so I sprayed around the top and bottom of where I could see the

carrier rotate while I swung it to and fro.

 

I kept swinging it until enough WD 40 got into the bearings, freeing the hinges to swing freely. A day later they usually were even easier to work , too easy for my liking because now I had to use the carriers stop pin to make sure the gate did not hit me from behind when a wind came up and my head was inside the back adjusting the load.

 

The only drawback, over time I noticed that wherever I had WD40 spray marks on the black powder coating of the carrier, it formed rust spots the same size as the WD 40 spots, even though it is supposed to repell water.