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Ride quality


lint
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This is hard to explain, but my '95 SE handles a little "funny".

 

Going over expansion joints on a bridge, when the rear crosses, I feel a hard jolt in my seat and it seems like the truck "skips" a little to the right. Almost like the axles is crooked.. She's never been abused or in an accident.

I've replaced front suspension bushings, all shocks, rear springs and all tires. Frame is intact and rust is minimal. The driver's side torsion bar is a little lower (1/2") than the passenger measuring off the front fenders. Do you think this could be the problem or the rear suspension bushings? Talking about the rear suspension bushing, I have access to an hydraulic press. Should I just buy the bushings or the assembly?

 

Your thoughts are appreciated. Thanks!

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front and rear sway/stabilizer bar bushings and rods?

 

So....I see the rear stabilizer bar has bushings like the front one...maybe I'll start here.

But what about the stabilizer bar connecting rods...would they have anything to do with the ride quality?

 

What do the upper & lower links do?

And what does the panhard rod do?

I see that the panhard rod and the links all have bushings. Do those wear out? I only have 200,000 km (115,000 miles) on 'er.

 

Thanks for replying...I appreciate it!

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The swaybar links and bushings could be worn out, not hard to check just grab them and see if there is any play. The rear link bushings, try and twist the rear links if you can twist them more than a hair they are probably done.

 

The lower links control allow the axle to articulate while the upper ones are set in a way that prevents the axle from rolling forward or backwards. The panhard rod locates the axle in the proper horizontal position.

Edited by adamzan
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Trying airing down a couple of psi. Heavy tires and high pressure, the tires bounce like basketballs. The factory air pressure is 26psi. Nissan figures that air pressure when calculating spring rates and shock compression and rebound.

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Its not uncommon for the LOWER rear control arm bushings to be blown out at that age. They will allow the whole rear axle to "pop" back and forth when a load is put on them or taken off...

 

I replaced all my lower arm bushings with out the use of any press. Just takes some grinding out of the space in the arm they go in to allow for the new ones to fit...tapping in with a mallet. I used a sanding drum on

a drill while the arm was clamped in a vice. getting the old bushings out of the arms....now thats a chore! but I used a hammer and chisel to bust out the remaining bushing rubber and knock out the metal center bolt collar, then

used a sawz-all to GENTLY cut the metal sleeve of the bushing so it would collapse and thus be tapped out easily...being careful not to cut through the arm its self.

 

This was about two years ago....this past weekend I was going to replace the upper control arm bushings, only to find out after removing the arms from the truck that they were still in perfect condition so I didn't bother.

 

Now I have extra brand new bushings that I'm looking to sell to anyone that needs them for a lot less than if you order from anywhere...and these are pretty much the last of them from Rockautoparts.com....other than the really

expensive ones.

 

Before replacing my bushings...my truck would wander all over the road whenever getting on or off the gas, or driving on uneven pavement. I was also not able to get a front end alignment done until the problem was fixed since

the shop could not guarantee the suspension was 'square' for alignment purposes.

 

-Chris

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T-bars should not be measured off of the fender. bodies can sag or even tilt on mounts to compensate for irregualrites on all 4 corners as well as slopes.

Find the ride height section and measure based off the frame to ground reference points given there.

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Did you recently lift the rear? If so you may need a panhard drop bracket. The panhard rod should be level, if it's not it will pull the body to the side when the suspension moves up and down.

James

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Copy that guys.

Before I go & adjust the T-bars, I'll ensure measurements are made at the recommended points.

No BL or SL on this one. :(

 

Also noticed that when I downshift (automatic) hard, I get the similar feeling of the back end torque to the passenger side. I guess it is a bushing somewhere..

I'm off to investigate.

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I think I know what you're describing. Mine does it too and it's most definitely the rear trailing arm bushings. It feels very unsettled over bumps and ruts, the rear end steps out when I hit the gas and sometimes it'll do it's own lane change.

 

It started with only driving a little bit funny and progressed into being dangerous. But I can't stop driving it! :lol:

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I think I know what you're describing. Mine does it too and it's most definitely the rear trailing arm bushings. It feels very unsettled over bumps and ruts, the rear end steps out when I hit the gas and sometimes it'll do it's own lane change.

 

I think we are on the same page here Kingman. :beer:

 

I was under there yesterday and everything looked right. Then again, I didn't have it on a hoist with the suspension unloaded. So the weight of the truck on the suspension could have played a role in that.

 

When you say rear trailing arm, is that the same as the rear stabilizer (sway) bar? My parts diagram lists: stabilizer bar, upper & lower links, & panhard rod.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Agreed, I had similar issues and found the upper link bushing were toast. While still bolted in, the lowers had a slight flex if you tried to twist them by hand (I'll probably change them out soon enough too), while the upper short ones moved visibly many, many degrees of twist just by hand, and the driver's side was much worse than the passenger side. The rig would really pull/twist to the side when accelerating on the highway, and at speed going downhill, the rear end was even worse and would sway and be SUPER sloppy. I swapped them out probably 2 months ago (there's a post on here) with some new-to-me arms from a gently used wrecked Pathy at the junkyard rather than replacing the bushings, problem solved quick and cheap for $20. I also swapped out the swaybar bushings and rods with a new kit for like $20 from eBay. I have a rear Lock Right locker, so the problem was even more pronounced on mine, kinda scary really. Anyways, good luck! :)

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So, the upper & lower links had a very, very small amount of twist to them. The pan hard rod was tight & the bushings for the rear sway (stabilizer) bar looked good.

 

On a whim (and with a spare $18.00 in my pocket) I swapped out the rear sway bar bushings. I figured that if I was gonna start swapping out parts to chase this problem down, I might as well start with the cheapest things! Right??

Anyway that seems to have been the problem. The ride is much better, I'm not saying it's perfect, cause it ain't, but it's better.

I'm planning on my next trip to the u-pick JY to get the upper, lower links & panhard bar. This way I can swap those out & replace the bushings if I have to at my leisure and not be without a ride for more than a few hours.

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Oh the drama! So my wagon is handling like a frickin' drunk fish again. I get under the truck with a pair of vice grips to check out the control arms. One upper on driver's side & one lower on passenger have quite a bit of twist to them. Now I know what the problem is, I can start making steps to get it sorted!

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  • 9 years later...
On 4/9/2011 at 4:42 PM, lint said:

Oh the drama! So my wagon is handling like a frickin' drunk fish again. I get under the truck with a pair of vice grips to check out the control arms. One upper on driver's side & one lower on passenger have quite a bit of twist to them. Now I know what the problem is, I can start making steps to get it sorted!

Where did you get the parts? How was the install? And did it fix your loose backend? 

About to try this I think.

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