shift_love Posted March 22, 2012 Author Share Posted March 22, 2012 I couldn't handle the fact that the wheel didn't even make contact with the basket and the squeaking was unbearable, so I took everything apart and started over. Essentially I changed the offset of the bracket, chopped it in half, welded it back together, grinded it, painted it, mounted it and done. Here's the install pictures, and my 5th wheel complete with a $2 used bfg a/t ko thanks to Andrew and his current discount tire career. now lets see the difference in height right next to one another, basically its 3.5 inches shorter than the other one, enabling the wheel to sit down flush on the basket so it didnt shake, bounce, sqeak and all sorts of other crap And now for the section of my thread that will help it live in infamy... Wait for it Wait for it Wait for it!!! Here are the details, research, installation, do's and dont's, and beginning of my 4wd conversion. Coming up in the next post...tomorrow. Lol. stay tuned Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
devonianwalk Posted March 22, 2012 Share Posted March 22, 2012 ........ Coming up in the next post...tomorrow. Lol. stay tuned Ass! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
01silvapathy Posted March 23, 2012 Share Posted March 23, 2012 Gotta love getting those gently used 290 dollar tires for 2 dollars lol. Im on the lookout everyday for another one or two lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snow4me Posted March 23, 2012 Share Posted March 23, 2012 Gotta love getting those gently used 290 dollar tires for 2 dollars lol. Im on the lookout everyday for another one or two lol I just garbage picked (1) almost new 285/75/16 BFG all terrain T/A. I love free great pickings! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
01silvapathy Posted March 23, 2012 Share Posted March 23, 2012 We always get people that come in and get new tires or wheels and dont want their old stuff. Most of the tires though around here are from street queens so wheel sizes are typically in the 18-20in range instead of the needed 16 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shift_love Posted March 23, 2012 Author Share Posted March 23, 2012 (edited) loaded up and ready to go!!! so here we go, after so much research, that led almost nowhere i happened upon a google search query of a member of this board that actually did a 4wd conversion, he said he had found a donor vehicle and used all of the parts from it to complete his process, unfortunately there wasnt much to his thread but i got some very good information from him about what will and what wont work...in conjunction with his advice i used the "nissan fast" catalog that im oh so familiar with from using day in and day out at work for the past 6 years and crossed a butt ton of part numbers, so here is the breakdown subframe - ABSOLUTELY THE SAME front suspension pieces (minus the spindles) - THE SAME lower oil pan (to clear the front diff) - THE SAME rear drive shaft - obviously different bell housings - the same valve bodies/harnesses - if you play your cards right, THE SAME knuckles - different shifter console - different floor sheet metal - different so basically the nesecary parts are as follows transmission with matching valve body/wiring harness manual transfer case (because wiring crap is a pita) front knuckles front axles front diff front diff mounts transfer shifter transfer shift boot with metal floor bracket transfer lower dash finisher with shift boot front drive shaft rear drive shaft front hubs optional front warn hubs (but not nesecary) and thats pretty much it so here are the do's make sure the transmission is from the correct prod date vehicle, if you can get one that was produced the same exact month as yours then chances are its going to go right in with no problems, on top of that, it seems any tx10 transfer case will bolt up just fine to the transmission of your choosing, the splines on the tail shaft of the trans, transfer and input of the transfer are all the same throughout the lineage of the r50 much like the transfer case, the front diff is exactly the same across all years, along with the diff mounts, even though the nissan part numbers say theyre all different...theyre not one more do...get knuckles off of your motor specific vehicle, if you have a vq, get knuckles from a vq pathy, if you have the vg33 r50 get knuckles from one, i made this mistake...which leads me to the donts donts- dont buy wrong year spindles, the brake caliper mounting points are different, first clue is that the bolt hole sizes are wrong, r50v2 uses a larger diameter caliper mounting bolt r50v1 uses a smaller dia. bolt, on top of that, the rotors were larger diameters for the newer pathys and smaller for the older ones second dont, and this is a big one, no matter, and i mean no matter, how desperate the situation never EVER buy parts from carquest, when i discovered my calipers werent going to work at the end of my assembly i looked all over town only to find that carquest had them in stock, heres the problem though, they gave me two left calipers, pretty much exactly the same side to side, but the bleeder screw is facing the bottom if you put the wrong one on the wrong side and youll never bleed all the air out meaning you pretty much wont have breaks, secondly, one of the calipers was machined kinda strangely and never loosened its new found grip on my rotor resulting in it over heating and warping the rotor, eventually i got back to carquest and got a new rh caliper, only it was again wrong, it had the larger bolt holes, so they brought me one at work........also wrong, so i went down there...wrong again...waited...finally got a correct one!!! yay lol, ill never ever purchase anything from carquest again...not even an air freshener im not sure if i missed anything but ill comment if needed in the future...so on with the build and pictures first, i took apart the diff completelty, ran it through the parts washer at work, and resealed everything, heres some pics to dissasemble, all youll need is a big flathead screw driver, a deadblow hammer, 14mm, a 17mm, and a 12mm socket with ratchet size of your choice, the short axle shaft is held in by tension and a single 17mm bolt on the side of the flange, the long axle shaft on the extension is held in place by 4 12mm bolts (pictured above) remove these and smack your screwdriver with your hammer in a wedged kinda position and they should pop free, next unbolt the carrier's 4 14mm bolts (i could be wrong, but i think they were 14's...) and slowly rotate the diff out of the housing, next, i stress this part KEEP TRACK OF WHERE THE SHIMS, BEARINGS, AND SPACERS came out at, what side, which direction and what order, if you do this then putting it back together will be easy, <<<clean pumpkin housing>>>, slide diff back into housing with races on bearing, then gently tap bearings and shims back into place using the rubber part of your deadblow, intert your shafts and tap those in using your copper end, bolt the carrier back together THEN bolt your axles back down into place moving on youll need these diff brackets, they bolt in on either side of the subframe with 2 19mm bolts on each side, Edited March 23, 2012 by shift_love Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shift_love Posted March 23, 2012 Author Share Posted March 23, 2012 (edited) here it is shown with and without the stock bolts that were already in place from the factory assembly line, bolt your brackets up in there and your diff is ready to go in, i used a floor jack and careful manuvering to get it into place in my next post tomorrow, since im running out of time at work tonight, ill cover the hub assembly, kuckle installation and axle installation into warn hubs, stay tuned Edited March 23, 2012 by shift_love Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
01silvapathy Posted March 24, 2012 Share Posted March 24, 2012 When do we test it out against mine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shift_love Posted March 24, 2012 Author Share Posted March 24, 2012 very very soon, we still need to hit up that spot off of garden ridge, but mine better be done just in case i need to pull you out Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
devonianwalk Posted March 24, 2012 Share Posted March 24, 2012 Man, I'm really impressed. I've never seen a 2x4 into a 4x4 swap before .. much less an R50. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shift_love Posted March 24, 2012 Author Share Posted March 24, 2012 (edited) so day three of posting this build, i said wed start with the hubs, knuckles, and axles, first off we can do a side by side comparison of both knuckle assy's right next to each other so those who are curious can see the near non existant differences, other than the hole for the axle on the 4wd knuckle so one thing i did do while my knuckles were dissasembled was i used a longer dorman stud so i could fit a .25" spacer on my front hub so i could eliminate a little bit of rubbing, i ended up going with 12x1.5 stud because dorman doesnt offer one in our dimensions and pitch that is longer so, i went a little oversized on the knurl, by like .02mm and about 15mm longer than stock and came out pretty snug, since the knurl diameter was larger i had to use an impact and washers and a lug nut to really force the stud to come through next up is gonna be bolting your knuckles onto the shock, there will be two bolts that go through the shock body and knuckle, the sway bar end link, tie rod ends, and the lower balljoint...you may be tempted to remove the nut off of the actual ball joint but DONT if its kinda old and not real tight in there youll never get the nut back on unless youre using some bad ass air tools, so just remove the three nuts off of the balljoint bracket on the lower control arm, then bolt the knuckle up yes i know i skipped the bearing assembly, but its really not that hard...turn the metal ring until its tight, spin the hub, tighten it a little bit again, and screw the lock plate on it to answer countless threads about warn hub installations... it seems as if the earlier r50 hubs had long enough bolts to fit the warn hubs, while the newer r50 hubs had the shorter bolts and the new studs that come in the kit will be nesecary, since i have the older hubs i left the original studs in place because "if it aint broke, dont fix it" , so esentially, ance you have the axle slid through the hub you slide the warn hub onto the axle and studs, tighten down the nuts in a criss cross fashion so that the hub sits perfectly flush with its mating surface 12oclock-6oclock 2-7 and 3-10 positions, then back around again to make sure its all tight and nice, next youll need a pair of snap ring pliers, or if youre really handy you can use small needle nose pliers Edited March 24, 2012 by shift_love Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shift_love Posted March 24, 2012 Author Share Posted March 24, 2012 (edited) once youre at this point put the locking cap into place and tighten it down using the same 12-6 configuration and youre done, next just bolt the axles to the half shafts on the diff with the 6 12mm bolts and your front 4wd suspension is done WHOO HOO ALSO real quick, did a k&n intake kit i bought off of ebay used for like $90, real simple to install, i love the grol, and my gas mileage has significantly improved from the 14mpg combined i was getting after the lift and everything, after i go through this tank ill post the final result on the calculated mileage, heres a couple pics... NEXT UP ill show the install of the transmission/transfer case and shifter and hole/bracket Edited March 24, 2012 by shift_love 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darek Posted March 26, 2012 Share Posted March 26, 2012 I am impressed by your skills - shift_love. You did awesome job with the car. I like your cargo basket currently I am looking for similar. Do you know how much does your basket weight (more less)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shift_love Posted March 26, 2012 Author Share Posted March 26, 2012 (edited) its princess auto, got it from a member here from canada, recently one of my friends found the same exact thing here on ebay, if i recall the shipping weight when he sent it to me was about 25lbs, or if youd like 12kg, its aluminum and pretty rigid, does the exact job that i need it to and was super easy to put together and throw up on top. im thinking about a shovel mount for it next cause i know knowing my luck ill need all the offroad accessories i can get when i start getting deep into the woods Edited March 26, 2012 by shift_love Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darek Posted March 27, 2012 Share Posted March 27, 2012 Is it normal that rubber bellows around strut does not cover whole strut? My rubber cover is broken and mechanics that I visited suggested to replace it with new one. (sorry, don't know how to make this image smaller with resize) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Posted March 27, 2012 Share Posted March 27, 2012 My car is the same so guess it's normal... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shift_love Posted March 27, 2012 Author Share Posted March 27, 2012 yea really all it does is act as a dust and dirt protector for the strut, think about a few hundred pieces of sand in your strut getting stuck against the piston and the wall of the tube, now think about how its going to rapidly vibrate up and down a few thousand times in a short period and start to scratch everything up causing a failure point, while i think they may be pointless because the design of the strut will fail before sand can eat away at the gas seals, the higher end struts/coilover setups/factory equipment that have the potential for lasting a long while means it could be seen as nessecary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shift_love Posted April 11, 2012 Author Share Posted April 11, 2012 (edited) Soooo I unfortunately have to update this thread with a plea for help. So here it goes. The conversion is done, it's been a pain in the arse. But it's not operational. The transmission seems to be going into gear but it doesn't move forwards, or backwards or any way. It did at one point, but my linkage wasn't working cause I had forgotten a bracket on the gear selector pawl. So that's fixed now, but it doesn't move. So my question is, what would cause this? When I put the tx10 into 4low it has to be in neutral or else you can hear it grind which makes me think the transmission is turning but the transfer isn't...so my options are...valve body not building pressure to change gears?/not sending signal to go into gear, torque converter oil pump not building adequate pressure for transmission to engage or a simple sensor problem. All of my harness is connected and I didn't have to splice anything in anywhere because I chose a trans with the same valve body and harness as my old 2wd tranny. So if y'all have any suggestions that'd be fantastic. I've been dedicating too much time to this over the past week. Two full Saturdays, 5 hours today, and probably 7 hours combined last week. So about 36 hours invested in this. I'm really dreading the tranny being bad. Any help or suggestions would be fantastic and I'll reply ASAP to give back feedback on suggestions. Hopefully I just missed something stupid. Edited April 11, 2012 by shift_love Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XPLORx4 Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 You said at one point, it WAS able to move forward and backward. Did you not adjust the linkage correctly? It seems like something about that bracket is causing the problem now. Look into that issue first, since before you messed with that, it was working. Or, try testing the transmission without the transfer case attached. Take off the transfer case and front driveshaft, and reinstall your original 2WD driveshaft. Or, just verify that the transfer case operates properly while it's not installed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shift_love Posted April 11, 2012 Author Share Posted April 11, 2012 yea im gonna pull the pan and make sure the selector pawl is in its correct place, moving it in and out of the tranny over and over again saturday afternoon might have led to one brief mishap, if its in there still ill pull the transfer case which shouldnt be too bad, i cant use the 2wd shaft because its got a 4 bolt flange on in instead of a splined slip yoke...kinda lame...i will however be able to put it into gear without the tx10 and see if the output shaft is moving at all, that would be a good indication that the transfer is bad, but im not quite there yet...gotta wait til i get off work tonight at 7 to test all this out, hopefully i can do it because tomorrow is another long day here at the "stealership"...i think im the first to use that word in regards to it stealing my life and time as an employee lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shift_love Posted April 19, 2012 Author Share Posted April 19, 2012 (edited) so success!!! i got the 4wd done, it was a very tasking job i can break down exactly what needs to happen and i can discuss what parts are needed but i didnt take very many pictures because i had problems with almost everything involved in the process, i did take some pictures of afterwards and what you should end up with, but no definitive walkthrough like i had with the other posts about my build of this truck, im happy to say that ive only had this r50 since october 28th 2011 and its about 90% done as far as im concerned, anyways ill outline the process real quick for anyone that needs to know or would like to know, id like this thread to be a guidebook for future r50 owners in my position or with the same ambition i had, and if anyone crops up ill be more than happy to answer the numerous answers required so for starters, im not sure if i wrote that the transfer cases were pretty much the same or not but my tx10 i acquired off of an 96 vg pathy mated up just fine to my mid 2001 auto tranny heres a pic basically all youll need is a transfer case, correct transmission with damn near exact production dates so that your valve body harness and everything will be the same, a rear drive shaft, a front driveshaft, 4wd crossmember and mount, and a new rear end...yes unfortunately i found out day 2 of this swap that the rear end pinion flanges are different between 2wd and 4wd, 2wd uses a funky 6 bolt and the 4wd is a regular 4 bolt pinion flange, why did nissan do this? i will never know, but it gave me the opportunity and push to get an lsd rear end, id wanted one for quite some time but couldnt justify the purchase until it happened. i did have to do research on the subject and while the carriers may be the same depending on whether theyre 4.3 or 4.6 rear ends the axle housings have different part numbers in the nissan catalog, so i ordered one from lkq and the next day i had a very pretty 90k mile lsd rear end in the shop to back up my 32k mile transmission from lkq so procedural advice for the transmission swap? unbolt the y pipe and the post resonator/cats first, move to your exhaust heat shields, unplug your harness from the transmission on the passengers side of the frame rail underneathe a heat shield, next move to your starter and crank position sensor, move the starter out of the way and begin unbolting the tranny, to get the top two bolts you have to lower the transmission on the xmember and get them from the top, once thats done you can unbolt your driveshaft and pull the tranny out...the torque converter will still be attached, so youll need to loosen the 4 bolts that hold it to the flex plate...i didnt actually do this i had a friend do it because i couldnt get my hands in there the right way to pull it out so i have no idea now would be a great time to replace your rear main seal, leaking or not, youre right there and might as well take advantage of the opportunity before it potentially goes out in the future going in is the same as coming out, but with one exception, the torque converter needs to be on the transmission during tranny install, not on the flex plate, its tempting to have it already bolted up but youll never get it lined up right...trust me i tried and failed , so bolt your tranny up and put your crossmember in and now its time to mess with the transfer shifter and the shift linkage Edited April 19, 2012 by shift_love Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shift_love Posted April 19, 2012 Author Share Posted April 19, 2012 (edited) so without pictures itll be a little hard to explain...but theres a hole in the floor...well theres a plate really, you can unbolt it from the floor and replace it with one from a 4wd truck with a manual tranny or manual transfer or whatever your heart desires, theyre all pretty similar so all you do is unbolt this plate on yours, pull it up and replace it with the one you bought from the junkyard or whatever you should have something clean looking like this when youre done wood grain? and manual transfer? awesome!!! le's never came manual transfer, only all mode 4wd so i feel super damn special what else is there hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm when you go to do your auto shift linkage you have to either have super powers, or you have to pull the trans pan, heres why the position switch pictured needs to go behind the gear selector pawl, to do this you have to pull the pawl slightly out, when you pull the pawl out it loses its grasp on the pressure relief valve in the body, when that happens, no matter what gear you put the tranny in it wont move because the valve body is bleeding all pressure, this is what was happening when i posted in desperation, luckily i retraced my steps and found the problem, youll also need to replace the funky rectangle clip on the shifter cable bracket, for reference here is how it goes in, IN FRONT of the bracket...i messed with this for a good 20 minutes before i figured it out lol and lamely enough thats about all ive got, i do have one little tidbit, before i did this i tried to get up a pile of fil dirt unsuccesfully but after the conversion i had to stop before i went over the crest and high centered also rear quick i wanted to show off my lame auto zone fog lights that i used as reverse lights, install was pretty straight forwards also finally broke down and purchased 2 more bfg's at ko's so i could match the other two i have on it, im very happy with my purchase but damn were they expensive and lastly, my final plans in the modification of my pathy on a large scale is to ditch the stock step rails for some rock sliders and get a tasteful ken mtn bull bumper, then ill have to figure out something to do cause ill feel like im done, i hope everyone has enjoyed my thread thus far and has learned a thing or two from it, btw, total budget for the 4wd conversion was a little under $1400, as compared to spending an extra 4-5k for a already 4wd vq r50 in my area Edited April 19, 2012 by shift_love Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XPLORx4 Posted April 20, 2012 Share Posted April 20, 2012 FWIW, my '97 LE has fake wood-grain trim and a part-time TX-10 transfer case. I don't think the all-mode transfer case was available in the LE until at least model year 2000. Having the part-time TX10 cas is a benefit, since there are 3.92:1 and 3.7:1 crawler gearsets available to replace the 2.02:1 stock low-range gears on the TX10, but there are none for the all-mode transfer case. The crawler gears radically improve the 4WD low-range drivability and performance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
devonianwalk Posted April 20, 2012 Share Posted April 20, 2012 AWESOME! Welcome to the 4x4 world!!! ... and to add to that, my 99.5 LE has the fake wood and a manual transfer but, your still damn special bro! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
01silvapathy Posted April 20, 2012 Share Posted April 20, 2012 Tell us the story of trying it out tonight! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now