Where to buy a lift?

[88MudFinder]

looking to lift my pathy now i want a suspension lift first then a body later on. where is a good place to order or buy a lift? and of course for a low cost lol my pathys not worth a lot so i dont wana put more into it then i need.

 

Any sugestions would be great thanks!

[Nefarious]

fronts springs out of a v8 jeep grand cherokee. look at the coils there should be a yellow paper tag with a part number starting with FN. those are what ya want. You cut off the little pig tail end and then fit them in the rear of the pathy. Your 2 door should get 3 inches of rear suspension lift with those springs for 50$ bucks give or take. I live by you and I went to garys auto, its a jeep place.

 

for the front suspension you can just crank up your torsion bars 2-3 inches (probably need to reindex them) and get some low profile bump stops so you can keep some down travel once cranked up. cheapest way to do it and my truck doesn't ride bad at all.

low profile bumpstops from lordco were about 16 bucks for the pair.

 

there's a full 3 inch lift for about 60-75 bucks. can't really complain there, then just take it in and get an alignment (a full proper one where they shim the upper control arms for camber/caster) and you will be good to go.

 

for shocks I used (i think '85 or '87) ford bronco II shocks up front (they are a little longer than stock so they allow you to use up the low profile bump stops increased travel). for the rear I used 1997 ford f350 (single rear shock type), they are 3" longer than stock shocks so you can get some crazy flex in the rear with the jeep springs/ford f350 shocks. I believe I paid 35$ per shock and they let me max out my front and rear suspension travel.

 

50+16+(35x4)= 206$ plus tax for full 3 inch lift with new extended shocks all around. can't really complain! i been rockin mine for about a year now with no issues.

 

p.s. to make the f350 shocks fit the rear properly you need to change out the lower shock bushings to the pathfinder lower shock bushing. it's really easy or you can just press out the little metal sleeve in the middle and slide it over the lower shock tab and then plaster it with some 3m window weld (fast curing polyurethane) and make your own bushing out of it. your call.

 

rear lift flexing, still got more to go too, thats with jgc springs and ford f350 shocks.

 

Edited June 2, 2012 by Nefarious

[88MudFinder]

thats pretty sweet haha i know where garys is , its in between mission and MR if im correct lol

what exactly do Bump stops do and reindexing the torsion bar , im not much of a mechanic

im doing what i can with my skills lol

 

thanks for the reply

[nismothunder]

You can run TTB Ford truck front coils for more lift then the Jeep ones. They are stiffer then the jeeps though. Mr.Jim the founder of this forum has/had bronco Coils in the rear. They maybe easyer/cheaper to find then the V8 JGC coils.

 

complete kits havent been made for these trucks in years.

[Trogdor636]

http://www.purenissan.com/wd21_3_kit.htm

 

That's a complete kit. Expensive, but complete

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I777 using Tapatalk 2

[pathybuilder]

For the time involved in finding coils / cutting pigtails plus the cost that the scrap yard charges you, you could buy Daystar coil spacers for the front of a 1500 - 3500 Dodge 2WD Pick-up. They come in 1", 1 1/2", and 2 1/2". The 1 1/2" set I bought cost me $40.

[nmullin]

fronts springs out of a v8 jeep grand cherokee. look at the coils there should be a yellow paper tag with a part number starting with FN. those are what ya want. You cut off the little pig tail end and then fit them in the rear of the pathy. Your 2 door should get 3 inches of rear suspension lift with those springs for 50$ bucks give or take. I live by you and I went to garys auto, its a jeep place.

 

for the front suspension you can just crank up your torsion bars 2-3 inches (probably need to reindex them) and get some low profile bump stops so you can keep some down travel once cranked up. cheapest way to do it and my truck doesn't ride bad at all.

low profile bumpstops from lordco were about 16 bucks for the pair.

 

there's a full 3 inch lift for about 60-75 bucks. can't really complain there, then just take it in and get an alignment (a full proper one where they shim the upper control arms for camber/caster) and you will be good to go.

 

for shocks I used (i think '85 or '87) ford bronco II shocks up front (they are a little longer than stock so they allow you to use up the low profile bump stops increased travel). for the rear I used 1997 ford f350 (single rear shock type), they are 3" longer than stock shocks so you can get some crazy flex in the rear with the jeep springs/ford f350 shocks. I believe I paid 35$ per shock and they let me max out my front and rear suspension travel.

 

50+16+(35x4)= 206$ plus tax for full 3 inch lift with new extended shocks all around. can't really complain! i been rockin mine for about a year now with no issues.

 

p.s. to make the f350 shocks fit the rear properly you need to change out the lower shock bushings to the pathfinder lower shock bushing. it's really easy or you can just press out the little metal sleeve in the middle and slide it over the lower shock tab and then plaster it with some 3m window weld (fast curing polyurethane) and make your own bushing out of it. your call.

 

rear lift flexing, still got more to go too, thats with jgc springs and ford f350 shocks.

 

 

 

 

could you link me to the exact shocks you bought and also have a question about tbars. my anchors for tbars are like all the way down out of the subframe and the adjuster bolt is almost fully unscrewed so wondering if i need new tbars as well when i get the the jeep springs n ford shocks

 

also wondering if the idler arm brace is a must cause u hadnt mentioned that

 

thank you

[ahardb0dy]

what about 4x4parts.com? they still sell complete kits and the individual parts if you want to go that way:

 

https://www.4x4parts..._437_341_7.html

 

The bump stops are the rubber stops that the upper and lower control arms hit when the suspension flexes, there is one under the upper control arm and one above the lower control arm, when you crank up the torsion bars ( tighten the adjuster bolt at the rear of the bars) it puts more tension on the bar which causes the lower control arm to be pushed down, this raises the front end giving more height, the higher you go the closer the upper control arm gets to the bump stop. The bad thing about cranking the bars is it makes the right stiffer and limits the amount of downward suspension travel, like if the tire fell into a hole the upper control arm would hit the bump stop. Some people remove the factory bump stop and replace it with a lower shorter profile one.

 

Some times depending on where the rear torsion bar anchor is set when you crank the bars there may not be enough room for the anchor to move anymore so you need to "re-index" the bars, what this refers too is loosening the adjusting nut completely as if you were going to remove the torsion bar, taking the rear anchor off of the bar, turning it, and re-installing it on the bar so when you re tighten the adjuster bolt it will allow you to adjust the bars more.

 

The stock torsion bars will only hold the additional amount of lift for so long, if you crank the torsion bars for more lift, that's why the aftermarket started making new torsion bars they can retain the cranked in lift longer. You will notice if you raise the front end using the bars after a while the front end will settle and drop down slightly.

 

Your better off getting a pair of replacement upper control arms, they are made so you can crank the torsion bars up and still lets the ball joint sit at a good angle. You may be able to get about 2" of lift and still retain space between the upper control arm and the bump stop.

 

A idler arm brace is a good idea if you plan to run larger tires and do a lot of 4 wheeling, in my experience the idler arm is the weak link on the Nissan's steering and will bend pretty easily.

 

Was always amazed when my wife and I would go 4 wheeling, she had an 88 Toyota pickup with a 4" suspension and 33's, and I had my 87 hardbody with 33's,I could follow where ever she went and at the end of the day we would get back on the road and her truck would be fine and mine the idler arm would be bent !! Of course this didn't happen every time it depends on what type of 4 wheeling you do. I pulled a suburban running 36's off a hill one day that was high centered, the front end of my hardbody lifted up and when I started driving back down the road I could tell something was wrong, yes the idler arm was bent again!!

 

here is my 94 when I bought it with the front end sitting all f--ked up from the previous owner not setting the bars correctly, and than a pic of how it is after I re-indexed the torsion bars to give you an idea:

 

notice the pass. front tire how close the fender is and this pic the truck doesn't have the flare on:

 

 

after and with the flare which sticks down about 2 inches, look at how much space is between the tire and the flare:

 

Edited June 24, 2012 by ahardb0dy

[Nefarious]

I would definitely use an idler arm brace, I made my own out of 1/4 inch steel plate. The ford shocks i used were i believe 87 ford bronco II front shocks up front, and 1995 f350 single shock rear shocks in the rear. (there was a hd version with dual shocks that were different). To make the rear shocks work you have to swap out the new lower ford shock bushing with a pathfinder oem lower shock bushing, it will swap in place inside the eyelet of the bottom mounting point of the shock wehre it bolts to the axle. You will probably have to reindex your torsion bars (there is a guide on here somewhere for that) to get the amount of lift you want.

 

I am currently running about 3" up front or just a little more maybe. I am using stock upper control arms still but will get aftermarkets when i find the right deal. The low profile bump stop allows your wheels to travel downwards away from the truck more, since when you crank your t-bars you are losing droop travel since you are pushing your control arm closer to the bump stop. The thinner bump stops allow your wheels to drop more after being lifted and increases your total front end travel so your ride doesn't get too harsh over pot holes. I am going to weld in some balljoint spacers on top of the low profile bump stops to get maximum travel while retaining the 3" front lift.

[ahardb0dy]

"I am going to weld in some balljoint spacers on top of the low profile bump stops to get maximum travel while retaining the 3" front lift."

 

What do you mean by this? Where are you going to weld in the spacers? disregard below if this is what you meant

 

If you still have the stock UCA's you could do what they used to do before the tubular arms came out and put a ball joint spacer between the UCA and the ball joint, this is the style UCA I had in my 87 hardbody as that is what was available at the time, never had a problem with them. Jim Connor racing ( the manufacturer) also welded in steel to close the bottom of the UCA to reinforce them, see below:

 

 

this is the setup I had in my hardbody, although I never had the hoops welded in ( but still have them !!) triple shock setup

 

 

AND THAN CAME THESE !!

 

Edited June 24, 2012 by ahardb0dy

[Nefarious]

Hey haven't been on in a while, I did mean welding the balljoint spacers to the uca. In addition to low profile bumpstops is what I should have said..not on top of. Lol just re-read my old post. Boxing in the bottom as well or at the least trussing them. I may also change the balljoint angle of the uca to better suit the steeper angles.