Jump to content

Spring/Strut install difficulty of DIY


NovaPath
 Share

Recommended Posts

 

Oh F me!!!!! Didn't notice that! FML!!!

 

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. Shall we wait for the first R51 rear spring swap for an R50? I'm certain the "can I make it fit?" question has already crossed your mind. :popcorn:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was quite intrigued hearing you found hd rear springs, but alas, still only options are stock or md rates, booooo! At least you realized before you tore it down, that would have really sucked. Sorry man.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hawairish is on the right track. I paid UPS shipping to Canada., which wasn't cheap, plus a decent money grab from customs. This means returning them would cost another shipment and receiving the MD ones would mean another set of customs. I will be out a lot of money for something that was supposed to be rather economical. Sooooo, combine that with my stubborn personality and a seemingly incessant need to learn things the hard way, I might just see what I can do with this. A spring is a spring after all, right?! LOL this is what they make power tools for haha

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hawairish is on the right track. I paid UPS shipping to Canada., which wasn't cheap, plus a decent money grab from customs. This means returning them would cost another shipment and receiving the MD ones would mean another set of customs. I will be out a lot of money for something that was supposed to be rather economical. Sooooo, combine that with my stubborn personality and a seemingly incessant need to learn things the hard way, I might just see what I can do with this. A spring is a spring after all, right?! LOL this is what they make power tools for haha

 

That does suck, man, especially because of shipping and customs. I'd find a fellow Canadian and recoup as much of that as possible. Sit on them until the deal is right. Or maybe take a drive across the border and ship them from Maine? (Ha, is that even legal? The return address is probably a give-away.)

 

Unfortunately, you won't be able to use them, even if you had a magic wand in your tool box. I'd be pretty sure the ID/OD is too small (you need about 5" ID, 6" OD). But even if it's close, ARB lists the 2610 spring you've got at just under 4x the OE spring rate for an R50! (460 lbs/in vs 120 lbs/in). By comparison, the R50 OME MD spring is 140 lbs/in. So even if you installed them by some miracle, the first speed bump would launch the rear of your vehicle over the front...unless your tire carrier weighs 600lbs by chance.

 

Which begs the off-topic question: are R51 fatties or something? (And I still don't understand how a IFS/IRS PF gets more love than we do.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for that info, saves me a lot of heartache. R51's must weight a heck of a lot more because these things are massive!! I emailed rocky road, see what they say. I could mail them from Maine I don't see why not. And next time I'll have them shipped there too probably. Or I'll just bite the bullet and pay the man again. These won't be an easy sell I don't think as I don't see a lot of R51's around, let alone modified ones. At least I found out before I started tearing into this tomorrow.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On the R50, the springs support the direct load placed above them, while the R51 springs have to support a load over a lever-arm (the Independent suspension). Imagine being able to sit directly on top of a spring that will compress 1 inch for every 50 pounds you put on it. (That would be 50 lbf/in.) If you weigh 200 pounds, it will compress 4 inches. Now, get a 8-foot-long 2x4 wood stud and attach one end of it to a hinge bolted to the floor. Place the spring 1 foot from the hinge under the 2x4, and hang yourself off the end of the piece of wood. Do you expect the spring to compress more than 4"?

 

Yes, because your effective load on the spring will be 8 times greater due to the leverage you're putting on it using the 2x4, so if you wanted to compress the spring only 4" with 200 lbs placed at 8 feet out, you'd need a spring with a rate of 400 lbf/in

 

R51 independent rear suspension needs springs with a much higher spring rate vs. the solid axle of the R50.

Edited by XPLORx4
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On the R50, the springs support the direct load placed above them, while the R51 springs have to support a load over a lever-arm (the Independent suspension). Imagine being able to sit directly on top of a spring that will compress 1 inch for every 50 pounds you put on it. (That would be 50 lbf/in.) If you weigh 200 pounds, it will compress 4 inches. Now, get a 8-foot-long 2x4 wood stud and attach one end of it to a hinge bolted to the floor. Place the spring 1 foot from the hinge under the 2x4, and hang yourself off the end of the piece of wood. Do you expect the spring to compress more than 4"?

 

Yes, because your effective load on the spring will be 8 times greater due to the leverage you're putting on it using the 2x4, so if you wanted to compress the spring only 4" with 200 lbs placed at 8 feet out, you'd need a spring with a rate of 400 lbf/in

 

R51 independent rear suspension needs springs with a much higher spring rate vs. the solid axle of the R50.

 

Thanks XPLORx4. I was semi-joking about the R51 being fatties, but I knew why. At linear compression, there's no way Nissan added several hundred pounds to the rear of the vehicle (assuming the curb weights were about the same). But definitely good info for CDN_S4 in case he was still considering something crazy...(now waiting for the first R50 IRS lift/swap write-up).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

(now waiting for the first R50 IRS lift/swap write-up).

 

Haha, it would be way more interesting to find out if someone did a solid axle swap on the rear of an R51. Now that would be fun to see.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 7 years later...
On 1/12/2015 at 12:51 PM, hawairish said:

 

You'll also need the upper spring seats rubber seats (top and bottom). If you've not done it before, I'd remove and disassemble a strut first before assembling the new ones, even if you think you have all the pieces. It doesn't take much time to disassemble or assemble them.

 

The FSM has all the torque settings and parts explosion. You'll need to torque the wheel bearing to spec (43-58 ft*lbs).

 

The upper spring seat has markings that need to be aligned properly. Mine had a "W" that pointed toward the wheel, and a notch that aligned to the back of the strut body. You should be able to tell pretty quickly if the upper spring seat needs to be turned because it'll sit awkward on the threaded strut shaft. I can see the notch on the upper seat in Tad's picture, so I'd say that needs to be rotated 90°. (And if you don't believe me, it's in the FSM.)

 

I did this the other week to install taller strut spacers and bolts. I had also never replaced struts before. I needed to disassemble the strut to do so because the heads of the bolts didn't clear the upper spring seat. Each took about <20 minutes to do with rental compressors (the basic threaded bar types) and sockets/ratchets. I had no problems compressing OME MD springs. I don't consider it difficult at all, just be aware of safety considerations. I wore thick leather gloves, eye protection, didn't put my hand anywhere inside the spring (palmed it flat on the concrete), pointed the spring ends away from anything that matters (face, kids, car), and worked carefully.

 

Also, if you use the rental compressors, spread out the hooks as far as possible. I've seen a few guys complaining that they didn't work because they tried compressing only the inner wraps. I had them compressed in 1-2 mins with steady/alternating tightening. Also, a box wrench around a strut bolt on the upper mount prevents it from spinning while loosening/torquing the nut to the shaft. Otherwise, you can torque it after it's installed on the truck.

 

The toughest part I had was keeping the wheel hub and LCA balanced enough to re-install the completed assembly back on the truck. I had to disconnect the sway bar on both sides so that I could move it up/down for clearance. I started by getting a nut on an upper stud so it could be suspended from the strut tower. You also have to be careful about the bottom of the strut resting on the CV boot, and careful about the wheel hub tilting outward as Bushnut mentioned.

Should this spacer come with the KYB SM5329 kit? I just got both of my strut mount kits in the mail from rockauto but neither come with the pictured spacer :/ Its required and should have come in the package right???

KybstrutMount.jpg.8479f431c42ec15971653dbf259de53e.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, TheGhost said:

Should this spacer come with the KYB SM5329 kit? I just got both of my strut mount kits in the mail from rockauto but neither come with the pictured spacer :/ Its required and should have come in the package right???

KybstrutMount.jpg.8479f431c42ec15971653dbf259de53e.jpg

It should be included in the kit you purchased. The OE mount has the spacer integrated, but the kyb doesn't so it is necessary for your '02. I believe early model r50s had different struts and the spacer wasn't needed as the shaft was tapered almost to the threads.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 9/22/2022 at 1:33 AM, R50JR said:

It should be included in the kit you purchased. The OE mount has the spacer integrated, but the kyb doesn't so it is necessary for your '02. I believe early model r50s had different struts and the spacer wasn't needed as the shaft was tapered almost to the threads.

thanks!

 

I'm going to try make em myself or just stack a bunch of washers

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That little dang spacer is SO INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT! Failure to include it if you need it will result in strut failure and possibly even your strut blowing out the top hat and your suspension dropping into the wheel well.

 

Either include the spacer, re-use your OEM top hats, or make a spacer. Washers seem like they'd work if you had to, but a spacer would be nicer. If you compare the OEM hat to the KYB one you'll see how the OEM one has it built in and that's what the spacer is replicating.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 months later...

Hi there. I have concerns regarding my little spacer. When placed on the strut shaft, there aren't enough threads to pass through the top hat and thread onto the nut securely. Am I doing something wrong? Or do I not need it? The only way I could successfully assemble my strut was without it. My vehicle is a 2002 r50 pathfinder.

 

Thanks in advance

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I’m new here and I’m about to do this to my 2002 Pathy. This thread has been extremely helpful. However, one thing I can’t figure out is one of you set all the torque settings and parts explosions is in the the “FSM“. What is that, it sounds like a service manual but I can’t figure out what the F stands for. 

Thanks in advance.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, OldHaggis said:

I’m new here and I’m about to do this to my 2002 Pathy. This thread has been extremely helpful. However, one thing I can’t figure out is one of you set all the torque settings and parts explosions is in the the “FSM“. What is that, it sounds like a service manual but I can’t figure out what the F stands for. 

Thanks in advance.

 

Factory Service Manual...the actual Nissan service manual.  https://www.nicoclub.com/nissan-service-manuals.  You can save all the chapter PDFs locally (and should).  The chapter you want is Front & Rear Suspension.  You'll find a Front Suspension > Components page within that's the parts diagrams and torque specs.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

28 minutes ago, hawairish said:

 

Factory Service Manual...the actual Nissan service manual.  https://www.nicoclub.com/nissan-service-manuals.  You can save all the chapter PDFs locally (and should).  The chapter you want is Front & Rear Suspension.  You'll find a Front Suspension > Components page within that's the parts diagrams and torque specs.

Thanks!  Still learning how to use the forum.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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 account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...