S.O.S ...Hi everyone

[WD21inKenya]

Hi All,

 

I'm an Arizonan living in Kenya. I have a 95 Nissan Pathfinder (4X4) which originally had a TD27 diesel engine in it. It never had the standard VIN number so I am not 100% sure exactly what it was. I am not much of a mechanic, but have lived down rough dirt roads most my life so can have picked up a few things - in the past I have always had old Toyota Tacomas, but they are very pricey here and I was able to pick up a pathfinder for a great deal a few years back. Been both enjoying it and dumping money into it ever since.

 

I do extremely long road trips and safaris in the car. Often driving a few hundred of kilometers on rough dirt roads in a single trip. The roads here are extremely varied, huge unavoidable pot-holes on tarmac, while the dirt roads are rarely maintained. Mud can be really deep, and breaking down in the wrong part of the country can be very dangerous. For this reason keeping a low profile and reliability is the utmost importance. I am regularly repairing the car, but parts are very hard to come by. Heavily used parts cost more than new ones in the states, good new ones are very difficult to import, leaving often cheap Chinese parts to be a terribly common alternative. Labor is extremely cheap, but quality workmanship is hard to come by.

 

I have replaced and rebuilt the engine, it is now a QD32 (diesel) Turbo/intercooler, with an older mechanical fuel injector. I don't love the engine, and getting it running properly was a nightmare, but now it is now reliable and runs forever on a tank of diesel (though topping out at about 85km/hr - which is fast enough for the roads here). I have also replaced most everything else under the hood apart from the transmission. Big problems I have are clearance, I occasionally whack the central part of the frame where the torsion bars are adjusted which messes them up. I have also broken a tie rod ends twice, as well as Chinese engine mounts two or three times now, a bunch of other one-off things. But other than the tie rod end problem, it has always made it home for repairs. Like I say, extremely rough unavoidable roads and often a limited hours of day light to make a long trip. It's a tedious balance.

 

I have a number of questions about suspension, clearance, tires and parts I can fit in a suit case. I apologize in advance for double posting, and will try to keep it to a minimum.

 

Thanks,

 

Dustin

 

I'm not quite seeing how to post pictures, but will once I figure it out.

 

[Slartibartfast]

Sounds like one hell of a rig! For posting pictures, you need to host them elsewhere. I use Photobucket but it's a buggy POS and I recommend finding something better.

 

Do the adjusters hang down from the crossmember? If you re-index the bars in the adjusters (basically take it apart and put it back together a spline or two off from where it was) you can get the adjusters to tuck up into the crossmember out of harm's way.

 

Rugged Rocks makes a heavy-duty engine mount kit, though it sounds like shipping to Kenya is generally problematic. It's a simple enough design that you or someone you know who has a welder could probably cobble something similar together. A friend and I made a similar set of mounts for his Blazer by hacking up the factory mount plates and welding on a set of simple bushings he found online. The easier way to go is to just take a stock mount and weld a chain from the top mount to the bottom one, leaving enough slack to allow for some movement but preventing the mount from pulling apart.

 

The steering linkage is a weak point, especially if you're running a lift. I remember reading something about using one-ton Chevy tie rod ends but I don't remember specifics on that. Also look into the 2WD Hardbody steering swap, I'm planning on that for my rig at some point and the guys who've done it seem pretty happy with it.

[bushnut]

my advice is to slow down. you will break fewer parts when traversing rough terrain at a slower speed. remember the golden rule of off road driving is as slow as possible as fast as necessary. next invest in better lights.

[WD21inKenya]

my advice is to slow down. you will break fewer parts when traversing rough terrain at a slower speed. remember the golden rule of off road driving is as slow as possible as fast as necessary. next invest in better lights.

 

Dad? Is that you? ....definitely the best advice there is, you are totally right. My only issue with it is that it often runs against another golden rule: don't be caught out on the road after dark in Africa. A lot of the trips involve some all day drives from point A to point B, which coincide with driving roads too fast and having my radiator rattle loose (or something similar). It's not all the time, but often enough I find myself having to balance between the two.

[WD21inKenya]

Sounds like one hell of a rig! For posting pictures, you need to host them elsewhere. I use Photobucket but it's a buggy POS and I recommend finding something better.

 

Do the adjusters hang down from the crossmember? If you re-index the bars in the adjusters (basically take it apart and put it back together a spline or two off from where it was) you can get the adjusters to tuck up into the crossmember out of harm's way.

 

Rugged Rocks makes a heavy-duty engine mount kit, though it sounds like shipping to Kenya is generally problematic. It's a simple enough design that you or someone you know who has a welder could probably cobble something similar together. A friend and I made a similar set of mounts for his Blazer by hacking up the factory mount plates and welding on a set of simple bushings he found online. The easier way to go is to just take a stock mount and weld a chain from the top mount to the bottom one, leaving enough slack to allow for some movement but preventing the mount from pulling apart.

 

The steering linkage is a weak point, especially if you're running a lift. I remember reading something about using one-ton Chevy tie rod ends but I don't remember specifics on that. Also look into the 2WD Hardbody steering swap, I'm planning on that for my rig at some point and the guys who've done it seem pretty happy with it.

 

Thanks a bunch, to try and keep it in the right place, I replied here: http://www.nissanpathfinders.net/forum/topic/20711-suspension-lift-information/page-3?hl=lift

[teixeira]