Jack9909 Posted February 18, 2018 Share Posted February 18, 2018 Hey guys, I just got my pathfinder a few months ago and I'm new to the r50 scene, I have some experience with Nissans through my dad's D21 truck though. I got a real good deal this r50 it ($600) because it had a rusted out strut, had to weld little bandages in his driveway so it would make it home, it was pushing on the steering. So far after patching it, it's been an amazing truck, especially with the hubs I just put on. I'm excited to test it off road and doing more mods to it. Welds don't look the best, still learning, doesn't help it was a cold day but hey it's rock solid now. I forgot to take a picture of it painted, I used some nice bed liner type paint, I forget what it was, this was all back in November. I've been doing a lot of reading on how to lift it and all and what I decided to go with is a 4" subframe drop and coil lift. I already received the landrover 9448 springs but I wanted to ask what else do I need to do a good 4" lift? My friend has lifted cherokee shocks that should work, there was a forum I found that had all the shock measurements. Another thing I know I'd have to do is a 4" panhard drop in the rear. Last thing that I don't know much about is stuff for the front end, well I know the subframe drop and how it's blocks but I was wondering if anyone had measurements of the blocks because I'd like to do all this as cheap as possible. So here it is, yeah the previous owner worked at a tint and wrap shop, every window was heavily tinted and had the tiger stripes put on. The tiger stripes have grown on me, especially since everyone calls it the cat now. This picture was when I got it, the previous owner gave me some led lights with it, those I put next to the fog lights. Pretty nice for being free, the next thing I did to this truck was put on manual locking hubs because I heard it's highly recommended. And I see why, I took the truck on a 4 hour drive today, about 200 of the miles on highway and rest city and got 320 miles with the gas light just coming on, I haven't put gas in it so no exact number but last time the light was on it had 4 gallons left it so I think I'm getting 20 mpg. Oh yea install was really easy, was able to use original studs, hubs were $70 so I'm not sure if they're going to break the second I push it off road or what but they feel well made and have weight to them. They even fit under the little hub cap. Sorry if the post comes out really big, I tried to shrink most of the pictures, I know everyone likes pictures though, I probably won't be updating this a lot but I thought I'd make a nice build thread to go with my questions. Hopefully pictures work as I'm using google photos with an extension to make it work on forums. tl;dr, here are the questions that I have. What is everything that I need and have to do for a 4 inch lift? I do have springs and the shocks that my friend has should work, it's either for a stock xj cherokee or 3" lifted cherokee. I'll figure out a way to measure them. Also, does anyone have measurements of the subframe drop blocks I could use? I've seen an old thread that had measurements for a smaller sfd but then someone said their measurements were inaccurate. Unless theres a way I can buy the sfd by itself? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QuasarDecimari Posted February 18, 2018 Share Posted February 18, 2018 The welds look great, they'll hold up and that's what matters.That's a unique paint/wrap job, never seen that before on an R50. I'm also using those exact same hubs, and they're awesome, they've held up for much more than I anticipated they would, and I was worried about the price being a little too forgiving as well. Grease them a bit, helps them stay in good shape. As far as the 4" lift goes, most anyone will be willing to help you out, but I recently did a 6" lift for my 2001 Pathy. I'll be more than willing to answer any questions you have, and give you any blueprints you'd need. I documented everything, from every bolt I ordered, to the designs of the parts. Since you can weld, you're already helping yourself out on the cost, but I'll tell you this now, it is NOT a cheap job to do a proper SFD and lift for these things.That set aside, don't hesitate to message me for any questions, or just reply here. I'll help where I can!You can also message me on Facebook, and check out my "Project Pathfinder" album in my photos if you want an idea of the process I went thru to build the SFD. https://www.facebook.com/cortland.haefele 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slartibartfast Posted February 18, 2018 Share Posted February 18, 2018 When I was a kid, a family friend had a zebra-striped VW Bus. Cool old thing, until he went to jack it up to fix a tire and the jack went through the floor. Having seen Nissan's official fix procedure for the strut towers, I think you did a better job than they did! Did you seal up the back side too? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack9909 Posted February 19, 2018 Author Share Posted February 19, 2018 When I was a kid, a family friend had a zebra-striped VW Bus. Cool old thing, until he went to jack it up to fix a tire and the jack went through the floor. Having seen Nissan's official fix procedure for the strut towers, I think you did a better job than they did! Did you seal up the back side too? Lol poor vw, oh yea I almost forgot about the other side, yea I cleaned out the weird seams that were in there and ran some weld beads in there, felt like I could do some Fall Guy stunts when I was done. The welds look great, they'll hold up and that's what matters.That's a unique paint/wrap job, never seen that before on an R50. I'm also using those exact same hubs, and they're awesome, they've held up for much more than I anticipated they would, and I was worried about the price being a little too forgiving as well. Grease them a bit, helps them stay in good shape. As far as the 4" lift goes, most anyone will be willing to help you out, but I recently did a 6" lift for my 2001 Pathy. I'll be more than willing to answer any questions you have, and give you any blueprints you'd need. I documented everything, from every bolt I ordered, to the designs of the parts. Since you can weld, you're already helping yourself out on the cost, but I'll tell you this now, it is NOT a cheap job to do a proper SFD and lift for these things.That set aside, don't hesitate to message me for any questions, or just reply here. I'll help where I can! You can also message me on Facebook, and check out my "Project Pathfinder" album in my photos if you want an idea of the process I went thru to build the SFD. https://www.facebook.com/cortland.haefele I checked out your Pathfinder project on facebook, looks awesome! Yea I'm realizing the cost of it all, going to start saving and pile up some parts to do it all in one go, no rush since my friends 4x4s are also in planning/repair states, glad to hear those hubs hold up, a blueprint of the sfd blocks would be great to have, Did you have to do any modification to the steering at all? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QuasarDecimari Posted February 19, 2018 Share Posted February 19, 2018 Other than the custom steering link that can be ordered from Woodwards steering, not really. You'll have to rotate the steering rack itself to position the steering link from the gearbox correctly, or else it will bind. Getting the rack to stay in place while tightening it back down can be a bit of a challenge, as it will want to rotate back to its original position due to the hard pressure lines being where they are. While you're at it, though, it doesn't hurt to get ahold of the bushings that hold the steering rack and replace them while you're in there. It'll be more secure that way. I'm working on a guide, step by step, for how to put together the SFD, but it's going to take some time to put together. I'll send you a private link to the instructions I have created in a file in the meantime, until I make the guide. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack9909 Posted February 21, 2018 Author Share Posted February 21, 2018 Other than the custom steering link that can be ordered from Woodwards steering, not really. You'll have to rotate the steering rack itself to position the steering link from the gearbox correctly, or else it will bind. Getting the rack to stay in place while tightening it back down can be a bit of a challenge, as it will want to rotate back to its original position due to the hard pressure lines being where they are. While you're at it, though, it doesn't hurt to get ahold of the bushings that hold the steering rack and replace them while you're in there. It'll be more secure that way. I'm working on a guide, step by step, for how to put together the SFD, but it's going to take some time to put together. I'll send you a private link to the instructions I have created in a file in the meantime, until I make the guide. Doesn't sound too bad, will definitely do the bushing on the steering rack, I like the sound of this though. Well for a little update for the truck, I've been looking at wheels, wondering if I should go 15" or 16" maybe even keep the stock 16" rim, whatever is going to be easier to get cheaper mud terrains on and what not. I do have an old set of jeep 6x5.5 rims, only issue is that the inner bore is I think a quarter inch smaller, but I've heard of people enlarging a center bore, but that was for little 4 bolt rims going by millimeters, soo idk, will have to clean the rims up and research all the things. Oh yea does anyone find the power steering pump to be really loud on these or is mine just going bad? It sounds like a supercharger. I checked the fluid and it was pretty black so I flushed it with the closest fluid to what Nissan recommended, which was the same atf I think, also when I did that the steering did feel noticeably smoother. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QuasarDecimari Posted February 21, 2018 Share Posted February 21, 2018 Doesn't sound too bad, will definitely do the bushing on the steering rack, I like the sound of this though. Well for a little update for the truck, I've been looking at wheels, wondering if I should go 15" or 16" maybe even keep the stock 16" rim, whatever is going to be easier to get cheaper mud terrains on and what not. I do have an old set of jeep 6x5.5 rims, only issue is that the inner bore is I think a quarter inch smaller, but I've heard of people enlarging a center bore, but that was for little 4 bolt rims going by millimeters, soo idk, will have to clean the rims up and research all the things. Oh yea does anyone find the power steering pump to be really loud on these or is mine just going bad? It sounds like a supercharger. I checked the fluid and it was pretty black so I flushed it with the closest fluid to what Nissan recommended, which was the same atf I think, also when I did that the steering did feel noticeably smoother. Definitely shouldn't be making that noise. Pump bearings are probably failing. If you have the 3.5L, have fun changing that pump. I picked up some of these rims by Unique for $65 each. They look great, they're strong as need be, and wide enough for my 285/75/16s. If you're throwing on bigger tires, I recommend a small wheel spacer, like .5"-1" because wider tires like mine will usually rub against the struts otherwise. Here's the link to the wheels if you want to check them out. They don't come with the hubcap, just so you know. https://www.discounttire.com/buy-wheels/unique-297/p/52180 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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