PathyDude17 Posted March 18, 2021 Share Posted March 18, 2021 If you find yourself needing to remove the driveshaft, here’s the method I picked up from @TowndawgR50 and use on junkyard jobs as well as installing my lokka: Lock up the drivetrain (Park, T-case in 4LO). Use the “box” end of a wrench on the side of the flange that you can get it on, then I usually loop a wrench into the pronged end of the first wrench. This, of course, effectively doubles the torque you can put on the bolt head. if you can spin the head of the bolt, the nut on the backside will actually catch against the u joint and hold the nut in place. As long as you can produce enough torque to break it loose, you’ll be able it loose and out worry free. Put the transfer case in neutral (on level ground or with the parking break on.... lol) and spin the shaft to expose the next nut conveniently. it sure beat me up trying to take off my first one off (couldn’t get the transfer in neutral, it was a junkyard job- you have to stick a wrench through the u joint and get it to bottom out on something), but now it’s an pretty straightforward job. Glad you got the front end figured out! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PathyGig12 Posted March 18, 2021 Author Share Posted March 18, 2021 3 hours ago, PathyDude17 said: If you find yourself needing to remove the driveshaft, here’s the method I picked up from @TowndawgR50 and use on junkyard jobs as well as installing my lokka: Lock up the drivetrain (Park, T-case in 4LO). Use the “box” end of a wrench on the side of the flange that you can get it on, then I usually loop a wrench into the pronged end of the first wrench. This, of course, effectively doubles the torque you can put on the bolt head. if you can spin the head of the bolt, the nut on the backside will actually catch against the u joint and hold the nut in place. As long as you can produce enough torque to break it loose, you’ll be able it loose and out worry free. Put the transfer case in neutral (on level ground or with the parking break on.... lol) and spin the shaft to expose the next nut conveniently. it sure beat me up trying to take off my first one off (couldn’t get the transfer in neutral, it was a junkyard job- you have to stick a wrench through the u joint and get it to bottom out on something), but now it’s an pretty straightforward job. Glad you got the front end figured out! Awesome trick! I’ll have to try it sometime. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PathyGig12 Posted March 18, 2021 Author Share Posted March 18, 2021 Bilsteins just went on. She rides much better now and I’m very surprised how noticeable the difference is 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 18, 2021 Share Posted March 18, 2021 Bilsteins just went on. She rides much better now and I’m very surprised how noticeable the difference is What did you do for upper mount?Sent from my Pathfinder Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PathyGig12 Posted March 18, 2021 Author Share Posted March 18, 2021 6 hours ago, R50JR said: What did you do for upper mount? Sent from my Pathfinder So initially I was going to drill the upper mount to accommodate a 1/2 bolt, which is what people normally do with these. But it turns out my drill bits are crap and couldn’t even make a scratch, and the angle also makes hard to get at the holes directly anyway. So what I ended up doing was reusing the original bolt and playing around with washers as shims inside the mount since the rubber bushing extends well past the metal ring of the shock, meaning that it could be sandwiched and held in place reasonably well. The fact that the bushing is rubber also means that there’s very little chance of damage if it happens to shift slightly up or down, unlike my previous shocks which had no rubber inside the mounting holes. The first attempt at reusing the OE bolt resulted in some minor thuds because I had a washer inside only one side of the mount, so I revisited it and managed to squeeze another one on the other side of the mount so that it’s holding the bushing super tight when everything is cinched down. No more noise over bumps, and I’ve tested it at high speed and low speed. My long term plan is to find a suitable sleeve for the inside of the rubber bushing and press it in there. I’ll look around and see what I can come up with. I think the OE bolt is either a 10mm or 12mm. So a sleeve with a 1mm wall thickness and the correct inner diameter should do it. My current set up will work just fine in the mean time, it’ll just put a tiny bit more stress on the edges of the bushings. I’ll hopefully have them sleeved inside of a week so no worries there Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 18, 2021 Share Posted March 18, 2021 So initially I was going to drill the upper mount to accommodate a 1/2 bolt, which is what people normally do with these. But it turns out my drill bits are crap and couldn’t even make a scratch, and the angle also makes hard to get at the holes directly anyway. So what I ended up doing was reusing the original bolt and playing around with washers as shims inside the mount since the rubber bushing extends well past the metal ring of the shock, meaning that it could be sandwiched and held in place reasonably well. The fact that the bushing is rubber also means that there’s very little chance of damage if it happens to shift slightly up or down, unlike my previous shocks which had no rubber inside the mounting holes. The first attempt at reusing the OE bolt resulted in some minor thuds because I had a washer inside only one side of the mount, so I revisited it and managed to squeeze another one on the other side of the mount so that it’s holding the bushing super tight when everything is cinched down. No more noise over bumps, and I’ve tested it at high speed and low speed. My long term plan is to find a suitable sleeve for the inside of the rubber bushing and press it in there. I’ll look around and see what I can come up with. I think the OE bolt is either a 10mm or 12mm. So a sleeve with a 1mm wall thickness and the correct inner diameter should do it. My current set up will work just fine in the mean time, it’ll just put a tiny bit more stress on the edges of the bushings. I’ll hopefully have them sleeved inside of a week so no worries thereA 90* drill adapter is what I used. It was super easy with a step bit. I made my own sleeves 43mm long. I used larger washers to keep the shock centered. Sent from my Pathfinder Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PathyGig12 Posted March 18, 2021 Author Share Posted March 18, 2021 Yeah making sleeves is most likely the route I’ll have to go. I’ve never heard of a 90* drill adapter, that’s super interesting Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fr8Train Posted March 19, 2021 Share Posted March 19, 2021 1 hour ago, PathyGig12 said: Yeah making sleeves is most likely the route I’ll have to go. I’ve never heard of a 90* drill adapter, that’s super interesting I recon he means one of these: 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 19, 2021 Share Posted March 19, 2021 I recon he means one of these:That would work too. I have this one:Sent from my Pathfinder Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PathyGig12 Posted March 19, 2021 Author Share Posted March 19, 2021 Cool, I’ll look into then. The other option is to unbolt the mount from the frame itself and then put it in a vice to drill it. That would save me some money on the adapter, but there’s also an evap line in the way of one of the bolts that’ll make it a bit less straightforward Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PathyGig12 Posted March 22, 2021 Author Share Posted March 22, 2021 Moab pics. Action shots courtesy of my lady who was too scared to ride shotgun for most of it. We just did the first half of Fins N Things, then had to bail because we were running late. Pathy had no issues whatsoever, and shrugged off the extra weight up top. The bilstein and 9449 combo is fantastic 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RainGoat Posted March 22, 2021 Share Posted March 22, 2021 Ha ha - back in ‘03 when I did the White Rim Trail with my now wife, she had to get out of the truck several times, she just couldn’t handle it. It can be fairly overwhelming. Awesome place SW Utah! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PathyGig12 Posted March 22, 2021 Author Share Posted March 22, 2021 (edited) 4 minutes ago, RainGoat said: Ha ha - back in ‘03 when I did the White Rim Trail with my now wife, she had to get out of the truck several times, she just couldn’t handle it. It can be fairly overwhelming. Awesome place SW Utah! We’ve got both pets in the truck for this trip and the cat wasn’t happy let me tell you. At least the dog was able to run along side lol Edited March 22, 2021 by PathyGig12 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RainGoat Posted March 22, 2021 Share Posted March 22, 2021 Yeah, cats & cars don’t mix well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PathyGig12 Posted March 22, 2021 Author Share Posted March 22, 2021 Hmm, I was looking at the front wheels when we arrived in vegas and it looks like there might be an issue with negative camber now... I need to drive it a bit more and see it on flat ground because it’s parked pointed downhill right now, but I’m a bit worried I bent the struts or LCAs slightly. I was also noticing some tire rumbling while driving slow, which could be the inside edges Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 22, 2021 Share Posted March 22, 2021 Hmm, I was looking at the front wheels when we arrived in vegas and it looks like there might be an issue with negative camber now... I need to drive it a bit more and see it on flat ground because it’s parked pointed downhill right now, but I’m a bit worried I bent the struts or LCAs slightly. I was also noticing some tire rumbling while driving slow, which could be the inside edgesThat sounds like what I just went through. I had like 1.5-2* negative camber. Both insides of front tires wore down extremely fast in 3k miles and i got feathering. I’m about .1 negative right now and will probably go to .2 positive to even out the tire wear. Sent from my Pathfinder Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PathyGig12 Posted March 22, 2021 Author Share Posted March 22, 2021 (edited) 3 hours ago, R50JR said: That sounds like what I just went through. I had like 1.5-2* negative camber. Both insides of front tires wore down extremely fast in 3k miles and i got feathering. I’m about .1 negative right now and will probably go to .2 positive to even out the tire wear. Sent from my Pathfinder Did you figure out what caused it? Sure I can probably use the bolts to correct it, but is it going to be a problem in other ways if something turns out to be bent? The only good thing about this is itll probably even out some of the wear from the months of positive camber I had Edited March 22, 2021 by PathyGig12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 22, 2021 Share Posted March 22, 2021 15 minutes ago, PathyGig12 said: Did you figure out what caused it? Sure I can probably use the bolts to correct it, but is it going to be a problem in other ways if something turns out to be bent? The only good thing about this is itll probably even out some of the wear from the months of positive camber I had I knew it was too much negative adjustment with the camber bolts. I had two per strut. I removed lower one and readjusted upper. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PathyGig12 Posted March 22, 2021 Author Share Posted March 22, 2021 1 minute ago, R50JR said: I knew it was too much negative adjustment with the camber bolts. I had two per strut. I removed lower one and readjusted upper. Well that’s interesting. On my set up I wasn’t physically able to get a negative camber from adjusting the bolts, the most I could do was make them just about neutral. So I can’t see how anything could have shifted with the bolts to cause the negative camber? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 22, 2021 Share Posted March 22, 2021 4 minutes ago, PathyGig12 said: Well that’s interesting. On my set up I wasn’t physically able to get a negative camber from adjusting the bolts, the most I could do was make them just about neutral. So I can’t see how anything could have shifted with the bolts to cause the negative camber? The camber bolts work because of the washers. If you want negative camber, you make the tab point toward the engine. If you want positive, the tab points toward the tire. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PathyGig12 Posted March 22, 2021 Author Share Posted March 22, 2021 7 minutes ago, R50JR said: The camber bolts work because of the washers. If you want negative camber, you make the tab point toward the engine. If you want positive, the tab points toward the tire. Yes I have two bolts per side, and the tabs are pointed in the correct directions for the top and bottom at achieve maximum negative camber. I still couldn’t make the camber negative from adjusting them alone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PathyGig12 Posted March 22, 2021 Author Share Posted March 22, 2021 Today I drove it and checked again. Looks like it’s mostly back to normal but the tire rumble is still there and I also get a subtle creaking sound at low speed when starting and stopping. I tried bouncing the front end and didn’t notice any movement Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PathyGig12 Posted March 22, 2021 Author Share Posted March 22, 2021 Today I drove it and checked again. Looks like it’s mostly back to normal but the tire rumble is still there and I also get a subtle creaking sound at low speed when starting and stopping. I tried bouncing the front end and didn’t notice any movement Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 22, 2021 Share Posted March 22, 2021 5 hours ago, PathyGig12 said: Yes I have two bolts per side, and the tabs are pointed in the correct directions for the top and bottom at achieve maximum negative camber. I still couldn’t make the camber negative from adjusting them alone. so you have the upper washer pointing toward the engine and the bottom washer tab pointing toward the wheel? That combo will give you maximum negative camber Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PathyGig12 Posted March 22, 2021 Author Share Posted March 22, 2021 Just now, R50JR said: so you have the upper washer pointing toward the engine and the bottom washer tab pointing toward the wheel? That combo will give you maximum negative camber Correct Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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