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Then you should have much more camber than necessary. I had that config and had almost -2*. That will certainly give you uneven tire wear on the inside. 

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On 3/18/2021 at 1:07 AM, PathyGig12 said:

Bilsteins just went on. She rides much better now and I’m very surprised how noticeable the difference is

 

IR6MrVf.jpg

Just FYI, you are running the shocks in the incorrect position. The shock body is on top and boot on the bottom.

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6 hours ago, R50JR said:

Just FYI, you are running the shocks in the incorrect position. The shock body is on top and boot on the bottom.

As far as I’m aware, “Incorrect” isn't applicable for monotubes, they work both ways. Someone correct me if I’m wrong but that’s my understanding of the bilsteins 

 

I liked the shiny on the bottom so I went with that

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6 hours ago, R50JR said:

Then you should have much more camber than necessary. I had that config and had almost -2*. That will certainly give you uneven tire wear on the inside. 

I understand that I “should”, but my point is that I’m not actually able to. I’ve tried many ways of adjusting them

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I understand that I “should”, but my point is that I’m not actually able to. I’ve tried many ways of adjusting them

Post a pic your your bolt set up


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As far as I’m aware, “Incorrect” isn't applicable for monotubes, they work both ways. Someone correct me if I’m wrong but that’s my understanding of the bilsteins 
 
I liked the shiny on the bottom so I went with that


Here you go, straight from the Bilstein website.

c84dab9ae4074142708a40a7e77b303a.jpg


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9 hours ago, R50JR said:

 


Here you go, straight from the Bilstein website.

c84dab9ae4074142708a40a7e77b303a.jpg


Sent from my Pathfinder

 

Well shoot, I blame this forum. I read it from multiple people in many threads.

Granted, mine were working just fine the way I had them, but I went ahead and swapped them around just because it would mess with my head now that you pointed out the upside down stickers lol

 

I read into it a little more and it seems there’s a lot of opinions on this topic. Some people maintain that boots up keeps them out of the mud and water better, but others say boots down allows them to drain better, while some also say to take the boots off so they don’t trap dirt. Some also claim that the boots down orientation leaves the shock body vulnerable to damage from other suspension components while flexing, but the other side of the argument is that the body down orientation puts them at a greater puncture risk. I read that body down they might wear faster, or that there might be a dead spot in the first part of travel, or that it might be softer for some reason. So who knows honestly? 
 

Anyway, in addition to flipping them I went and drilled the upper mounts out and bolted with 14mm bolts so that they fit the rubber bushings nice and tight. I managed to get the drill in there without the 90* adapter with some maneuvering and a sharp step bit. I’m satisfied now. 
 

My switch panel also arrived from Australia on Sunday so I’ll be able to do the install when I get back to denver. 

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Back in town and I’ve got some good stuff lined up for this week.
 

Ordered a set of front lower control arms, I’m going to see if changing them makes a difference because if you remember a while back I had that clunking from the loose ball joint studs so I think they elongated the holes over the few months of driving like that. Even though I tightened them, you can still feel it from time to time over really rough roads, so I want to swap them out just to be extra safe. It’ll also rule out bends in the arms causing the negative camber. But honestly I’ve yet to notice the camber issue since that one day when I was parked facing down on a steep hill. Could have just been the weight sitting all on the front? I’ll keep an eye on it. 
 

The switch panel is also sitting in the mailbox and I’m excited to check it out. It’ll take a couple hours to swap in and rewire, plus I still need to get new rocker switches to fit it, and paint it to match the trim. 
 

The last thing I’ve got on order is a new radiator fan to replace my badly cracked original. Needs to get done before it falls apart. 
 

While I was in Vegas I swapped the tranny fluid for the Maxlife, and so far so good. Nothing too noticeable but it shifts smoothly as always. The old fluid was somewhat brown, but not entirely trashed. I might do a second dump and fill later this month to get the rest out, but it’s ok for now. We ran it for a few seconds while draining and also poured a bit of the new stuff through, so I think we got around 60% of the old stuff out

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I was replacing the control arms last night and ran into an issue. After putting the new ones on I found out the lower ball joint on the right side was completely shot and had a lot of clunking movement when I twisted the wheel back and forth, so I ended up needing to take the CV shaft out to get the ball

joint swapped over to the spare I had.

 

When I went to remove the cap from the warn hub so I could access the snap ring on the shaft, I noticed that it was nowhere to be found. After a bit of fiddling I realized the hub wasn’t working properly and was locked to the shaft even though it was supposed to be unlocked. Uh oh. Eventually I figured out that the snap ring had wedged itself in between the shaft and the center ring inside the hub, so it took me half an hour to get it sorted out. I had to take out the inner hub ring, and then pry the snap ring until it had enough clearance so that I could hammer the axle out the back side with a brass punch. The ring was totally mangled and in front of the bearing washer/plate there was a pile of fine metal shavings from where it was grinding the housing of the warn hub.

 

I’m baffled as to what could cause the snap ring to get stuck in the hub. I always install it the same way, and there shouldn’t be enough clearance to get it stuck in there. I’m also wondering whether I should even replace it? Since the warn is chewed up I’m switching to the mile markers I have in the garage but is it possible I could run into engagement issues without the snap ring? I know there’s no way for the axle to pull out without the snap ring since there’s a lot of clearance required to pull it out, but if it isn’t in quite the right spot it might affect the ability of the hub to lock. I’m just worried it will happen again and it sucks not knowing what caused it

 

On the plus side, with the new ball joint and control arms installed, the truck is completely free of any clunking over rough terrain and there’s no more steering wheel shimmy on the freeway. The other side ball joint was perfectly tight so I wonder if this was just a fluke quality control issue. They’re from 1A Auto, so not the highest quality parts.

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I didn’t end up getting any pics last night because my hands were covered in grease and it was 2am so I just wanted to get everything done. I’ll try to snap a pic of the damage to the warn hub

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The snap ring holds the sealing surface on the CV against the seal on the back of the knuckle to keep the wheel bearing sealed up. I wouldn't expect it to change the ability of the hub to lock and unlock. Sometimes snap rings get deformed during install and removal (stretch them a little too far and they don't spring back), so it might've come free on its own, but that doesn't explain how it got itself wedged into the hub mechanism. I guess if it was bouncing around in there while the hub was freewheeling, it might've caught between a part that was moving and a part that wasn't and sort of rolled itself into where you found it.

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2 hours ago, Slartibartfast said:

The snap ring holds the sealing surface on the CV against the seal on the back of the knuckle to keep the wheel bearing sealed up. I wouldn't expect it to change the ability of the hub to lock and unlock. Sometimes snap rings get deformed during install and removal (stretch them a little too far and they don't spring back), so it might've come free on its own, but that doesn't explain how it got itself wedged into the hub mechanism. I guess if it was bouncing around in there while the hub was freewheeling, it might've caught between a part that was moving and a part that wasn't and sort of rolled itself into where you found it.

Yeah that’s my guess as well. I’ll source a new one before reinstalling the CVs. But in the mean time while they’re out I’ll take the opportunity to reboot them with the Rockford boots. I just need to call tomorrow and place an order

 

Ive painted the switch panel metallic charcoal to match the fenders but haven’t had a chance install it yet. Waiting on switches still

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Switch panel installed. It was shockingly easy compared to my previous rats nest because the switches came prewired to have a shared ground and shared positive, so all I had to do was run the signal wires to each switch and cut out all of the old wiring that I no longer need. They work great and I love the new look. The color is fairly close but, just a little off

 

I’ve got it hooked up to the main forward lights, fogs, reverse lights, and my red map lights so far. The camera is going to go to the “radar” switch lol, but I need to repair the wiring first since it got messed up at some point while driving. I’m saving the alien torpedo switch for something really cool, haven’t decided yet

 

I do need to do something about the old holes for my previous panel, thats gonna bug the hell out of me

 

gNZOPpO.jpg

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48 minutes ago, RainGoat said:

Just grab a roof console from the JY

Yeah that’s an option for sure. Just don’t have a whole lot of time these days. Most of my free time for working on the truck is at night after work

 

Ill have to schedule a day to hit up some junk yards and look for the replacement rear hatch as well. 

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Just ordered the boots from Rockford. I believe the guy said they had 6 of each left so now there should be 4 still on the shelves if anyone wants them.

 

I took the torn boots off of my OEM axles and I’m trying to figure out the best way to separate the joints from the shaft. I can’t seem to find a thread about it on the forum but maybe I’m not looking hard enough. The inner joint looks like it just pops off if you give it some force with a claw puller, am I on the right track? Surprisingly the grease inside looks very clean and there’s not much crap inside so I think the joints should be fine.

 

As for grease, I have some of the Sta-lube CV grease but I’ve heard you need different types of grease for the inner and outer joints? Something about green and yellow

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Just ordered the boots from Rockford. I believe the guy said they had 6 of each left so now there should be 4 still on the shelves if anyone wants them.
 
I took the torn boots off of my OEM axles and I’m trying to figure out the best way to separate the joints from the shaft. I can’t seem to find a thread about it on the forum but maybe I’m not looking hard enough. The inner joint looks like it just pops off if you give it some force with a claw puller, am I on the right track? Surprisingly the grease inside looks very clean and there’s not much crap inside so I think the joints should be fine.
 
As for grease, I have some of the Sta-lube CV grease but I’ve heard you need different types of grease for the inner and outer joints? Something about green and yellow

Don’t forget to remove your front driveshaft while you’re down


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Rockford boots installed.
 

I snapped one of the large clamps while crimping it, so I had to use a hose clamp instead. Should work fine but I’ll keep an eye on it. I also used hose clamps for the 4 smaller clamps around the shaft because for whatever reason it was very hard to get the provided crimp clamps tight in that size. These ones fit perfectly so I’m not too worried about them

 

This job was fairly easy overall, the only tricky part is that you need a jaw puller for the inner joint bearings. The sucky part, of course, is all the pounds of grease you have to get off and replace. The boot kits came with green grease packets for both the inners and outers. I heard somewhere that you need yellow grease for one joint and green for the other? I went with moly CV grease from StaLube for the inner joints and the green stuff for the outers. Hopefully it’s fine. I like that you don’t have to mess with the outer joint at all since you can slide both boots on from the inner side. Time will tell if the rockfords we’re worth it. They seem pretty beefy
 

The main thing is all of the clamps are very tight and I wasn’t able to pull the boots loose with any sort of stretching that the CV will do on the truck, even snapping it aggressively to maximum angle several times in a row. I’m happy with that. Now I’m just waiting on the replacement hub snap ring that I ordered

 

yEOX3OX.jpg

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Rockford boots installed.
 
I snapped one of the large clamps while crimping it, so I had to use a hose clamp instead. Should work fine but I’ll keep an eye on it. I also used hose clamps for the 4 smaller clamps around the shaft because for whatever reason it was very hard to get the provided crimp clamps tight in that size. These ones fit perfectly so I’m not too worried about them
 
This job was fairly easy overall, the only tricky part is that you need a jaw puller for the inner joint bearings. The sucky part, of course, is all the pounds of grease you have to get off and replace. The boot kits came with green grease packets for both the inners and outers. I heard somewhere that you need yellow grease for one joint and green for the other? I went with moly CV grease from StaLube for the inner joints and the green stuff for the outers. Hopefully it’s fine. I like that you don’t have to mess with the outer joint at all since you can slide both boots on from the inner side. Time will tell if the rockfords we’re worth it. They seem pretty beefy
 
The main thing is all of the clamps are very tight and I wasn’t able to pull the boots loose with any sort of stretching that the CV will do on the truck, even snapping it aggressively to maximum angle several times in a row. I’m happy with that. Now I’m just waiting on the replacement hub snap ring that I ordered
 
yEOX3OX.jpg

A hose clamp on the outer joint will more than likely hit the ball joint. I’d use the proper band for it.


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26 minutes ago, R50JR said:


A hose clamp on the outer joint will more than likely hit the ball joint. I’d use the proper band for it.


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This did occur to me but I figured there is only one way to find out. If it does make contact I’ll just source a different band so it’s no biggie

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This did occur to me but I figured there is only one way to find out. If it does make contact I’ll just source a different band so it’s no biggie

If it hits while spinning, it won’t end well for your fancy boots. You can get band clamps for a few dollars on Amazon.


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