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Trouble after L&P CL install


jj big shoe
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A damn speedy reply and solid customer service focused solution from our friends at L&P. Not the typical finger pointing excuses I get from other places that assume I don't know how to turn a wrench

While good job to them, personally, I think they looked at your pictures, at each other and said "Oh isht !! I didn't send him that, did you send him that ?" and so on and so on and so on... Then just sent you the right part ASAP !!!

Did you mention NPORA was watching and about to reverse engineer ? LOL, just glad you got results, and will get the right part soon; I'm pretty sure its wrong. Maybe this is worth an idler arm brace at cost or something... ;)

 

B

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Well, I sent the photos to Phil at L&P and he thinks there was possibly a mix-up and I was sent an Xterra CL.

no kidding? that was my first thought when i saw your pictures.. i haven't looked in on here in a little while.. hope that's it and you can be "back on the road again.." :D

 

Phil was surfing the board earlier..

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  • 1 year later...

Did this ever get resolved? Mya I'm having a similar problem with the swaying and lack of control on the road. I'm gonna have all my bushings looked at but I thin kit's something else. It was so so before, but now it's really bad!

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The replacement CL was the same as the original, so I guess I got the right one from L&P the first time. I went to four different shops and had it aligned twice during all this and no one could tell me why its off, so I stopped worrying about it since it isn't noticeable during most driving conditions. Maybe I'll figure it out later when I end up replacing something else on the front suspension.

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soooo, anyone care to explain why welding the bearigns farther out would change anything like that? I have two points of view on this. they are as follows:

 

1: it would matter if the bearings are welding farther out because the TRE's are still in the same place because LP doesnt touch there mounting spot.

 

2: it would matter because the pitman and idle arms arent parrallel. so when turning say left, the idle arm will be parrelle with the frame rail while the pitman would be pointing away from the frame rail. so the CL wouldnt be perpendicular to the frame-thus throwing the TRE's out of wack.

 

also, I remember hearing somewhere in a TK1 mod thread that the idle and pitman arms dont turn in the plane/arnt parrallel.

 

bit of a side note, when I welded my bearings on I some how figured I would have to machine about .125" off the bottom of the sleeves to get the CL to sit in the same spot on the arms as the stock unit did. I did not have time too machine or the want so I slapped it on. its stout as hell and I have yet to break anything. but I obvoisly have bumpsteer. and when I crank my tbars up, my tires toe in. lower it, tires toe out. so now when I wheel it looks like my CL is twisting still because when Im hung up my tires toe in and what not. doesnt really have anything to do with this tho. guess what it does say is that any bit of screw up in a CL will change everything.

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:unsure::hide:

Ok, I'm getting scared now.....I have a credit with L&P and was wanting to get over there this Spring before heading out to CO. Getting the CL and a few things upgraded. I've been happy with my Calmini lift. Was thinking about other Calmini products, but thought since I have a credit with L&P I should take advantage of it. What's a guy to do? :shrug:

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so..you have an extra L&P centerlink layin around??
No, I had to ship it back, ...da bastids. :P

 

Yeah, don't take the situation with my truck as an example of L&P's products. After talking with them and seeing the other CL they sent I think the problem lies elsewhere and NOT with L&P's CL. I have yet to damage it or any other steering component since the install. I haven't bothered with finding the problem since it's not my daily driver and it doesn't affect most regular driving situations, only at full lock. When the time comes to buy new tires I'll have the alignment checked by Nissan. Maybe they'll figure it out.

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go with L&P. out of all the CL's theyve sold, i'd bet atleast 98% of them have been perfectly fine. There isnt a company out there that doesnt have a 'whoops' product go out every once in awhile. Im still very happy with my L&P parts, havent had an issues yet and ive been running it for sometime now.

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  • 2 months later...

Hi all,

Haven't had much time for 4wding lately, house reno's and work, yaedeeya.

Anyway, could someone supply a link to the L&P website, as the one I have goes to some club website??

Cheers

Al

 

PS: L&P here in NZ is an iconic softdrink manufacturer. http://www.paeroa.org.nz/LemonandPaeroa.html

Edited by NZ Terrano Owner
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Here's a suggestion on checking the alignment of the L&P CL. With the wheels lined up straight ahead, (this is important, make sure they are straight) check to see that the CL is equally aligned between the left and right frame rails. Use the outer edge of the frame rails (just above the Pitman Arm and Idler Arm) as your reference points. The driver's side and passenger side tie rod end pivot points (on the CL) should have the same amount of offset relative to the outside edges of the driver and passenger side frame rails. If the wheels are pointing straight ahead and the CL is offset more toward the driver side or passenger side, then you'll see the wheels do funny things while turning because the geometry will now be different between left turn and right turn.

 

If you installed the L&P CL without re-indexing the Pitman Arm, then I'd suspect the situation described above is part of your problem. To correct the problem described above begin with the wheels pointing straight ahead. Make note of the steering wheel orientation. If you just had an alignment done, the steering wheel should be pretty much straight when the wheels are pointing straight ahead. 1) Pop the Pitman Arm off the steering shaft and re-index so that the CL is properly ligned up between the frame rails. Now that you've re-indexed the Pitmand Arm, the wheels will have changed direction slightly (or more depending on how far off center the CL was) and the steering wheel will have changed orientation. 2) Pop off the steering wheel and re-index so that it is now back to being straight. 3) Re-adjust the tie rod adjusters to bring both front wheels back into the straight ahead and parallel pointing direction. If everything is right, the steering wheel will be aligned straight, the wheels will be aligned straight, and the CL will be centered between the frame rails. You'll need to get to an alignment shop afterwords to fine tune the adjustments. Just make sure when they do their work, the CL is centered as the wheels are pointing straight ahead. If the steering wheel still isn't lined up correctly, tell them you'll pull it off and re-index it to make it straight.

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But would an offset CL like you described cause the issue seen in the pics? Each wheel swings out too far whether turned right or left. An offset CL would make more sense to me if it affected one wheel more than the other. I'll definately take some measurements using the frame rails as a reference point (brilliant!) when I get some time. Maybe something will reveal itself. Either way, I'll report back. Oh, and thanks for the help, dmag.

 

Another thought would be that the CL's overall length is off. I really doubt it since they're reportedly constructed using a jig, but if anyone that has one would like to crawl under their truck with a tape measure...

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This may be a coincidence but my truck steers like SH!t since I got the Stage 3 kit intalled. It is all over the road and feels squirmy. Also, sometimes when you are turning, instead of it straightning out after you let go of the week, it stays turned.

 

I'm gonna have a suspension shop in Fairfield, NJ take a look and see if they can find something. They just put Bilstein PSS9's in my S4 and it is freakin amazing!

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