Saturday, December 23, 2006
"It's like I have a brand-new car!"
That was Kelly's impression on driving the Nissan Pathfinder now. It looks like we've fixed the rear suspension issues for good. I took it to Autofab Motorsports (they're right next door to where I work) and they replaced the rear lower control arm bushings with brand new polyurethane bushings. Not only are these a change of material, the design is a bit different, too. Put them next to stock Nissan bushings, and the effect is like having a 2 x 4 next to a Popsicle stick.
I've been pretty impressed with the results. The Pathfinder doesn't fishtail, pull to one side under power, shake, or do that lurch it did when shifting gears under power. And it doesn't seem to have made the suspension any harsher, either - a common complaint with poly bushings. Looks like I've got it cured.
I've been pretty impressed with the results. The Pathfinder doesn't fishtail, pull to one side under power, shake, or do that lurch it did when shifting gears under power. And it doesn't seem to have made the suspension any harsher, either - a common complaint with poly bushings. Looks like I've got it cured.
Labels: Nissan Pathfinder
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
That was not a pleasant surprise.
Last night, I bled the brakes in the Nissan. They're working a lot better now, but when I was driving to work, I had this strange, nagging feeling. Like maybe I'd forgotten to put the cap back on the brake fluid reservoir. I tried to ignore the feeling, but it kept growing on me. So I pulled over into a parking lot and popped the hood. I couldn't believe what I saw.
A large rat stared back at me from its perch on the intake manifold.
The rat looked almost as surprised as I was. It scampered between the engine block and the firewall, and disappeared. I think it must have jumped out of the engine compartment and ran off, but sometimes it's hard to tell. So I'm going to put some poison or traps in the garage to make sure it's gone.
A large rat stared back at me from its perch on the intake manifold.
The rat looked almost as surprised as I was. It scampered between the engine block and the firewall, and disappeared. I think it must have jumped out of the engine compartment and ran off, but sometimes it's hard to tell. So I'm going to put some poison or traps in the garage to make sure it's gone.
Labels: Nissan Pathfinder
Sunday, November 19, 2006
And in case you were wondering about the Nissan...
Fixing the lower control arm with the torn bushing did stop the shaking, after all. There does seem to be a few traces of the problem remaining - for example, it seems to pull to one side under power. It may be that there's another torn bushing down there that I didn't replace. Or it may be that the bushings are so soft anyway that the rear suspension always has trouble locating the rear axle. Hard to say... but at least the problem's been downgraded from scary to mildly annoying.
Labels: Nissan Pathfinder
Monday, November 13, 2006
Nissan update
Not sure if I found the whole problem with the Nissan's rear suspension, but I sure found a big part of it. Today I pulled off the right lower control arm, which hadn't felt right when I had the axle apart, and found it had rips in the front bushing about three quarters of an inch long, extending all the way through it. I replaced it with one of the control arms that came off the junkyard axle. We'll see if that fixes the shaking.
Labels: Nissan Pathfinder
Thursday, November 09, 2006
Ugh...
Well, I got the axle back into the Pathfinder and took it out for a test drive. The shaking problem seemed a little better - but not completely gone. And I need to do a better job of bleeding the brakes - there's still air in the lines. Not good. Right now it's worse than before.
Mental note: "One man brake bleeders" aren't. Except Speedbleeders, but I can't find a set that fits the Pathfinder's rear wheels.
There is a bright spot: I spotted some suspect bushings while I was removing the axle. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to change them out. As a test, I'm filling some of the bushings on one of the junkyard control arms with caulk. Once that dries, I'll swap it out and see what it does about the shaking.
Mental note: "One man brake bleeders" aren't. Except Speedbleeders, but I can't find a set that fits the Pathfinder's rear wheels.
There is a bright spot: I spotted some suspect bushings while I was removing the axle. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to change them out. As a test, I'm filling some of the bushings on one of the junkyard control arms with caulk. Once that dries, I'll swap it out and see what it does about the shaking.
Labels: Nissan Pathfinder
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
It's 8:20 PM. Do you know where your rear axle is?
When I got home from work today, I decided it was finally time to yank the rear axle out of the Nissan and get the replacement piece swapped in. I started by disconnecting the parking brake, ABS sensors, anti-roll bar, brake line, and driveshaft. When I got to the last item in that list, I found that Nissan had devised an especially fiendish way to attach the driveshaft to the axle: They had used a flat flange held on with four bolts, with enough room for a box wrench on either side. There's no way to fit a convetional socket wrench on either end.
So that pretty much rules out the usual high torque tools a home mechanic might use like a breaker bar. There's certainly no way I can see to get an impact wrench in there. I wonder just what sort of tool Nissan's engineers expected their mechanics to use when removing a driveshaft that's had years of road grime to rust the bolts in place. Perhaps Nissan dealerships have a chest of meter-long box wrenches. I finally removed the nuts by putting a box wrench on them and smacking the wrench with a 4 lb sledgehammer. It looks like that's about the only way to get these removed, other than slicing through the bolts with an angle grinder.
So I had the rear axle out... at about 8:20. Didn't leave myself much time to put it back in. After a determined struggle, I managed to get the axle in place, but did not have time to finish getting all the brake hardware back on. Looks like I'll be taking the bike to work tomorrow. They're predicting rain.
So that pretty much rules out the usual high torque tools a home mechanic might use like a breaker bar. There's certainly no way I can see to get an impact wrench in there. I wonder just what sort of tool Nissan's engineers expected their mechanics to use when removing a driveshaft that's had years of road grime to rust the bolts in place. Perhaps Nissan dealerships have a chest of meter-long box wrenches. I finally removed the nuts by putting a box wrench on them and smacking the wrench with a 4 lb sledgehammer. It looks like that's about the only way to get these removed, other than slicing through the bolts with an angle grinder.
So I had the rear axle out... at about 8:20. Didn't leave myself much time to put it back in. After a determined struggle, I managed to get the axle in place, but did not have time to finish getting all the brake hardware back on. Looks like I'll be taking the bike to work tomorrow. They're predicting rain.
Labels: Nissan Pathfinder
Friday, October 13, 2006
Some attention for the Nissan
While I've been putting a lot of work into the Dart and it's now actually capable of rolling about under its own power, the Nissan needs a bit of work too. Its rear axle is so worn that I can hit the gas and have the axle clunk hard enough to make the CD player skip. Yesterday I stopped by Newton Auto Salvage and picked up a rear axle in much better shape. This one has almost no backlash in the gears, but I really should go through its brakes before putting it in.
Newton Auto Salvage isn't a pull it yourself yard. While I asked for a complete axle assembly, I didn't expect just how complete it would be. I was a bit surprised when one of the workers came over with a forklift holding up an entire Pathfinder rear suspension except the coil springs. I'm not exaggerating - they brought out not only the axle, but all four control arms, the Panhard rod, and the shocks. I may try to recoupe some of this by selling the unneeded parts on eBay.
Newton Auto Salvage isn't a pull it yourself yard. While I asked for a complete axle assembly, I didn't expect just how complete it would be. I was a bit surprised when one of the workers came over with a forklift holding up an entire Pathfinder rear suspension except the coil springs. I'm not exaggerating - they brought out not only the axle, but all four control arms, the Panhard rod, and the shocks. I may try to recoupe some of this by selling the unneeded parts on eBay.
Labels: Nissan Pathfinder
