Offroad-Express

got my self a 89 saf. already had 2 inch lift and 32s when i brought it. myself and pgfrmr drove it and all good. have done a 2 inch body lift and fitted 35s now vibration is shocking. have ordered new steering dampner and front panard rod bushes. is it a must to space gear box to correct drive shaft angles as i believe this may be the cause. defineatly not tyre related as its not there all the time..

cheers jono

LWB or SWB?

swb

So you havent changed the geometry of the drive lines. It was already lifted and a body lift shouldnt affect drive lines.

I have heard the SWB need some packers for the rear axle due to the steep angle, but not having owned one I couldnt say for sure.

Swap tyres front to rear (just in case its tyre/wheel related), alignment maybe?

I'm going to have wild guess and suggest that the tyres have caused it (it seems to be the only thing that has changed on the drive line - even if its random ) and the only answer is to follow your own suggestions of new damper and bushes. And work from there. Do the cheaper one first.

usually you get away without spacers with 50mm. If there were no vibrations before, some thing must have worn out. Is it coming from the front or rear?

All trucks are different, you might get one with a 2" susp lift that doesn't have vibrations...then you will get plenty that do have them.

Gearbox spacers would fix it, they lower it by 10mm. For higher lifts nearing 4" well sometimes you need gearbox spacers and adjustable upper control arms to correct the pinion angle.

If you do need gearbox spacers ive got some lying around you can have even got the longer bolts. Pm me if your interested.

Had a customer come in due to a vibration so balanced his wheels rotated em front to back re balanced them, couldnt work out was it was. In the end it turned out to be engine mounts. The vibration was intermitten and only at particular speeds.

Actually this raises a good point- nissan safari engine mounts are total garbage. When i removed my diesel one mount was torn right through and just sitting there- the other was torn half way through.

Wondered why when i switched it off or started the thing there was a real clonk.

starts of thru steering wheel at 60km and once you hit 80k no vibration thru steering wheel instead the whole truck is vibrating. i have balanced the 35s on 3 occasions and have done the alignment.

firestonecruiser wrote:starts of thru steering wheel at 60km and once you hit 80k no vibration thru steering wheel instead the whole truck is vibrating. i have balanced the 35s on 3 occasions and have done the alignment.

how different is the 35's offset to the original tyres?? i found with mine when I was chasing the wobbles that my wide offset saf rims wobbled way more than my smaller IFS offset alloys did.

cheap way of checking if you need a spacer for the gearbox is to do what I did, I just carefully undid the bolts untill the crossmember had dropped 7-8mm the then added washers on either side of the bolts and then tightened them up tight, carefully take it for a test drive, even with 7mm drop you should notice a change in the vibration if thats your issue, if you notice a difference take the washers out straight away and then get some proper 10mm plate spacers with longer bolts made up.

personally I would check in this order

panhard bushes
kingpin preload/play (preload made a HUGE diference to mine)
lower radius arm bushes (mainly the chassis to arm ones)
wheel bearings
check play in drag link too mine was loose!! (thank god for castle nuts and split pins)

lastly Id do the steering dampner ... mainly because if everything else is Aok you should be able to drive without the dampner even fitted and not have a vibration/shimmy or wobble, the dampner will merely mask the problem.

take the rear driveshaft off completly and check for worn/binding uni's also check that the slip joint is free and not under or overgreased

good luck ... SAF wobbles are FUN ... not

flyingbrick wrote:Actually this raises a good point- nissan safari engine mounts are total garbage. When i removed my diesel one mount was torn right through and just sitting there- the other was torn half way through.

Wondered why when i switched it off or started the thing there was a real clonk.

Was it the passenger side mount flyingbrick? Apparently they are the one that goes most often. My clutch reservoir lost it's cap a couple of times and aparently it's the air filter housing knocking it off...dunno how true that is.

Sorry for getting OT.

My clutch reservoir lost it's cap a couple of times and aparently it's the air filter housing knocking it off...dunno how true that is

That's correct, a classic sign of a broken passenger side engine mount. Took me some time to work that one out .
Al

Lubed your driveshaft?? Just remembered mine used to vibrate like a bastard.Grease up the ujs and shaft and would shut it up for 2000odd kms.just a thort.

Jono i will have a look tomoz night for you,