Offroad-Express

Gidday boys and girls.

Just recently entered into the real 4wd scene, and its official. I'm hooked.

I have a newly bought, 1991 Nissan Terrano V6 manual..
Running Hankook rto3 mt's, 31x10.5xr15 on what seems to be a yhi rim, 15x8...(am looking for a 5th to mount up as a spare.)

seems to have been off-road a fair bit, as there are cuts in the tyre from where it meets the guard at full travel.. (I have rolled the guards to stop this)
and also by the amount of mud I have found in tight spaces...
also the body has a few scars here and there.

as I am new, and have only done some (what you probably call minor trails) with friends (who have well set up rigs) and have not yet joined a club.
I just have a few questions..

1..are there any major issues any1 has come across with the terranos. I know the basics rust under the rear seats raddy ra. but anything related to 4wding..

2.. is there anywhere I can buy heavy duty tie rods, as I have already bent one. (no doubt because I planted my foot half way up a bumpy incline) but if I'm replacing parts, I would rather Replace with the H/D alternative.

3.. where is the best place to buy some basic recovery kit, (shackles, straps etc..) not looking at doing anything too serious until I've toughened up my rig, and got a bit more experience. so just need the basics for now.

4.. I'm having issues sourcing a new bull bar/ bumper. preferably winch ready steel bumper, as at some point I will be buying a winch. And my STD bumper is looking a little sad.

5.. lift... my truck is at STD height and the front wheels rub on lock. Looks like Its done this for a while (with last owner) and as I planned to lift the truck, It didn't bother me.
for obvious reasons, I'm looking into the different ways of lifting my truck.
I have heard that body lifts on a terrano is pretty straight forward.
But it wont give me the ground clearance I will Need in the future.. so,
a friend of mine suggested cranking up the torsion bars for now to eliminate the tyre rub, and using spring spacers in the rear to bring the truck back to level, until I source a decent set of springs and shocks... IS THIS A GOOD IDEA..

any help with these and any other advice on setting up my truck would be great...

Cheers
Brad.
Auckland

P.s, I'm Pretty mechanical minded, and have worked on performance cars for some time with friends who race. And I also have access to a Workshop. So anything I can Fabricate myself to save money and better the part. is VERY WELCOME

1. Get an idler arm brace done or you will keep bending them.
2. Dont know sorry.
3. Supercheap
4. Look for pathfinder equivalents, not easy to find but they are out there, just not known as Terranos in many other places.
5. Its ok to wind up the torsion bars, but it doesnt increase the travel as I understand it, so the more you wind them the less downward travel you have (I think)

Good truck but thirsty

Oh, and welcome

Hi there Welcome to ORE

Yea as you will have found out front suspension will get chewed through

Have a talk to sibainmud as he has a well set up Terrano. Also try searching the forums a bit. There is heaps of info on Terranos on here.

Cheers
Lincoln

Welcome mate. I cant answer alot of your qs as im a toyota man but my mate has a terrano with 2" suspension lift and 29/30" mud tyres and its quite a capable truck. Its a td27 model though.

Maybe send a message to sibainmud (Simon) on here hes the terrano expert and is also the president of the Nor-west OHV club which is based north shore/west auckland.

Cheers

Caleb

lincooln wrote:Hi there Welcome to ORE

Yea as you will have found out front suspension will get chewed through

Have a talk to sibainmud as he has a well set up Terrano. Also try searching the forums a bit. There is heaps of info on Terranos on here.

Cheers
Lincoln

I guess thats what happens when you get side tracked while posting

uwshho wrote:

lincooln wrote:Hi there Welcome to ORE

Yea as you will have found out front suspension will get chewed through

Have a talk to sibainmud as he has a well set up Terrano. Also try searching the forums a bit. There is heaps of info on Terranos on here.

Cheers
Lincoln

I guess thats what happens when you get side tracked while posting

Haha yea I guess so. I do the same thing.

Did someone call?
I'm now no longer the terrano expert, had a new entry (TD Power) that knows more than I could ever imagine.
Welcome Alf.
Wanna meet up some time?
Cheers,
Simon.

Cheers for the quick reply guys, nice to find a thread that actually works as fast as it should.

Today was my day off and I got stuck into replacing my bent tie rod. (as the truck is my daily driver also, I needed it fixed)

small issue.. getting the two rods out of the connecting adjustment bolt was not only difficult. But after some time trying to do things properly, (I have done this before, so was surprised at how hard they were to separate)
I then proceed to apply force. and bang. there goes my old trusty bench vice. whoops.

got them apart, went to parts master, got the new parts, didn't fit, went back got the REAL parts, and checked with 3 different part lists and their in house mechanic. and all seemed to match up. untill.. the inner rod (also new) would not feed into the nut.. yes I know its a left hand thread before anyone calls me a rookie. so the only thing I put it down to is, the nut thread needs cleaning. (now I need to go to the engineering shop in the morning to get a left-handed tap! wowza.
for a job that took me 45 mins on my last truck.. this is a major.. as the parts don't look like they have been budged in a few years..


MOVING ON.
idler arm brace... while I was out getting parts I called into a couple of places. (2x 4x4 shops and pitstop, another suspension place. and an engineer.) asking about idler arm braces they all looked at me like I was a loony..

I had identified this as a weak point before I first posted here so was relived to find that someone else had also. .
SO WHERE DID YOU GET THEM FROM!!
or, can I have some measurements so a can fab one up myself...

one guy did mention beefing up the entire steering arm system by fabricating a heavy duty system, leaving the tie rods as a weak point.. anybody done this??

last thing, rear springs.. where is the best place to find lifted springs, or are spacers ok? and where from..

CHEERS FOR THE WELCOME GUYS!
look forward to meeting you.. out in the bush somewhere perhaps!

@sibainmud you've been singled out to be the guru!
yes, would love to meet up some time and have a yarn, maby a couple of coldies and see your rig!
I'm pretty busy over the next couple of weeks
I'm a surf lifeguard, so have nationals next week/weekend
so after that ill be free as a bird really..
and will contact you then to suss something out.

FOR ALL MY MODS I would really like to fab what I can myself, as I really enjoy it, and anything out of my range I would like to give my business to someone who has already been looking after the 4x4 boys.

CHEERS A HEAP!

Try these
http://www.offroadexpress.co.nz/Forums/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=21520
http://www.offroadexpress.co.nz/Forums/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=23559&hilit=+idler+arm

Search is goooood
No problems, catch up when ever.
Cheers.

nice to see another terrano driver join the ranks.
those v6's are quite thirsty for a runaround (Im running a vg30) but they have a lot of grunt when you need it

people keep saying they r thirsty.. but so far. mine has been
brilliant.. got home from palmy on one tank.. with some to spare.. and around town i'm getting 400-450 almost 500ks to a tank depends on how i drive!
much better than my gas guzzling turbo rocket ship i had a couple of years ago when i was less worried about money and more worried
about going fast!

currently replacing the left front wheel stud that was cross threaded by the previous owner.
got the hub assembly etc apart.. that was interesting. just about to grease up and repack the assembly and re fit. then. off for a WOF!

p.s, cheers for those links.. have drawn up a plan, and a friend is throwing them on the edge of a water jet cut sheet of parts hes got going in today at work. will wield up and paint and maby post some pics if i can find the camera..

yeah, they are good at sipping the gas on the open road if you drive it properly.
used to be real bad till I replace the cam belt and discovered the timing was a whole tooth out
now I can get from warkworth to taupo on 3/4 a tank.

OK! well it has been some time since I have been on here. To have a yarn. or ask questions. (I probably should have asked more questions. But hey. at 20. who asked for help?)

Since posting last a fair bit has gone right. And wrong. And almost everywhere in between.
@Simon I am still keen to catch up at some point. But with the rwc on. I'm working here. There and everywhere. Prob be best to wait until the country calms down.

So far my truck has been the on call for most of our boys to tow them out of some rather. . interesting. places. (one of which landed a near arrest, trespass and unlawful damage charges. luckily, there was no signs and we were let off with a warning. I was able to drive my truck out the next day from where I got stuck attempting a recovery. and we were able to call in a favour from a heavy haul towie to pull the other Muppet out [bald tyres, std truck. on the wetest day of the year? idddiot]) safe to say. I LEARNT MY LESSON THERE.

But I have had a few good trips to the mud. And am loving it.
have heard woodhill can be a bit of fun.
is there any other tracks around that are NOT GOING TO GET ME IN TROUBLE with the police. (I got into trucks to get away from performance cars and the trouble they attract.)

So far I have over hauled the brakes.
Replaced all leads and plugs and cam belt/ water pump.
Replaced the clutch. (exedy hd. brilliant clutch)
taken care of some rust spots. And replaced a bent idler arm. (am still to fit the brace as it never got made up)
And have purchased and fitted a bullbar. And warn 9.5xp winch. yet to be taken to the mud. but pulls like nothing else.

have a couple of pictures how do we post them on here?

cheers
Brad

If you get snatch straps from Supercheap, make sure they are the new 20% stretch ones. Some of them only have 8% stretch and will do more harm than good when used as such.

welcome to the sit, do a search of my posts as I have posted heaps on the Terranos too.