Offroad-Express

Hi All,

I'd just like to introduce myself as a new Nissan owner. I have just bought this:


It's a '94 Safari Kingsroad, 4.2lt Petrol, Auto, blah blah blah. I primarily bought it as a tow wagon because I just upsized my boat and the Subaru Legacy just won't tow a 26 ft, 2 ton boat!

Now... I have a couple of questions for you experienced Nissan owners out there:

I had a scare today when I moved it from 4WD low to 4wd high. I had the auto selecter in nuetral and moved the 4wd selector a bit slow betwee the ratios. As it paused in between (I did it real slow) something started to spin up and then I couldn't get it into high or low without it graunching hard out (it was spinning pretty quick). I put it in Park and it graunched/clicked for a good 5-10 secs before stopping. If I just move it between positions in one swift movement it's fine. Is that normal? If not, what could be the cause?

In the future I will be looking to do a suspension lift and maybe put some bigger tyres on it. I'm not going to go nuts, but I just want a bit of extra clearance to be able to play with the bigger boys if I want. What is the most cost effective alternative and what do you think that I should aim for/avoid?

Lockers? Options? Costs? I just saw someone posting about swapping in a whole factory locked diff. Is that the better option?

Anyway, that'll do for now. I'll hopefully become a more regular poster now that I actually own a 4wd of my own and not just tag along with other people (ay Mike ).

Cheers,
Mark

my dads one graunches while moving between high and low. Easiest thing to do is to turn it off.

Sweet... maybe it's just a common thing. It works fine as long as you do it in one swift movement but I've never seen it happen on any other truck I've driven.

When I got mine I did the same,sounds quite bad like changing gears with out useing the clutch.
Dont do it so slow,its not a girl Bang it through fast,I've never had a problem since,with the Nissan that is you can even do it on the fly but thats another story....

Shane

Sweet, thanks Shane. That's a relief to hear! I crapped myself when it first happened, then the second and third time I thought I was going to have to kill the dealer that sold it to me.

Has anyone in Wgtn got a good specimen to look at and ask questions of regarding a suspension lift?

Welcome to the Whale owners club

i thought that with mine safari,at first i thought a brought a dodgy safari but it does not happen that much i just turn mine off,think i was being a bit soft shifting the lever,

Yeah Shane, that's what I was thinking. Something along those lines.

How much of a lift is that? What's involved in jacking it up to that level? New springs and shocks I assume... any other mods? What would it cost to get someone to do that for me? I'm a total newb when it comes to this stuff. Never modified anything other than my car with a big bore exhaust!

if you want, you could come look at my old mans one


Also, doddzee off here might be a good person to contact about nissans in the welly region

I think I saw your old man's in action up the Aotea block one day. It's got a big V8 in it as well hasn't it? It certainly looks and sounds pretty wicked! That's an amazing photo by the way...

I might give you a yell one day and come and have a chat. In case you are wondering, I was the guy that had the double buggy with the kids at that event the other weekend. Up at Totara Park.

ahh, ok. Yea its got a 350 chev in it. Used to have a 4.2l carbed motor in it. The v8 has much more power, is lighter and actually gets better fuel economy than the old motor. We also measured it up against a fairly standard LWB nissan with the EFI 4.2 with 32's and it returned better fuel economy than that... on the 35's. So it was a conversion worth it.

Feel free to come have a chat and steal ideas. Also I think the lift kit is a "no blocks" one imported from auzzie.

One of the first things I would do being a auto model is get a trans flush/auto service done if it hasent had one,also because you'r going to do some heavy towing I'd recommend fitting the biggest auto trans cooler you can find(probley the best insurance you can buy)auto in them is approx $3500 for rebuild.

The auto model is quite tall in the gearing,so wouldnt go any bigger than 33" tyres unless you plan on having 2 sets of wheels,1 set for mudding and the other smaller wheels for towing and genral driving.

30" tyres 100kph = 1975rpm

33" tyres 100kph = 1795rpm

35" tyres 100kph = 1693rpm

above is for 4.1 diff gears some have 3.9 which makes the rpm even lower again.

more to come

Shane

Wow... you know a bit about these things then! Thanks heaps for the info. I thought that they would come with a transmission cooler already being that big and used extensively for towing. I was a bit surprised that it didn't.

I had intended to get a second set of tyres, so I think that is probably the way to go. I don't like the idea of making expensive muddies try and turn a whale on the road. What do those things weigh anyway?

I'm still keen to find out what is involved in doing a suspension lift. I know nothing about it. I may have to post a topic at some stage to get people to build up a howto on the subject. The first thing I'd like to know is what it's going to set me back so that I can start preparing for it.

Thanks heaps,
Mark

The higher you go, the more expensive it will be.
In general, a 3" lift is about the max without having to go to the extra expense of adjustable panhards,castor correction.
You can get coils for around $100ea, and shocks from about that price, although closer to the $150-200ea will usually get a better quality setup.

Also remember to get the right coils for towing, so they don't sag as soon as you hook the trailer on.

Mark wrote:. I thought that they would come with a transmission cooler already being that big and used extensively for towing.
Mark

the factory trans cooling is a heat exchanger style set up in the radiator side tanks(both sides,you can probley see the steel tubes going into the tanks)if the trans starts getting real hot it can bring the engine temp up also,I would still fit a cooler even if you have it run through the std set up then the extra cooler and back to trans.I have by-passed the std set up and just run it through the cooler,only problem with this is the lock up in the convertor wont work tell trans gets up to temp and this takes alittle longer because the radiator helps bring the trans temp up with the std set up(not really a problem though)

Like Dave said a 2-3 inch lift well let you run 33" tyres,anything above that height wise starts costing quite abit extra.can always do a body lift later if the bug hits you hard for bigger tyres.

I have a 4" lift in mine with EFS spings/EFS rear shocks/monroe Front shocks(80# toyota)I have just resently fitted 35's and done a rear quater cut.
You can check the EFS product at http://www.4wdbit.co.nz they have spring rates/tow packs etc good place to start as they have pricing to get a idear what things cost.

Shane