Offroad-Express

Ok so as many would know I drvie a 1992 D21 terrano...

I keep on breaking stuff and its chewing though tires like there's no tomorrow

I want to lift it more but that will cause even more problems.

What are my options to stop breaking stuff? I havent even been rough on it. I think it must have been the last owner.

Should I cut my losses and buy some thing like this

http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-ca ... 135746.htm

Your thoughts please

Its the steering thats bending isnt it?
What else is shitting itself?
Tyre size/how much lift?

imo I would go with the safari hard to beat them straight out of the box,never owned a terrano but I have owned a couple of safari's they are very capable off road and seem to handle knocks a lot better than the terrrano.the terrano's main week point is their ifs,more suited for on road comfort than offroad abuse,this is only my opinion so don't start crying all you terrano owners out there

Out the box,no question. The Safari shrugs off abuse.
I think they were smoking too much opium when they designed the Terrano steering system. Those crazy Japs, gotta love em.

lax2wlg wrote:Out the box,no question. The Safari shrugs off abuse.
I think they were smoking too much opium when they designed the Terrano steering system. Those crazy Japs, gotta love em.

Got the 2wd and 4wd steering mixed up hahaha

Put a solid axle under there, you know you want to.......

lax2wlg wrote:Out the box,no question. The Safari shrugs off abuse.
I think they were smoking too much opium when they designed the Terrano steering system. Those crazy Japs, gotta love em.

Yep I agree.

I did the 2wd center link mod but the idler arm bushes last 1000km at the most!!!

and here goes another ifs vs sas debate in a nissan thread!
better list the breakages and im sure the top blokes around here will help you out.what sort of driving are you doing?

It has a 2 inch sus lift

Auto hubs are the latest thing to die

I have a 2 inch body lift to put in.....

Im trying to find some 27 spine Manuel hubs too

Mainly river bed trips.

Have you got an idler arm brace in?

have you looked into diff drop in the front?

What have you done to steering?

Ok so done the 2wd center link so far. Trying to find a 2nd steering box to replace the idler.

Rang the guy who wreaks them out near raigora and he said I can have one for $120!!!!!

There were two on here for $35 each not long ago

The end story is if you want a strong front end go for a solid axle. IFS can't take the abuse that a solid axle will take, as already said it was designed for on road handling and comfort and for the occasional bit of offroad at the lighter end of the scale.

You can beef up the IFS but all you really achieve is moving the breaking and wear points around e.g. beef up compoint 1 and then compoint 2 becomes the week point and so on

If you are after a more serious offroad vehicle the Safari is a good move out of the box they are wells set up and very capable 4x4's. The PTO winch is unbeatable they may be slower than an electric but they will pull all day long and then all night.

I would be looking at your wheel; alignment too if you are chewing out tyres.

You must be driving it really hard if you are wearing out idler arms too? Or something is seriously out of alignment.

Hey BogBoy

There are a number of people who give these things hell, but don't run too much lift, have made various changes to strengthen them and manage their bad points accordingly.

You may have a problem with your combination of setup, existing wear and driving style that is just killing parts. Doesn't take much to stuff them when a component is out of its performance scope.

Sorry suza but if it had rack and pinion steering and no chassis, Id understand..Nissan Ifs is derived from the hustler, its designed for proper offroad use. Its not designed to be lifted...thats where problems start.But once you have eliminated the weak points, no problems have been pushed down the line. Then you just keep it maintained, parts will wear, not break.

Takes a bit more thought than just
slapping a set of 35s on it and taking a sawzall to the guards.

Of coure SA has more inherent strength because less moving prarts,
But when you only have 100hp td27 on tap, is it really relevant?

But yeah, get the safari, solid axles are cool. If outright abuse is what youre into, it will hold up better

If you want to beef up the IFS in it rather than get a new vehicle, the idler arm is the big problem, i found that when i was running 33's it was the cause of all the problems.

My understading is that once the idle bends, the alignment goes all out of whack, bushes start wearing really quickly etc etc etc.

Even just a brace like the calmini one is better than nothing.

Droping the diff by the amount lifted will put cv's at their correct operating angles.

unless you want to go down the route of a SAS, then safari would be the way to go.

The fact that you can just rip the idler out and replace it w another steering box is f'n cool. Now thats problem solving. I've found the diff drop to work very well, though you cant drop it anymore than 15mm without banging into the torsion bars...but by the time it reaches the CVs, it reduces their angles a GOOD amount.

lax2wlg wrote:The fact that you can just rip the idler out and replace it w another steering box is f'n cool. Now thats problem solving. I've found the diff drop to work very well, though you cant drop it anymore than 15mm without banging into the torsion bars...but by the time it reaches the CVs, it reduces their angles a GOOD amount.

Im not too worried about my diff height as Im not having cv problems (must be a first).....

I think I should just swap the 2nd steering box in and see what bends next plus get some manual hubs to stop them popping out all the time.

Looking at a lokka diff (for the front) as well as they are about $450 landed in nz

Ok so after thinking thing over I have decided to keep the D21 in its current state, Maybe a bit lower to stop the tires chewing out.

Looking at a lada niva for the rough stuff

BogBoy wrote:Ok so after thinking thing over I have decided to keep the D21 in its current state, Maybe a bit lower to stop the tires chewing out.

Looking at a lada niva for the rough stuff

Like I said earlier, you must have an alignment issue if you are chewing tyres out. I have 2.5" suspension lift and 2" body lift and I do not have an issue with chewing tyres out; oh that's 33" tyres too. (although with the new engine I imagine the back tyres will get a hiding)

BogBoy wrote:

lax2wlg wrote:Out the box,no question. The Safari shrugs off abuse.
I think they were smoking too much opium when they designed the Terrano steering system. Those crazy Japs, gotta love em.

Yep I agree.

I did the 2wd center link mod but the idler arm bushes last 1000km at the most!!!

I started with a Terrano and was doing idler arms and ball joints every WOF...$450 every six months. With the Safari....adjust the wheel bearings or free up the handbrake cable lol.

kiwipete wrote:

BogBoy wrote:Ok so after thinking thing over I have decided to keep the D21 in its current state, Maybe a bit lower to stop the tires chewing out.

Looking at a lada niva for the rough stuff

Like I said earlier, you must have an alignment issue if you are chewing tyres out. I have 2.5" suspension lift and 2" body lift and I do not have an issue with chewing tyres out; oh that's 33" tyres too. (although with the new engine I imagine the back tyres will get a hiding)

Yep I have had 3 aliments since the start of the year.

I had to replace all the ball joints for the first one then the 2nd one I replaced every bush in the front end as it got failed on a wof. I then did the suspension lift and 2wd center link conversion and had to get another wheel alignment

Twodiffs wrote:

BogBoy wrote:

lax2wlg wrote:Out the box,no question. The Safari shrugs off abuse.
I think they were smoking too much opium when they designed the Terrano steering system. Those crazy Japs, gotta love em.

Yep I agree.

I did the 2wd center link mod but the idler arm bushes last 1000km at the most!!!

On my first Terrano was doing idler arms and ball joints every WOF...$450 every six months. With the Safari....adjust the wheel bearings or free up the handbrake cable lol.

See thats what I want!!!

A trouble free wof

Once you get the front bushes and ball joints done (and another wheel alignment ) it will be mint. Im up to five W/A's this year, my tyre guy loves me

hamboy wrote:Once you get the front bushes and ball joints done (and another wheel alignment ) it will be mint. Im up to five W/A's this year, my tyre guy loves me

Why replace items that aren't even 1000km old?

i always had to do the bearings on my patrol, cheap to fix untill things break tho

BogBoy wrote:

hamboy wrote:Once you get the front bushes and ball joints done (and another wheel alignment ) it will be mint. Im up to five W/A's this year, my tyre guy loves me

Why replace items that aren't even 1000km old?

Meaning if you haven't if you have replaced anything that appears to wearing out or even double checked everything already it would be good to do so before another W/A.
As I write this I think "why didn't I do that six months ago "

I did a end to end replacement of all the bushes and steering componets.

Picked up another steering box today so will fit it once I get back from auckland and see if that helps