BigMav's TD42 Turbo Maverick

[BigMav]

Yeah mate its usually only an hour here and there but I squeeze in every bit of quiet time I can.

Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710a using Tapatalk 2

[BigMav]

Here is an interesting comparison of before I put the new body mounts in and after. The rear bar used to touch the panelwork but now there is at least 10mm gap there so I have effectively lifted the car a bit. I can not stress enough how big a difference this has made to the overall driveability of the car, it used to clunk and groan around every corner and I could actually feel the floor under my feet moving around. The car is quieter, no clunks and just generally feels tighter and handles better. I would go as far as saying it is the best 400 bucks I have spent on the car.
Before:

After:

[BigMav]

So now that I have the body blocks sorted out and the suspension working properly with all new bushes throughout the car is driving like it was new again, no pulling to the left, no wobbles in the steering wheel, it feels like it left the factory floor yesterday. Well almost...lol. So I could concentrate on a few other things. I put one of these on, 5 min job and it almost matches the paintwork perfectly.



Then I got under the bonnet and started there, firstly I removed the dual battery tray and refitted the old turbo air filter box which is the standard box from the AIT kit back in the day, just uses a standard Falcon flat panel filter and flows quite nicely, biggest problem here was the air hose from the pre filter to the main filter is 80mm, which I couldn't find anywhere at any supplier in aus, had to order it from the uk in the end but all good. Also resealed all the joins with silicon while I was in there.

[BigMav]

Next up I fixed up some previous bush mechanics by fitting a few better clamps on my turbo wastegate exit pipe and secured the actuator rod properly.



No pictures but I rebuilt the clutch master cylinder, replaced the slave and then flushed and bled the system completely.

Then I headed inside and fabbed up a N15 Nissan Pulsar steering wheel to fit. How it was done can be seen here:

http://www.nissanpatrol.com.au/forum...it-A-GQ-Patrol

[BigMav]

Lastly, I got some stickers from ebay and slapped em on for a bit of bling, I think they help to break up the side of the car a bit.



Thats about up to date now I think. Over the weekend I'm going to try and rebuild the power steering box by putting a seal kit through it, a genuine seal kit is about 60 bucks, I was going to upgrade to a GU box since it is leaking but I just don't have the funds at the moment and I don't think I will be going bigger than 33's so the original box should do the job. I'll try and take plenty of pics when I do it to try and help anyone else considering doing the same thing.

[BigMav]

Well I got the shits with rebuilding the power steering box idea and bought myself a GU box off a member from here. I just finished cleaning it up and bolted it on, significant difference in size and weight thats for sure. I have also got a heavy duty adjustable draglink on order as I now require a GU tie rod end on one end and a GQ tie rod end on the other. I went for a roadrunner offroad one which should be enough, I don't go crazy offroad so didn't see the need for a solid chromoly version or anything like that, this one will still be significantly stronger than the standard unit and it will also allow me to convert to a pin to pin steering damper as well as adjustable when the lift comes. Pictures to follow.

[dan dog]

nice rig bigmav, very tidy. im liking your rear bar and matching sliders. always good to see something different.

[BigMav]

So got some more pics of progress, here is the new GU box beside the old unit, significantly larger and heavier than the old one. Notice the pitman arm in the GU box drops down a lot lower than in the GQ. This is because the draglink sits on top of the pitman arm on the GU and on the GQ the draglink goes on from underneath. This presents the first problem of the old GQ draglink not fitting up because you can't rotate the tie rod ends as they are fixed. Use a gu draglink was the first thing that came to mind but I was informed from reliable sources that yes it would fit but the draglink would eventually work loose on the gq swivel hub end because of a different taper. So the only proper way to solve it was to buy a heavy duty adjustable draglink with one gq tie rod end and one gu tie rod end to attach to the gu steering box. I ended up with a roadrunner offroad unit which included a multifit bracket to install a steering damper. Happy with it for the price.




New box painted up and installed. Fits like a glove.


New vs old, I really like the female type tie rod end it is much stronger than original and I can replace them as need be.

[Silver]

Very impressive Bigmav, and to my inexpert eye, everything an improvement and everything done to a high standard.

Almost feel worn out just reading about it, esp with new Dad and Tafe on the go too. :-)

[BigMav]

Thanks mate I'm trying to get the build right. I'd like to say I did it right the first time round but this is the second buildup on the same car so you learn from your mistakes I guess.