BigMav's TD42 Turbo Maverick

[BigMav]

I had a couple of pics in the intro section but now see this is probably a better place to have a build thread.

Pics...............

http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z466/jonb80/Maverick%20Build%20Photos/IMG_3985.jpg?t=1321771847

http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z466/jonb80/Maverick%20Build%20Photos/IMG_3989.jpg?t=1321771848

http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z466/jonb80/Maverick%20Build%20Photos/IMG_3990.jpg?t=1321771849

http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z466/jonb80/Maverick%20Build%20Photos/IMG_3986.jpg?t=1321771850

[BigMav]

- Dealer fitted AIT turbo kit running 8.5psi
- TJM winch bar
- Approx 3" spring lift (EFS springs and shocks)
- Worn out 33x12.5R15 Goodyear Wrangler MT/R's
- Long Ranger fuel tank
- 3" mandrel bent exhaust
- Airtec Snorkel
- Home made rear Bar
- Rear quarter chopped (and folded)
- Home made drawer system
- Cargo Barrier
- Dual Battery system
- 2" Body Lift

The paint is a Holden Sting Red colour, after painting I put a bit of bling on with the patrol chrome door handles and the focal headlights, I also have an upgraded loom made ready to fit to the headlights. I plan on upgrading the front grill with a chrome one also. A whole new suspension system is on the cards as well as tyres/wheels. Once all thats done its just getting everything overhauled like the brakes/clutch and power steering which is all getting a little bit tired. I've owned this car since about 2003 and it has served me very well but its at the stage where everything is starting to wear out. At least the biggest job is out of the way. (paint)

[BigMav]

Here is some pics of what has been keeping me busy recently in the last couple of weeks.

I did some research on the AIT turbo kit and it turns out that it was fitted to a very select few vehicles by dealerships from new. Apparently, only dealers in regional queensland did it and it was covered under warranty by Ford. It uses a garrett turbo which is externally wastegated. Its quite an old design obviously but it is still a pretty good turbo I guess and definitely still gives the old girl a bit of a boot in the arse.

Well I wasn't too happy with the performance recently and it became painfully obvious why when I opened up the wastegate actuator. The actuator was not actuating and was holding the wastegate open at all times so I was pretty much getting no effect from the turbo at all.

http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z466/jonb80/Maverick%20Build%20Photos/IMG_4031.jpg?t=1321771851

http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z466/jonb80/Maverick%20Build%20Photos/IMG_4032.jpg?t=1321771852

[Yendor]

Great looking truck mate, love the colour.

[BigMav]

The turbo had quite a bit of crud in it so I took it to a specialist for a verdict. He said it should be rebuilt for the cost of about a grand. I decided not to worry about it for the moment because there was still no endplay at all but there is a bit of damage to the fins of the turbine so it will be replaced down the track eventually, for now a new actuator was purchased and fitted after a few mods to the bracket to get it to fit correctly. More pics.

http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z466/jonb80/Maverick%20Build%20Photos/IMG_4038.jpg?t=1321771858

http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z466/jonb80/Maverick%20Build%20Photos/IMG_4037.jpg?t=1321771858

[growler2058]

BIG RED TRUCKare three words that come to mind mate hahahhaha

[BigMav]

While I had it all out all of the turbo lines were old and perished so I ducked down to pirtek and got some replacements. I didn't worry about getting any bling braided ones just the standard heat rated lines for coolant and oil. I also picked up a bung for where I was drilling and tapping in the manifold to fit a pyro gauge at a later time. It was after this point where the problems started. I had noticed when removing the exhaust manifold that one of the exhaust studs had been snapped off at some stage. Of course it was the very end one up against the firewall. To say it was difficult to remove would be an understatement. It required the use of a right angle drill and because I didn't get it dead centre the easy out would keep grabbing on the edge of the thread which was useless. Out came the die grinder bits and about 4 hours later it was removed. We noticed another bent stud, the next one closer to the front and gave it a wobble and it also snapped. So did it all over again but this time was able to get in and centre punch prior to drilling allowing us to use an easy out properly. Anyway with all that sorted the new gasket went one and everything was bolted back up into place. I also bought a replacement intake hose but I will make something up a bit better at a later stage.

You can see here where I put the bung for the pyro and the replacement exhaust stud
http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z466/jonb80/Maverick%20Build%20Photos/IMG_4041.jpg?t=1321771860

All bolted back in, boost gauge line temporary installed for the time being
http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z466/jonb80/Maverick%20Build%20Photos/IMG_4039.jpg?t=1321771859

http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z466/jonb80/Maverick%20Build%20Photos/IMG_4040.jpg?t=1321771860

[BigMav]

After bolting the turbo back up and making a few adjustments to the actuator arm length I managed to get it up to 8.5psi boost without touching the fuel pump or anything else. I probably don't want to take it too much further than this in the condition the turbo is currently in though I would still like to see the temps pre turbo after I get my pyro fitted.

[BigMav]

The next little job was a ripper too. After spending some time trying to fix the aircon up (its starting to get bloody hot up here) I found that my problem was an electrical gremlin in the fuse box. I have had some issues with the fuse box for ages but never did anything about it because I knew it was going to be difficult and time consuming but I finally decided that now was the time. The problem lies with the contacts that the blade fuses slide into, on numerous circuit the contacts have cracked causing high resistance and leading to massive voltage drops and loss of power completely sometimes. I temporary fix the problems as they came up on the go by bending the legs of the fuses to make a better contact.

You can see here the kind of crack in the fuse box I'm talking about where the arrow is. yes it took a while to find this was the problem.
http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z466/jonb80/Maverick%20Build%20Photos/IMG_4051.jpg?t=1321771888
And again here the terminal was completely broken and you can see the heat damage where I've circled.
http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z466/jonb80/Maverick%20Build%20Photos/IMG_4049.jpg?t=1321771887

[BigMav]

So a replacement fuse box was sourced from a wreck.

http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z466/jonb80/Maverick%20Build%20Photos/IMG_4052.jpg?t=1321771888

The terminals were in much better nick but again there was a couple of holders which had cracks in them but I repaired them with a few good ones off the old box. The slow and frustrating process then began of pulling each terminal out of the relays and all the wires and swapping it all into the new box. This took a long long time but was rewarding in the end to finally have it done and no more electrical gremlins hopefully. Here is more pics of the progress. I had to solder a couple of the wires together to replace some of them but it turned out pretty good.

This little slide needs to be removed before you can pull the terminals out with a small flat blade screwdriver and plenty of patience.
http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z466/jonb80/Maverick%20Build%20Photos/IMG_4053.jpg?t=1321771889

Relay plugs all transferred across at last
http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z466/jonb80/Maverick%20Build%20Photos/IMG_4055.jpg?t=1321771890

What a nightmare!!
http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z466/jonb80/Maverick%20Build%20Photos/IMG_4056.jpg?t=1321771891

http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z466/jonb80/Maverick%20Build%20Photos/IMG_4057.jpg?t=1321771891

All Done!!!
http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z466/jonb80/Maverick%20Build%20Photos/IMG_4086.jpg?t=1321771892

[BigMav]

Oh yeah found this pic of the roof console I made out of sheet metal. I'm thinking about getting rid of it but undecided at the moment.

http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z466/jonb80/Maverick%20Build%20Photos/IMG_4054.jpg?t=1321771889

[BigMav]

I have just received my pyro in the mail so that will be going in soon. I bought one of these.

http://www.nissanpatrol.com.au/forums/images/imported/2011/11/23.jpg

I also have on order from ebay a replacement coolant overflow bottle and some flash stickers to bling it up a bit.

[YNOT]

Mate what a great thread.

I've never seen an external wastegate set up like that and your information about the fuse box is very interesting.

I like your rear bar as well, very neat.

Tony

[BigMav]

Thanks mate I'll try and keep it updated as I go and I will take some more pics of already existing mods when I can. The fuse box pictures aren't very exciting but after seeing the same damage on the replacement box (to a much lesser extent) I thought it might be handy info for some as it was difficult to diagnose what was going on at the time as it was an intermittent fault. I guess its probably more common on vehicles doing lots of outback kms on rough roads.

[Dozer]

good looking rig, where did ya get the pyro from? thinking of going digital with mine too.

[WaxFraq]

I like your rear bar as well, very neat.

Very nice setup! And I can see that the car is getting taken good care of!! Keep up the good work!!

[BigMav]

good looking rig, where did ya get the pyro from? thinking of going digital with mine too.

From here mate, hopefully get a chance to fit it up soon and let you know how it goes.

http://www.auberins.com/

[BigMav]

Very nice setup! And I can see that the car is getting taken good care of!! Keep up the good work!!

Thanks for the comments, the rear bar was done a long time ago now but at the time it was something a bit different to everyone else doing the tube bars, I've seen a few similar ones getting about now. One thing is for sure it is very strong (and heavy unfortunately). I'll get some more pics up soon.

[BigMav]

Few small updates to add, firstly I got around to installing the pyro gauge, pretty happy with the unit, I ordered one with amber display to match the mavericks original gauges, also hooked it up to the light circuit so it dims when the lights are on. I can even set up an alarm if I want and have a buzzer hooked up to the alarm. At the moment I haven't screwed it down or anything but it seems fairly secure so I will see how it goes.

http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z466/jonb80/Maverick%20Build%20Photos/IMG_4097.jpg

And here's the probe, its only 3mm in diameter and seems to react very quickly to temperature change. Very happy so far.

http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z466/jonb80/Maverick%20Build%20Photos/IMG_4102.jpg

Also dropped into repco a little while back and picked up a cheapy stereo so thats been fitted up. Its got an auxillary output and plays mp3's so thats all I need really, for 70 bucks can't go wrong. While I was in there I repaired the clock, just some dry solder joints that needed resoldering. I also finally replaced the globe in the A/C button which has never worked but I don't think anyone needs pictures of that!

http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z466/jonb80/Maverick%20Build%20Photos/IMG_4095.jpg?t=1321771893

While I was in Repco I decided to impulse buy an autotechnica steering wheel as the old one was getting fairly crusty. Probably not the best wheel but for 50 nicker who can complain. I would like to replace with a pulsar one at some stage but can't find one in good nick.

http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z466/jonb80/Maverick%20Build%20Photos/IMG_4101.jpg

[Bigrig]

Seriously nice rig mate - love that rear bar also (any chance of some close ups so the 'weekend warrior welders' amongst us could have a lash at??).

[BigMav]

Seriously nice rig mate - love that rear bar also (any chance of some close ups so the 'weekend warrior welders' amongst us could have a lash at??).

I'll see what I can do ;)

[Bigrig]

I'll see what I can do ;)

Thanks mate - greatly appreciated!!

[Clunk]

pretty damn nice steering wheel for 50 bob mate................ love the rig mate

[jurdy93]

very nice truck mate

[Dozer]

Just had a read through, got some nice mods done.

[BigMav]

Got some more work done to the Maverick this week. Just finished an automotive aircon course so got to do a bit of work on the car at TAFE. Recovered the old gas, new filter drier, new condensor fan and new trinary pressure switch. Aircon works like new again. I think my A/C system is aftermarket as there was another GQ there which was a different setup. His had no condenser fan and a different pressure switch. The part number for my pressure switch matched up with a Mercedes 500 SLE or something. LOL.

[Silver]

Nice Mav and nice report BigMav. Want to borrow mine for a while :-) You've really looked after the BRT (Big Red Truck) as someone else christened it on page 1

[nowoolies]

sweet looking rig mate luv the colour

[BigMav]

Seriously nice rig mate - love that rear bar also (any chance of some close ups so the 'weekend warrior welders' amongst us could have a lash at??).

As requested I remembered to take a couple more pics of the bar.

http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z466/jonb80/Maverick%20Build%20Photos/IMG_4107.jpg?t=1323155091

http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z466/jonb80/Maverick%20Build%20Photos/IMG_4106.jpg?t=1323155090

http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z466/jonb80/Maverick%20Build%20Photos/IMG_4105.jpg?t=1323155090

http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z466/jonb80/Maverick%20Build%20Photos/IMG_4104.jpg?t=1323155090

http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z466/jonb80/Maverick%20Build%20Photos/IMG_4103.jpg?t=1323155090

[Killametre]

Hi Bigmav great thread luv the pics you must have one of the few other AIT turbo kitted rigs around, mine was sold out of Parry nissan Townsville and has the same turbo, I am pulling it out Tomorrow to do the exhaust studs the same one you had broken is broken in mine.....not looking forward to it. Do you have that big alloy airfilter housing where the dual battery tray would sit? I am looking at removing mine and modifying the pre filter to be the one and only.

[Elmar]

looks really good !

[BigMav]

Hi Bigmav great thread luv the pics you must have one of the few other AIT turbo kitted rigs around, mine was sold out of Parry nissan Townsville and has the same turbo, I am pulling it out Tomorrow to do the exhaust studs the same one you had broken is broken in mine.....not looking forward to it. Do you have that big alloy airfilter housing where the dual battery tray would sit? I am looking at removing mine and modifying the pre filter to be the one and only.

Mate its not that bad a job really but make sure that you get dead centre when drilling out the stud otherwise you'll be in all sorts of strife. My filter setup used to be the same as yours except the inlet from the alloy box went straight to the snorkel. I wanted to go dual batteries so had to get rid of it and now only use the prefilter as you are suggesting. I was assured that it would be fine for the job and I haven't had any issues at all and apparently lots of turbo setups run with just the prefilter. I'm interested to know how much boost you are getting out of the turbo? Have you check the external wastegate lately? I'm betting its buggered if you haven't. Interesting to see that Nissan as well as Ford sold these factory kits. You've got a pm anyway mate.

[Killametre]

My unit runs 7psi wastegate is working ok it runs 10psi with the wastegate disconected, the fuel pump has been resealed and as it does not have a boost compensator i am sure the pump shop would have only set the fuel to non turbo spec so there would be some gains to be made there if i wound her up a bit but i am happy enough with the power and economy at present so i wont be touching it. I have fitted dual batteries i used a few donaldson 90deg bends and some 3" exhaust I sleeved the inlet to the pre filter to stop it getting crushed by clamp and I removed the rivets and re-installed it to the bottom of the housing with sika flex for a good seal.

Cheers Andrew

Mate its not that bad a job really but make sure that you get dead centre when drilling out the stud otherwise you'll be in all sorts of strife. My filter setup used to be the same as yours except the inlet from the alloy box went straight to the snorkel. I wanted to go dual batteries so had to get rid of it and now only use the prefilter as you are suggesting. I was assured that it would be fine for the job and I haven't had any issues at all and apparently lots of turbo setups run with just the prefilter. I'm interested to know how much boost you are getting out of the turbo? Have you check the external wastegate lately? I'm betting its buggered if you haven't. Interesting to see that Nissan as well as Ford sold these factory kits. You've got a pm anyway mate.

[sibbles]

Great rig, do you have any shots of the grille, I really wanna see how the badge on the Maverick is, trying to decide if I should order one and have it shipped here.

[BigMav]

If you really want one mate I can get it. It's been debadged though so there is no Ford badges left, or Nissan badges for that matter.

[mattyh]

WOW that looks painful. it must of took a thousand beers

[BigMav]

Well its been sometime since I've had a chance to update this thread but I have managed to get some work done to the old girl somehow in between moving house from Townsville to Brissy, becoming a dad and doing nightstudy at TAFE! Keep in mind that my plan is to basically restore the vehicle at this stage, once I am happy that the vehicle is reliable again I will start the fun modifications. Because of this nothing I've been doing is really exciting stuff. Firstly I picked up some GU standard suspension for next to nothing and then installed it all, at this time I also removed the radius arms (my god what a job!) and pressed out the castor corrected poly bushes and pressed in genuine nissan bushes. I also did the same to the panhard rods front and rear, new genuine bushes. While having the vehicle in the air I finally got around to giving the chassis a coat of black, another painful process but the overspray all over the chassis really looked shit so had to be done. Once back on its wheels I proceeded to remove the body mounts and installed a new set of nissan genuine mounts and gave the solid steel body lift blocks a freshen up before it went back together. The results from replacing the body mounts was nothing short of amazing. If you are experiencing clunking when cornering especially in wet weather do yourself a favour and replace these bad boys. Here is a pic of the old girl back on its feet sitting at its new lower stance.

http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z466/jonb80/Maverick%20Build%20Photos/IMG_5123.jpg?t=1342678611

[BigMav]

This is what $400 gets you!

http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z466/jonb80/Maverick%20Build%20Photos/IMG_5112.jpg?t=1342678609

This is a progress shot lifting one side of the body up, I just use a piece of wood to spread the load. Worked really well.

http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z466/jonb80/Maverick%20Build%20Photos/IMG_5116.jpg?t=1342678609

And this is an old vs new shot. Holy crap!!

http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z466/jonb80/Maverick%20Build%20Photos/IMG_5115.jpg?t=1342678609

And another!

http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z466/jonb80/Maverick%20Build%20Photos/IMG_5113.jpg?t=1342678609

[BigMav]

Heaps more to update but gotta get ready for TAFE, stay tuned.

[robbo0001]

Getting a lot of "shed time" for being a new Dad BigMav....lucky bstrd!

Rigs looking good mate, coming on well now...those body mounts look sweet

[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:
http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z466/jonb80/Maverick%20Build%20Photos/IMG_5114.jpg?t=1342678609
After:
http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z466/jonb80/Maverick%20Build%20Photos/IMG_5117.jpg?t=1342678610

[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.

http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z466/jonb80/Maverick%20Build%20Photos/IMG_5124.jpg?t=1342678611

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.

http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z466/jonb80/Maverick%20Build%20Photos/IMG_5129.jpg?t=1342678612

http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z466/jonb80/Maverick%20Build%20Photos/IMG_5127.jpg?t=1342678611

[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.

http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z466/jonb80/Maverick%20Build%20Photos/IMG_5128.jpg?t=1342698522

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/forums/showthread.php?12802-How-To-Modify-an-N15-Nissan-Pulsar-Steering-Wheel-To-Fit-A-GQ-Patrol

http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z466/jonb80/Maverick%20Build%20Photos/IMG_5082.jpg?t=1341392007

[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.

http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z466/jonb80/Maverick%20Build%20Photos/IMG_5126.jpg?t=1342678611

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.

http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z466/jonb80/Maverick%20Build%20Photos/IMG_5168.jpg?t=1344426341


New box painted up and installed. Fits like a glove.
http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z466/jonb80/Maverick%20Build%20Photos/IMG_5169.jpg?t=1344426341

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.
http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z466/jonb80/Maverick%20Build%20Photos/IMG_5180.jpg?t=1344426341

http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z466/jonb80/Maverick%20Build%20Photos/IMG_5179.jpg?t=1344426341

[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.

[nissannewby]

The good thing about a build is it will never actually be finished there will always be something we want bigger, better etc. This is why we love doing it. Nice looking rig mate. The 4.2 turbo stickers certainly add some contrast to that striking red paint.

Keep up the pics. Its looking good.

[healy]

nice rig mate really making me think of a respray now

[BigMav]

Another update for the weekend. Now that I have the adjustable draglink in and seen how they go about mounting a steering damper onto it I have been able to fab up my own simple bracket to allow me to put the damper between the panhard rod and the draglink as opposed to the original setup that went between the chassis and the draglink.

This is the bracket I made up and a couple of u-bolts to suit.

http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z466/jonb80/Maverick%20Build%20Photos/IMG_5213.jpg?t=1344767566

I then binned the original 1989 eye to eye steering damper and bought this new pin to pin one designed for later model GQ's. It's the new suspension stuff model, which is BIG! Apparently weighs about half a kilo more than a tough dog equivalent. Here is a comparison shot.

http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z466/jonb80/Maverick%20Build%20Photos/IMG_5212.jpg?t=1344767566

All done.

http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z466/jonb80/Maverick%20Build%20Photos/IMG_5214.jpg?t=1344767566

Lastly here is a photo of the panhard bracket that I made with the steering on full lock left showing the minimal clearance I have here. I will have to flex it up while on full lock to make sure everything clears, I may have to trim the bracket a bit more.

http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z466/jonb80/Maverick%20Build%20Photos/IMG_5215.jpg?t=1344767566

[BigMav]

Next up, this week I'm booking it in to get the body lift, the long range tank and the conversion from 6 to 5 seats mod plated. Not sure but I may have to get the rear bar mod plated too.

[choochie]

to allow me to put the damper between the panhard rod and the draglink as opposed to the original setup that went between the chassis and the draglink.

What's the benefit to have the damper between drag link and pan hard as opposed to drag link and chassis?


It's the new suspension stuff model, which is BIG!

I installed one of these on the weekend too, along with new HD adj drag link and new tie rod ends.


[Tapatalk2 on Nexus7]

[BigMav]

Well I'm no expert but I think it would take out the movement in both the panhard and draglink instead of movement in the drag link only. Nissan only kept the old setup until September 89 and then they changed it so the damper was between both draglink and panhard and they kept that setup to this day, so I reckon it was just a poor design to start with. My main reason for doing it was that I could easily do it by fabbing a bracket and I also really wanted to try out one of these dampers which aren't available in eye to eye so I thought I might aswell upgrade to the newer style. I'm happy with the results after a decent test drive it feels much better over the lumps and bumps in the road.

[BigMav]

I made a visit to see David Metcalfe yesterday at his workshop and got the old girl mod plated. The turbo, bodylift, seating capacity change, long range tank, and the disc brake rear conversion is now all completely mod plated. All for a very reasonable price. Can't recommend David enough, a wealth of knowledge and all too happy to have a chat about all things four wheel driving, if you need something mod plated have a chat to this guy he knows his stuff. Very happy. I have no affiliations with his business either.

[89gqpatrol4x4]

whats his business called mate?

[BigMav]

Xtreme 4x4 sport. He is also a member on here. www.xtreme4x4sport.com.au

Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710a using Tapatalk 2

[nissannewby]

Yeah david is a top bloke well priced on clutches for the TD42's as well. He is easy to talk to and always willing to give out advice.