Don't get defected

[threedogs]

X 2 with Drew keep your Patrol tidy and clean stay within the limits on whats legal and whats not.
You are only looking for trouble if you have a 4" body lift and 6" coils with no Mud flaps and 38" tyres.
HHHHMMMMMMMmmmm38"s lol

[BigRAWesty]

It sounds as if yours might be one of the vehicles in which a 50mm lift can put castor out enough to be annoying. I'll be interested to hear the response as I'm considering some sort of castor correction and none of the three options are particularly great.

1. Castor bushes, generally flog out pretty quickly 2. Correction plates......???
3. Drop boxes, probably a bit extreme for 50mm but also reduce clearance.....less if an issue if your lift is 100mm
4. Drop arms etc. Ideal but expensive.

Sent from my iPhone using Forum Runner

Bushes are fine if you use quality sets and keep an eye on the bolts.

[Ironman 4x4]

Ironman 4x4x,
I have just put a 2" lift of yours in my 07 Gu Patrol and the steering feels very light and therig seems to walk side ways a bit. Would castor correction bushes fix this problem and if so how do I know what bushes to get.

The steering dampner has been replaced aswell. Im trying to find time to do the front end bearings and seals?

Hey Reidy,

Light steering tends to suggest one of two things. You castor is out (rare on a 2" lift, but does very occasionally happen - especially if you overspec'd springs and achieved a greater than 2" lift), or your front springs are sitting too high to your rear springs (you should in an ideal world have a slight rake to you vehicle with the rear sitting slightly higher than your front, this ensures you maintain pressure on the front wheels and also assists if you throw gear in to not be drooping a the rear - also helps force the front to flex!).

I'd suggest doing the following:

1. Check your bearings. This is the easiest and cheapest thing to start with. Always good to check them anyway - but loose bearings can cause issues with steering shudder, and walking sideways.
2. Check if the suspension has a rake to it. It's not a absolute requirement but can point towards the kit not being correctly rated to the loads you carry.
3. Check all bushes. This is especially important. Don't just check those at the front either! Also make sure you check the rear upper and lower control arms and the panhard bushes. Same for the front bushes including tie rods and drag link. Make sure you replace them with genuine Nissan ones when you do. A few worn bushes can cause all sorts of strife.
4. Once you are sure all of the above is correctly set. Then we can start looking at caster correction. At which case I'd only suggest caster bushes There is no need to go drop boxes or arms for a 2", especially when it's only $121 for a set of offset bushes and you won't lose any clearance.

Hope that steers you in the right direction. If you keep having issues you are welcome to shoot me a PM with you phone number and we can discuss the issue in more detail.

Cheers,

Matt
Ironman 4x4

[Reidy]

Thanks for the help guys. Will keep you updated.

[catchinjack]

I've got same issue and once bearing were adjusted it stopped in the front, now I've just got the rear end wanting to step out which it did on weekend quite violently on a dirt road after hitting a pothole, i'm also running Ironman 2in lift with foam cell shocks.

[Ironman 4x4]

I've got same issue and once bearing were adjusted it stopped in the front, now I've just got the rear end wanting to step out which it did on weekend quite violently on a dirt road after hitting a pothole, i'm also running Ironman 2in lift with foam cell shocks.

Catchinjack,

Sounds like your control arms bushes are worn. When I first picked up my Patrol I had the same issues. When I checked out the rear bushes the upper control arm's bushes were severely damaged (they had ripped in half and were half way out of the housing). Do a quick check over all the bushes on your control arms as well as your panhard rod. I can almost guarantee that one of them will be pretty worn.

Cheers,

Matt
Ironman 4x4

[Reidy]

Ok so I now know what needs fixing on my rig. The leafs on the back are on the wrong sides. I took it in to another tyre/suspension place and the toe was way out. And I need to replace my panhard rod bushes and put offset castor bushes in. You blokes were on to it cheers.

Tomorrow I will swap the leafs around and hopefully can get the $480 together to get the bushes done.

1 more question though, can the toe change so quickly. The reason I ask is I have had 4 maybe 5 alignments done in the last 2 months the most recent just last week. Toe was -19/-24 when checked today???

[Reidy]

This is the alignment readout I got, the 4th wheel alignment in the last 2 months. I am replacing panhard rod bushes and installing castor correction bushes..
I dont understand the readout but I was hoping someone on here would be able to explain how to read it and maybe suggest other things I might need to fix.

[Alitis007]

Toe adjustment is supposed to be in mm not degrees minutes. Before i explain what i can see on the print out i'll explain what each one is and the relation to each other but we'll only look at the front axle coz the rear has no adjustment. From the top :
Caster is the position of the wheel in the wheel arch, looking at it from the side + is towards the front of the car, - is toward the rear. Caster has no affect on any other adjustment. What caster does is say you do a u turn, caster will return the wheels to the straight ahead position. Caster is the reason why you can ride a bike with no hands.

KPI or SAI ( king pin inclination or steering axis inclination ) is the angle of the wheels at full lock. It is adjusted correct camber and caster adjustment

Camber, the best way for me to describe it is like this, looking at the wheel from the front of the car camber is the angle of how far the wheel is towards or away from the motor at 12 o'clock . + camber is away from the motor - is towards the motor, toe affects camber but on patrols the diff angle is what affects it the most. Too much negative camber will give you great handling around corners but poor straight line control and positive camber the other way around

Toe is measured in mm in most cases, it is how close or far away the wheels are from each other at 3 and 9 o'clock positions of the wheels. On your print out toe in is - and toe out is + ( in meaning towards each other, out obviously away) camber affects this adjustment. Total toe is the difference between the distance apart the front and back of the wheels are from each other across the front axle. Ideally all cars are set to a total toe of 2mm.

I don't know how to change the deg/min reading to mm but looking at the print out your steering probably pulls to the left ?? Coz of the caster and understeers around corners so your probably wear the edges of the tyres oversteering from the KPI not to mention the death wobbles you'd get on the hwy.

This is what the correct adjustment is meant to look like with standard tyres on

image-1829201741.jpg

[Alitis007]

I should mention that the total toe should be toe in as the patrol is mostly used in 2wd the wheels need to be pointed inwards because they flick out as you start driving