diluded000

Hook me up man. I really want to get a d/r, but I need to get it back where I can drive it to work before it snows again. The next projects are a new muffler, tube bumpers, roof rack, stereo, and seats. Then I will start looking at why it drips oil and putting in a d/r. But I guess if I could get a stereo in there first, the muffler wouldn't matter as much. - James B

Yeah, I thought about that. If I have some steel plate left over after the strut tops I might tap some holes in the round lift blocks bolt the steel across the round bars to make it act more like a single rigid body. I got about 12" of 2"x3" aluminum stock, so if I have enough left over after the other work I might try to replace this with a single piece. - James B

Here are some pix and a write-up of the work in progress of doing a 2/3" lift on my '85 DL pushbutton 4WD wagon. I have read nothing but good things about the lifts for sale through this forum, and still think that is a safer and practical way to go. But with that said, this is how I am doing it myself. To quote the guy drilling a hole in his own head in the fine cinematic masterpiece Frankenhooker, "the hole is already drilled." This referring to the rims I ran on my Nissan last winter, and now have mounted up on the car. Here is a before picture with the 27" rims, which rub pretty bad - even after much fender bashing. The first night working on this involved spending about an hour pulling one each of the unique bolts from each part that gets lifted with a block. Here is breakdown of the 1.25 thread pitch bolts needed: anti-sway (4) M10 x 80 mm rear torsion bar mount (4) M10 x 80 mm forward torsion bar mount (4) M10 x 90 mm forward torsion bar bushing (4) M12 x 150 mm gearbox plate? (4) M8 x 100 mm transmission x-member (4) M12 x 110 mm transmission x-member bushing (2) M12 x 140 mm engine x-member (4) 3/8" x 7" with nuts strut top (6) 3/8" x 1" carriage bolts The longer versions of the 12 mm bolts weren't available locally, so the four bolts that go through bushings will be replaced with 1/2" x 5 1/2" and 1/2" x 6" bolts, and the thread tapped to accomodate. The fabrication starts with making new engine crossmember bolts. The existing bolts are pressed into a plate. After supporting the crossmember and transmission with jacks, the existing bolts are pulled and knocked out of the plate. The seven-inch replacements get dropped into the holes and welded in place, as shown here: Next the first set of lift blocks are fabricated. This part was actually pretty easy. Using 2" round aluminum stock, four three-inch pieces are cut using a carbide tipped sawblade in a woodworking chopsaw. Since I suck at drilling a straight hole in long objects in the drill press, the hole is drilled with the lathe. The blocks get chucked in the lathe, and a 3/8" drill bit is chucked in a fixed Jacobs chuck. This was my first time making a hole like this, but it worked out pretty well. Just be sure the swarf doesn't clog flutes on the drill bits. Here is an action shot of this process: With jacks on the engine and tranny crossmember, all of the bolts holding the crossmembers and the plate under the transmission get removed. To lift the body off the crossmembers a 2x4 was used across the front tie-downs with a jack underneath. After the body is up high enough, jack stands go directly under each tie-down. With the wheels removed, the gap between the body and the engine crossmember is accessable. The bolt-bracket gets dropped throught the body holes, and then through the blocks, and then through the cross member. Using a long pry bar helps get things aligned. Here is a photo of the lift blocks set in place: So this is where I am right now. How long did all this take? I spent a couple of hours searching for bolts, and about an hour removing bolts. The welding, cutting, and drilling only took about an hour. By far I spent the most time (several hours) trying to figgure out how jack things up, and fighting rusted bolts. At this point the body is lifted up off the crossmembers, so the next part of the process will be fabricating more lift blocks, and trying to design an adjustable strut tower spacer. - James B

Ok, I get it now. So the top and bottom bolt holes should be offset by 3" * sin 22 = 1.12" , but the lift block between the strut top and the strut tower is is still square. If I tap holes in the bottom of the lift block to mount the strut, and in the top of the lift block to mount to the tower, I should be able to get a little camber adjustability by putting shims or washers between the lift block and the strut tower. And thanks to the rest of you guys for the warning about doing this myself. I have no doubt that buying a quality lift kit would be better. But I see this as entertainment, not lost time. I mean I would just be sitting on the couch drinking Knob Creek if I wasn't doing this, so it is time well spent for me. I already have a good wood working shop, but I put together a little machine shop in the garage, so I have a welder, chop saw, floor standing drill press, horizontal/vertical band saw, mill/drill/lathe combo, and a small Sherline CNC milling machine. Colorado Iron and Steel sells new aluminum stock for 3 bucks a pound, and the local farm store has a good supply of fasteners at reasonable prices. As soon as it looks like the roads will be clear for a little while I can get back in my 2WD pickup start driving that to work while I work on this. thanks again - James B

Well I managed to drill out my 15 inch rims and get them bolted under my '85 DL 5spd 4wd switchable wagon. I Sawzall'd and fender bashed, but I still get some rubbing from my 27 inch tires. It goes great on the ice, but parking is a little loud with the studded snow tires rubbing on the fenders. So I guess it is time for a lift - I'm thinking about 3" up front and 2" in the rear. I got a big block of aluminum and 4 feet of 2 inch solid round stock and want to cut this and wedge it under my ride, but have some questions before I really get started. This quote from McBrat was the best description of what I need to do, but I still have more questions: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=24091&page=2&pp=10&highlight=knife Mostly I wonder about how to do the top of the struts and the rear shocks. For the strut tops do I turn a 3" thick disk in the lathe and run bolts all the way through it; or can I cut a rounded triangular block and do the same thing? And, did I read that there is a 22 degree angle to all of this? Does this mean that the strut has to stay at 22 degrees but the strut top is more or less on the same plane as the ground, or do I have to make my disk/triangle with a 22 degree angle as well? For the rear shock, has anyone tried to drop the top mounting bracket down? I was thinking I could bolt and weld a steel plate in there, but need some advice in this department as well. Finally, are there any other places that aren't just a matter of putting some sort of spacer block with longer bolts? Any comments on this would be a big help. - James B

Hi Tony. My name is James. Can you sign off that I attended this meeting for court? Why would you drill out a bolt when you can weld a nut onto it and turn it out with a socket

"You'll find one of these in every car" (from the movie Repo Man) Mine had one when I got it, maybe subconsciously why I bought it. - James B

For me it depends on the weather. Hot weather bearing packing, or other greasy messes just beg for old ZZ Top or Motorhead. For cleaner cool weather nighttime work I like some of this new Psy-trance coming out of Europe. For warm weather nighttime work the metal channel on Sirius sattelite is pretty inspiring. Whadda ya'll like to listen to. - James B

Well the whole reason I got the 85 DL 4WD wagon was to avoid getting stuck. Last winter I spun it into a ditch and drove right out. So as an entertaining alternative here are other stories of me getting stuck over the last 20 or so years. With the lamination still fresh on my first drivers license I yell, BAJA, and drive my '62 Chevy into a field full of tall grass. Get stuck when my front tire wraps around a large cast iron pipe at speed. (Florida) Shooting cows with a BB gun in the '62 we see a pickup coming from across the field, and assume it is the farmer coming to protect his cows. In my haste to escape I floor it in the mud and get stuck up to the axles. (Florida) Now at the mature age of 18 I try to slide sideways behind the strip mall (I think you young'uns now call this drifting) and hit a patch of soapy mop water behind the restraunt. The 180 gets my fenders and bumper wrapped around the post that hold up the fence around the dumpster. Escape by prying the fenders off with a large steel pipe. (Florida) Riding with some guys in a jeep, the driver tries to negotiate a four-foot deep mud bog full of swamped logs. We get stuck, and pulled out by a Ford truck. (North Carolina) Delivering pizzas in my '87 Sentra I get stuck bumper deep in front of somebodys trailer when my front tires drop into a huge muddy puddle covered by 10" of snow. The customer comes out in his pajamas and pushes me out. (North Carolina) After closing time, we take the 80-something pizza delivery trucks out for a little ride up the mountain in the rain, for hours of mud slinging fun without getting stuck. When the guy driving hits the pavement at the bottom he floors it and we spin around, jump a ditch sideways, and stop bumper deep in a muddy corn field. (North Carolina) Trying to slide sideways onto a gravel road in the Sentra I succeed and wind up with two tires hanging in a 'backhoe' ditch. (North Carolina) Now all growed up I fill my '01 Nissan 2WD with trash and head to the local dump. I get there and the attendant says, "you can only go up there in a 4WD." Being the kind of guy I am, I push the issue and say I want to go up there anyway. They say, "fine - go ahead." Where I proceed to get stuck half way to the dump place and get pushed out by a fine fellow in a 4WD Toyota. I take my garbage back home. (Colorado) Trying to avoid carrying a bunch of flooring down my the muddy driveway of my brother's partially built house in the middle of the night on the side of a mountain I back down the freshly graded driveway in Dad's 80-something Nissan 2WD truck. Stuck again. (Virgina) Have I learned anything from all of this? Hell no. I want to put the 27" studded snows for my Nissan on the DL wagon, then go get stuck on a fire road in the Colorado foothills somewhere! - James B

I had the same problem after replacing the disks and pads. I didn't measure the thickness of the disk, but suspect that the fine Chinese replacements I used are thicker than they are supposed to be. You might try painting the calipers then looking where paint gets rubbed off by the wheel; use an angle grinder to take off a little material at the rub points. I did this, and it worked for me. - James B '85 4WD DL wagon '01 2WD Nissan Frontier '95 Casita FD

That sounds just like what mine was doing before I cleaned the contacts. - James B

Since I got the Nimrod (85 DL wagon 4wd) last year the headlights have never really worked right. The headlights would come on if the switch was wiggled just so, but after six months sitting under the deck waiting for snow they were almost impossible to get turned on. So last night while waiting for the gumout-like oil additive to circulate I fixed this problem. The dimmer knob pulls out, then the headlight knob pulls off the shaft of the switch. There are two screws behind that that hold the plastic switch body in place. After removing these screws I jerked on the dash panel and was able to get it open enough to slide the switch assembly and wiring connector out. With the switch on the bench it can be taken apart enough to clean the contacts. There is a rectangular plastic housing that covers a small circuit board, but this doesn't need to be removed. There is a screw that holds the cover on the rotary portion of the switch that needs to come off. Opposite the screw there is a plastic clip that has to be worked loose to get to the inside off the switch. I broke the clip in the process, but it went back together OK. A little heat on the plastic might help prevent this. When the housing does come loose pull it off slowly, as there are two spring loaded ball bearings that press against this piece. When the cover is removed, the bearing drop out. With the switch innards exposed, the contacts can be cleaned. Since I had a piece of 150 grit sandpaper within reach from cleaning the thermostat cover for a new gasket from the night before, I used this to clean the contacts even though a finer grit would likely help prevent rubbing the contacts out of existence. There are a variety of spring loaded contact points you can see at this point. I worked the sandpaper between all of the contacts and rubbed until I could just see bright metal. I also squirted some electrical component cleaner on the contacts, but don't really think this did much good. Cleaning up the contact points is all that really needs to happen. I didn't make a note of how the switch was rotated relative to the housing I removed, but this would be a good idea. I had to put it back together a few times (don't forget the ball bearings) and see what lights came on to get it right. But now you can feel a more positive difference between the switch positions, and the lights come on every time. It may be my imagination, but I think they are brighter now as well. Sorry, no pictures - I was all messy from replacing a water hose and spark plugs so I didn't want to go inside for the camera. - James B

Hopefully I will be building a roof rack with lights for my 85 DL wagon in the near future. My plan is to use the wire for the dome light, and drill a little hole up from there and put a switch in the dome light plastic. For running a wire straight from the battery, they sell little 12v circuit breakers for RVs that are good protection against fire and having to keep spare fuses. I used a circuit breaker for the brake controller in my truck, and the charging wire to my trailer. - James B

You might check out the online repair guide at www.autozone.com. You have to enter the make/model/year of your vehicle then go to repair guides. I took a peek and it looks like they have an illustrated procedure for rear wheel bearings. - James B 85 DL Wagon

I read an article in Home Shop Machinist about getting broken off taps out of metal that suggest putting a nut over the stud and welding into the center of the nut. This makes a new head for your bolt. I haven't tried it, and it seems like it would be easy to start a fire this way, but it might be something to think about. - James B 85 DL wagon

I have been checking prices on a d/r tranny, but would like to wait until next year to put one in. My temporary fix will be this shifter arm. I really need to finish my basement before I start on this, so after some grout, building a vanity, installing a toilet, doors, and trim I will get started working on this. If I get something working in the way of a shifter, I will be sure to post pictures. Hopefully next week sometime. - James B

Yeah Tim, all four of the little itty bitty Sears Snow King tires are the same, as are the studded 15-inch rims I want to shoehorn on there. Does it mess with the gears if the tires rotate at different rates? For the new rims, the plan is to use my little CNC milling machine to lay out accurate starting points for holes in a block of aluminum that will cover five of the bolt holes on the new rims, then put the block in a drill press and make five big holes the same size and position as the bolt holes in my rims. Four of the holes can get tapped and some threaded rod screwed in, and the fifth hole will act as a drill guide for a hand held drill. The aluminum block gets bolted onto the rim with these threaded rods while I drill my new bolt holes. I'm pretty new to working with metal, but it should work out pretty well. - James B 85 DL wagon 01 Nissan Frontier 93 Casita FD

Howdy All, I just signed up for this board and have learned quite a bit looking through the archives. The do-it-yourself spirit is refreshing. When I lived in Texas I needed a truck to haul boards and drive from the parking garage to the suburbs, so I got a Nissan Frontier 2WD. After a winter in Colorado I began to get worried about banging up my pretty truck in the ice so I got an '85 DL wagon w/ carb and single range push button 4WD to drive when the roads are white. Before going on the road it got new CV shafts, front rotors and pads, ball joints, tie-rod ends, rear shocks, front struts, most of the front suspention bushings, and some lame snow tires from Sears. My goal was something that didn't have any vibration and tracked straight. Thanks to this fine group I now know that the studded snows on 15" rims I got for my Nissan will mount on my DL with some drilling, tapering, and other metal changes. I might try to lift things up a bit. But before all that fun I have a problem. The 4WD switch stopped engaging the transmission. I checked the electrical going to the vacuum actuator, and it works. A vacuum gets pulled at the solenoid/diaphram, and the un-attached diaphram seems to be actuating when I push the button. Not knowing what else to do, I just forced the arm on the transmition into the 4WD position and drove it like that. It did fine on snow, but the snow often melts around lunchtime and I can feel things binding up in a rather disturbing fashion when I have to back out of parking spaces. Is it unreasonable to just fabricate some sort of shifter arm that will engage this lever? - James B 85 DL Wagon 01 Nissan Frontier 93 Casita FD