521 suspension rebuild

[d510addict]

The front end of my truck seems to have a lot of slop in it and I was wondering what people recommend for rebuilding the front end or identifying the cause of slop and fixing that. Are there full bushing kits? or is it something more simple?

[DatWifey]

We were able to find many of the bushings for the front end through www.nissanparts.cc Of course I don't recall the numbers for them off the top of my head, but if you go to the 521 PDF manual here and put a little time in to find the part numbers, it will get you a long way. We did the TC rod bushings, sway bar bushings, lower control arm bushings, etc., as well as the shocks and it made a world of difference.

[Z chopper]

hmmmm, I think there was a thread on this before

[Tucson620]

I rebuilt my whole front end. Crashing/clunking in bumps, vague and clunky steering. In my case EVERYTHING had slop (and some still does). Jacking up the front end and watching/levering the steering and suspension linkages revealed a lot of wear-related issues.

 

In no particular order:

- Worn Kingpins - replaced. Jack up truck - shake top of tire, or just put a crowbar under tire and see if it's moving - this was source of a big clunk. Ebay and local alignment shop (find somebody who knows kingpins).

- Steering linkage - tie rods and idler arm were worn. Obvious when a buddy moves steering vigorously. Rockauto.

- Suspension and bushings - shocks were shot, sway bar bushings helped firm up things. Rockauto and ebay.

- Upper link bushings - shot (part 83 in picture). Rockauto.

- Alignment - this was after dealing with all of the above.

 

Still have problems with the upper link spindles - those are screw bushings holding upper arms (part 41 in picture). They are $$ from dealer, seem hard to find. Also, my steering box is still pretty vague after all that - 2 - 3" of slop just in the middle of the wheel.

 

[Tucson620]

Oh yeah - here's a video showing how to tell if your steering idler arm is bad. :lol:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfJa909j4OY

[banzai510(hainz)]

most kingpins are bad.

Thats the killer in cost as most need to go the the machine shop. to get a special reamer.

Mklotz has a write up on olddatsuns.com in the tech section

[d510addict]

+1 tuscon

 

My parts truck has relatively new kingpins so I'm going to rebuild most of the assembly from that and swap it onto my truck, the things that mainly concern me are the bushings and the centerlink (the piece that goes underneath the oil pan, and the other bar that is a bit further back but crosses underneath the motor) the ends on those are all goofed up looking but maybe i should try and wiggle things around before I look to replace those.

 

Thanks for the help all, after i swap my tranny/driveline ill start looking into the suspension stuff some more.