newest 720 sas

[]2eDeYe]

 

IF you are going all out and doing caster angles. Might take the extra time and do a shackle reversal. Put them in the rear. It makes the ride alot smoother on, and off the trail.

 

And +1 that drag link looks sketch. But check out huge mud trucks. They run insanely massive Z bars and do fine.

 

 

Shackles in front is much cheaper and performs better off road. Personal preference there though. With the shackle in the back the tire will hit the cab and you nee a long travel driveshaft to keep it together at full droop.

 

Those big mud trucks don't drive on the street much and if they are well built will have high steer or hydraulic steering. Z-bars still have a terrible angle as the connection points are not parallel to the axle. If you run an angled panhard bar at the same angle as the drag link you can minimize the bump steer, but you will induce the front end to jack from side to side as the suspension travels.

 

 

@2DeYe you know that your front shackles are opposite? BTW a sick!!! 620....

 

Yes I do, let's me know who is paying attention to the details.  :)

 

Thanks hopefully taking it out wheeling on Sunday. :D

[godzirra]

Those big mud trucks don't drive on the street much and if they are well built will have high steer or hydraulic steering. Z-bars still have a terrible angle as the connection points are not parallel to the axle.

 

Very true. The local 4x4/mud/monster truck guru around here builds the GIANT things, combine tires, 2.5 ton rockwells, full hydraulic steering, the whole 9 yards. I have seen him run his "Jeep" (it has no jeep parts, just a tube body that looks like a jeep) at 65mph with 72" tractor tires just as smooth as you would want to see.

[godzirra]

question:

 

anyone else ever been pulled over for truck height?...

[]2eDeYe]

Nope, the laws vary by state though.

[thisismatt]

Sweet truck.  Sounds like a lot of good advice from ]2eDeYe  :thumbup:

 

 

^ That drag link looks very scary to me :crying:

 

Especially the end of the drag link to the steering arm!

Take a look at this for some more detailed suggestions:

http://www.dieselpowermag.com/tech/1305dp_curring_death_wobble_tightening_up_your_steering/viewall.html

 

Man, I had the death wobble on my F250 work truck with I-beam front end.  First time it happened I thought the front wheels were coming off.  Turned out to be a totally shot I-beam bushing allowing the arm to shift side to side, causing harmonic toe-in/toe-out.  It ended up starting to tear off the opposite side I-beam mount which is double sheer ~1/8 steel mount riveted to the frame.

[godzirra]

okay just wondering because last night I was stopped because my truck looked "unusual." The first thing the deputy said was "I'm not real sure about the Georgia lift laws but that one looks pretty high." SO at that moment I knew I was dealing with a moron, in which I had to proceed in naming the origin and purpose of all "them funny lookin' things" on my truck. But no ticket.

 

and I did research on the GA lift laws when I got home, as long as it's no more than 54" from the bottom of the headlight to the ground you're good, mine is 49-50" ish.

[godzirra]

the steering overhaul update, pictoral edition

 

 

All apart again. This time at a friend's "fully functional automotive shop" - which helps, a LOT.

 

 

Caster adjustment in progress. Just a word of experience, for ANYONE who ever hopes to do this (in the above picture) you WILL NOT be able to do it all by you lonesome.To get both inner knuckles off, it took roughly 2-3hrs of very careful grinding (I wasn't feeling gutsy enough to gouge it off), a BIG damn hammer (splitting maul in this case), one person to hold the thing and one person to knock the shit and biscuits out of it till it comes off.

 

 

 

 

 

BUT the highlight of the day had to be opening up the diff. cover (for the first time since I have had the axle) and discovering this wonderful piece of hardware...

BEHOLD, a locker I never knew about! The guy who sold the axle to me must have forgotten about it too, because when I bought it he said it was plain open diff. THANK YOU 4WD FAIRY!

[DaveZilla]

Sweet deal with that locker in the front axle and your truck looks Awesome with the SAS conversion too :thumbup: I hope you get your steering woes figured out and under control after the repairs are all finished.

I'm still running the IFS in mine right now because my money is going to other places on the truck right now, but if I decide to put anything bigger than the 32's I got on it now I'll need to do the swap soon too.

[datzenmike]

Maybe it doesn't work or is worn? Otherwise Yay!

[]2eDeYe]

Nice score on the locker. Have you found out what exactly it is?

 

Grinding is fun!

 

[godzirra]

DaveZilla, just make sure you get all your "p"s and "q"s the first time (as in before you put the axles under the truck and start driving), otherwise clearly it's a tremendous pain in the ass.

 

datzenmike, it does not appear to be broken or worn, no pieces roaming around in the gear oil, no rattling, no obvious damage. I will be able to tell for sure when we pull the ring gear off and have a closer look, the main goal of yesterday was getting those freakin' inner knuckles off so the locker kind of got ignored. I am hoping it stays a "yay"

 

]2eDeYe, it appears to be an automatic locker, something LIKE a Detroit if not a Detroit, I just did a little research and this is the closest match I could find visually, I haven't checked any numbers on it yet

http://www.4wheelparts.com/Drivetrain-Differentials/Dana-44-30-Spline-3-73-Down-Automatic-Locker.aspx?t_c=12&t_s=237&t_pt=5589&t_pn=EAT187SL16D

[]2eDeYe]

Full Detriot, very nice. should treat you well for a long time. :)

 

It is a ratchet style locker that allows the wheels to spin independently when turning.

 

[godzirra]

Yes I am very thankfull for the locker, with all the $$$ and time I have put into correcting the steering, it is about time something good happened.

But just to update, the caster is now at 8deg+, it WAS 6.5deg-...hopefully this will make a tremendous difference.

 

Last night I worked from 8-12 and got the tube sparkling clean, reinstalled, u-bolts set straight (I don't know if anyone noticed, but the outside passenger U-bolt was cocked sideways), pressed the ball joints into the new knuckles, got the driver's side knuckle/hi-steer arm on, and then unearthed an old K10 front drive shaft (it was BURIED about an inch under ground) cleaned it off, knocked of all the rust with the wire wheel, and re-greased the splines.

 

I will go ahead and say those ball joints were a bitch. But I threw down the $5 extra a piece and got grease-able ones so hopefully this will be the first and last time replacing knuckle ball joints.

 

NOTE: When you adjust camber top-inward (for some reason my inner knucles produced this top-out camber so I got my hands on some camber adjustment bushings to fine tune it) and install hi-steer arms, the hi-steer arms WILL impact against the top of the inner knuckle.

Solution: More grinding.

 

More fun to come. Planning on having the knuckles/hi-steer arms done this weekend and regear the first of this coming week. Taking it slow and doing it right.

[godzirra]

while we are kind of on the driveline topic, I thought I might include this solution to adaptation issues that I had in installing a 1-Ton toyota rear end under this thing

 

 

FOR FUTURE REFERENCE: all I did was chop off the flat flange piece from old pinion flange from the original axle, center it directly over the Toyota flange (I believe I used a 31mm socket on the pinion nut? either way, the socket didn't fit through the Datsun flange, but it was soooo close that all I did was take some emory cloth and run the socket against it for a few seconds and it fit perfectly. So when the socket fit over the pinion nut, it automatically centered Datsun flange over the Toyota flange). I then used 2 "C" clamps to secure them together, and took them to a much better welder than myself who burned them together as you see above and drilled holes through the Toyota flange matching the Datsun flange and ta-da.

 

The thing is perfectly balanced by the way and has zero vibration.

[]2eDeYe]

Nice weld :)

[godzirra]

I know right. I wish I could take credit for that one but with such a tempermental area in question when it comes to balance I wanted it done right. I even told the oompaloompa at the fab. shop who I normally deal with to go fetch his boss man and have the boss man do it. THAT guy could weld a coke can back together and make it look like new.

 

But I FINALLY got the truck home tonight. after a long, slow, squalling ride due to almost 3" of outward toe. I didn't have enough DOM tubing to make a new tie rod so I had to use the old one which was a good bit longer than it should have been for the new hi-steer arms. Thank god the ride was only about 3 miles. It smelled like burnt, rubbery, ass when I finally stopped.

 

Final plans include: a front driveshaft - already have the chevy k10 shaft and nissan shaft ready to cut/weld. new tie rod. bleed the brake lines again (kind of squishy and don't respond well unless pumped at least twice). gear oil in the front diff. and then try to finally enjoy the damn thing.

[godzirra]

Just finished making/installing the new tie rod this evening, then took it for the first official test drive, and I am glad to inform everyone who provided the helpful insight that I can now drive the thing at 65mph down some of the worst paved roads in the state with one very relaxed hand. :thumbup: It takes bumps and pot-holes like a champ, not the slightest flinch, and even rides smoother than I remember, but most importantly it is a hell of a lot safer.

 

This is the only picture I got tonight, but I will have more tomorrow.

 

[K_trip]

- removed -
 

[godzirra]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The angle between the tie rod and drag link is kinda wide BUT suprisingly there is a lot of control when going over bumpy areas. I can easily keep the thing in a straight line pot-hole after pot-hole. I believe what was causing the bumpsteer (or at least what the GREATEST contributing factor was) was the crappy "S" shaped drag link that would bend and flext at a moments notice. Plus with the installation of the hi-steer, it took everything up about 4-6" and did help close that use-to-be INCREDIBLY wide angle.

 

[godzirra]

quick transmission question (this one is on the truck, a 4sp. manual), when I am cruising on down the road, with force on the drive line (in gear, pedal down, the truck is pushing forward, either maintaining speed or accelerating) everything sounds as it should.

 

BUT, as soon as I pop it into neutral (or depress the clutch pedal) and coast, this rather obnoxious ratcheting/metalic sound emanates from the transmission relative to the rotation speed of the tires (the ratcheting slows down as the truck does). I have had it described to me that it sounds like I am dragging a selection of rebar behind me.

 

Here are the clues:

-The sound IS coming from the tranny/t-case area (as I haven't been able to ride underneath the truck, I can only say with about 99% certainty).

-this noise NEVER occurred before the SAS. NO modification has been made to the transmission what so ever.

-Only occurs at higher speed coasting (above 20-25mph).

-I STILL have no front driveshaft (needs to be professionally balanced, I just am not a tremendous fan of square-tubing, though it does work).

-When the grinding/ratcheting happens I can feel a very distinct vibration in the t-case shifter that corresponds with the ratcheting.

-The noise does not go away, but CHANGES "pitch" for lack of a better word, when I shift between 4WH, 4WL, and 2WH.

-The thing still shifts fine, there is no difference in the feel of the shifter, clutch, anything. It's just a mildly embarrassing sound.

 

The general diagnosis is a throw out bearing, just checking up on if anyone else has dealt with this issue before.

[mattthom1986]

Cool truck!

 

From what you described, it sounds like the throw out bearing to me. The next time you hear the noise, lay your foot on the clutch pedal, don't press it all the way down, just lay your foot on it. If the noise stops, then it's probably the throw out bearing. If the noise continues then you may have a more serious tranny problem. Have you checked the fluid in the tranny/transfer case?

 

I hope it's a cheap and easy fix, man

 

Post more pics of the truck!

[godzirra]

Thanks! What I have heard mostly from guys around here is the bearing, which is a relatively cheap fix, and not impossibly hard. Just a little harder than normal as the key rear support beam for the front leaf springs is VERY firmly planted directly under the transmission, so I would have to pull the engine/trans. in a chunk due to that. Pulling one of these incredibly simple L20Bs is definately not hard, I am just wondering what catastrophic failure could come from a worn throw out bearing if I don't get it fixed pronto?

 

This is assuming the bearing IS the issue, and the system having enough trans. oil in it being manual. Haven't checked the t-case yet though...might be a good idea to....

 

OH! and I forgot one more clue:

 

the ratcheting STOPS (or almost stops untill the tranny warms up) in extreme cold. (to be clear, I live about 45 min south east of Macon, Ga... something like 31deg is extreme cold here, and it was cold as balls this morning at 28deg...)

[mattthom1986]

I'm in Ringgold Ga, about 3 hours north of ya. We should meet up and do some wheeling.

[]2eDeYe]

Your steering looks a ton better than before. Nice work.
 

Does the noise go away if you put everything in neutral?

[godzirra]

]2eDeYe, I won't lie, the steering was an undertaking of epic proportions. We sort of did the WHOLE front end by association: all new bearings, new races, new seals, new GREASABLE ball joints, new knuckles, new high-steer, new drag link, new tie rod, new heim joints, new bolts/washers/nylon nuts and hardware. We went through EVERY bolt, nut, washer, retaining ring, o-ring, and spring in the hubs, used almost a WHOLE CASE of brake-parts cleaner, new grease EVERYWHERE, new silicone, new oil, new r & p of course (5.38), new carrier and pinion bearings/races. And lets not forget that booger of a "cut-and-turn" to adjust the caster.

 

But it was all WELL worth it to be able to drive in a straight line at hwy speeds without the white knuckling after running over a ladybug. And I greatly appreciate the helpful insight.

 

I have not tried the shifting of the t-case to neutral while coasting, lately it's been to friggin cold on my short drives to work to really hear it. I am also entertaining the idea that the oil level in it may be low as I found a kind of moist and greasy development on the engine block near the bell housing. No official drips yet though.

 

 

mattthom1986, getting a sort of wheeling group started does sound like a good idea down here, as far as I know there aren't very many (IF any) datsun-nissan oriented wheeling groups.