[CThoreal]

looks good. Ive been thinking about limit straps on my extended travel setup to eliminate the radflo bang at top out. Hate that crap. Especially when it happens constantly. Or titan swap to get more droop but would still need limit straps for the topout. Not liking Radflo these days.

For sleeping in the rig, a bottom layer of those dense foam gym floor mats can be the difference between good sleep and hell. Removes the pressure points felt through the mattress. Sounds like your pinched for time but could be worth picking some up on way out of town and cut to fit at camp.

 

[AlbatrossCafe]

For sleeping in the rig, a bottom layer of those dense foam gym floor mats can be the difference between good sleep and hell. Removes the pressure points felt through the mattress. Sounds like your pinched for time but could be worth picking some up on way out of town and cut to fit at camp.

I wish I would have tried sleeping in it once. I usually sleep on a backpacking air pad in there which blows, so anything is gonna be an improvement over that. Good advice though. I'll see if I can find something.

 

[AlbatrossCafe]

Coilovers returned from Radflo and limit straps are in. Spent a few hours last night getting everything on and adjusted.

I don't have a lot of data to go on yet, but I was able to drive about 1/4 mile on a really bad pothole-laden gravel road at about 10-15mph. Let me just say it made a MASSIVE difference. I was bouncing a bit in my seat but there was absolutely NO harshness on droop. Before, nearly every hole resulted in a big "CLUNK" at the bottom. I'll take it. 100% satisfied so far. Now, who knows if this is attributed to coilovers, straps, or both. But I hope it stays this way.

Overall I reduced front droop by about 1/4" at the shock, which is usually close to 1/2" at the wheel. I think that is probably worth it if it means my shocks won't explode after 12k miles and for a much nicer ride. We'll see how my articulation looks on slow speed trails and if it feels much different.

One negative... the lower limit straps mount made it really challenging to reach & tighten the lower shock mount bolt (which is already a struggle at 155 ft/lbs). I was using a swivel joint and pulling the torque wrench towards me at nearly full force and hit myself in the head with the bottom edge when it slipped off. Might need stitches. Head wounds bleed a lot! (pic here)

 

[CThoreal]

Good to hear on the outcome! I imagine the straps will have some initial stretching and you should gain back a little of the lost droop. Or can adjust it out after everything settles in.

I took a 1/2" breaker bar to the bridge of my nose in a similar fashion a few years ago. permanent scar.

 

[eighty]

Ouch!!

Does every tswap need limit straps or have you done something interesting for your setup?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[AlbatrossCafe]

Ouch!!

Does every tswap need limit straps or have you done something interesting for your setup?

I don't think T-swapped or not makes a difference. I guess me taking potholes too fast just killed my coilovers. It's all about driving style.

 

[AlbatrossCafe]

Hit 100k recently. Ever since then, I've been having dumb problems. Is there such thing as "the curse of 100k"?

I just got back from a 2000 mile road trip. So many stupid thing went wrong and I didn't even go off road. A list of a few:

1. Camshaft position sensor (bank 1 aka passenger side) went out. Had spare but spent 2.5h at rest stop to fix. Broke OEM connector getting old one out. Duct tape now holds it together.
2. A bolt fell out of my front brake caliper. It nearly fell off completely and rubbed off some wheel balancers and created a big gauge in my new wheel
3. Rear brake rotor on one side mysteriously the (15k miles) pad wear out and rub metal on metal. The caliper is destroyed. Other side is just fine. Why??
4. Got a code for failing cat converter. Luckily this went away on its own 2 days later, I guess...?
5. Front diff is leaking. Might be flange seal
6. Rear diff is leaking even though I just put in a new gasket. No idea why.

I spent prob 7 hours on this trip investigating/fixing random Xterra crap. It pains me that this car which I deemed super reliable is having trouble on 2000 miles of mostly pavement.

 

[hybrid90]

Wait a minute. Didn't you just recently replaced all your cam/crank sensors on your last trip about a month back?

 

[AlbatrossCafe]

Wait a minute. Didn't you just recently replaced all your cam/crank sensors on your last trip about a month back?

Crankshaft sensor (twice, I'm on my 3rd). But it seems like I should have just done everything...

 

[AlbatrossCafe]

On the the left rear... looks like the piston slides were sticking.

I have a new set of rotors sitting around and I just ordered Powerstop Extreme "Truck and Tow" pads for front and rear. Even though these brakes only have ~20k on them, I'm gonna do the whole pad/rotor swaperoo. New parking brake shoes as well. And lastly, I picked up some grease to lube the existing slides.

The inside of the rotor was weirdly worn in the center. I'm just gonna chalk that up to related. Getting a whole new caliper bracket and slides.

Note stuck slide on bottom:

 

[IntellectualRedneck]

Hit 100k recently. Ever since then, I've been having dumb problems. Is there such thing as "the curse of 100k"?

I will say yes. I found about this mileage I had a maintenace hump to get over. ABS Sensors, wheel hubs, brakes, suspension, random stuff, been good after that though

 

[PhullD]

When you wheel your vehicle, things happen. You can't expect the same maintenance schedule as a pavement queen. I wonder if there is something going on that is "burning out" your camshaft sensors?

 

[hybrid90]

When you wheel your vehicle, things happen. You can't expect the same maintenance schedule as a pavement queen. I wonder if there is something going on that is "burning out" your camshaft sensors?

Yeah I wonder about that too. Unless you're having shitty luck with ALL three of your crankshaft sensors, they shouldn't be burning out in a months time or so. Check all your connections and make sure the grounding points are tight and snugged? Are the OEM sensors burning out or are you using aftermarkets?

 

[AlbatrossCafe]

1st crank was 101k miles old. I can kind of see that one failing. Second one was a $20 NAPA sensor. Given the stories I've heard on here about people saying "buy OEM/hitachi sensors only" I can kind of see that one also going bad at 800 miles, even if that is ridiculous. 3rd one is OEM and is strong. This was the first failure for a camshaft sensor.

I think I can chalk everything up to "reasonable" (but annoying) at this point. If I get anymore failures of ones I have replaced I'll start poking into things.

 

[AlbatrossCafe]

Took this out while I'm waiting for some brake pads to come in. One side looked like it was possibly leaking. I also have a howl from 52-59mph that didn't exist until recently. So I might try driving without it and see if the noise is still there. The leaking might be harder to determine.... like it could be oil from up above. I guess I'll clean it off real well and see if it gets dirty just sitting in my garage...?

 

[IM1RU]

If it's gear oil, I'd think you could smell it.

 

[AlbatrossCafe]

So I don't think the diff problem is gear oil. It doesn't smell bad as IM1RU suggested, and I have a pretty suspicious culprit nearby...

My oil cooler O-ring has been messy for a while. I thought it was my passenger side valve cover (which I recently replaced to fix a spark plug seal). But I truly think it is just the stupid oil cooler. It seems common for these to leak on this engine. My truck has been dripping oil slowly from here onto my driveway for over a year. You can also see in the 2nd pic that the crossmember has a bunch of gunk on it (I wiped off in the middle). I doubt this all comes from the very end of the diff cus it extends pretty far towards the center of the truck.

Anyway, I ordered the $5 OEM seal and I'll knock out that change while I'm at it.

 

[AlbatrossCafe]

Took care of parking brake pads. I'd been unable to hold my truck on anything but a small incline for almost 1.5 years, even with maxing out the adjustment. Now I see why.

 

[dmski]

Jeez man, glad your head is alright! I’ve done this and had visions of doing it again while cranking down those diff bolts yesterday...
100k has been rough on you. I’ve had the usual preventative maintenance items and the worst of them being my cats which I swapped to LT’s. Not sure if I’d do this again to be honest since I need to get the truck tuned and there aren’t many local guys to do it.
Once you get these things over the hump you should be good to go.

 

[AlbatrossCafe]

With my recent brake issues after my trip, I decided to do a brake refresh. Went with Powerstop EXTREME pads because, well, they are EXTREME. Anything to get more bite with the 35s.

Things added:

• Front brake pads (~60% remaining)
• Rear brake pads (0-30% remaining)
• Rear parking brake pads (~10% remaining - my parking brake barely worked for the last year)
• New slide pins and boots in all caliper brackets
• 1 new caliper bracket in the rear
• New rotors