Greeny

iTrader: (43)

A washer? where?

CapedCadaver

iTrader: (8)

know but big 27mm nut to take the control arm off the gusset shaft? and the big flat washer on there? well my ES kit came with 4 such washers.. i was like 'w/e... oem just had one in front so that's all i'm putting on" but the rear half of that bushing has worked its way out of the control arm.... and without that washer there, the control arm has more freedom to slide backwards and decrease the caster angle.... which may explain my highway stability/wandering issues....

Greeny

iTrader: (43)

Ah, i see..

put the washer on there maybe?

CapedCadaver

iTrader: (8)

ya gonna do that when i get a socket to take the bolts off to let go of it from the rear... i lost that socket, probably left it with Goon

did you use 4 washers when you did yours?

Greeny

iTrader: (43)

lol, yeah dude, all 4 washer need to be on the front gusset , i thought you would take the hint.

CapedCadaver

iTrader: (8)

heh.... yea well. 2 came off, 2 went back on. never thought the bushing itself would slide out. wish maybe the alignment place would have said "oh btw your caster is way out of spec". well, the top is fixed..... so it's got to be something on the bottom... hmmmm control arm position *dingdingding*

Greeny

iTrader: (43)

most shops don't give a rats *** if there are worn parts that could effect alignment, they just want to get as many alignments out the door as possible in their 8hr day. Money money money$$$$$$$!!11!! one!

CapedCadaver

iTrader: (8)

which is why i can't wait to get a suitable set of tools and start looking for employment at a car shop.... so i can do my OWN alignments and stuff. really most of the mistakes i've made on cars was due to modding... pretty much every stock-for-stock replacement has gone well. i got a connection at my local Nissan dealer... guy gives me wholesale prices sometimes... so i'll talk to him about it.

CapedCadaver

iTrader: (8)

ok well it's all reassembled minus 2 bolts on the passenger side (rear lca bushing bracket). tierod threads are now fine, no problems there. got those washers on behind the bushing now so my caster angle will be better. visually the caster still doesn't look like much but it's only supposed to be 30'-2*00' anyways... so it looks within that spec just eyeballing it. i think those washers are 1/8" thick. plus the whole control arm probably slid backward some anyways. the rear bushings don't appear to have moved around at all..... so until i see a reason to mess with adding bushings back there, i'll just leave them as they are (es poly in the back). anyways point is it's all fixed now and will be aligned tomorrow morning. for free (yay!)

CapedCadaver

iTrader: (8)

aligned today. caster seems to have been the issue with stability before... it's not jumping lanes anymore.

lca before/after:

Matt93SE

iTrader: (44)

New crank gear is about $30 US from Nissan. whenever I do a t-belt on a VG, I buy one and have it handy. I TRY to remove the old one without damage, but sometimes that doesn't happen. several I've had to drill two small (~5mm) holes and tap them, then use a steering wheel puller.

sometimes I get lucky and penetrating oil + large pliers covered w/ leather strap is enough to pull it off without damage. If not, then I just replace it with the new one and charge customer for the gear.

in the ~15 t belts I've changed, that gear has come off safely about 65% of the time. the other 35% I wind up throwing it away and using the new gear.

Jon94SE

Just replace it. It's never a good idea to mess around with tie rod ends, as I had to learn the hard way. I messed up my threads and put a non-castled nut on there with no pin as a temporary fix and my tie rod end popped out on a cliffside road about 300 feet or so up. The car stopped just before hitting the barrier. Stupidest thing I've ever done...

Matt93SE

iTrader: (44)

incorrectly putting the thing back together was the stupid part.
simply torquing the nut properly shouldn't have had it come off- castle nut or not.
not putting a cotter pin in it was mistake #2 and what really cost you.

but yeah.. there's castle nuts on those for a reason. use 'em.
IN A PINCH, grind down a regular nut to fit a cotter pin over it or cut a groove across one to turn it into a castle nut.

but don't ever put the steering gear or axles on the car without cotter pins!!!

CapedCadaver

iTrader: (8)

so even a nylon-ringed locknut is asking for death? well i guess i gotta go knock the grime off the tierod nuts on the parts car and go scavenge a castle nut then... but yea i have cotter pins in the other appropriate locations (bj/axle/tierod i didn't mess up)