Nissan Patrol 4x4 (Africa)

Thanks and hope you find good quality ball joint ends.

Try contacting Marinus Potgieter (Marino4x4 on forum)
He has a business importing Terrain Tamer products from Oz.
http://www.terraintamer.com/sa/

Wow that is a first class drag link you got there!

I have emailed Patrol A part for a shipping quotation for an adjustable drag link which is very similar to your one. 345 Aus dollars for the drag link.

I want to centralize the steering box 100% and the only way it can be done correctly is with an adjustable drag link.

http://patrolapart.com.au/product/nissa ... issan-ends

Michael wrote:Christo, the only problem with removing and turning the steering wheel is that you will end up turning sharper to one side than the other.......

It will not have a great effect if tou turn it with one or two spliance, but I did this excersize on a Ranger a couple of years back and took a while for me to realise why I could turn shaper to one side.

I usually agree with you, but this time I must differ! According to the service manual the stopper bolts determine how sharp you can turn.
The drag link has a set length (1123.4 cm) and the adjusters should be used to accomplish this:
Finally, straight-ahead position is achieved by removing the steering wheel. If you have an adjustable drag-link, you may fine-tune the steering position there. I was able to get my steering wheel pointed perfectly straight without an adjustable drag-link - the splines are fine enough.

ChristoSlang wrote:

Michael wrote:Christo, the only problem with removing and turning the steering wheel is that you will end up turning sharper to one side than the other.......

It will not have a great effect if tou turn it with one or two spliance, but I did this excersize on a Ranger a couple of years back and took a while for me to realise why I could turn shaper to one side.

I usually agree with you, but this time I must differ! According to the service manual the stopper bolts determine how sharp you can turn.

Stopper bolts.PNG

The drag link has a set length (1123.4 cm) and the adjusters should be used to accomplish this:

Drag link.PNG

Finally, straight-ahead position is achieved by removing the steering wheel. If you have an adjustable drag-link, you may fine-tune the steering position there. I was able to get my steering wheel pointed perfectly straight without an adjustable drag-link - the splines are fine enough.

Straight-ahead.PNG

This is correct but you need to first make sure that you have centralized the steering gear which is the steering box before you centralize the steering wheel on its splines as per your attachments. Nissan stopped making adjustable drag links around year 2000 and then they set it at factory 1123.4 cm and weld the tie rods onto the bar so you cannot adjust it The steering box has marks on it to show you when its centralized.
Its no biggy as my steering box is about 2 degrees off to the right if I look at the box after driving in a straight line. Its more of an mental irritation than anything else.

NMAD wrote:This is correct but you need to first make sure that you have centralized the steering gear which is the steering box before you centralize the steering wheel on its splines as per your attachments. Nissan stopped making adjustable drag links around year 2000 and then they set it at factory 1123.4 cm and weld the tie rods onto the bar so you cannot adjust it The steering box has marks on it to show you when its centralized.
Its no biggy as my steering box is about 2 degrees off to the right if I look at the box after driving in a straight line. Its more of an mental irritation than anything else.

I used to have an adjustable drag-link, but when I replaced it some years ago I also got the later non-adjustable one. Maybe it's possible to use the toe-adjustments on the tie-rod to compensate for a pitman arm that's just slightly out of whack?

BTW: I built a puller based on the images in the service manual to straighten my steering after replacing the drag link. It turned out to be unnecessary, because the wheel came off easily enough with some light tapping (after removing the air bag in the prescribed manner).

Mini Patrol wrote:

Peter Connan wrote:I made an adjustable drag link for mine a couple of years ago. I think the whole exercise cost less than R2k, including the tie rod ends.

I will see if I can scratch out the drawings and get you a quote on the machining, if you can wait a week or so?

Piet - Where did you source the ball joints of good enough quality?

I got normal Partquip pirates. Pretty sure they are not OEM quality, but they've been in there for 4 years and still zero play. At under R200/set, I can't complain.

Peter Connan wrote:

Mini Patrol wrote:

Peter Connan wrote:I made an adjustable drag link for mine a couple of years ago. I think the whole exercise cost less than R2k, including the tie rod ends.

I will see if I can scratch out the drawings and get you a quote on the machining, if you can wait a week or so?

Piet - Where did you source the ball joints of good enough quality?

I got normal Partquip pirates. Pretty sure they are not OEM quality, but they've been in there for 4 years and still zero play. At under R200/set, I can't complain.

Hi Peter, if you can make one up for the Y61 patrol I will def buy one. The steering box is different to the Y 60 (GQ) so a GQ one apparently wont work as it also has different bail joint diameters? But shoulb be easy to get correct measurements and make them up.

Would it be possible to remove the welds on the stock OEM drag link and remove the joints?

This topic covers one of my issues. When I built the Sani SFA, I used the existing pitman on the steering box, and adapted one of the tie rods to work as a high steer arm off the kingpin. The ball joints I am using is the standard tie rod ends from the Sani with an adjustable tube between them

But I know this is not going to hold up with the 33's and rock climbing. I need to build something more robust and "professional".

Part of the process will obviously be to make a new pitman arm on the steering box to take a good size ball joint.

. .

Piet if you want to borrow a Y61 sample I have one.