Nissan Patrol 4x4 (Africa)

My two cents worth,,,,,

I do a lot of travelling between Pta and Namibia professionally and for leisure . I carry a spare set of bearings and seals for only one side of the vehicle and a fairly comprehensive toolbox. No torque wrenches or scales. I do have a 55mm (I think...) socket to undo the front lock and set nuts. And WB grease.

Here's how I figure. If you are not a do DIY man you will at least be able to supply the spares to a mechanic that you can supervise to the dictum of the manual which you should have on board perhaps...?

The primary objective for me is to be able to survive a failure in the sense that I need to be able to get myself to a point in civilization or preferably home
Be it windhoek or wherever do not rely on a Nissan appointed dealer. They would probably think a Patrol or Safari is of East Bloc origin. The bearing man will know your vehicle better than "them".

To survive the failure very little is needed in reality except for the thin walled 55 mm socket, grease and a punch or two to remove the old bearing cups. You need tools to remove the calliper off the hub and perhaps you will need brake fluid if your brake line has to be parted.

The repair manual is quite detailed but in summary it's telling this story : Crush (or set if you will) the bearings by using round about 200nm torque. Do you need a torque wrench for this when you are in survival mode? No... 200nm is out out of arm twisting range for almost all men and don't forget you have already driven the bearing shell to bottom with the mallet and punch. Soooh you can torque it as hard as you can with a regular ratchet or power handle and the bearings will be home.

Now you can release the nut completely. Now take your 55mm by hand and twist/turn/torque it until it slips in your hand. Set the lock washer and the lock nut. You will notice that the manual talks about a very light torque of around 5 nm at this stage. This will be as close as dammit to the real thing and it will bring you home or to a haven.

Bearings are one of the most forgiving pieces of engineering. They stand up to abuse and neglect very well and will rumble for miles and months without failing. Even if you dont install dust seals or use the old original it will get you home.

Here you will not get professionals from Nissan to work on your Russian piece of Engineering Art work... Do it yourself or as you have noted there are very capable people around on the forum.

My summary : torque it with your arms as to what you reasonably think is a high torque whilst spinning it, back it off and do it once more if you really want and back it off until the nut is free then torque it the light way as described above.

It is off course advisable to occasionaly once or twice just to check your wheel play on your further onward journey.

Regards

Oh sorry....I forgot to mention the lock nut torque. It is also a virtual 200nm nut. This one you can also crank up to a vein riddled blue face, and remember to set the lock washer.

Johann van den Berg wrote:My two cents worth,,,,,

I do a lot of travelling between Pta and Namibia professionally and for leisure . I carry a spare set of bearings and seals for only one side of the vehicle and a fairly comprehensive toolbox. No torque wrenches or scales. I do have a 55mm (I think...) socket to undo the front lock and set nuts. And WB grease.

While I completely agree that one would be able to do a reanoable job without torque wrenches, this is (o the Patrol at laest) one area where I believe in preventative maintenace.

The Patrol's wheel bearings are so massive, I am convinced that, as long as one does preventative maintenance before a trip (IE make sure they are reasonably tight and have grease in them) and make sure they are dry after water crossings, they are not going to let you down.

Sure, if the trip was going to be all they way to Egypt and back, I might carry a set of bearings, but so far I have not bothered getting a set.

My car has 360k km on now, some of that being under very very tough conditions, and af far as I know it still has the original bearings in there.

Peter, would you put the old Safari wheel bearings in the same class?

David, I don't know them at all. Nissan being Nissan though, they probably are?

davidvdm wrote:Peter, would you put the old Safari wheel bearings in the same class?

I would also rate them up there but they do work harder because of the spring blade suspension and therefor would think of replacing after very high mileage

I suppose negative offset wheels don't help any for life expectancy of them either. I'm running -40 rims.

I have both the Patrol and the Safari but most my distance was done in various Safaris. Never had any issues with the bearings front or back and they were used as service vehicles to drilling machines. I do however think the Patrol bearing/axle setup is slightly more robust all round though having larger diameter side shafts and obviously larger diameter bearings. Never had any failures from the Safaris

The H260 rear end on the Safari has 1,51" side shafts, is that the same on the Patrols? Can't remember what the C200 front end has.