So....

this week I got my C200 (rear) diff skid from Shockworks. Now this is for a Frontier or X-terra C200, mind you I said rear. Any ways, the dang thing wasn't a perfect match. Bolt pattern is the same but it is 5/8" wider and 1/4" longer. So I cut it in half removing 5/8" and then chopped it top to bottom 1/4" Welded it back up, cleaned up and booya it fits nicely! Not sure I like it painted silver, almost looks to much like chrome which I hate on a 4wd.

pics....
before

after


mounted up the clinometer finally....


I determined my diff ratio years ago using a parts book and finding my model in it, ie 4.11. Never had I pulled a cover though and checked for sure, well here it is, 4.11.


Few issues with tire rub in the front. Should go away when SoA comes & way more offset rims, which is not far off now.



The days of being able to go run trails is running out here. So have to take advantage of the few left even if the truck is still being worked on. Yesterday would have been the day to go as it was puking snow/rain/sleet all day but hey we needed to work on the truck. PTO winch is fixed, no more rubbing on shafts/u-joints even under a load. Did some exploring on the Idaho side of the Rocky mnts. today and late in the day found some sweet trails. Amazing it was so nice and warm today after such a nasty day yesterday. Will be going back to run these new trails much more, hopefully next weekend. any ways, enjoy the picture spam & cheesy flex pics!

oh ya I almost forgot....saw a mnt. lion today! Been living here nearly 15yrs and this the first time I seen a mnt. lion, he was big too....easy 130lbs.






this is my friend who has the shop where we been working on the Patrol. Know him many years..

flexing better with the sway bar out, shocks holding it up now. could get more out of it with longer shocks, no point right now though.

had a sweet day out off-roading. Found miles and miles of trails....most are around power line roads which go over the Pine Creek Pass on the Idaho side of the Tetons.

Carnage from the day....



The road that goes over the mountains....this is only one of about 12 climbs on this trail...


Now for the picture spam!












We didn't follow this trail to it's end. A steep decent at dusk into a deep gully or ravine with another steep climb out of the ravine stopped us. There was at least two more of the same before the top of the pass and road.

I have some video but it is off my digi camera and not all that great. May post something up though. Also may have a better video camera tomorrow and plan to run the entire road. It's puking snow on it right now so should be a blast!

AWESOME pics. Those bit ruts look nasty.

Time for a set of sliders

cool spot no the lion too. My inlaws live up in Thermopolis, and DL is from there as well, so we get the local paper each week. They've had one spotted in town on a few occassions over the past couple weeks.

I am in Oz but the shop working on my truck is making some progress. Bar work is shaping up and coming together. Front diff and suspension is all done and in the truck. Getting the rear diff in and fitting the new fuel cell is about all that is left.

Sneak peak pics!

That's some sweet tube work. Looks great.

Next time have them shift the camera to the right a bit, because that looks like a mean '67-72 Chevy sitting next to it

looking great!

I see a cage in the making.

So my truck went to the fab shop last November. The build up plans started with SoA and moved to full linked suspension. Originally we had planned to stretch the wheelbase 5" if I was lucky. Well we went with 13"!!

Many of you on the recent AZ Run have seen the truck up close now. For the rest of you..it is fully sick! Suspension is awesome and so is wheelbase. 5spd is sweet on the hwy but I still lack power, 90hp just isn't much! Duel lockers kicks arse and I am happy with most everything done to the truck. There are a few things needing to be improved though...

My links are made from 2"x1/4" tubing. While stout I bent a front on the AZ run. Tie rod is a 1.5"x1/4" tube also...it got bent too. We are putting in 2" solid & 1.5" solid bars in their place. Going to give these a try and see if they take a flogging better. One tranny mount got shagged bad and the other is on the way out. So all new tranny mounts are being designed and installed.

What I found out on the AZ run is 35's and 4.6's gear with a 2.22 transfer is nowhere near low enough for rock crawling. It is doable but sucks. Having to go faster on stuff flogs the truck harder and makes things more difficult than they should be. 35's also look puny to me on the truck. I have plenty of room and available lift to go up to 38's. The suspension is designed to go up another 4" and be able to fit 16" shocks. With 38's and 4" more lift this truck will be a monster! I am looking at doing the 38.5x14.5 Creepies on new 16x10 MRW beadlocks. Thing is without lower gearing it is a waste of time and money. I can deal with whimpy power on the hwy for awhile but high gearing off-road just won't be cool. So we are looking at putting in a Klune underdrive or similar. I have gotten an email from Klune after I sent them a couple pics of my gearbox. They say no probs fitting a crawler box to my stuff but it will require custom made adapters. There is a few ways to lower my gearing but not much as far as diff gear. Don't want to lower them anyways as things start to get weak above the 4.6. Don't really want to adapt a Toyota trasfer case or a Dana. Only thing I would adapt is an Atlas. But best solution to me would be a Klune box fitted to my gear. Double my 2.22 low range, keep my gear Nissan and Patrol plus keep my stock low/high. I have plenty of room with the rear diff pushed back. So this is the plan....I am sure it will cost me a fortune but oh well. I want my Patrol to be a certain way and I have to pay to get it!

I just purchased an entire 1984 Patrol in Australia. It only cost me $1100 and has the factory SD33T on 12v. So now I have a parts car and the engine I need. The truck is going to the Yuri 4x4 shop where he can tear it down and prep it for me. I am considering having him do the rebuild on it and all the mods. Since all the parts are right there in Aus. and he has the knowledge. Makes it easy on me to get the motor all finished and just drop it in to my truck. Plus no downtime on my truck...or not much anyways.

I will post detailed pics of the truck and fab work once I get it back from the shop in a few weeks.

Does Rockhopper or any other Oz company make cralwer gears for your existing case?

negative sir...

kinda surprising, really, with all the support for the TX10A.

part of the reason is it is old....they only made the MQ from 80-87. 7 years isn't very long...

The real reason though is that there is no room in the x-fer case. You could only get gears to fit that would go down something like 20%. Hardly worth it from both manufacture and purchasing stand points.

I still think the planetary crawl box is best. Keeps my high/low and gives me some real deep gears. Thing is it is fully custom to fit and going to be expensive. I like the Klune best from ones I have seen so hoping we can make it work.

I could go the way of some Yuri planetary hubs. Lowers gearing by more than 3x's. Also makes my entire drivetrain 10x stronger. But at more than $5k a wheel it is just over the top cost wise.

There is the duel x-fer option. But that will take up the most space and be the heaviest. I got room but not sure if I got that much room, especially a divorced x-fer.

Haven't really looked into fitting an Atlas. I certainly would love that but me thinks it would be way expensive.

Is your existing case married to the trans, or is it divorced?

married, only LWB's have the divorced

So I got the truck back last Saturday. Everything is pretty much done, few small things left. Like adjusting clutch pedal since I don't like how close to the floor it engages....nothing major though.

Here is a final round of pictures of the mods the truck received...

better pictures of front diff truss, links and steering,




front shock & hoop


new tranny mounts, real happy with these!




upper links rear diff....on chassis end you can see how we built 4" of adjustment into them.



new flat belly skid plate!



e-brake drum gone off back of tranny!



slider and front diff skid...both taking a good flogging and holding up well!



front upper link also with 4" adjustment



24v to 12v converter


locker switches and shifters....we didn't have to do anything with the 5spd shifter. Lots of talk on boards about having to bend the shifter so it doesn't hit dash but mine clears fine!


roll bar front chassis mount, eventually this hole will get sealed up with some kind of gasket.


That is about it! We took the truck out last Sunday for a good day of 4wheeling. It did great both on road and off. We were playing in a deep mud hole when along comes a big lifted Dodge truck. The Dodge was a fair share taller than mine and running about 35" tires. He thinks he can drive the hole like we are doing....WRONG! Stuck bad as soon as he went in!! It was pretty funny but we did lend him our tow ropes so his friend could pull him out.