At this point Andreas was done with the exception of the upper link with a clearance issue to work out, but Andreas was able to bend the All-Pro upper link to make the necessary clearance around the bend in the frame. Over time, this link may continue to bend and a different solution may be required, but so far it hasn't had any problems and it seems like it will hold up well. However I will be keeping an eye on it.
With Andreas' suspension work done, we flat towed the truck to Speedway Muffler, where they custom routed the exhaust system around all the new linkage and replaced the current rusted out muffler with a Flowmaster 40 Series muffler. When the new exhaust system was installed we found out that the headers had a leak, so they were then replaced by ceramic coated Doug Thorley Headers.
 Mike at Speedway Muffler welding...  Mike at Speedway Muffler welding the exhaust. |  With a steady hand, the fenders...  With a steady hand, the fenders were cut to make room for the 35s. | |
Once I got the truck home we started to cut the fenders to make room for our 35-inch BF Goodrich All Terrain tires. I wanted to keep the factory lines on the truck so I traced the outside of the factory fender flares, then it was just a matter of following the line with a die-grinder.
The Last step to getting this truck on the road was to hook up the brake system. I used the stock Jeep Wagoneer calipers up front and got steel braided brake lines made by G & J Aircraft in Montclair, CA.
After bleeding the brakes and doing the best driveway alignment we knew how to do, we went for a drive around the block, which was scary to say the least. The truck was all over the road pulling back and fourth unexpectedly. We never even went over 20 MPH. When the truck was IFS, I never had the rear sway bar in. It had some body roll on the road but it was manageable. But now with the taller suspension the body roll was out of control and as soon as I got it back in the driveway, the rear swaybar was the first thing to go back on.
We also felt that the 100/300 springs that All-Pro uses on the Tacoma is way too soft for a Pathfinder. After showing the truck and explaining my problem to Greg at PRG Products, I ended up swapping out the springs with 300/400 springs which helped a lot but I will be playing with springs a bit more to get things dialed in perfectly. I also feel that the shocks need a little stiffer valving, but at least we are now able to drive around town hitting speeds of 45 and 50 MPH.
With the truck driving better, we finally took it to Jack at Eckles Alignment in Ontario, CA to get it aligned. The truck still wanted to pull back and fourth unexpectedly after being aligned, but Jack found that the preload on the upper ball joints were set way too tight and needed to be loosened up, and he did so the following day. Once the ball joints were re-installed correctly, the truck was capable of reaching highway speeds and I cruised home at about 70 MPH on the freeway, smiling as people cruising next to me pointed at the pathfinder and gave me the thumbs up.
At this point in the project, we were able to drive but we still had a few things to take care of to make sure the 4 wheel drive functional. For instance, we had to get the internals of the front axle in. To assemble the front axle, we went to Rose Auto Clinic in Montclair where their gear guy, Jeff, installed our 4.88 gears. Jeff also installed our chromoly axle shafts from Superior Axle and Gear and got our WARN manual locking hubs in working order. Again I would go into more detail here but Jeff was the one working the magic on this.