Patrol/Safari bits for Sani

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Re: Patrol/Safari bits for Sani

Post by Kagiso II »

Sterkte Davy -- Kaap sal jou goed doen -- G W G neh?
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Re: Patrol/Safari bits for Sani

Post by davidvdm »

Some of you may know by now, that my business opportunity has panned out in Cape Town. I got back to Gauteng two weeks back, and packing house and selling stuff off like a demon. Turns out cheaper to buy new kit down there, then to get a removal company to move me. And then I don't have place for my stuff anyways, unless I put it in storage.

I have been messing with some ideas on the Sani while I have been packing, but Monday fate throws me a curveball when I decide to look at the Sani to get a few things done. Did a service and took it out onto the road for an extended test session to make sure all is ok for our trip to the coast. Sani started off immediately trying to pull me off the edge of the road. Thought it was a tyre that was a bit deflated, and limped to the garage, hanging onto the steering wheel to keep it on the road. Tyre pressures checked, and found the right front with less pressure than the left. Does not make sense at all now. Decided to push the pressures up a little more than usual, and made them 2.2bar. Handling problem persists, although not as bad as before. I played around with my shackle angles by building an extension to make them stand up steeper. That is when I found that the driver side is around 20-30mm lower than the left.

Fiddled around for the entire day, and eventually swapped the springs between left and right. Seems my one spring has "collapsed". Only thing I can think could have caused this, is that the spring gets a good dose of ATF from the power steering pump that has a slow leak. So now I have the front end out, and pondering my options with only 12 days left to sort my problem. I called up a few places for new spring packs. Two days in, R300 in airtime, and I am no closer to finding a solution without some fabbing again to compensate for the new springs. Explaining my current problems, the new springs are going to give me another 20-40mm lift to achieve the bump distance before smashing my sump. Looked at going SUA, and get a spring with a bigger arch to get the same ride height. Prices are mad, and my time is running out.

Wednesday night I decide that I will keep the new leafs as last resort backup plan, and tackle some measuring in the morning while the axle is out. Jelo donated some pipe to the next phase, which has been laying in the garage waiting to be dumped if they are not used. Worked out a shopping list and jumped on sourcing bushes, bolts, and some steel Thursday morning. My Autozone branch manager misunderstood me, and delivers all my bushes to my house on his way home from work. Friday, my bolt and nut place smashes my order together for everything I need, and even picks up some steel for me as I don't have transport to do it myself.

Welder and grinder has been working overtime for two days now. Wish I had a workshop. The rain and lack of light outside in the driveway, when the sun goes down, is not making this easy.
David - Bfreesani
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MQ Transfer as second low range
5" Lift
33"x12.5x15" tires on 8.5J rims - Want 35's
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Re: Patrol/Safari bits for Sani

Post by jakeslouw »

No pics?
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Re: Patrol/Safari bits for Sani

Post by davidvdm »

I'll take some pics when I'm done for the day.
Done the Chassis mount brackets with the added brackets to add an additional bolt on section on the old torsion mount cross member, axle mount brackets with some stuff left to do once I figure where the coils, panhard and shock mounts need to go. Busy with the lower/main radias arms and short arms today. Will take some pics.

Those pipes you gave me are bigass. 60mm OD is as wide as my bushings. So I have had to make a reduction section on the ends to get back down to a 50mmID to make things easier to fit my standard bushing pipe into. Making the main arms standard length with no adjustment, but the top/short arms will have around a 50mm adjustment as I could only get 100mm length bolts for this task on such short notice.

BUT, I see I'm running out of steel. I only got 12 meters of 60x6 flat bar. Some places I am having to build plate out of 3 flat bar sections next to each other. Welding them together, and doing it slow enough to prevent the whole lot warping. And my guy I had that was going to help me with the welding, is AWOL, so it's hillbilly 3D welding all the way :pray:
David - Bfreesani
1997 Nissan Sani MK3 2.7TD - Hillbilly (SAFANI)
MQ C200 SFA
MQ H260 LSD Rear
MQ Transfer as second low range
5" Lift
33"x12.5x15" tires on 8.5J rims - Want 35's
DIY rock sliders
DIY Snorkel
Madman EMS
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Re: Patrol/Safari bits for Sani

Post by jakeslouw »

Why not use thick wall square tube or angle iron as bracket bases?

Much quicker to cut a profile out of 50x50 tube than to build a bracket from scratch.

Easier to butt weld and gusset 2 pieces of 25x25 angle iron or even 32x32mm angle iron.
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Re: Patrol/Safari bits for Sani

Post by jakeslouw »

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Re: Patrol/Safari bits for Sani

Post by davidvdm »

I don't have any :rolleyes: .... Last I asked my steel supplier, they had nothing thicker than 2.6mm (I think) tubing, and 3mm angle in stock. They would have had to order in for me. I prefer the 6mm flat plate size for things like the panhard mounting, and the 6mm is the exact thickness of the bushings, and gives me enough space to fit my bushings in it's width with a backing plate welded in place. Just eating up cutting disks. I am on my third, and last, 5 pack. I'm probably going to run out of just about everything today. :doh:
David - Bfreesani
1997 Nissan Sani MK3 2.7TD - Hillbilly (SAFANI)
MQ C200 SFA
MQ H260 LSD Rear
MQ Transfer as second low range
5" Lift
33"x12.5x15" tires on 8.5J rims - Want 35's
DIY rock sliders
DIY Snorkel
Madman EMS
jakeslouw
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Re: Patrol/Safari bits for Sani

Post by jakeslouw »

Structural steel square tube goes to 6mm thick wall between 50x50mm and 63x63mm. MOST suppliers will have at LEAST a 4.5mm wall on those sizes.
Angle iron you can get even thicker stuff, up to 10mm.

https://www.asapsteel.co.za/files/techn ... Angles.pdf

http://steelandpipes.co.za/mild-steel-2 ... ild-steel/

Your steel supplier is a chop.
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Re: Patrol/Safari bits for Sani

Post by davidvdm »

I hear you Jakes, just the suppliers that are close enough to me, did not have what I was looking for, so I had to improvise, unless I wanted to wait for another few days. in fact, the stock would only be available on Monday afternoon or Tuesday. Besides, I had to build a whole flat bar setup to tie into the existing leaf spring perches without cutting them all off again, and welding on the tubes for the third time now.

Somehow going is slow today. I am finishing off the radias arm welding and brackets. Preset the maximum setting to -5deg castor. I wanted to be working on the Panhard by now. Wanted to have it in place by Monday so that I can start testing coil spring compression to see where the upper coil bucket needs to be, and I can start fabbing that. But now I have to take another trip to town in the morning to get more stuff. Suppose I'll be loosing at least half the day with that exercise. It's a bugga when you don't have transport.
David - Bfreesani
1997 Nissan Sani MK3 2.7TD - Hillbilly (SAFANI)
MQ C200 SFA
MQ H260 LSD Rear
MQ Transfer as second low range
5" Lift
33"x12.5x15" tires on 8.5J rims - Want 35's
DIY rock sliders
DIY Snorkel
Madman EMS
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davidvdm
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Full Name: David vd Merwe
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Re: Patrol/Safari bits for Sani

Post by davidvdm »

Got the arms welded and even painted. Damn I miss the Cape already, it is still light there, I could have been working another hour or two.
Some pics
20200126_145720-6400.jpg
20200126_145720-6400.jpg (1.14 MiB) Viewed 2832 times
20200126_182750-6400.jpg
20200126_182750-6400.jpg (1.54 MiB) Viewed 2832 times
20200126_182832-6400.jpg
20200126_182832-6400.jpg (815.4 KiB) Viewed 2832 times
Hopefully enough space to get a panhard bar through here to the top of the bracket. I only figured this out after I had rounded the darn bracket off.
Hopefully enough space to get a panhard bar through here to the top of the bracket. I only figured this out after I had rounded the darn bracket off.
20200126_183025-6400.jpg (1.2 MiB) Viewed 2832 times
Spring should fit under the chassis according to the measurements I got for under load. I can only figure this out once I can put the car down with the panhard bar in place
Spring should fit under the chassis according to the measurements I got for under load. I can only figure this out once I can put the car down with the panhard bar in place
20200126_183310-6400.jpg (1.16 MiB) Viewed 2832 times
David - Bfreesani
1997 Nissan Sani MK3 2.7TD - Hillbilly (SAFANI)
MQ C200 SFA
MQ H260 LSD Rear
MQ Transfer as second low range
5" Lift
33"x12.5x15" tires on 8.5J rims - Want 35's
DIY rock sliders
DIY Snorkel
Madman EMS
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