Nissan Patrol 4x4 (Africa)

Hi there
Is there anyone that has put a patrol box on a safari my friend Cristo boegman has 3 safaris that he uses for borehole testing but spares are becoming a problem ,so he bought a 4.2 patrol as a spare but he has 3 new engines and a lot of spares . The problem is transfer boxes . we want to use a 4.5 patrol box manual .have anyone tried it do you think the diff ratio will work , is there a adapter plate available? there is a lot of space to move cross members and mountings and prop shafts can be made up.the safaris all are carrying 1.1 ton and has been doing so for the last 500000km so it will be a shame to stop using them just because transfer boxes are becoming hens teeth.We fitted the 4.5 motor to his 4.2 fuel interjected ausie model SUV and it works like a charm .
Tinus

I presume the Safari is still fitted with the 2.8 straight six L28. The biggest problem is that the old Safari's have a seperate transfer box with a very short propshaft between the gearbox and the transfer box. This is very nice if you want to swop gearboxes as you can make nearly any 2wd gearbox fit. The problem in fitting a 4wd gearbox as described will be that new propshafts will have to be made as the lengths are totally different.
If he plans to change the engine to the 4.2 as well then it might be worthwhile as he will have a lot more torque and the Safari will be a totally different kind of animal
I would rather rebuild the old transfer box as they are not very complicated and very tough.

hi dawid
thanks for your reply . we need to keep the engine the L28 ,there are 3 brand new ones in the store room and the gen on the test rig also runs of petrol . we had a look and i think that the partol gearbox will work making up propshafts is not a big problem . the 4 transfer boxes that we have are all cracked . i think a 5th gear will be nice on the safari . the only problem is the adapter plate and clutches
i will keep you posted
kind regards
tinus

Tinus,
Those L28 engines are as tough as nails and just love to rev. I think the Safari would do well on the open road with a fith gear as my old wagon did about 4k revs @ 120 with 33' tyres! Do you know how the first gear ratios compare between the different gearboxes? Reason I ask is that the 2.8 doesn't have a lot of bottom-end torque and if the first gear ratio on the new box is longer you might loose a bit of drivability. There are a few places that make up adapter plates in the Gauteng area - ask the guys who do engine transplants who they can recommend. Wish I had 3 new L28's in my garage!
Keep us updated on this project!

hi David
we are going ahead with the project and i spoke to the guys at conversion center in pta they estimate 6k for the adapter plate and new mods to flywheel we are going to use the patrol clutch and pressure plate . I am trying to get gear ratio info on the fist gear but no luck so far . all we need is a good box we are looking at a couple will keep you posted .

Tinus lotz wrote: 6k for the adapter plate

Ouch! - I thought it would be in the region of 4k
Post a before and after picture if you can and name the adapter place as it might be helpful for somebody else on the forum

Dawid
The price incl a custom flyweel to fit the new parol clutch kit and it will make getting spares after better the price will be less for future ones by then the r +d will be paid for

Tinus lotz wrote:I am trying to get gear ratio info on the fist gear but no luck so far .

Do you mean that you need to know the gear ratios of the manual transmission in the 4.5 Patrol?

It is the FS5R50B box with the following ratios:
1st: 4.262:1
2nd: 2.455:1
3rd: 1.488:1
4th: 1.000:1
5th: 0.850:1
Reverse: 3.971:1

Hope that helps.

Thanks Gerrit
You don't perhaps have the specks for the standard 4 speed safari box handy?

Tinus, as far as I know, the Safari had the F4W81A four speed box. The ratios are:

1st: 3.519:1
2nd: 2.157:1
3rd: 1.449:1
4th: 1.000:1
Reverse: 4.181:1

The Safari pick-up had the T100L transfer case with a low range reduction of 2.074:1 while the 4.5 Patrol has the TX12A transfer case with a low range ratio of 2.02:1

This means that with the Patrol box you will have a (high range) first gear that is 21% lower than with the four speed and a fifth gear that is about 18% taller than the fourth gear in the Safari.

The transfer box ratios are quite close. In low range first gear, the gearing with the Patrol gearbox/transfer box will be about 18% lower than before, but in low range reverse it will be 8% taller than before.

Hope that helps...