MTaco
Adventurer
I have always wanted to do Goose Lake but it seems like there is such a small window of opportunity to do that trail. Like August/September is it but we should try and make it happen.
"Lola" - WreckDiver1321's 2005 Frontier CC/SB Nismo Build and Adventure Thread
- Thread starter wreckdiver1321
- Start date
I have always wanted to do Goose Lake but it seems like there is such a small window of opportunity to do that trail. Like August/September is it but we should try and make it happen.
wreckdiver1321
Overlander
I had read about that earlier and totally forgot about it. It appears people were getting noises from the washer being in the wrong place... Might have to look at that now. I'm not sure mine goes together the same though, since mine uses a different-from-stock upper plate, but it is something to check. Looks like it's something I can check while the coilovers are on the truck. Just have to look and see if there's a washer on the bottom. If there is, then it's not the coilover.
That's what I'm going for! The body of the Airflow is okay for the Frontier vs the X, but I hate the design of the head.
Absolutely!
Last edited:
wreckdiver1321
Overlander
Checked the coilover assembly today to make sure they weren't the cause of my noise. I can happily report that they are assembled 100% correctly, so no worries there. I'm currently working on the theory that it may actually be my roof rack rattling around. I was putting a sticker on the back window yesterday and found out the back portion of the rack is quite loose, and that could very well be the cause of it. I'll still be checking on the radiator first to make sure all the bolts are tight, but the rack will be the next step.
wreckdiver1321
Overlander
Well, Lola has been relinquished to someone else... Briefly. I took her in to a shop to have the timing set replaced.Nissan, in their infinite wisdom, decided that the otherwise amazing VQ40 needed to have timing chain guides made out of plastic. As you can imagine, these eventually wear out and then cause all kinds of fun damage. Luckily, this problem is easy to diagnose and when it does occur, it gives you plenty of warning before it actually does damage. It causes a whirring/whining noise that can go on for tens of thousands of miles before it leaves you stranded. Mine has been making the noise since the day I bought it, so I knew it was going to have to be done eventually.
So I'm without a truck for the rest of the week. Oh well, at least it will give me some peace of mind. As a plus, since work is being done on the front of the engine anyway, it's getting a new oil pump, water pump, radiator hoses, serpentine belt, and coolant. The old belt and hoses are becoming my emergency spares. So once this is done, then I don't have too much left in preventative maintenance to do. In reality, all that's left is brakes, u-joints, and spark plugs. Once that stuff is done, I should be pretty much set.
So I'm without a truck for the rest of the week. Oh well, at least it will give me some peace of mind. As a plus, since work is being done on the front of the engine anyway, it's getting a new oil pump, water pump, radiator hoses, serpentine belt, and coolant. The old belt and hoses are becoming my emergency spares. So once this is done, then I don't have too much left in preventative maintenance to do. In reality, all that's left is brakes, u-joints, and spark plugs. Once that stuff is done, I should be pretty much set.
wreckdiver1321
Overlander
Got the truck back on Friday. The mechanic gave me an awesome price and worked late so he could get it to me before I went to work. I'm super impressed. Found my new mechanic!
Got my garage all cleaned out too. I'll upload a pic when I get a chance. Oh, and also...
Got my garage all cleaned out too. I'll upload a pic when I get a chance. Oh, and also...
richard310
pew pew
Wow I haven't checked in for quite sometime. The Frontier is looking great! Lots of new additions and it just keeps getting better. Glad to hear you got your skid quite quickly as I'm at the point of purchasing skids as well. I was afraid of the dreaded 2+ month wait times but I guess that only applies to their bumpers.
Isn't it a great feeling when you have that great, trustworthy, quick-turnaround mechanic? We've been going to our mechanic for over 20+ years and still counting.
Looks great Wreck!
Isn't it a great feeling when you have that great, trustworthy, quick-turnaround mechanic? We've been going to our mechanic for over 20+ years and still counting.
Looks great Wreck!
wreckdiver1321
Overlander
You're so punny Mike.
Thanks Richard! I'm excited to get the skid on. It will provide some peace of mind for sure. I called Shrock ahead of time to find out what the wait time would be, and they told me they kept their skids in stock instead of making them to order. So that's a plus.
Yeah, I'm super stoked about this new mechanic. They do good work at a great price.
wreckdiver1321
Overlander
Blue Sea auxiliary fuse block and Xscorpion/Kicker battery terminal install
So, a couple of updates:
I've recently been trying to install an auxiliary fuse block under the hood, mainly because I was walking around Cabela's the other day and I found out they sell Blue Sea fuse boxes. So I bought one and went about installing it, which turned out to be a bit of an upgrade for my electrical system.
First thing I did was figure out where I wanted everything to be mounted and bought some screws, washers, and nuts at the hardware store.
With the box mounting location figured out, I set to building the cables. I bought a Kicker 4 AWG stereo wiring kit complete with a 100A inline fuse and holder. Super high quality stuff, and money well spent. I also bought a Kicker battery terminal. Luckily I am an employee at Best Buy, so the whole thing only cost me $40. I cut the wires to length and got the inline fuse set up.
My OE battery terminal was looking pretty rough, and I needed a good way to attach my accessory wiring. This wasn't going to cut it.
Thanks to Glamisdude and his build thread, I was able to place an order for this beauty from Sonic Electronix.
This Xscorpion terminal gave me a great place to mount the factory wiring as well as a great spot to put the positive cable for my fuse block. It will also give me a place to put the positive cable for my winch and a smaller positive cable for the second power distribution block inside the cab. A great bit of kit for less than $20. I installed the new positive terminal and attached the factory wiring with a stainless bolt and a couple of washers I got from the hardware store. Everything got tightened down and I attached the small ground wire to make the built-in voltmeter work. It looks awesome now, and as you can see, I am currently at 12.8 volts.
With the positive side assembled, everything was looking sweet.
The next thing to do was take care of the negative side. Unfortunately, my negative terminal was looking pretty rough too, and there wasn't a good way to mount the accessory box negative cable.
Remember the Kicker terminal I bought? I had intended to use it as a positive terminal and figure out something else for the negative terminal. I couldn't find bolts short enough that were the right size to make it work, so I ordered the Xscorpion terminal and figured I would just return the Kicker one. Then I looked it all over and decided it would make an excellent negative terminal. So a little bit of wire work later, and I've got this:
Nice and beefy, looks good, and very secure. Overall I am super happy with the way everything turned out. It looks great, allows me to run my accessory wiring easily, and should be a much better setup power wise than the stock connections.
Now for a bit of bad news. After I finished up all the wiring stuff and moved the truck, I noticed a small oil spot had formed underneath the truck. After doing some looking around, I found out the valve cover gasket is leaking very slightly. Now for the good news part of the bad news. The mechanic replaced the valve cover gasket when they did the timing chain kit. This means they should cover the repair work without it being a problem for me. I'll drop the truck at the shop Monday morning and hopefully it'll be fixed pretty quickly. Overall I'm pretty optimistic.
So, a couple of updates:
I've recently been trying to install an auxiliary fuse block under the hood, mainly because I was walking around Cabela's the other day and I found out they sell Blue Sea fuse boxes. So I bought one and went about installing it, which turned out to be a bit of an upgrade for my electrical system.
First thing I did was figure out where I wanted everything to be mounted and bought some screws, washers, and nuts at the hardware store.
With the box mounting location figured out, I set to building the cables. I bought a Kicker 4 AWG stereo wiring kit complete with a 100A inline fuse and holder. Super high quality stuff, and money well spent. I also bought a Kicker battery terminal. Luckily I am an employee at Best Buy, so the whole thing only cost me $40.
I cut the wires to length and got the inline fuse set up.
My OE battery terminal was looking pretty rough, and I needed a good way to attach my accessory wiring. This wasn't going to cut it.
Thanks to Glamisdude and his build thread, I was able to place an order for this beauty from Sonic Electronix.
This Xscorpion terminal gave me a great place to mount the factory wiring as well as a great spot to put the positive cable for my fuse block. It will also give me a place to put the positive cable for my winch and a smaller positive cable for the second power distribution block inside the cab. A great bit of kit for less than $20. I installed the new positive terminal and attached the factory wiring with a stainless bolt and a couple of washers I got from the hardware store. Everything got tightened down and I attached the small ground wire to make the built-in voltmeter work. It looks awesome now, and as you can see, I am currently at 12.8 volts.
With the positive side assembled, everything was looking sweet.
The next thing to do was take care of the negative side. Unfortunately, my negative terminal was looking pretty rough too, and there wasn't a good way to mount the accessory box negative cable.
Remember the Kicker terminal I bought? I had intended to use it as a positive terminal and figure out something else for the negative terminal. I couldn't find bolts short enough that were the right size to make it work, so I ordered the Xscorpion terminal and figured I would just return the Kicker one. Then I looked it all over and decided it would make an excellent negative terminal. So a little bit of wire work later, and I've got this:
Nice and beefy, looks good, and very secure. Overall I am super happy with the way everything turned out. It looks great, allows me to run my accessory wiring easily, and should be a much better setup power wise than the stock connections.
Now for a bit of bad news. After I finished up all the wiring stuff and moved the truck, I noticed a small oil spot had formed underneath the truck. After doing some looking around, I found out the valve cover gasket is leaking very slightly. Now for the good news part of the bad news. The mechanic replaced the valve cover gasket when they did the timing chain kit. This means they should cover the repair work without it being a problem for me. I'll drop the truck at the shop Monday morning and hopefully it'll be fixed pretty quickly. Overall I'm pretty optimistic.
Last edited:
mortonm
Expedition Leader
wreckdiver1321
Overlander
Yeah I really like it. I think both of the connectors are pretty awesome, and I'm pretty happy with the electrical system so far. I just need an Odyssey battery and to get the interior accessory stuff sorted and I'll be good to go.
Does the readout on that terminal have an off switch? I'd hate for it to be sitting there glaring away the voltage all the time, when really I just want to check it periodically ... I know it's LED and probably won't draw *that* much, but parasitic draw is parasitic draw ... otherwise, I like it a lot! Either way, big monolithic terminals like that are definitely the way to go. I need to get some on mine ...
wreckdiver1321
Overlander
Hey thanks man! I'm pretty happy with it. I wanted to get everything ready for the extras that are to come. It's gonna make it so nicer when I go to do wiring work. Plus it will make it all nice and organized so I don't have to look at some rat's nest of wiring.
No, it does not. That's something I've thought about too actually, and I might end up hooking up a simple switch on the negative side to make it selectable. For now though, it doesn't seem to bother it at all. One of these days I'll test it out and see how much it drains over the course of a few days.
I really like both of the terminals. They really are beefy and heavy, which I imagine helps out the electrical system in some way.