Jump in the deep end they said, it would be fun they said.. Noob from NM

AngelSpeedFreak

AngelSpeedFreak

Bought an X
Location
New Mexico
Hello everyone, I have been lurking the forum for a couple weeks and just decided to take a dive into the deep end before learning to swim... Hopefully you guys have a life jacket I can borrow if I start to drown.

I am new to the xterra as this is my first. Wife drives a Murano and had a 4 door frontier before it so I recognize much of the suv but still pretty out of my element currently. I've had a couple of Jeep Wranglers but they were pretty stock.

On to the good stuff I guess. Picked up this 2003 Gen1 with 70K miles yesterday. As I said, I really don't know much about it right now but I look forward to learning. I'm probably gonna get some flack for being on the other side of my norm (Bought not Built) but for the price I know there is no way I could build one like this.

What I was told:
Calamini 8" long arm lift
Calamini SAS kit with Dana 44 front (from a 85ish suburban I believe)
538 geared
4:1 case,
ARB rear locker
Lock rite front manual lockers with warn hubs
Sliders
Alcan rear springs
Fox nitrogen front coilovers
Calamini roof rack
Rock bumpers front and rear with hidden warn winch

Pictures of it in action (note this is from the previous owner who is a friend of a lot of my friends (so I don't really know him well, but know of him).












I know there are a couple others from NM on here and I look forward to getting out off road with you soon. I'm pretty excited and scared all at the same time. This thing needs at the very least an alignment as it gets a little shakey at speeds. I think I will need to work on it a bit but thats okay, it will give me a good little bonding which IMO is needed with fun vehicles like this. I'm no master mechanic but I have built a few fun toys in the past and am not afraid to takes tools to it to fit it up.

Thank you very much for any suggestions you may have for me. I gotta learn the ropes, so I hope this is a good place to do so...

Vincent.
 
Cruecible

Cruecible

Titan Swapped / SAS'd
Location
Albuquerque, NM
Welcome in man! I had no clue you meant that you bought this one, I thought you bought another one instead!!! I'm super pumped that you got it and I can hopefully check it out in person! Might need to wipe up the drool though, there will be a lot of that
 
AngelSpeedFreak

AngelSpeedFreak

Bought an X
Location
New Mexico
slantyshanty said:
Holy crap, that was a heck of a buy (depending on how much you paid for it).

Welcome!
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Thank you. Going to be honest, i hope I got a great deal as when I was pricing stuff I got over what I paid for the whole rig. She does need some work but seems like a great base to start on for me.

Cruecible said:
Welcome in man! I had no clue you meant that you bought this one, I thought you bought another one instead!!! I'm super pumped that you got it and I can hopefully check it out in person! Might need to wipe up the drool though, there will be a lot of that
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Haha. Yea, When I saw it in person it seemed to have my name all over me. I look forward to meeting you in person soon. Hopefully I drive you nuts with crazy questions in the meantime. Any good shops in town you would suggest or more importantly suggest I stay away from? It's got a shake that needs to be fixed asap so if I cant see the problem in the next few days I may take it somewhere. Needs a alignment pretty bad so that may do the trick, but we will see. Thanks again for the help and support so far. Going to have to get it registered today and maybe I will snap a few more pics of it. I was just crawling around underneath (pretty neat to be able to do without jacking it up) and I can see lots of rock guards under here, no clue if those are stock or not, but they sure do look beefy.
 
Macland

Macland

Titan Swapped / SAS'd
Founding Member
Location
SW OK & formerly Eastern NM
Too funny that Crue was just pining over this truck on Craigslist the other day. There's some great guys in New Mexico between crucible, rokdaddy, and the resident moderator NMTerras.
 
Cruecible

Cruecible

Titan Swapped / SAS'd
Location
Albuquerque, NM
Yep, good group of local guys. CaptainMorgan_SOS is our other NM SAS (solid axle swap) guy and his is very well built, he lived down in Alamogordo which is a decent drive away. There is an alignment shop that caters more to off road rigs called Wheel Align 2, but I've heard mixed things. I personally took mine to Firestone off Louisiana and Menaul, and for the lifetime alignment price you can't beat it. They've done great work so far on mine. There's always 4 Wheel Parts too, and I think they do alignments.

As always, feel free to ask me anything
 
AngelSpeedFreak

AngelSpeedFreak

Bought an X
Location
New Mexico
Thank you all very much for the warm welcome. Think I am going to drop this off at the 4x4 place on Southern (fingers crossed that is a smart idea) in Rio Rancho tomorrow as the wobble this thing has is not healthy. Hoping its something simple but will let you know when I figure it out. I did realize that the air in the tires are all different but dont think that would cause the issue. Will bring my pump tomorrow to fill em up just in case. The Xterra is crazy dirty too so guess I need to take it for a bath as well. I snapped a few cell phone pictures today, you can see this is a lot different than my other car, lol.





inside needs a good cleaning as well



Random stuff I thought looked cool




Now has a LED light bar instead of the KC lights in the other pics:
 
Cruecible

Cruecible

Titan Swapped / SAS'd
Location
Albuquerque, NM
Damn dude, that's a fierce camaro you have there. Now your username makes sense lol. I know the place in Rio Rancho does some wild huge rigs, so they probably know how to fix a wobble given the monsters they keep out front
 
granitex

granitex

Skid Plates
Founding Member
Location
Columbus OH
Welcome, should be a 44 out of a waggy up front instead of out of a burban, when was the timing belt done? Youwould be under in millage but way over on years, 100k or 7 years, just something to think about. And good way to jump rite in with a serious wheeler.
 
AngelSpeedFreak

AngelSpeedFreak

Bought an X
Location
New Mexico
Cruecible said:
Damn dude, that's a fierce camaro you have there. Now your username makes sense lol. I know the place in Rio Rancho does some wild huge rigs, so they probably know how to fix a wobble given the monsters they keep out front
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Hope so.. I dropped it off this morning for them to take a look. We will see *fingers crossed*

Yea the Camaro I did build not buy. Everything on it was done by me, it's my little hot rod... 746hp/ 711tq, best here in ABQ with our horrible mile high air is an 11.18@128mph. It's a fun daily driver for sure.

granitex said:
Welcome, should be a 44 out of a waggy up front instead of out of a burban, when was the timing belt done? Youwould be under in millage but way over on years, 100k or 7 years, just something to think about. And good way to jump rite in with a serious wheeler.
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My guess is I need to do it. It will be on the very short list. Guess I probably need to schedule 2 since my wife's Murano has about 80K miles on it now.

Prime said:
Awesome rig! We've been seeing it pop up on Craigslist for the last few months. Glad somebody finally picked it up.
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Yea, I actually somewhat know the last 2 owners and hope it's not a basket case, but since it's already in the shop only time will tell. Seems pretty darn cool so far though.

Thank you all for the greetings.
 
AngelSpeedFreak

AngelSpeedFreak

Bought an X
Location
New Mexico
Well, hopefully I will have the wobble issue solved by Monday. Sounds like a lot of loose components underneath and a bad stearling knuckle (plus the alignment that was badly needed). Of cource they keep telling me that to have a nice drive I would have to get differrent tires as swampers are just not meant for the street. Still deciding if I want to do that or not. I had swampers on one of my old Jeep's and do remember a little bit of a floating feeling but I drove it for over a year with no problems. Guess we will see.
 
Timrich

Timrich

Super Duper Moderator
Founding Member
Location
Central FL
I'd get the wobble fixed then see how it drives before swapping tires. Just my two cents. Loving the camaro by the way!
 
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AngelSpeedFreak

AngelSpeedFreak

Bought an X
Location
New Mexico
My thoughts exactly. Love the way these meaty tires look so I'd hate to change them (and they are pretty much brand new). I will pick it up Monday ans see how it drives, decide from then. Thanks for the compliments on the Camaro. It's not for eveyone and since it has an Air Ride, it can go really low... Some people love that, others hate it.

 
Cruecible

Cruecible

Titan Swapped / SAS'd
Location
Albuquerque, NM
gobble that thing is gorgeous. Did you get it dipped, wrapped, or painted entirely? If it was dipped or wrapped, you get it done locally or do it yourself
 
Cruecible

Cruecible

Titan Swapped / SAS'd
Location
Albuquerque, NM
That's awesome. I've dipped a few small things on my truck but nothing major. That came out good. Makes me wonder... Same treatment for your new beast coming soon?
 
AngelSpeedFreak

AngelSpeedFreak

Bought an X
Location
New Mexico
Cruecible said:
Makes me wonder... Same treatment for your new beast coming soon?
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Currently I don't have any plans to do so, but never say never I guess. I do plan on taking this off road once I figure out where that is.... and I'm not thinking that plastidip would holdup to that kind of abuse. On the camaro nothing really ever touches it so it holds fine. The xterra I see a lot more abuse in her future.

bottobro said:
Welcome dude. That is one sick rig.
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Fromfrontier2Xterra said:
Man that's a nice rig and setup. Welcome.

Sent via my walkie talkie
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Golf286 said:
Welcome to the Nation from Colorado!!! Damn nice rig you have there sir..
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Thank you all very much. I look forward learning more about it as I go.
 
CaptainMorgan_SOS

CaptainMorgan_SOS

Need Bigger Tires
Location
Alamogordo, NM
Welcome! Nice rig! I've been eyeing it on Craigslist for a little while now; glad to see someone picked it up and decided to join on here. As some of the others said, you've got rokdaddy, NMTerras and Cruecible all up there in ABQ. I'd like to setup another trip to head up there and maybe do some wheeling out there. Or get you guys to come down south... there are some pretty nice trails out here.
 
NMTerras

NMTerras

Suspension Lift
Location
New Mexico
Welcome man - I just saw your PM, too - been busy, sorry!

Out of an abundance of caution, your shake/wobble might be more than just loose parts. Not to be an alarmist, but you may be talking about "Death Wobble" (Which can be caused by a number of things) That calmini SAS kit is designed for 33s, and that one is running at least 35s (37s?). There are others on this site way more knowledgeable about this than I. But, I do know Grandpa X, Casper, and Alpine X can probably tell you from personal experience what to be looking out for with your rig. Your bad steering knuckle may be it, you might also have geometry issues.

Regardless, even if you have to put some more money into it, you definitely saved some money buying a built rig. The tradeoff is to what extent are you going to have to pay to fix someone else's problems, but you'll still probably end up on the plus side.

This rig has popped up for sale several times, so I'm definitely curious to find out what's going on with it.

One more thing - don't drive it on the highway at speed until you know you have that wobble issue fixed!
 
AngelSpeedFreak

AngelSpeedFreak

Bought an X
Location
New Mexico
Thanks. Yea, I drove it home on the back roads as I wasn't gonna get on the freeway... Its at the shop now getting looked at and will let you know how it drives when I get ti back. Should be done today I think, but I'm not new to modified cars/ trucks/ etc, so know how other things come up. I did not buy this with the intentions of being a daily driver, but I would like to be able to drive it to work when the weather looks bad. 2 miles to and from work so nothing major. Safety first though. Hopefully the stuff they found along with an alignment will fix it up.
 
AngelSpeedFreak

AngelSpeedFreak

Bought an X
Location
New Mexico
well, $600 later and still doesn't drive very good. Still has a bit of a shake and pulls to the left when I brake. Guess I need to dive into this thing myself and start trying to figure it out :(

Sure does look good though, lol.
 
Cruecible

Cruecible

Titan Swapped / SAS'd
Location
Albuquerque, NM
Sorry to hear they couldn't sort it out while it was in there. Hopefully it's something simple like balancing the tires and new brake pads and fluid
 
AngelSpeedFreak

AngelSpeedFreak

Bought an X
Location
New Mexico
It drives better but still nothing like a normal car. I'm going to drive it a bit (no highway) and start looking for the culprit. Probably is the tires, but man I love the way they look. May end up buying some more street friendly ones and keep these for when I plan on going on a trek.

I think that is probably the best bet. I daily drove a Jeep Wrangler on 33' super swampers a few years ago and those didn't really give me much problems so I'm a little unsure why these would. Will get it figured out.
 
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