MQ steering knuckle swap.

Post by **Wendle** » Tue Jul 29, 2003 11:58 am

I am swapping MQ steering knuckles onto my GQ front axle to gain some clearance and hopefully stop me from bending a tie-rod every trip out.
I want to post pictures of how it is all done as it is hard to get knowledge about nissan stuff, and I believe this is a good cheap modification which fixes up a dire problem with the standard setup.

Thanks go to Pete Christie for giving me the info I needed to get started.

Here is a picture of the tie-rod in its stock location and the distance from the ground. Note that it sits lower than the housing, which is very dumb.

Post by **Wendle** » Tue Jul 29, 2003 12:02 pm

Here is the driverside assembly with the MQ knuckle fitted. In the plan photo you can see the shim that has been machined and fitted to the arm. The arm has had the taper reamed out backwards to flip the ball joint ot the top. This may prove to be a mistake as I am now worried about clearance to the underside of the panhard rod.

Post by JK » Tue Jul 29, 2003 12:21 pm

Great tech! Keep it coming!

Post by **Wendle** » Tue Jul 29, 2003 12:39 pm

OK. here is a comparison of the two knuckles. They are actually the same size. The MQ one looks smaller in the pic for some reason.
These are both drivers side knuckles.

Post by **Wendle** » Tue Jul 29, 2003 12:43 pm

The only other major part that needs to be taken from the MQ axle is the cage section of the caliper, as the mounting offset is different. It is just a matter of taking the pads out, sliding the cage off the guide pins and sliding the MQ cage onto the GQ caliper.
The MQ caliper bolts must be used to fix the whole lot back onto the knuckle, as they are a slightly different length.
Here is a comparison of the two, you can see the different offset to the mounting face.

Post by **Gabriel** » Tue Jul 29, 2003 9:25 pm

Hi,

Very interesting ideea...I didn't know that the MQ knuckles are fitting into the GQ...;-))

I have the same set-up as you have (5 link front) and now I have to put the 5.1 gears...so I'll be glad to have all the info you can give me.

According with my opinion, the panhard rod will don't work between the new tie-rod and the axle. (it will touch the tie-rod). I'm very curious to see how you will fix the roblem...good luck!!!

And please keep us informed about your progress..;-))

Regards, Gabriel

Post by **Wendle** » Wed Jul 30, 2003 8:02 am

yep, the tie-rod and the panhard will be close, but I think it will just clear, my axle is moved forward a bit which helps, I can stretch it forward a bit more if need be as well..

Got the passenger side assembled last night and the tie-rod and draglink cut and ready to be tapped for the ends.

Oh yeah, I forgot to thank 2CAR for coming around the other night and hitting the spanners with the strength of 1000 northsiders...

Post by **bj on roids** » Wed Jul 30, 2003 11:26 am

That looks great Carlton, also ROFL at the strength of 100 Northsiders!

Sounds like your Romanian friend may have done the conversion aswell or not?!

Post by **Wendle** » Wed Jul 30, 2003 11:45 am

bj on roids wrote:Sounds like your Romanian friend may have done the conversion aswell or not?!

That's open for individual interpretation

The steering links are tapped and ready for me to pick up, so I'll know if I have been wasting my time with this little operation by tonight.

2CAR - It only took me 1.5 hours to strip and rebuild that whole side last night. And the lock washer worked properly this time

Post by **big red** » Wed Jul 30, 2003 10:18 pm

hmm, wonder if they'll fit a GU ?

Post by A1 » Wed Jul 30, 2003 10:51 pm

Geeez Wendle you should change your site name to GQ GURO cause ya truck certainly is gettin all the mods

But seriuosly its great to have some 1 that is willing to help out particulary with doin mods your help and info is certainly appreciated but ffffffffffaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrkkkkk it must bee cold sittin out ther front of your place workin on ya rig :shock:

So wen ya comin to newy to help with doin this to my little truck

Post by **Wendle** » Thu Jul 31, 2003 7:32 am

It is extremely cold sitting in my driveway working on my truck! I couldn't use the hose to blast the ice of my windscreen this morning as the water in the hose was frozen along its entire length :roll:

Anyway, it is all together and drives nice on the road, I will have to flex it up both ways with the forklift tonight and make sure everything clears as I am still a bit suspect on the tie-rod hitting the panhard. After a few little adjustments (castor) and finding somewhere to mount a damper it should be spot on.

Post by **bj on roids** » Thu Jul 31, 2003 8:43 am

Out of curiosity how much all up does your GQ high steer owe you???

Post by **Wendle** » Thu Jul 31, 2003 8:47 am

$160 dollars for machining
Diesel for the work ute to drive to penrith and pick up the axle.
1 pizza and probably about 4 beers for 2CAR the other night.

Post by **2car** » Thu Jul 31, 2003 1:03 pm

I was surprised at how easy the whole thing went together. Very neat conversion, but only worth doing if you can move the axle forward or modify the panhard hanger location on a standard height or slightly lifted rig. A big spring lift seems to be giving good clearance in this instance. To avoid the panhard clash there may be benefit in having the tie rod in the std. MQ position as opposed to behind and hanging down like stock GQ.

After I demolished the pizza

we went outside and there was ice on the roof of my car - at like 11:00pm.

Did you get that lockwasher to bend outwards? I still dont think that they are designed to do that, but it is extra security.

Post by **Wendle** » Thu Jul 31, 2003 1:07 pm

yep did it last night on the first attempt, it's easy when you know how.

Apparentely a couple years later they changed to a system where there is two grub screws that tap into the lock nut and pass through two holes in the lock washer.

Post by **MKPatrolGuy** » Thu Jul 31, 2003 1:10 pm

I think that came out on the GQ Series 2

Post by **timo_ed** » Thu Jul 31, 2003 2:49 pm

Wendle, did you fit MQ swivel hubs to your GQ housing or have you just swaped-and-spun your GQ hubs around?

I'm interested to hear how yours drives. In particular, how it corners at speed, and how your front tyres wear. I was thinking about doing this mod after talking with Pete, but got scared off as it upsets the Ackermans geometry, affecting the toe-out on turns.

Rgds,
Tim

Post by **Wendle** » Thu Jul 31, 2003 3:13 pm

These are MQ hubs on the GQ housing.
I didn't want to reverse the hubs like pete has done because of ackerman problems, the way I see it the ackerman is good on an MQ so apart from the extra width, it should be pretty good with MQ knuckles on a GQ.
Nissan don't get it that spot on anyway, they use the same knuckles on two model variants with ~600mm wheelbase difference.
Seemed OK driving to work this morning, up to about 110kmh, I was very cautious when I took it out for the first drive last night though..

Post by **timo_ed** » Thu Jul 31, 2003 3:19 pm

tops... good to know the MQ ones fit.

Post by **Wendle** » Thu Jul 31, 2003 3:31 pm

by eye it looks like there is a little more negative(?) camber ie: \--0----/
But it couldn't be much, pete and mick both seem to have put a lot of miles on their trucks with these knuckles fitted.

Post by **timo_ed** » Thu Jul 31, 2003 4:03 pm

\---o---/ positive camber
/---o---\ negative camber

A little bit of positive camber on the front wheels is good.

Post by **Wendle** » Thu Jul 31, 2003 4:08 pm

Cool, thanks..
I should get a printout from a wheel aligners machine and see what it all actually comes to instead of doing camber by eye, caster by eye, toe by tape measure :crazyeyes:

Post by **Wendle** » Thu Jul 31, 2003 5:10 pm

It works, everything clears.
Drivers side compressed, and details of what I was worried about:

Post by **Wendle** » Thu Jul 31, 2003 5:12 pm

Passenger side compressed:

Post by **Gabriel** » Thu Jul 31, 2003 11:41 pm

Excelent job, congratulations!!!
When I said "same set-up", I mean the 5-link front suspension, with equal lenght traction bars...BTW: yours traction bars are EXACTLLY the same lenght upper and lower bars? (beacuase mines are just 5 mm shorter the upper ones - rotating the ball-joints-...to clear the existing tie-rod at compression...which affect my front drive-line' angle..)

I'll install the same set-up like your one, definitelly;-)))

I'm going for hollidays for 2 weeks...see you then!!

Good luck, Gabriel

Post by **bj on roids** » Fri Aug 01, 2003 8:28 am

Wendle wrote:These are MQ hubs on the GQ housing.
I didn't want to reverse the hubs like pete has done because of ackerman problems, the way I see it the ackerman is good on an MQ so apart from the extra width, it should be pretty good with MQ knuckles on a GQ.
Nissan don't get it that spot on anyway, they use the same knuckles on two model variants with ~600mm wheelbase difference.
Seemed OK driving to work this morning, up to about 110kmh, I was very cautious when I took it out for the first drive last night though..

they use the same steering arms on toyotas with similar differences in width (upt to 4") and up to 30" difference in wheelbase, so Wendle is correct it is not spot on. Just a happy medium for the manufacturer.

Post by **2car** » Fri Aug 01, 2003 12:59 pm

bj on roids wrote:
Wendle wrote:These are MQ hubs on the GQ housing.
I didn't want to reverse the hubs like pete has done because of ackerman problems, the way I see it the ackerman is good on an MQ so apart from the extra width, it should be pretty good with MQ knuckles on a GQ.
Nissan don't get it that spot on anyway, they use the same knuckles on two model variants with ~600mm wheelbase difference.
Seemed OK driving to work this morning, up to about 110kmh, I was very cautious when I took it out for the first drive last night though..

they use the same steering arms on toyotas with similar differences in width (upt to 4") and up to 30" difference in wheelbase, so Wendle is correct it is not spot on. Just a happy medium for the manufacturer.

And at speed you wont be using much steering defelection, so the Ackerman problems would be very difficult to detect.

Post by **duncan** » Fri Dec 05, 2003 7:15 pm

Wendle after constantly bendind my rear track bar im very interested in this set up how is it still performing .Could you list what parts and any hassles that you had did the MQ knuckles bolt straight up and are the tapers for the steering arm from the pitman arm the same on MQ and GQ
thanks inadvance

Post by **Gabriel** » Fri Dec 05, 2003 10:41 pm

Hi Wandle,

As I have my car in a service from 4 months..;-(((, making a lot of mods, I think is time to apply your set-up...

And I was looking to your panhard rod, that is a straight tube...and now I know why: in the right hand drive cars, the panhard rod dosen't need to clear the diff housing, as it happens to my left hand drive GQ..

So, here it comes my big concern: what is the distance, at the closest point, between the new tie-rod (MQ) and the diff housing?!? Because in that space I will have to pass both tie-rod and panhard rod...If the space will be not enough, I'll have to relocate the panhard rod...

...because I really need this set-up...why? after changing the gears with the 5.1, the front diff housing (in the back of the axle) is bigger, and the pinion is coming from the diff centre, is not anymore a high pinion, as in the original GQ...consequentelly, the tie-rod can't be anymore a straight tube, but a curved modified one (as in the Mercedes G)..which means the strenght is not so good as with a straight tube on the tie-rod...I don't know if I make myself clear, but I hope soo..;-)))

Q: how big is the space between the new tie-rod and the diff housing, in front of the axle?!

Many thanks in advance, Gabriel

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MQ steering knuckle swap.

MQ steering knuckle swap.

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