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NoNo dont be confused they were hers, i really like the frills and lace and the way my balls fall out of them :rofl2:

and she accepted them back
eeewww

buy her some new ones ya tight arse:rofl:
and get some for yourself
 
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Tried mine today, changed from 1st to 2nd at 4000 rpm. Wasnt in low range or 4wd but on a long steep bitumen road.
 
Over the past 6 months or so I was considering the STX 550 as the next 4wd to replace my D22, after reading this thread and a number of other about the 550 I have finally bitten the bullet and bought a brand new Ranger XLT auto. Only down side is I have to wait till August for delivery.
 
I have a mate with a 550 who is kicking up a massive fuss with Nissan and demanding the Hilll descent control from the Pathfinder be installed as his 1Ton caravan can't be taken off road for safety reasons after it nearly pushed him off a cliff on the first 4x4 outing he went on due to him expecting the car to hold gear then him having to jump on the brakes when it upshifted.
He's pretty tenacious, he'll get something out of them, in the mean time, I am going to call and abuse them for a **** product and see if we can get anywhere.
I'll see if he wants to look in here but he's not really a forum person.

Rich
 
We're havin' ourselves a muster soon. I know it's still a little bit away, but it's a perfect opportunity to get the signatures together.

Alternatively, find a central person to coordinate getting the signatures in each area and go on a day/coffee run together in each area - the coordinator for that area mails the letter to the next.

These things are easy to organise if everyone wants to put the time into it.
 
As we all know the V6 7 speed transmission is calibrated so that it upshifts at approx 1500 rpm when in 1st in manual mode, which is frustrating and it also has the unsafe behaviour of up-shifting when descending down hills. I have found you can fix this by implementing a work around that allows 4 low to be selected and manual mode to work as it should.
Basically the Navara’s have an electric transfer actuator device , which is a rotary actuator that rotates the shift rod inside the transfer case. There is a DC 12V motor and plastic gearbox arrangement that allows the shift rod to rotate through ¾ of a turn total travel, from 2H to 4LOW.
When the transfer case is in 2H the slot in the shift rod is in a vertical position. When the transfer case shifts to 4H it does so by rotating the shift rod ¼ of a turn clockwise. When the transfer case shifts to 4LOW it rotates another ½ of a turn clockwise.
On the transfer case actuator housing there is a connector which has 7 wires. The orange wire (pin23) goes to one of the motor terminals and the grey wire (pin24) goes to the other terminal.
When 12V +ve is applied to the grey wire and 12V gnd to the orange wire the transfer case actuator moves from 2H to 4H to 4LOW. (which takes less than 3 seconds, and should only occur when the engine is idling, the transmission is in neutral and your foot is on the brake)
Similarly when when 12V +ve is applied to the orange wire and 12V gnd to the grey wire the transfer case actuator moves back from 4LOW to 4H to 2H. (which again takes less than 3 seconds)
So what I have done is to cut the orange and grey wires and run wires up into the cabin, and fitted momentary switches so that I can change the motor polarity and manually shift the transfer case from 2H to 4LOW or back from 4LOW to 2H. (This works because the shift rod has fixed mechanical stops at each end of travel so that the motor stalls when it reaches either end of the ¾ range of motion. )
Effectively this is exactly the same as manually pulling on a transfer case lever for a 4WD that has one like a Patrol or D22.
Basically you never touch the 4WD selector on the dash from the 2H position as you are just applying electrical power to the transfer case actuator to initiate a manual change without the computer knowing.

So the procedure is:
drive to a 4WD track, and when you want to shift to 4LOW.
Follow these steps to select 4LOW
1. Let engine idle
2. Shift the transmission to neutral position
3. Put your foot on the brake.
4. Press momentary switches for 3 seconds only, (with the polarity 12V+ve on grey wire This will select 4LOW)
Drive around in manual mode or auto and everything behaves just how it should.

When you want to go back to 2H
Follow these steps to select 2H
1. Let engine idle
2. Shift the transmission to neutral position
3. Put your foot on the brake.
4. Press momentary switches for 3 seconds only with the polarity 12V+ve on orange wire (This will select 2H)

I have been using this for several months and I will soon be adding a couple more switches so that I can set everything back to std with a flip of a switch inside the cab, (which is good as this is the only way you can use 4H mode.) or press momentary switches and get a true low range manual mode where I can sit on 4000rpm and the transmission will stay in first gear if desired.


See pics below.

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I'm pretty positive that you'd be able to make a unit that plugged into the back of the transfer case, taking the standard plug in the back of your new unit, and the new unit had the connections within it to run up into the cabin. This would allow you to maintain integrity of the electrical connections and remove the device without Nissan knowing it was ever installed.

Two switches ought to do it. Here's something that ought to work. Switch on the left is a standard DPDT like this one from Jaycar. It basically just disables the right hand switch.

Switch on the right is a centre-off DPDT switch like this one from Jaycar.

This circuit provides no automatic cut-off or other protection. Really, there should be a fuse (size calculated by monitoring the current draw of the TC servo motor) on the input side.

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Tony that's a perfect solution.

I had thought of going to the wreckers to get a second hand TCU loom with the connector on it, and doing what you say.

As long as you only press the switch on the right for 3 seconds everything is perfect. (motor stalls for a short period and draws higher current, when it hits the mechanical end stop)


I'm going to order the Jaycar switches and fit it to a plastic case kept in the centre console. I don't really feel like cutting holes in my centre console.

_
 
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Is there a way to wire it up so that you can still go from 2H to 4Hi normally with the selector switch then wire it to over ride and go into 4Low so it thinks it's still in 4Hi?
 
That is awesome work though Raptorthumper. been trying to find someone who thinks outside the box but no-one will touch it. even went to Unichip to see if they could or know someone that could re-program the ecu.
 
Sure, Brad - just like it's drawn above, no different.

Imagine the 2HI position is at 12 o'clock. At 3 o'clock you're in 4HI and go past 6 to get to 9 o'clock and you're in 4LO. That's 3 quarters of the clock - covered by the servo in 3 seconds.

So, move the left switch to ''Manual" and hold the right switch back for 2 seconds.

Does the manual shifting work in 4HI?

All we need to do is source plugs that we can use to make this easy to add rather than getting underneath and soldering.
 
Tony,

Actually the best way is to run 4 wires up along side the handbrake cable. (an orange and grey going up from the TCU computer and an orange and grey going down to the motor)

On your switch on the left, if you add another orange and grey wire when the switch is in the down position everything would be connected as std.

ie the orange and grey wires from the transfer control unit computer come up into the cab through the switch and then back down to the motor terminals.

(essentially you have just added 1 or 2 metres to the length)

I can't be bothered drawing it but it's simply just adding 2 wires on the unconnected terminals on the switch on the left.

I ordered some switches today, as my setup is a bit jerry rigged as I am getting power from a cigarette lighter in the console and only plugging it in when I want to switch in and out of low range.


But if having full control in low range is important to you, then this workaround works perfectly.
 
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