I know when I was searching the forums on this topic I didn't find a whole lot. So I thought I would post something for those who are (or might be) interested. I installed the L&P Center link and Double Sheer Idler Arm (DSIA) today. I took a few pics so those who might like to see what it looks like can see:





As you can see from the pics the system basically takes the stock center link and replaces the pressed in joints that wear out with 4 Teflon-lined hardened-steel ball-end bearings. The Idler Arm and Pitman Arm can be replaced as well with their double sheer design, which is very much like SLR's. You can replace both the idler arm and the pitman arm, only one of them, or just utilize their center link with the stock components. A nice set up if you are on a budget and want to piece a steering upgrade system together gradually. However in order to use the stock parts the holes connecting the IA and PA to the center link will have to be drilled out to 5/8". They provide two grade 8 5/8" bolts and hardware with the center link. Also available is an idler arm brace, but the Calmini one works (as seen in the above pics) so likely the SLR and AC ones will work also if you already have those. The install is fairly simple, but does take a good portion of the day if doing things by yourself. Lee and Phil (aka L&P) were very helpful and responded to e-mails within a reasonable time frame. From order to delivery was about 2 weeks. In develpoment is a set of bronze bushings to replace the OEM plastic ones. Here's a link to their website for more information:

http://www.lpperformance.com/Steering.htm

hope this info helps anyone searching on this topic. In case anyone is wondering, no I am not a spokesperson for the company. I just feel that their product is good and wanted to present a first person review of the system. After I have some time to test it out on the road (and off) I will provide a "road report" if anyone is interested.

Nice work!! Always good to see more products and more companies doing stuff for Xterras!!

Nice

Thanks for the info. Looking forward to your updates.

So does this mean that L&P is back in business? I remember hearing some stories a little while back on nissan4wheelers that some had purchased items and never got them. Please post up if this has changed, I hope so and I hope it works well.

yeah L&P is up and running again, thanks for the pics, I hadn't seen any pictures of the system yet, so I'm glad to see what I'm getting. I am going to order the CL,IA, IA brace and PA from them. I have been talking to phil online for the past couple of nights about his system.

if I remember correctly L&P were having problems because Phil had been really sick, and they couldn't get everything. Phil says it takes about two weeks to get the system back, 2-3 days in the shop and then shipping both ways. I'm looking forward to getting the system, and I'll update how my experience with L&P is as well.

Why is everything aftermarket for the X in BABY BLUE??? Isn't there any other color????

this is just a guess, but I assume he probably had L&P paint it that color so it matched the rest of the steering. that might just be the way it comes. :rolleyes:

I asked if it had to be that color and Phil said they would paint it any color you wanted or not at all. I really don't think "calmini" blue would look very good on a black truck, so I'm am going to request a different color.(red if at all possible)

Actually that was the color that they sent it as. I didn't request it one way or another. However it does match the idler arm brace as well as a portion of my rear swing away tire carrier bumper.

I've had a few days to drive it around town. Steering is a little stiff now, but supposedly this is from the teflon bearings and will loosen up with a little break in time. Hopefully it is that and not an over adjustment of the worm gear on my part. When I got the truck back from the alignment shop there was a good 3/4" of play in the steering wheel. I adjusted the worm gear in small increments until the play was gone. I guess we'll see after a few weeks.

yeah let us know when you have a full tested review...I'm interested in this system.

Tom

Gezus Lee or Phil (whoever's posting at L&P)...

Can y'all find another color to use?? Like maybe a nice red, or a cool green color. Anything other than blue!! There's already a company that has that as their color, so it's hard to recognize y'alls work without having to look twice.

The other company's paint falls off though, so eventually, you'd be able to tell.



(My blue stuff is already all painted black by now...)

I belive mud sticks to any color paint.....

How much will the whole system (idler, pitman, centerlink & bushings) cost for a group buy of ten?

When will the bushings be available?

On my old dodge, there was a "drop" pitman arm to correct for a front end lift. Would a drop pitman & idler arm help for the lifted? It would put the end links back to almost flat, similar to factory...

No, it wouldn't help. Because if you lower the centerlink, that lowers the tie rods back to flat. Which means they won't be in the same plane as the control arms, which means you'll get bumpsteer out the mofo!

Bump!

Any reviews of this steering? BJones?

So far it's doing well. Still a little stiff however, although I haven't been driving it that often (vacation and ride motorcycle in nice weather). Definitely took care of the slop in the steering that I had. According to Lee this stiffness is normal and will be "smooth as silk" once it breaks in. I'm hoping this is soon as it's a little too stiff for my likes right now. The steering wheel won't center on it's own after a turn so you have to steer it back to straight. It is loosening up, but slower than I would like. I haven't had the opportunity to wheel with it yet so no off-road review yet. All-in-all it's a lot better than what I had. I think once it is broken in completely it will be great.

I got mine ordered so far service has been great, I think I talked to phil 5 time before ever ordered and he as been great. should be here before long, I'll update as I go along as well.

Yes, you could try SLR.

I've had mine in for about a month now... was very stiff to start off, and its finally loosened up to the new car/truck feel...

I have wheeled it a couple times so far and no slack at all...

I love the system!!

or you could ask lee or phil to paint it a different color like I did. :rolleyes:

Well after a few hundred more miles I decided to loosen up the steering gear box adjuster screw a little and that took care of the tightness that I was experiencing in the steering. It is now "smooth as silk" as Lee and Phil would put it, but rock solid as well. My only complaint about L&P would be the post sale customer feedback. When I placed my order I sent in a spare center link and Idler arm to use as my cores. At the time that I placed the order I asked if I could send in the existing CL and IA that were currently on my truck as "store credit" toward the pitman arm and bronze bushings when they were released which Phil said I could do. Well since installing my steering system I have sent several e-mails about placing the order for their double sheer pitman arm (DSPA) and pre-ordering the bronze bushings using my OEM CL and IA as credit. However I have yet to recieve a response to this. I would just place the order over their web site, however I don't know how I would go about recieving the credit that was offered. Despite the lack of response to my inquiries I still plan to order the parts as soon as I can get in touch with someone.

I'll give a review of the off-road performance after this weekends ECXC.

Brian

One of them had a death in the family recently, and one is suffering from an illness so they have been *busy* doing less than fun things lately. Be patient, they'll get to you.

Stupid question here... Is the cost $250(listed on their site) before or after the core? So would it cost me $400 to get the centerlink until I sent them my core? I am confused

The total cost is $400, $250 for the CL and $150 for the core charge. If you want the Idler and Pitman Arms as well you have to send the core in first as they don't have enough lying around to have them pre-made and ready to ship.

Oh, I didn't know about the death in the family. I was aware of the illness. I'm cool, as I said I'm willing to wait to get the DSPA. I don't really need it as I don't see the OEM pitman arm being a weak point in the steering system. As things are now it is working fine. I just wanted to give a thorough review of my experience with them thus far.

Well I finally got a chance to really test this steering off road this weekend at ECXC and it performed flawlessly. I was mostly running green 2-3 and Blue 1 trails with plenty of rock garden obstacles, off camber hills climbs/descents, rutted mud pits, and so forth and the steering was never an issue for me. Only time will tell the durability of this product, but so far both on road and off road it has been great. One was given away at the silent auction Saturday night as it was donated by L&P so they as a company are also supporting our Nissan Xterra events.

Brian

I got mine in today. I guess they had a little delay with some of the supplies, but kept me up to date about it.

I will install it this weekend

I am in the works of ordering this system, just been doing email tag. I really wish I could just call them, but I dont think they have a number to call unless I am missing it. I am very happy with the informative email I got back. I think this will be a good system.

So I have been able to talk with Lee a couple of times on the phone, and I went ahead and got the Centerlink, idlerarm & brace ordered. Sent my cores today!

So did you install it?

Got mine installed yesterday, and my truck steer's like a dream. Mine is not by any means to tight either. It is nice and solid steering.

*NOTE: We had to cut a notch out of the brace so the idlerarm would'nt hit.

:: bump :: how are these holding up??

Mine is still going strong. Been out a couple of times with it and put a ton of miles on it, still nice ant tight.

Mine survived Moab and I wasn't exactly nice to it The only thing I've broken since I installed the L&P steering is a tie rod adjuster, which is what I would have to say is now the weak link in the steering system.

Speaking of which...

Nate Murray just completed Four Wheeler Magazine: Real Truck Club Challenge this past weekend at the Badlands (Attica, Indiana), running the L&P steering system. It held up like a dream, with no problems whatsoever.

How did Nate do? Any pics yet?

You should add these to your L&P like I did.........

I'm not too ashamed to say with the L&P stage 3 and the tie rod from Independent4x it makes one bullet-proof steering system

Who's UCA do you have on there? (SLR??)

rancho

The more I look at your tra Ryan, the more I'm convinced to drop the Calmini steering and go with the L&P and Independent 4X setup...will probably be a couple of more months though...bulletproof is probably an understatement though

Won my setup at ECXC last year and its holding up great, no problems after the breakin period. I've wheeled easy, hard, and holy crap why didn't something break. Love my L&P.

Do you have a link to the company that makes that tie rod assembly? I have 3 out of 4 TRE's with torn boots so I need to replace them soon. I'm currently running SLR's TRAs which have worked fine, but for comparison sake it be nice to have another choise for the TREs other than the stock Nissan stuff.

BTW, my L&P system has been great. I have absolutely no complaints about it so far. It has performed well both on and off road and I'm very happy that I sold my Calmini system in order to buy this. I'm sure I would have had to replace my idler arm bushing several times by now had I kept the Calmini setup.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by bdjones72:
[QB]Do you have a link to the company that makes that tie rod assembly? I have 3 out of 4 TRE's with torn boots so I need to replace them soon. I'm currently running SLR's TRAs which have worked fine, but for comparison sake it be nice to have another choise for the TREs other than the stock Nissan stuff.

BTW, my L&P system has been great. I have absolutely no complaints about it so far. It has performed well both on and off road and I'm very happy that I sold my Calmini system in order to buy this. I'm sure I would have had to replace my idler arm bushing several times by now had I kept the Calmini setup.
QUOTE]

here is the link for the post from a month ago when I got them.....it explains what I had to do and gives you the link to Independent4x....when you call them just tell Matt (the owner) what they're for and he'll help ya out Beefy tie rods

Thanks, but $225 is a bit steep for me. I guess I'll be sticking with the OEM TRE's and my SLR TRA's. Thanks for the info though.