I recently purchased a RSB from a fellow .org member. The RSB apparently came from a 2000 Maxima, so I assumed that the hardware would be the same for my 2001. However, when I tried to install it last night, I ran into some problems with the mounting hardware fittment.
I found that the brake lines on the rear trailing arms were in the way of the flat brackets, and I couldn't get the brackets to fit with the lines there.
Below I have some pictures of the hardware that was included with bar. There are two U-bolt assemblies that bolt the bar to the rear axle, as well as two plate-assemblies that bolt the bar to the rear trailing arms.
I read Audatious' write-up on VQPower, and apparently the 5th Gen hardware differs from the 4th Gen hardware. The 5th Gen's have U-bolt assemblies for the rear trailing arms instead of the flat-plate assemblies.
Here is the link:
http://www.vqpower.com/v2/readarticl...article_id=116
It's right in Step 2 there.
Is there any way that these brackets (My brackets) could have came from a 5th Gen Maxima? Judging by Audatious' write-up, I have the 4th Gen mounting hardware? It seems strange to me that I would have this fittment issue when trasnferring form one 5th Gen to another if I had the correct hardware.
Will I have to replace the flat-brackets with U-bolts, or is there another way to make this fit? (I haven't received an answer by pm about the actual year of the Maxima that this came from yet)
If I do have to replace them, what size is the u-bolt for the 5th Gen's (I am assuming that I will have to thread the u-bolt further toward the bend, since the rear trailing arm is not very thick compared to the unthreaded depth of most u-bolts).
Anyway, here are the pictures of the hardware that I have:
And here is a picture that I found on the forum that kind of outlines where my fittment issue is. The "Flat-plate" hardware would have to go where the "U-bolt" is in this picture, but there is clearance issues from where the lines are bolted to the trailing arms there.
http://www.moodym.com/maxima/tech/im...idebracket.jpg
Any help would be greatly appreciated.