XPLORx4

Before you remove your diff and tear into it, remove the manual hub and check the CV on your passenger side. It's possible that the CV axle broke and is binding inside the spindle. That's a lot easier to fix than the front diff. If the CV seems good, then confirm it by separating the CV axle from the diff (remove those 6 12mm bolts). If the diff doesn't turn after the CV is removed, the front diff may indeed be toast. If the diff is busted, what are your plans? Hopefully the ring and pinion are still undamaged by bits of broken diff parts, and you just have a busted spider gear, side gear or diff carrier. If so, consider installing an ARB locker, which replaces the entire carrier.

Get the AE Series 100. They'll be lighter than the steel Cragars. What size wheel are you planing to get? 15x7, 15x8, 16x7, 16x8? Depending on the wheel size and offset, you should have no problem fitting a 31" diameter tire. I just replaced my 15" ProComp steel wheels (similar to the Cragar soft 8) and 32" Goodyear MTRs with a set of Ultra 175 Rogue 16x8 wheels, with 265/75R16 BFG MT KM2. They fit great.

Rick13- That's an interesting piece of information above! Thanks for sharing the info from your owners manual. The 97 owners manual and even the sales brochure (which I still have!) both say the tank holds 21.1 gallons. Nissan must have changed the way they measure the fuel capacity or changed something about the tank in the later models. But either way, 21.1 gal - 20 7/8 gal = about a quart of gas, not really enough to make a statistically significant difference in how far you can drive after the low fuel light glows.

Unless you plan to purchase a lot of extra strut parts (that typically don't need to be replaced) at considerable extra cost, you can't just do a total strut assembly swap like you're thinking. All parts, except for the strut bearing and the strut top mount from the old strut assembly are 100% reusable when replacing the springs and/or struts. See this post and the one following it that shows the parts you need. Here's an example of a strut top mount that needs to be replaced. The hole should be mostly round, and shaped like a "D" for the strut shaft, not oblong like this:

You really only need to replace 54325 (strut bearing). If 54320 is worn (interior of rubber bushing is obviously cracked, or you can see the inside of the top hat moving around a lot when you bounce the suspension (you'll need to remove the little rubber cap), then replace it. If 54050M (dust boot/bumper) is cracked, replace that, too. Otherwise, save your money; you don't really need to replace any of the rest of the parts.

LOL, dude, you don't need an extra cooling fan, you need PONTOONS! Nicely done, though. Persistence paid off!

Go to crutchfield.com, choose car audio, and enter your year, make, model info. Then you will see lots of options. Crutchfield has installation kits that drop right into your dash opening. The factory audio system is a double-din opening, but if you buy a single-din head unit, crutchfield supplies a dashboard storage compartment that fills in the extra space. Crutchfield may not always have the largest selection or the best prices, but their online tools provide a good starting place to do research.

Maybe do a brake fluid flush... again. There may be air in the brake lines. Did you do the fluid flush yourself? I assume you mean the instrument cluster lights. You can improve the intensity of the instrument cluster backlighting by replacing the stock bulbs with high-intensity #74 LEDs

If you turn the wheel full right and cycle the suspension to its limits, is there enough clearance between the subframe and the stabilizer (shock) body? It looks pretty tight.

During the first couple of years I owned my Pathfinder, I towed a boat frequently, which caused the same sagging as you've experienced. To remedy this, I installed both Airlift air bags and new Rancho adjustable shocks. The air bags helped support the weight and prevent the sagging, and I could set the shocks to a firmer setting to limit the bouncing caused by the heavier weight over the rear suspension. Then, when not towing, I could deflate the bags and reduce the firmness of the shocks.

I have mine wired so that the city lights come on with the parking lights, and also so that I can have both the high-beam halogens on with the low-beam HIDs, or with just the high-beams only. I also installed white #194 LEDs as the city-light lamps. On those 6-wire plugs for the motor, I know one is ground, one is +12v (use the parking lamp signal wire), and the other 4 are for each of the positions. I didn't have time to check the plug this weekend to determine which wire is for what signal, but I do know that, for convenience and simplicity of wire routing, I used a CAT5 network cable, and ran that through the firewall to the modified dashboard switch. LOL The switch uses all connections but the gnd signal.

The leveling system on those lights is a little tricky. They aren't auto-leveling. You control their position with a switch. Hopefully you have the wires and plug for the leveling motor. It's been a while since I installed mine, but I recall that there are 4 positions. The leveling circuit doesn't work like the leveling systems on newer R50 models with projectors, such as the QX4. The QX4 headlamp leveling system uses resistors (in the leveling switch) to provide a signal to the leveling motor circuit, while these lamps use a 4-position switch to provide +12v to one (or more) of the terminals. I'd need to take a look at my wiring diagram to be sure, though.

I know this doesn't really answer your question, but it's cheaper and easier to just drive with your lights on all the time (and remember to turn them off!) than it is to install DRL's. Besides, it's my opinion that DRL's are among the dumbest ideas ever conceived. Why? Because at night, the reduced-power high beams are often just enough to light the road in front, to give the driver a false impression that their headlamps are on, all the while their taillights are not lit. With newer electroluminescent and LCD/LED dashboard clusters that are lit when the car is running, many drivers of DRL-equipped cars don't realize that all their lights (marker lights, tail lights, etc.) aren't turned on at night. I mean, is it that much of a power drain to just have ALL the lights on when the car is running? Sorry for the rant...

What you're describing is normal when you turn sharp corners in 4WD on any high traction surface. A "light dusting" still allows the tires to find sufficient traction on the underlying pavement, so your steering will feel very heavy, and the tires will scrub as the drivetrain binding is periodically released.

I own an air compressor, but not a press, so that's why I used an air chisel. I knocked out the bushing collar with the air chisel in about 30 seconds. I suppose if you have a press and a block or tube with the same diameter as the outer collar, there's no reason why you couldn't press it out. One thing that will be a challenge, though, is squarely placing the A-arm in the press, since the rear of the A-arm will likely bump into the framing of the press and prevent you from getting a completely vertical angle to press it out.

I replaced the stock bushings with polyurethane bushings from 4x4parts.com. Front bushings for lower control arm: https://www.4x4parts.com/nissan/pathfinder-front-lower-control-arm-front-bushings-p-712.html Rear bushings for lower control arm: https://www.4x4parts.com/nissan/pathfinder-front-lower-control-arm-rear-bushings-p-711.html

I assume you're talking about the front control arms. If so, I did use a torch to burn out one front bushing, but that was a smoky stinky affair, so I used a hacksaw with a round hacksaw blade (like this) to remove the other one. After the center/rubber part of the bushing was gone, I used an air chisel to force the outer collars off. I pressed the rear bushings off with a short 3/8" drive extension in my vise.

The strut itself could be bent right above where it bolts to the knuckle.

As an added piece of advice, when crossing deep water, drive just fast enough to maintain forward momentum, and allow a bow wake to form. The wake will actually cause the water level right behind the bumper to be much lower (6-8") than the static water level. Problems arise when driving too quickly through deep water. A snorkel is not essential when crossing deep water, but it offers good peace of mind knowing that there's no chance to hydrolock if the water is just a bit deeper than you expected. My Pathy has an open-element air filter (POP charger) in place of the stock air filter box, so it will absolutely ingest water if I am unwise when crossing. This is the deepest water I have crossed. You will note that I'm not driving very fast through it. In fact, on a previous trip when the water level was a little higher, I decided to drive backwards across the creek. If the water level looks like it will go above the hood, then unfortunately, I'd have no choice but to turn around. In this photo, I'm probably driving just a little faster than I should be: Ironically, this pic shows the result of driving TOO SLOWLY through the water. There was too much backpressure on the submerged exhaust, and the engine stalled. Because of the backpressure, I was not able to restart the engine and needed a tow.

The air pick up tube is not a foot lower than the air filter box, unless you or a previous owner removed part of the intake system. The air filter box in the engine bay opens into a secondary resonating chamber below it, in front of the wheel well. The resonating chamber has a tube extending behind it inside the fender, above the wheel well. So, main air intake is actually about the same height as the air filter box. Note, however, that the resonating chamber in front of the wheel well is not completely sealed, so it is possible for water to enter during especially long water crossings.

Well, I'm glad you saved yourself the trouble of unnecessary expense and effort! BTW, I'm not sure how the alternator is removed in the VG35, but when I R&R'd my alternator (VG33), it pulled out from the top of the engine bay quite easily after removing the battery and loosening the battery cable brackets. I didn't have to remove the fan shroud. Probably the hardest part about replacing it is accessing the connectors at the back of the alternator. I think it took me about an hour to R&R the alty.

Yep. It's probably about a 2-hour job to replace just the boots, and loads more messy, too. LOL

To add some clarification, those three nuts are the ones attaching the ball joint to the control arm. You remove them to enable you to push the control arm down and out of the way to provide enough clearance to slide the CV axle out through the opening created by the swung-down control arm.

Does your truck use 1156 or 3156 lamps for the turn signals? I would recommend getting some LED lamps from either autolumination.com or superbrightleds.com. I installed a pair of 3157 tail/brake lamps (I can't remember which ones I got) and they work well. Note that you will need a load-equalizing replacement flasher (for turn signals) to prevent fast-blinking of the turn signals or a 25 watt load equalizer (about 1/2-way down the page) for each tail light to avoid a peculiar behavior in which the cruise control will self-cancel when you use the turn signals while the tail lamps are lit. This happened to me, and it's a common side-effect if you install LED taillamps because the electrical system is detecting that a tail lamp is burned out. I would recommend you use amber LEDs for the turn signals.

Loosen the oil filter, but not enough to let oil drip, then place a Ziplock sandwich baggie around the filter as you unscrew it. The baggie will catch nearly all of the oil and minimize the mess. Granted, it does take a little longer to unscrew the filter because the dripping oil will make it hard to get a good grip on the filter through the baggie, but your steering rack bushing will thank you for it!