hawairish

Ha! I found one of those at the junkyard earlier this year and thought about keeping it just because...but then realized I'd have zero use for it.

Long time, no update! Project has had its typical slow point the last several months. Work and sports (youth & adult) took up a lot of that time, dealing with sports-related injuries, and AZ setting a new record of like 113 consecutive days over 100° or something...well, hard to get motivated to go outside, to say the least. I think the only notable thing I did for the last few months was order a new radiator...still sitting in the box because I've not gotten to relocating the mounts for it yet, but I still have other engine things to do first anyway. The past couple weeks I'd been figuring out how to mount the radius arms to the chassis. Went through a couple designs and finally settled on something I really liked. Got all the pieces cut out the other week and got them tacked together and temporarily mounted up. Pretty huge step right there, because it allowed me to start working on the upper panhard bar mount (the lower mount was done a while ago). Got all that tacked up, too, only to realize that the position wasn't going work and that it would need to be moved forward a little...meaning the lower mount will also have to be redone. Then this week happened...and I finally had a super productive week! I took the whole week off and also flew TownDawgR50 down from WA to help. He'd thrown the idea out a while ago and I finally took him up on it. He was only in town for 3 days, but it was great seeing him and jamming on the project. We focused mainly on the radius arm mounts and crossmember, but also hammered out the corrected upper panhard mount. He went to town welding up the brackets and steering links, freeing me up to CAD and cut out parts. Pics! Radius arm brackets welded up and bolted where the transmission crossmember existed. The bolts are just for positioning; the entire bracket will be welded to the chassis rail. A plate will also be welded to the inner rail with gussets. The driver's side inner rail is free of lines and wires, but there's limited clearance below the cats, which is why everything had to be mounted below the rails. Much more cat clearance on the passenger side, but with all the fuel and brake lines there, plus electrical and pneumatic lines I've added, there's very limited space to weld a plate on the inner rail. Passenger mount showing how the transmission crossmember will attach...front wheel studs pressed into the bracket. This how the crossmember started. I chopped the OE one and built a bracket to put new mounting provisions on it. On the driver's side, plan was to put a plate (shown) to extend the tubing rearward rather than try to build a hoop over the driveshaft (I prefer staying under so I don't have to remove it if I need to remove the crossmember). For this setup, there'd be a 2" square tube (similar size as the center section of the OE unit) offset about 3" and it'd give me the clearance I'd need. But then, I got to this point and didn't like my options on how to attach it to the other radius arm bracket because of all the little height differences involved. So, I ditched that approach entirely and designed a whole new piece. Worked on it today and just need to redo the center piece and trim up the ends on the inner supports, then tack it up and confirm fitment. This took a bit of time to plan out and make the bends, but came out pretty damn good, if I may say so. The driveshaft hoop portion is deliberately shaped to be narrower than the rest of the shape (1.5" vs. 1-7/8") to give just a little more clearance at the point closest to the driveshaft at full droop, but the base plate keeps a uniform width so it's still well protected and boxed in. The big advantage to this is that it keeps my mounting surface flat and low profile, and just looks a helluva lot better. Lastly, got the revised upper panhard mount done when TownDawg was here. Since this piece is entirely bolt-on and uses the subframe mounting hardware, I needed to retain access to hole. Moving the mount forward would block the hole, but I was able to box in a pocket to retain access. Unfortunately, it's not looking like I'll be done by the end of December which is when my tags expire. So, I'll be an outlaw for a while longer until I can get it rolling to get emissions done. But with the recent work, it's that much closer to having the axle attached and in the final position...next step: coilover shopping.

If you have a Nissan dealership nearby, you can get them shipped there for free via Nissan’s parts site (parts.Nissan USA.com). Mine’s super close, so it works out great. All the pieces in the clutch pack are friction pieces except the springs. I was given the option to wait for manufacturing lead time, but I think those orders also got cancelled. For the price though, could be worth finding out.

Correct, you need some sort of line level adjustment to get the volume up on the BOSE amps. I used to run a Scosche OEA4, but this PAC ROEM-NIS2 unit has faired much better: https://www.crutchfield.com/p_541NIS2/PAC-ROEM-NIS2-Wiring-Interface.html?tp=3486

The front door speakers have integrated amps, so there are essentially 3 amps for the BOSE system: front LH, front RH, rear LH+RH. The front amps don't use the remote signal directly; the remote signal triggers the amp relay, and the power signal through the relay powers them (pin 4 on the front door units). The rear amp uses the remote signal like a conventional amp since it has a dedicated power source...which is also the same power source going through the amp relay. The battery power (always on) going to pin 6 on the factory headunit is the same source that powers the rear amp directly, and also is the power that goes through the amp relay to power the front amps. The remote signal is pin 12; it goes directly to the rear amp (pin 9) and to the amp relay. If you hooked up the remote line from the new headunit to the factory wire (pin 12, light green w/ red stripe), it should turn on all amps. The signal would need to be 12v. If that's good and the rear amp isn't turning on, then it could be the fuse on the Battery (fuse #4 under the dash, 15A). Does the radio retain it's settings after it's powered off?

I had read about that, too, but I feel like that wasn't true when I came across that scenario on accident. Long story short, I pulled a H233(A?) 3.7 from a very early D21 that would have been a perfect when I swapped a late-model D21 H233B onto my Frontier. The older 3rd didn't seem like it'd fit even if I pulled studs, but maybe I didn't try hard enough. Also couldn't put the 3.7 gears into a newer 3rd because the pinion gear used different bearings and I didn't want that much of a hodge-podge. My Frontier had 3.7 gears, so the H233 3.7s would have been great, but the donor had 3.9s and that ended up being a far better choice.

Regarding filtering...I needed to do something similar a few months back. I used paper coffee filters in a funnel. Took a while to get all the oil through but worked fine. Rebuild's not too bad. Amayama is a good route for parts. I also have LSD parts around. If you have an older unit that happens to have tabbed spring plates (see my post for examples), then I have a set of unused friction guides for you.

I was trying to figure that out, too. I can see that if it shifted a little maybe it could be sheared off by the carrier over time, but if it had sheared off, that piece would've been full width. Because it's short and the cut looks somewhat clean (can't see the angles), I could guess that it could fatigue off...but how incredibly unlikely it'd be to fatigue in two spots. The piece also can't exactly be ripped off...it's a pretty dense chunk of metal. All said, I'm baffled. Donors shouldn't be too tough to find depending on how many yards you have nearby. HG43 and HG46 just refer to the ratio; the 3rd members can be swapped without issue, just need to be mindful your truck and the donor have disc brakes (should because SE?), otherwise you may need to split the carrier to add/remove a thrust block inside (discs didn't use the thrust blocks, drums did) Could it lead to catastrophic failure? Potentially, yes, because if the remainder of that guide is in the carrier, the lack of that piece on it will allow it to slide out of the hole in the carrier. The piece alone will destroy things if it's caught in the gear mesh, but then also the friction plates lack the piece and may get bashed up. You wouldn't be able to gut the carrier because the clutch pieces provide the necessary tension on the side gears to keep them engaged to the spider gears. Amayama is a good source for parts still, but I'll be surprised if they don't cancel the order for the 1.6mm pieces...they should be discontinued (I've tried ordering them a few times). The difference is just thickness and how it contributes to the stack height (thicker stack, higher break-away torque on the unit). I have a write-up here about all that stuff, but it can also serve as a rebuild guide. You'll be better off just finding a donor and having extra parts. I think I may even have enough parts to build up a 4.375 carrier, too, if you're unable to find something local.

Looks like the indented part of a friction plate guide used in the LSD carrier. Overall width on a new piece like that is 15.5mm, but where yours appears might've broken, I measure about 12.5mm, so pretty high confidence this is it. It installs on the tabs of the friction plates. You can see it in the hole in the pic.

Hey, good to hear from you again. I think at this point, the thread is dead, but appreciate the praise there. We still have parts around, but little time and ambition to build up kits these days, unfortunately. We both moved onto some bigger projects. I'm currently SAS'ing my truck...slowly. Towndawg's got a 720 he's been bringing back to life, not to mention finally getting t-case crawler gears, 4.6s, my old front air locker, and other goodies installed on his truck.

"Subtle differences" is the right term here. I would expect needing the upper intake plenum and electric throttle body. I would expect wanting the lower intake plenum as the 01-02 were prone to have loose power valve screws, unlike the 03-04...not that you can put some thread locker on them. (Speaking of which, you should tear down that 02 intake to confirm all power valves AND screws are present and not loose, in case that engine was pulled for some other reason). You'll want to check the camshaft position sensors between both engines. When I was last pulling parts from the junkyard, I want to say the sensors are different and in different positions, not to mention I think there's on less sensor or sensor hole on the newer engines. I'm forgetting a detail here, but probably easily to resolve. I think beyond those items, there isn't really all that much else?

I'm presuming 2004 R51s existed in Qatar, and that we're talking the same engine between 2004 and 2005, being the 4.0L VQ40DE, correct? If yes, then probably not the ECU beyond potentially a learning process required for the throttle as Slartibartfast suggested. You'd need to pull any codes with a proper scanner...one that can also pull chassis and transmission codes, not just OBDII (or whatever the standard is in Qatar).

Sounds like you have the "older" all-mode system. You have a dial with "2WD|AUTO|LOCK" but also have a "H|N|L" floor shifter? Newer systems just had a dial switch "2WD|AUTO|4H|4L". Not that it matters much here, only to note that even in those 2wd or auto modes, the CV still spins with the tires because the truck uses fixed flanges. The switches and levers just disconnect things inside the transfer case. CVs, differential, and driveshaft all still spinning. All said, a broken CV sucks but is a fairly trivial and reasonably inexpensive fix. Wear and tear doesn't usually lead to breakage, but sharp angles and contamination (torn boots) do. Not ruling out coincidental damage because we don't have enough info (i.e., your vehicle's history, mileage, usage, maintenance, etc.), but generally, breakage usually stems from some amount of force or binding. I've not had a problem resting the knuckle at a given angle with the CV attached, but I've also always made every effort to ease it into a resting position and eventually always support it. I can also attest that getting struts off the knuckle can be a hassle. Who's to say there wasn't extra force applied to pull the strut. But again, why did he pull the strut in the first place to inspect it? What service were you having done?

You can shift between D, 2, and 1 all you'd like, but as Slartibartfast mentioned, it's all about speed. And particularly for wheeling, you can switch between them without stopping. Just keep in mind that when going downward (particular 2 -> 1), you'll have a bit of rev-up, which may also cause some surge when at low speeds. In terms of shifting, the only time you would stop is when going between 4H and 4L; transmission to neutral, vehicle stopped. If I'm tackling something requiring 4L, it put the trans in 1 from there anyway. Presuming that since you have an SE, you have the part-time system (I believe the all-mode/dial system was an option on SEs, but standard on LEs)

Ha, don't worry about that R50JR guy. He's just bitter because he doesn't get to drive his R50 often enough. The reason for the ask about any suspension mods is because strut spacers can be bad on the CVs if there's too much spacer. He's just wondering if that could have been a contributor. Doesn't sound like it. That's no good. I'm assuming it's the same in NZ as it was here in the US, but R50s had drive slugs/fixed flanges, and not manual or automatic hubs. So, the CVs are always engaged unless they've been swapped. And in this case, the "shock" (actually, it's a strut) technically does not interfere with the CV, however there's no upper control arm that prevents the knuckle assembly from tipping outward when the strut is removed. Only things that would be attached would be the tie-rod, CV, and lower ball joint. If the mechanic pulled the strut off the knuckle and let it drop, it would "stretch" it to its fully-extended length and shock the CV, most likely damaging the bearing cage in the outer joint (and potentially the ball joint, too). This is also to say that when the strut is removed and the knuckle assembly is allowed to tip outward, even gently (potentially even when tipping it out to remove the strut), it puts strain on the CV and lower ball joint, and so, it should always be supported when the strut is not attached. My main question is: why would the mechanic have needed to remove the strut if he suspected a leak and wasn't planning to replace them at the time? The only leak point would be at the top of the strut body, and the only obstruction would be the dust boot, which can be slid up with a screwdriver through the spring coils or is usually disintegrated. You would have visibility of any leak just by lifting the truck off the ground, I would think. Dust/grime would be present on the shaft and where it enters the body. Removing it would be unnecessary. What other services were being performed?

I would think the computer wouldn't like them missing...but I'm not sure how it would know? There are no sensors on the valves themselves, but maybe it'd manifest as a vacuum leak, because that's what actuates the valves. Just looked at the removal instructions in the MT section, too. Honestly, I'm baffled by them. It does say to remove the snap pin and withdrawal shaft, but also to remove the withdrawal lever (I really want to just call that the release fork!) and release bearing. Pretty impossible to remove the bearing from the input shaft when it's obstructed by the clutch, flywheel, and engine, let alone doing so through a small hole on the side of the transmission. But I can't even imagine how removing any of that stuff would be necessary because they're all connected to the bellhousing/transmission. The install has all the parts reassembled before mating it to the engine, so seems really odd why they'd need to be removed at all. Nissan doing dumb things again.

Speculating here, but them only thing holding them together should just be the bellhousing bolts. I can't imagine how cotter pins could be used here. But, any misalignment between engine and transmission when trying to split them will cause binding on the alignment dowels and input shaft. Super important to make sure things are as straight as possible. How do you have things supported when trying to split them? Are there any tabs or gaps where a pry bar can fit to start splitting them? It's common for those to exist. A dead blow hammer is also a good tool to have here to smack the bellhousing without damaging it. So in the end, are you just mating the 2001 engine to the 2002 AT, or are you converting to manual? As Slartibartfast mentioned, you'll need parts engine parts (like the lower intake plenum for sure, and maybe the intake manifold). If doing a manual swap...I imagine that would be far more involved, but having the full donor helps tremendously.

Worth a shot, I suppose. Maybe even spray some degreaser up there first and hose it off to gauge how bad the leak really is over a day or two.

Which FSM are you viewing? That image shows a WD21/WD22/D21/D22 style case that does have a seal at the tube end. But the R50 style does not. You can see the tube is not machined to accept a seal. The machining you see is where the bearing resides. The collar at the top of this RH stub shaft from an R50 is where the inner seal resides, against the differential carrier. This is the collar I had to remove in order to modify the shaft so it could seal with a newer style ARB. I had the older style ARB and no modification was required. This is why I know with 100% certainty it has an inner seal. Note the wear on the collar, too. The bottom spacer does not have a seal it seals against. There’s a grease seal on the shaft. It cannot be removed like the pic you showed of the FSM.

Here’s a primer about the diff: If you want more/better pics, I can maybe tear mine apart…it’s sitting on the side of the house as I work through an axle swap. Been meaning to put a Lokka into it and swap all the seals so I can sell it off. But for sure, the inner axle seal is only accessible from inside the housing. I use a pipe to drive it out from the RH tube shaft, and then it gets driven in the through LH stub shaft opening. A skim amount of RTV on the outer bearing would help. Not sure sealer would do much better, but maybe.

I’ve put so many lockers into these things to know. Including full dissection of the RH shaft because I needed to modify it so it would seal against the inner seal because of some BS that ARB did.

And yes, I’ve reused the collars before. Stuff like that might not even be available from Nissan; haven’t checked.

So…replacing the inner seal requires pulling the differential from the case, which means dropping the case out of the truck. At that point, you’ll also be pulling the LH stub shaft, and another seal to replace there.

I’d have to take a look, but I think the seal is installed before the bearing gets pressed on. You’ll be able to pull the RH stub shaft once the CV is pulled, but still would need to tear down the stub shaft to replace the seal. I want to say the FSM also calls for some RTV there too.

I've not considered KBB as reputable for pricing for a very long time, at least not in the last decade. I mean, pretend you were in the other guys shoes and owned that vehicle...would you list it at $2663? Obviously, R50's aren't any sort of heritage vehicle, but they're pretty good looking, dependable, and have a solid drivetrain. I'm not huge on mahogany, and I'm not even sure I've seen that color before, but it looks great. Does the buyer seem flexible on pricing?