Mississippi_Chillkoot

Thats what my plan was/is to swap out an old one for a used one. And You are definitely correct...DONT USE OLD SNAP RINGS Even if you think you have to. lol BIG THANKS TO EVERYONE!! I appreciate the knowledge. Be Safe and for the record I have been going to work and back as a 2 wheel drive. Cant stand it . Just feels like somethings missing...Guess thats because it is. Looking foward to swapping out the Tcases although a half day job it wont be. lol. You must have a different manual than I do. lol The exhaust system take off and reverse will take me almost that long if not longer. Thanks again and Best Regards, Chris

WE HAVE A WINNER You are correct sir! A thrashing front drive shaft at a high rate of speed DID do that!! Im thinking you are right on the money as bad as I wish you weren't. That said, Since I have nothing to lose....I may "enhance" that gaping hole before washing inside with a strong magnetic soap to get all the little pieces. I may be able to pack the needle bearing without removing. Good idea. Thanks for the info. I know that this will not be a suitable permanent fix but my hopes are to get maaaaaaybe 2 maybe 3 months out of it. Reason the front shaft went psycho on me is as follows..I spent almost 2 months tracking down a vibration that occurred only between certain speeds. Couple of wheel bearing replacements...Tires re balanced with road force balancer....alignment....finally i pulled the front shaft and vibe was gone. Ujoint had hardly any play at all in it but there was a little. I replaced the u joint with a new one...That someone had returned to AutoZone obviously because I had no replacement snap rings. So...I was going to use the old ones. (HUGE MISTAKE) One of them got rather twisted during its removal. After some readjustment with my vise and BFH it looked for all practical purposes to be very close to being back in shape. So back in goes the front shaft and my vibration is finally gone. 3 months later my buddy and I were on our way fishing and were running late so I was driving entirely to fast. Right about the exact time the governor was fixing to kick in...approx..105mph... BOOM GRIND CHEW FIREBALL FLASH(Fluid dumping on exhaust) Sparks like the 4th of July...more..GRIND CHEW until stop....And Now You Know.....The rest of the story.....

Lol..if it would have had any thing to do with beer it would have definitely been along those lines but nothing to do with cliff jumping or beer. Lol

Thanks so much for the input guys. Im starting to feel a little bit better about possibly seeing some light at the end of this tunnel. Im still iffy about the rear drive shaft ? It connects up to the back of the transfer case and I would think to a spindle from the transmission IN the transfer case. Will this drive-train union do its thing and hold the line in a fluid free transfer case? I have poured over different repair manuals and cant find much info on this as you can imagine. Here's another photo from a different angle that allows you to see the shifter linkage i believe it is...its gonna need a couple of stitches to i think. ;-) Anyone care to take a guess at how this happened? It wasn't a "Ya'll watch this" or a "Hold my beer" moment. Lol

What to do about this? Gonna be alot of JB Weld.

Hello fellow Nissassins. Is there a doctor in the house? Getting opinions and/or advice on whether it is possible to easily take my 4wd to a 2wd. The reason I want to commit this crime is as follows: My 4wd Pathy has a huge hole in the transfer case where the front shaft connects. Its ugly. How this happened really isn't important at this point and its something I don't want to relive anyway. I would say the hole is about the size of a gallon milk jug. I love the truck. Reality of it is.. 2003 with 300k miles +on it and while I wish i could just tow it down to MS Powertrain and have them fix it... that isnt an option for me financially. I've checked into getting a used transfer case and doing the replacement myself but after doing some reading I think this may exceed the limits of my Pathfinder Repair skill set. All that said....The Auto Transmission appears to still work fine as I can shift through all with normal engagement. No transmission fluid loss from transmission. (Tcase is of course fluidless) Since this happened, I have driven the truck VERY short distances...Reversed into garage from flatbed tow and pulled forward and reversed again to move the truck to the far side. No Horrible Noises. Its now on jack stands with the front shaft completely out. I don't want to replace the transmission with a 2wd tranny.. Soooo..Wounded transfer case would remain. My question.. With the front shaft out if I disconnect the electronic 4wd switch, Leave the current tranny in and basically GUT the transfer case which won't be real hard to do unfortunately. What happens when I try to drive it??. I got a feeling something about the where the rear drive shaft goes into the transfer case and connects to the spindle or whatever it connects to in the transfer case that connects to the transmission is not going to work very well without the presence of any fluid in the Tcase. Just wondering if any of this crazy no cost temporary solution is even possible. Thanks for taking the time to read and reply. Chris