rodskaeg

@hawairish I got a quick question, do you know if it's possible to swap out rear axles from a WD21 1994/95 pathfinder? From what I understand I could either swap axles shafts and 3rd member, or just take the whole axle? Am I saying that right or am I missing something, I'm looking to get the LSD from a WD21 to replace the Open diff. Although I'd much rather just swap the axle shafts and 3rd member than swapping the entire axle if that's possible.

Firstly, thank you guys for replying, your feed back is wholly appreciated. My truck is a 2001 VQ3.5 SE, I plan to take a tx10 from the same year R50 as mine, there's several in junkyards in my location so this shouldn't be an issue , I also verified and you are correct the VSS is on the tail shaft housing, there is one video I saw online of someone converting the same transmission from a RWD model for replacing on a 4WD, so I don't think there will be any issues regarding this. I'm probably just going to swap the whole gauge cluster with one from a 4x4 and figure out the wiring for those from there, my gauges are tired for some reason so I've been meaning to replace it anyway, I'll take a look, I agree with what you are saying here, only thing is that my transmission is really low mileage, I have just about 70k miles on the odometer, so i'd much rather stick with it. I also daily it, so reliability is important and I'm not comfortable swapping it with a junkyard transmission. Plus I'd also like to get a bit of experience working with transmissions and this is my opportunity to do so. Thanks for the tip I'll be making a post sometime in the next 8 months once I get around to working on this project, in the meantime if you guys have any other useful info I'd appreciate it if you'd shoot it my way,

I'm planning a 4WD conversion on a stock RWD pathy. Wondering if once I add the transfer case (tx10) would I need a different TCM or reprogram?

Hello TigeR50, I'm pretty much in the same boat as you, however, I have been researching this for a while now. Here is what I have figured out so far. In terms of the transmission; the RWD and 4WD transmissions are the same except for the output shafts and of course the 4WD has a transfer case. In terms of this, you could just swap output shafts if you want to keep your original transmission (this is what I plan to do as mine is low mileage). After swapping output shafts then you can salvage a transfer case (make sure to get tx10) from a donor R50 and slap it on there, it will fit. To do this you just remove the tailshaft housing on the transmission and swap it with the adapter case for the transfercase. Otherwise you will need to get a whole new transmission and transfer case and swap it out with yours. In regards to the TCM, I'm not too sure if you would need to replace it as long as you use the tx10 manual transfer case. Also, depending on your crossmember for the transmission you may need a new one. Apparently I have read elsewhere on this forum that RWD pathys have welded crossmembers to the frame, however, my pathy has a bolted crossmember (which is what you want) and its RWD, so depends on your vehicle regarding this. You will also need to install the tx10 shifter and linkage to the cab, shouldn't be a difficult thing to do but I don't know the details regarding this. In terms of differentials; you need to make sure your front and rear differential have the same gear ratio, either 4.636 or 4.363 depending on your truck. You can check this by looking at the factory plate in the engine bay on the passenger side. HG43 means 4.363 and HG46 means 4.636. Just make sure the front differential you get matches your stock gearing unless you want to swap both front and rear differentials to upgrade to the 4.636 gearing. You will also need to salvage the differential mountings from a donor pathy. Your RWD pathy should have the mounts with bolts in it for the front differential mount plates. Of course you will also need to obtain front/rear drive shafts, cv axles, and new front hubs to accommodate this. That's pretty much all I know regarding this, if you are interested in learning about swapping the output shaft, it's very similar to swapping it in a Jeep 4L60E unit. But there are disassembly videos online specifically for r50 transmissions (search RE4R01A Disassembly on YT) and factory service manuals detailing this. I will make a detailed post about this conversion once I get around to actually doing it on mine.