02 4wd Mechanic can't find size for front u-joints

[LoveMy02]

My beautiful Pathfinder is at the shop. The u-joints were shot at 240,000+ miles. The rear ones went in fine, but he says they have tried 3 sets and they have all been the wrong size. I love this vehicle and really want to keep it on the road. Any ideas?

[Slartibartfast]

I looked up the front U joints for an '02 on Nissanpartsdeal and found part number 37126-01G26 for the front prop shaft U joint (still available, but not cheap). They're listed for '96-'04, so there shouldn't be any mid-year-change confusion going on with the joints.

 

Did the shop say what prevents the joints they've tried from fitting? If they just can't get the snap rings in, there's this whole thing in the R50 service manual about using color-coded snap rings of varying thicknesses to set the end-play in the joint. If the snap rings are too thin, the joint will have excessive play--if they're too thick, they may not go in at all. (PD section of the service manual, free download from Nicoclub.) Unfortunately the part numbers the manual gives for the special snap rings come back as both discontinued and for a WD21 (first gen Pathy), so that's bizarre/unhelpful. But, yeah, if the snap rings are the problem, and they can source thinner ones, that might be just what it needs.

 

If that's not it, or they can't find thinner snap rings in that size, I would look for a used shaft from a wrecker. Even if the joints are bad, maybe you'll get lucky and find that the aftermarket joints fit the new-to-you shaft better than they fit your existing one. That said, I have heard of others having vibration issues after replacing front U joints (possibly due to the situation with the snap rings), so if you find a good used assembly, I would just slap it in there and be done with it.

Edited April 26 by Slartibartfast