3rd Member 1997 Pathfinder

[AR97Pathfinder]

Good evening everyone,

 

I’m in need of a 3rd member for my Pathfinder. Mine is an open diff and has a significant humming noise on the highway that goes away once you let off the throttle. In addition to that, the entire floorboard of the vehicle vibrates between 70-80mph. It’s not the tires or balancing, definitely driveline related. Rear differential has excess lash and definitely worn out over the 250k miles. Vehicle has a brand new driveshaft installed as well, still no luck. 

I’m located in NYC and there are no salvage yards around the area that has a differential for this vehicle. So I’m reaching out to the community in hopes of anyone being able to locate one for me. I’ll pay all costs. 
 

Thank you! 

[alexg89]

Check out Car-part.com 

This will search all the yards around you Via distance. also if memory serves, look for an xterra rear differential. they are 33spline as well like the R50s

[hawairish]

New driveshaft might not imply anything.  How's the pinion angle?  It should be nearly parallel with the output from the transfer case.  How are your rear springs?

[AR97Pathfinder]

On 8/27/2026 at 3:42 PM, hawairish said:

New driveshaft might not imply anything.  How's the pinion angle?  It should be nearly parallel with the output from the transfer case.  How are your rear springs?

I'm honestly not too sure how to assess that accurately aside from eyeballing it. I am fairly certain about the humming and clunking coming from the rear diff. I changed the rear springs, shocks, poly upper and lower links within the last 5 years. 

 

Now I replaced the u-joint on the original Nissan driveshaft last Thursday after starting this thread, and returned the new one. Did a 500 mile roadtrip up to Canada this past weekend and did not experience any vibrations in the vehicle. However, humming noise is still there between 40-60mph and some clunking if I press and release the throttle. 

[Strato_54]

how are the bearings?