As the dealership here can't explain my problems, I thought I would ask here. I will give you as quick of a break down as possible, so you know whats up.

Problem:
When in 4LO, it is hard to steer. The x, has a mind of its own. Each side fights to steer to its respective side. Almost like it locks up and wants to go left...then does the same to the right, and so goes on the struggle. Extremely difficult to drive it this way, when going from one trail to the next.

What I did:
I chewed up my front diff at some point and needed to get a new one. One member of our club, SAS'ed his Xterra, which left all of his IFS stuff up for grabs. So I jumped on most of them, including his front diff from his 2001 Xterra. I put that in, and put in a new passenger side axle shaft that was torn up, as well as new misc parts that were on that side.

My question:
I can only guess that I have a gearing problem, meaning that the gear ratios are not in sync. It does it in 4HI, but I use 4LO as an example, cause it's not winter here yet. I drive an auto 4x4 2003 xterra, and the donor was the same but 2001.

The prices I was getting for new front diff was well over $1200 Cad. Price for this used one, in mint shape, and never offroaded..EVER, was $300 CAD. Easy decision at the time, so I could back on the trails.

The spider gears was what were going on the original diff ( pretty much all chewed up ). The main ring was good. So I kept the old front diff and carrier just for fun. Is it a matter of swapping out some of the gears? Or I think i read some where, that the earlier X's had LSD up front, and thats what I am feeling?

Any thoughts on this? Have I missed a step, or forgot to swap something?

Thanks for at least looking.

Cheers
Jay.

It's normal for 4WD (4HI or 4LO) to make steering difficult. When in 4WD, steering is always going to be more difficult, because the front tires and rear tires follow different arcs, and 4WD locks the front and rear axles together.

If you use 4WD only on low-traction terrain that requires it, this shouldn't be a problem. However, if you're using 4WD on pavement, then that's a no-no. (Tip: wet asphalt is a high-traction surface, so when "going from one trail to the next", shift into 2WD.)

Let me clarify for a sec...when i say steering problem, I don't mean the typical in 4WD type. I mean its hard to keep it straight, as it wants to steer it's self.
This is going to make for some almost impossible driving, when the snow flies, and I am on the back country roads going home or to work. This will for sure cause me to end up in a ditch.
I really have to try to go straight by steering hard to the opposite side she wants to go. When she lets go, she almost locks the other way. Which could cause me to slide unpredictably.

When the X was new, I never had these problems with it in 4HI or LO.

I hope that is a more descriptive explanation.

So are you saying that it was okay before the diff swap and now it isn't?

Sounds like you're thinking along the right lines and you have a gear mismatch problem... the '01 diff should have 4.6 gears in it and your rear probably has the newer 4.9's.

Do you still have the ring and pinion from your old diff? If not, those suckers are a bit expensive... $450 at 4x4parts.

There are two ways to go on the installation.... 1) The 'right' way - which is best left to a shop if you don't know what you're doing. It takes some special tools, careful measurement (to get the gears to mesh correctly) and fine adjustment with shims.

2) The "aw f#$% it" way. Which is to just slap the new gears in there using the exact same shims, spacers etc that are on there now - which will *probably* work just fine... but you never know

Ah - I reread you post where you said you still have the old stuff (does that include the housing?)

In that case, I think I'd just pull the spiders out of the new diff and use them to rebuild you old diff. Then you don't have to worry about gear setup and stuff - you can just put it back together with the shims just like it was and the gears should mesh the same.

If the old carrier is too messed up to do that, I'd take the ring gear off the old carrier, put it on the new carrier, and then put that in the old housing. If at all possible, you want to reuse that old housing because the pinion is already in it and set up correctly. If you don't have to fool with the pinion and you're just taking carriers in and out it isn't that big a deal.

Bad Centerlink?

No, new center link about 2 months old.

I do have my old diff still sitting in the old carrier. No I don't think this is a job for me to try on my DD/wheeler.

But I did have a feeling that the gears were just off.

Thanks for your in put kaiser, much appreciated.

Fair enough. I ain't skeered of diff work anymore having done a bunch of it recently - but I know most folks see it as some kind of voodoo that they don't want to mess with.

I will admit that there is a certain learning curve and that it takes a fair $$ investment in tools to do it yourself.

Find a good shop - if you bring them both diffs out of the vehicle and just say "swap this carrier into that diff and make sure the gear setup is still good" they should do it pretty cheap. I'd think a couple hundred bucks - or less.

differing gear ratios, I'd bet on it. Your front wheels are trying to turn faster than your rears, and they're being forced to slip.

The side to side you're feeling is each wheel grabbing for traction with an open diff.

Pull the axle codes off your door jam and your friends. Post em up.

Will do.

this is just a thought but is your front end aligned? if its out of alignment then it would lock funky and cause it to veer one direction or the other.