Just wondering who here has more than an idle fantasy of putting a solid front axle under an Xterra, say within the next 2 years? I'm shooting to be SFA in that window myself.

Now, for those of you that have made up their minds, would you go with the simple and inexpensive route with a domestic donor from a Jeep Wagoneer or the like, or would you prefer a more esoteric custom solution that would be 100% Nissan (made from Patrol components, nothing breakable is custom) at an as yet to be determined premium? I've got a solid idea for the latter that I'm researching and curious how many might go that route if it works out.

Just talking about the axle itself, the suspension and modifications to your Xterra are a separate consideration.

Brent

Two years? I'll bite. I'd love to have an H260 out back as well! Now where is that Patrol GU I've been looking for...

After it's paid for in two years or so.

My donor axle will be a HP60 from a late 70's F250 or F350. I've got my planned for a coil spring setup. Now I just need about $6K to do it.

Axle

Two years is achievable. I will follow through with a SAS for the X. The wheelbase is perfect, comfortable,stout,and isn't the every day Jeep that everyone has.
My plan as of this time is:
Front: Early Bronco D44 with Chevy knuckles (6 lug) 4:88 R&P.OX locker, Coil spring/radius arm

Rear: Stock housing, 4:875 R&P, ARB air locker. Spring over conversion.
This of course is all easier on paper than the real world

I am paid off in August.. I think 2 years is a realistic idea.. Hopefully sooner.

While an H260 in the rear sounds good, there really are no good gears for it. Best I can tell they go from the high 3.x and low 4.x range on the Patrol straight to the mid 5.x range under box trucks with wheezy little 2.4 liter fours pushing 'em. Bet that's a heavy sucker too, wouldn't want to make my V6 lug that around.

4.625 and 4.88 gears are available for the high-pinion H233B that would be used, both are suitable for pairing with our factory 4.636 and 4.90 ratios respectively. Not aware of anything deeper, but the 4.88/4.90 setup ought to let you run 35" tires without much trouble.

Mine will have the stock axle in the back, and the stock diff up front in a custom axle housing. It will have a CALMINI sticker on it and it will be as flawless as their SAS Hardbody. No ghetto-fab for me.

Eh??? I want to know everything that you know!

I don't know much at this time.

Something about a custom housing/tubes with D44 ends that will accept an H233B third member from what I hear. Custom axle shafts would be involved I presume. Certainly an interesting idea, but less Nissan and more custom parts than I care to rely on. Then again, even if there were a way to put an unaltered front H233B underneath, there is the issue of parts availability. I will aquire spares of anything that has any real risk of breaking which will further add to the cost of the axle, but by golly it's gonna be 100% Nissan and that's important to me.

No ghetto fab for me either. I already have located someone in Australia that is more than qualfied (seen his work) and tentatively willing to do the work, and I know someone stateside that I would be comfortable doing the work too.

You going to ship your truck to him or fly him here?

Well, I'm not sure even in 2 years there will be that many Nissan people willing to spend the kind of money to get the job done right on a X. But then again I see SAS Tacoma's all the time

Considering that new 4x4 X's cost what at least 23K...up to 30k with all the goodies, then add what people spend on previous mods, plus the cost of a SAS (say 2k for the basic kit, 1K for a custom front axle/shafts, 1K for new front/rear gears, 1k for lockers, 600 for front drive shaft & rear SYE, and say 3K for a shop install for everything, and all of sudden you can have almost 40K invested.

Of course there's way of saving on the SAS by doing some of the work yourself, getting used stuff, bartering/trading like I did or going with leafs instead of coils or coil-overs, etc. I think Rondo's SAS coil over frontier turned out very well and he's spent around 7k+ plus with the waggy D44 axle like I have in the pathy. His drives better on road compared to stock while my leaf pathy isn't nearly as nice but you get what you pay for.

Staring with a used vehicle 1st that relatively inexpensive such as the early 90's HB's and Pathys makes more sense to me. However with the prices of 2k X's falling they become more attractive.

Go SAS and you'll never go back and that's true in many ways…next thing you know you're thinking about a roll gage, trimming sheet metal, bobbing the cargo area, 35” tires , spending more $ than you bargained for, and the “Ultimate rock and road challenge”.

BTW I would rather use/see a H233B up front with some alloy shafts than a D44 since it would be stronger/less likely to break stuff IMO. But yeah a HP D60 would be sweet also, are those early ford ones kingpin?

Does anybody know which axles work?
I have a buddy who has a late 80's ranger 4x4 with no title, body damage, blown clutch. I think there is a dana 28 up front. I was considering trying to get the axle until I heard the 28 and the 30 are nothing but boat anchors and a 44(70's broncos) is needed. The 44's can be found second hand for about 300 bucks.

I definitely won't do anything like this before 60K, but I wouldn't mind collecting some parts in the meantime.

My neighbor is a welder and works on 4wd's. He doesn't seem to think the job is all that bad. He insists that the swap will actually save money in the long run because all that IFS shit won't be wearing out and breaking all the time.

Neither, he would source the parts and build the axle as I imagine it and it would be shipped here. Meanwhile a stateside fabricator would be retained to handle stage two creating the suspension and doing the work on the X once the axle arrives. I figure I'll have the housing shaved bare and have new leaf perches added to it (or coil buckets and locating arm brackets if that is the route I choose) by the stateside fabricator. That's too much to coordinate w/ the overseas guy, his concerns are the axle width (pretty much fixed by the donor axle in the first place), pumpkin offset (somewhat flexible), and caster/pinion-angle (the most crucial part of his work).

Brent

By the time I get around to it, I plan to have the tools and skills to do it myself. I have a CJ-5 I'm switching to coil springs on Dana 60s That will be my education in suspension design, welding and R&P setup. I'd rather do it myself, on something that's not my daily driver before I jump into doing the Xterra.

Some of them are and some of them aren't. When I get around to mine then it will be the kingpin style. Usually can find them for $900-1200. After trimming, rebuilding, gearing, and locking the axle it will about $2500 on the axle alone. I have a fab guy here in Barstow that will set up the suspension with king coilovers for $4K.

Axle

That's a waste of money. Currie will build you a full floating D60 for less than that.

I thought Currie only does rear ends and $2500 for a rear end is expensive. Dana 60 fronts go for $1000 around here and rears go for $100-150

Here are some real world prices - :p

http://www.samsoffroad.com/samsoffroadsto/dana.htm

Really? Can you show me a link to that please. I want a HP60 kingpin style with 5.13 gears and a detroit locker. I also need the 6 on 5.5 bolt pattern.

Axle

Originally I had priced out a Dynatrac front Dana 44 with ARB. They wanted just over 4k for it. I ended up going to a junkyard and buying a Wagoneer Dana 44 for $250.00. I figure that after rebuilding it and putting in a 4.88 R&P and an air locker I will be in it for around $1,500.

Doug

Early Ford ones are, 78 up to about 96. You don't want a balljoint Ford D60 since they use unitized front bearings and special outers (read BIG $$$). There is a conversion kit out there to rebuildable outers, but it runs bout $600.

Could do a ford 9" front housing using D60 outers and shafts. That'd be as close to bulletproof as you could get and can be had to use only common pieces.

Justin

There is a company out now making a true HP ford 9" 3rd. There is only one set of gears available right now for it (4.56 I believe) but more will be available soon. The downside is that since they are custom cut gears and low production items it's about $1100 for the 3rd member and gears. You then have to supply your own housing and everything else.

Axle

Brian what makes you think a H233B up front will be stronger than a Dana 44? With all the easy to find upgrades for the Dana 44 you could esily build a bombproof axle for a lot less than any Nissan front setup will cost. All those Early Broncos and Jeeps don't have problems and they are running much stronger motors than the Xterra will ever have.

Can't wait to see what Calmini has to offer but hopefully they can keep the cost reasonable for everyone to have a choice.