[JHart22]

I know most people would say just buy a 4x4... but here’s my situation. I have a 06 2x4. I bought the truck needing a transmission. After I bought that truck a friend of mine gave me his 06 4x4 with a blown motor. Long story but the truck can not be titled. Am I getting into a nightmare by trying to swap the parts off the 4x4 onto my 2 wheel drive?

 

[RockMechanic]

I see this going one of two ways.
1) You would need to pull the Front final drive, the drive shafts, half shafts, transfer case, and when I mean drive shafts, I mean front and rear. You would also need to transfer the transfer case select button and some of the electronic controllers, think ECM and BCM. It is a lot of work and It may be significantly easier to transfer the good parts of your good truck to his.You are easily looking at close to 50-60 hours of actual work to get this done, possibly a lot more if you don't have the proper support tools to do this. I know someone here would be like it's more work or less than that, but I'm just trying to ballpark it. If you are content with doing this, I would do it in sections, I would also check to make sure mounting points are there for a Front final drive, if there isn't save yourself some time and DON'T do it. Unless your up to additional fabrication/welding.

2) you get over whelmed by the concept and cost of option 1 just spend the money when you can afford a 4x4 truck, you can find a good later model frontier for not too bad of a cost. If your truck is running fine I would keep it, just use sandbags/weights in winter and snow tires if needed. People don't realize the value of snow tires (they should be named cold weather tires). Also you could use your buddys as a trade in, baby that tranny and get it sold on em!

Edit: should of read your first post. let me explain what you would need to do.

 

[SoCal]

I think it would be an overwhelming amount of work. You have all the hardware swaps mentioned by @RockMechanic - plus wiring harness swapping.
Maybe sell parts off the 4x4 to raise money for a good running 4x4.

 

[RockMechanic]

Like I said, unless you want to spend the time learning how to fix the transmission in that one 4x4, since your not using it and you can't use it right now, you can tear into that tranny and figure out whats wrong. I would honestly do this, then you could have 2 running trucks! And save a significant amount of money in the process.

Worst case scenario you give up and you still have a 4x4 truck that doesn't run. Best case is you get it working right while spending less money and time than the first suggestion of mine. It may look like Everest when dealing with a Tranny, (and I have never had to work on one yet) but from what I have seen, as long as 1) you take your time, 2) you film what you are doing to look back at it, 3) keep things/parts labeled and organized you can do it. It can be scary at first, but everyone has a first time for everything. I guarantee there is someone on this forum that has rebuilt a transmission for these trucks.

You can figure out what failed, get the transmission fresh new parts in the process and use it as a learning process. The transmission is the hardest thing to fix on a car, outside of people that do repairs to ECU/BCM's craps plain Wizardry to me.

 

[SoCal]

Here's a video showing disassembly of a 2007 Nissan Frontier Automatic Transmission.

 

[JHart22]

Thi

Like I said, unless you want to spend the time learning how to fix the transmission in that one 4x4, since your not using it and you can't use it right now, you can tear into that tranny and figure out whats wrong. I would honestly do this, then you could have 2 running trucks! And save a significant amount of money in the process.

Worst case scenario you give up and you still have a 4x4 truck that doesn't run. Best case is you get it working right while spending less money and time than the first suggestion of mine. It may look like Everest when dealing with a Tranny, (and I have never had to work on one yet) but from what I have seen, as long as 1) you take your time, 2) you film what you are doing to look back at it, 3) keep things/parts labeled and organized you can do it. It can be scary at first, but everyone has a first time for everything. I guarantee there is someone on this forum that has rebuilt a transmission for these trucks.

You can figure out what failed, get the transmission fresh new parts in the process and use it as a learning process. The transmission is the hardest thing to fix on a car, outside of people that do repairs to ECU/BCM's craps plain Wizardry to me.

you guys have given me exactly the information/advice I was looking for. I was running this idea through my head just because I’m so feed up with this Frontier 4x2 that I have. I did leave some details out. I have already had the transmission in my truck (2 wheel) rebuilt. The truck ran good, not great for about a month. Occasionally it would make a hard shift randomly. And then, like a real genius, i drove through some water that was much deeper then I anticipated. About 2” above the bottom of the door. Carpet got damp. Took everything out and dried it. Didn’t think much about it. 2 days later the truck started to get a bit of a vibration when it shifted into over drive. I was thinking it was a torque converter issue. I turned the overdrive off so it held 4th gear and it ran fine. Then it began to slip badly. I pulled over checked tranny fluid and it seemed a bit strawberry milk shakeish.. like it might have water it in. I flushed/filled/drained 3x. On the 4th time I also replaced the filter. It ran better for about 2 hours. I’m so frustrated and financially buried in the truck I really don’t want to put another dollar in it
That’s why I came up with this idea. The donor vehicle has had some parts sold off of it. The bed, interior seats along with few other things. The. Someone stole the wheels off it....
I had no idea the amount of labor hours. I do have the proper tools/lifts ect (a friend of mine has detached work shop with 2 lifts)...
At the moment I’m thinking of maybe selling the 2 trucks as a package for 5-6k. Try and recoup some of my money and move on.

your advice and time was greatly appreciated

 

[RockMechanic]

Thi
At the moment I’m thinking of maybe selling the 2 trucks as a package for 5-6k. Try and recoup some of my money and move on.

No problem, and you might even be able to find someone on this forum that's a bit on the spectrum that would be willing to buy the trucks and consider doing the rebuild because they are retired/have free time, and the money to burn on a hobby. I'd see it as a good learning possibility/project for someone who is a mechanic that is wanting to teach his kids about vehicles. (like those father son builds you come across on occasion). Good luck with it!

 

[D13FrontierLE]

What if you go the other way, can't you use the 4x4 chassis and transfer your 2x4 cab and engine and swap other needed stuff? Might make everything else easier.

 

[JHart22]

What if you go the other way, can't you use the 4x4 chassis and transfer your 2x4 cab and engine and swap other needed stuff? Might make everything else easier.

yes it would be for sure. But the “donor truck” would take a act of god to get titled. Not even opening that can of worms

 

[hambone96]

yes it would be for sure. But the “donor truck” would take a act of god to get titled. Not even opening that can of worms

Isn't the VIN on the cab? So you can pick which frame to set the titled cab on.

 

[D13FrontierLE]

Isn't the VIN on the cab? So you can pick which frame to set the titled cab on.

Thats what I thought too.

 

[The other Sean]

Whichever way you decide to go, swapping cabs or swapping parts, I think you have a best case scenario if there is one. Normally where these things go awry is various small bits, connectors, wire looms, brackets, etc. Being as how these trucks are built on the same basic chassis platform, it might not be too hard to swap parts between.

just keep in mind you are doing all this work on 15 year old trucks, so value of a completed truck is not high. But, if you have the time and want...

 

[RockMechanic]

yes it would be for sure. But the “donor truck” would take a act of god to get titled. Not even opening that can of worms

Ok, so here's a solution, get a cheap trailer, put the 4x4 truck on it, and wait till you can sell both trucks, they can take all of it at once!

 

[V8 man]

Stuff the 4WD transmission and transfer case in the 2WD truck. Don't hook any wires up to the transfer case. Don't put any front drivetrain in. You will need the 4WD rear driveshaft. Put a new radiator in because that is what really failed, not the deep water you drove through.

You now have a running and driving 2WD truck. No complete rewire. No welding brackets. Simple, cheap, gets you back into a running truck. No swapped frames, no hidden VINs on the frame to worry about, no swapped insterment clusters (odometer fraud) to worry about. The transfer case will live a long and happy life doing nothing more than being a pass through for a 2WD truck.

 

[hambone96]

Stuff the 4WD transmission and transfer case in the 2WD truck. Don't hook any wires up to the transfer case. Don't put any front drivetrain in. You will need the 4WD rear driveshaft. Put a new radiator in because that is what really failed, not the deep water you drove through.

You now have a running and driving 2WD truck. No complete rewire. No welding brackets. Simple, cheap, gets you back into a running truck. No swapped frames, no hidden VINs on the frame to worry about, no swapped insterment clusters (odometer fraud) to worry about. The transfer case will live a long and happy life doing nothing more than being a pass through for a 2WD truck.

This is literally the only logical and feasible answer in the entire thread. Lol

You could do that job on a Saturday. Post pics.