[todda323]

hello all. new to the forum. nice to meet everyone. first off I have an 06 nismo frontier straight shift. I have looked and am having difficulty finding an answer to a question. theres a lot of info out there but I haven't yet been able to find the answer. Hopefully someone here could point me in the right direction or offer some advice.

I believe I have a possible front driver side shaft bearing going at the front diff input. just replaced the hub which was going out and got some improvement but not much change in the droning, bad bearing noise im getting. passenger side hub is tight and no movement in the hub bearing. I have some slack in all directions in the driver side cv axle where it goes into the front diff. I will try to post up a link to a vid here in a little. any way my question; is it possible to pull the bearing with a slide puller of sorts without having to open the diff by going in from the outside? if not could someone explain what would prevent this.

again its great to be here and learn from the many experienced folks. thanks much for any and all help, advice and guidance.

regards,
todd

 

[todda323]

1477966424.mp4 Video by todda323 | Photobucket

 

[Nissan4Life]

I am not sure if that amount of play is normal or not. I am sure someone else will chime in. How much play do you have on the driver side. I have recently been into my front diff (locker install) so I can give you a little more detail. If this was the passenger side (long side) you could have easily pulled the bearing to the internal shaft without removing the diff from the truck.

However the driver side CV goes directly into the carrier. The only bearing that would be bad would be the carrier bearing. I think you can remove the cover with the diff installed to inspect. But I am not sure you can pull and replace the carrier bearing with the diff in.

How many miles do you have on the truck. It would seem odd that the bearing has failed. Do you live in snow country. Can you live without 4wd for a while.
Here is a link to the thread that details the diff tear down.
How-to: Install LOKKA r180 Locker - Second Generation Nissan Xterra Forums (2005+)

 

[todda323]

Thanks for the info. The pics help alot. Truck has about 130k and was 2nd hand. Didn't see any signs of hard wheeling underneath but was used to haul some fire wood at some point t. Wasn't beaten and was defiantly taken care of.

I'm getting a droning bad bearing sound that gives a small vibration in driver floor board at 20 and 30 mph. Seems to go away after 30mph.

On the ground neither side moves as much as the driver side did in vid. Im off today so I'll put on stands and check both sides again. Gonna double check driver wheel bearing again and u joints as well as the hub I put on.

So far I changed the front diff, dirty as heck with a little paste on plug but no shavings or chunks. T case, wasn't too bad but time for a change. Rear diff had a very little paste but not as dirty and no shavings or chunks. Driver wheel bearing was defiantly getting tired so replaced with timkin bearing hub assembly. Seems to be a new front shaft as its alot cleaner and newer looking than rear. Also u joints have zerks for grease, and I had to pump a bit in there.

Again thanks alot for the guidance. I greatly appreciate it. Alot of times I get no reply on various forums for various things and it's nice to meet folks that want to help someone learn from their personal experiences. I plan on doing a spacer lift in the spring which should be easy enough.

 

[Nissan4Life]

I was going to mention u joints. I have replaced all 4 of mine by 70K. Hard wheeling and hauling though. Seems like the front shaft could have been replaced, they are typically all rusty, and zerk fitting mean the ujoints are defiantly not factory.

Your gear oil condition seems normal.

Let us know what you find.

 

[todda323]

I will. Thanks. Maybe I'll get a vid of the u joints and front shaft and see what yall think. They seem fine to me but I could be missing something

 

[Nissan4Life]

The fronts if new are probably fine. But what about the rear. You really have to jack the thing in the air in order to tell if there is play.

 

[todda323]

Mm. Good idea. Actually the axle was on stands when i checked I think. I'll give it a run tomorrow and see what I find and let yall know. Thanks alot.

 

[todda323]

Well here's the latest. Double checked u joints and found this. Thought Id throw it out there for opinion. Thanks for everyone's help and patience. I'm learning as I go. There's a reason I'm not a mechanic by trade but I prefer doing it myself. Learning is more fun and gratifying once problems are solved. Again thanks much.

http://s637.photobucket.com/user/todda323/media/Mobile Uploads/1478183654.mp4.html?filters[user]=93287840&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=1

By the way I lied. Front shaft old. Rear new. The vid is the front going into the transfer case. Thanks again and sorry for being too long winded.

 

[Nissan4Life]

Well here's the latest. Double checked u joints and found this. Thought Id throw it out there for opinion. Thanks for everyone's help and patience. I'm learning as I go. There's a reason I'm not a mechanic by trade but I prefer doing it myself. Learning is more fun and gratifying once problems are solved. Again thanks much.

http://s637.photobucket.com/user/todda323/media/Mobile Uploads/1478183654.mp4.html?filters[user]=93287840&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=1

linky no worky

<embed width="600" height="361" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowFullscreen="true" allowNetworking="all" wmode="transparent" src="http://static.photobucket.com/player.swf" flashvars="file=http%3A%2F%2Fvid637.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fuu94%2Ftodda323%2FMobile%2520Uploads%2F1478183654.mp4&title=">

http://vid637.photobucket.com/albums/uu94/todda323/Mobile Uploads/1478183654.mp4

Yep that is toast

 

[todda323]

That's what I thought. Would that cause the symptoms I've been having? I would assume it would with things slipping around at the joint. Also I checked CVs. Both sides have about the same amount of movment. Spun the wheels and axles while underneath and didn't hear anything out of the norm.

 

[Nissan4Life]

Bad ujoints will cause vibrations and weird noises. Fix what you know is bad and see if it clears up your noise. I have never heard of a front diff bearing going bad.

 

[todda323]

Will do. I assume spicer or moog would be the way to go? Anyone have a part number off hand? If not it's no worries I'll look it up but thought I'd ask.

Thanks,
Todd

 

[todda323]

In my research and reading it seems that this may be an issue commonly experienced by other nissan owners. I haven't found a reasonable or common cause out side of the normal stuff but in some cases it seems it would be a wheel bearing or u joints or a few other common causes but turns out it is not.

So far I'm in it for a wheel bearing, new fluids front to rear and I just put in 3 new u joints. Man those nuts were a pain in the you know what. I was a goof ball and didn't try driving while I had the front shaft out so the next sunny day that will be on the list of things to do. The good thing was I didn't get any unwanted play/movement at the pinion bearings or at the inputs to the trans/t case. Another good thing is it absolutely was time for the items replaced to be replaced so some routine maintenance got taken care of.

I will continue to update. Thanks to everyone who has taken a look at the thread and MUCH thanks to all who have dropped a comment. I am very greatfull and glad to be here. If nothing else maybe my trials will help the next guy or gal in my position. Learning as we go and trying to do it ourselves.

 

[Zedbra]

U-joints are common on any truck, not just Nissans. Knock on wood, but I have 148k kilometres on my front u-joints, with a hard life of wheeling, and they are still tight; it's a roll of the dice with u-joints.

 

[Nissan4Life]

Seems like the D40 in particular eats u joints. All four went bad before 70k for me. My old hard body is at 200 and still on the original u joints. My buddies 1st gen Tacoma, which we wheeled the puss out of, was still on the oe u joints when he sold it at 230k. I did think he needed new ones though.