Nice, complete yet concise. How much does the front diff weigh?

 

Excellent "how-to" ten~39.
I purchased the new upgraded NISSAN front differential recently for my Big Tow geared Titan.
I haven't installed mine yet so maybe this will save me some time.
I always do all my mods "single-handed"....well actually with two hands but without a helper.

Some questions?....
How long did it take to R&R?
You didn't mention fluid.........did it come fully loaded with gear oil?

***NOTE*** When ordering a new front differential there's two different units depending on if your Titan is a standard 4x4 or Big Tow (different gears) 4x4 model.

***Big Tow front differential new part#...38500-8S11B***
Big Tow front differential old part#...38500-8S102

***Non Big Tow front differential new part#...38500-8S11A***
Non Big Tow front differential old part#...38500-8S100

How much does the front diff weigh

Total weight on the skid freight label is 138 lbs.
It was heavy/awkward enough that I didn't feel like lifting it out of the back of my Titan.......so I cheated....

May I be the first to add some pics.?

 

And the dealerships charge on the average about $400 to $500 labor for this. Thanks for the info.

 

As an FYI, it is indeed reasonably simple to pluck out the front differential and driveshaft, but to remove everything in order to allow you to keep driving while fixing it is another story. The axleshafts from the differential to the front hubs require you to pull shock/spring assemblies out. To do this you have to disconnect the upper control arm ball joint to let the lower control arm drop enough to easily remove it and then you can get the axleshafts out. Kind of a pain, but now at least I can drive my truck around in permanent 2WD instead of being completely SOL while I see if I can fix my front differential. Luckily I have new tires and TrueTrac (which works phenominally well) so I can still get around in the snow.

HoneyKeeper, I'll try to add a picture tonight of my front diff. so we can see the difference in webbing on the case and see if there is a significant difference.

Derek

 

HoneyKeeper, I'll try to add a picture tonight of my front diff. so we can see the difference in webbing on the case and see if there is a significant difference. Derek

Great.........and I'll take side by side pics. of old verses new when I change differentials....when the sun shines....when I have time.......hopefully very soon.

 

Personally, I didn't see a difference between the old and new housings, but I didn't go over them with a fine toothed comb either.

 

I don't believe that they changed the housing, just a few things on the inside. I'm not really to positive about the new design front diff holding up much better than the old one. I guess only time will tell. If we start seeing the 06, 07, 08, 09 front diffs start to fail, then we are not out of the woods with the" new and improved" front diff.

 

Here is a picture from my front diff. I think I see at least a little bit more webbing, but more towards the pinion area. It's tough to tell given the difference in condition though.

 

I think you're right, there's definitely more veins on the updated unit in that area.

 

It does look like there is alittle more ribbibing near the rear where the transfer case drive shaft connects.

 

Nice post 10~39. I vote for a sticky on this one. Regardless, I will remember this one.:rockon

 

Happy to help, but it really is simple.

 

Another question ten~39:
Did you jack the front end up for the R&R and how high if so?

 

Yeah, I had it up a ways. I had my HF 6 ton jack stands on the sixth indent supporting the frame at that major crossmember behind the front tires, so probably something like 20" or 22" up.

Basically, put it as high as you feel you have room to work, like any other job under the truck.

 

Honeykeeper did you buy from Anderson Nissan? The parts manager there asked me to shop him first against the online vendors. They were very aware of Courtesy Nissan.

 

My local dealer price-matched (tax included) the shipped price from Courtesy. The parts manager there was also aware of Courtesy.

 

Hi any more updates on this post? Thanks for taking the time mine just blew out wild as hell going down the road and bang no more hi 4 just low 4 ??? Pulled out on the right side not sure why ?
Well thanks again .

 

hello, my 05 titan just popped the half shaft out from the front differential on drivers side i was wondering if everyone was buying the new re-designed differentials online or through the dealer thank you

 

Well, I think you're stuck with a Nissan dealer regardless, if you want a new unit. However, there's a few dealers who do a lot of internet business and price stuff aggressively.

My local dealer price-matched (including sales tax) Courtesy Nissan's shipped price. I probably said it in my original post, but it was somewhere around $1200.

YMMV.

 

I just had one put in cost of install was 241.88 and front diff was update unit # 38500-8s11b that unit is ( Big tow ) old #38500-8s100a cost was 1240.54
total =w/tax =1586.11 I don't have a place to DIY so I just payed to much snow on the ground but I have the old one and plan to have it rebuilt as a stand by unit.
hope this will help you . good luck.

 

You got a great deal then.

Many guys have reported quotes from dealers for the same job for $1800-2200. Since the part retail stays constant, I've always figured the book time for the labor was way overboard (a tech with a lift and the proper tools should be able to do it in a hour, worse case), but maybe Nissan has revised the labor time for the job.

 

Thanks man I'll try giving my dealer a call today. So this new front differential is the solution and I'm not just wasting 1200

 

how high did your truck have to get lifted up?

 

Haven't purchased one yet was trying to find the best deal and waiting to hear from dealer. Does anyone know anything about courtesy Nissan. They seem to be the cheapest

 

All I did was ***** shop time and cost of unit and wow 4hr went to 2hr and parts went too down too??????? Just ***** a lot:bangit: Took them 1.1/2hr to do with oil change Hum Now book calls for 3.1/2 hr shop time ??:huh:

 

Just looking through these threads as I noticed leaking from L front half shaft and whe I grabbed it noticed a lot of up play between the shaft and diif case. I have not had a problem yet with 4WD and no noises and I find this very odd. Also my truck is 2008.5 and I assume it has the "upgraded" differential. I do have a 1 1/2" levelling kit but I can't see how that could really affect the shaft. Anyone else with similar problems on later year Titan?

 

I just wanna know . . .

What precipitated the differential change?, and

What did the replacement cost?

Jimbo

 

2006 + front diffs are upgraded (1) to resist half shaft pull out and (2) by adding webbing to upgrade the housing. 2004-2006 front diff housings were prone to crack, particularly when attempting to pull something in reverse (which I would not recommend even in 2008+).

2004-2006 front diffs can be rebuilt with respect to the half shaft pull out issue, but you would still have a weaker case.

The price is either $944 or $1148 at courtesyparts.com, probably plus shipping, depending on which model truck you have. They call it "front final drive"

 

Would a front differential from a 2011 4x4 be a compatible upgrade?

 

Just wanted to share my experience with changing out my front differential. I too had the same problems that everyone was having when my 4x4 quit on me and the front axle shaft was pulled out (passenger side). I have a 2005 titan and wanted the newer differential from the 2006+ years so I wouldn't have the reoccurring problem. Dealer was quoting in the $1400 range just for the new model number differential (not even including install). I ended up buying a new/unused differential on ebay from this guy (I believe he has more):

eBay My World - greatproducts248

I think he was asking $950 shipped originally. I talked him down to $800 shipped (it is sent freight to your door). Only problem with it (which he mentioned ahead of time) was the breather hose valve was snapped. I ended up drilling out the hole, re-threading, and installing my own valve which took some time but was worth the huge savings.

I did everything this install tutorial said and it really is very easy. The only issues I had was removing the bolts from the axle shafts because they were super tight/rusty. Had to use a wrench/cheater just to get enough torque. I had a buddy helping me which really was a huge help. Getting the new diff in by yourself would be a real pain due to the weight of the part and how the bolt holes line up. Every bolt was torqued to the mentioned requirements. However, the only other issue I had was torquing the bolts from the drive shaft. There is no way to get a torque wrench on the end of those because of the limited space. In fact, I couldn't even get a socket on those bolts and ended up having to use two wrenches.

Thanks for the help from this forum. Everything went very well and I was able to do it on one of our 45 degree days in Colorado. Got my 4x4 back before the next storm!

 

So as you can see from the post above, I just replaced my front differential. However, after reading a few additional posts, I am worried I may not have aligned the the front drive shaft correctly. I didn't know there was a "correct" alignment to it and I just rebolted it back on. See this post, specifically post #13 where you can see he marked off where the drive shaft connected to the front yolk. Does this matter and how would I make sure it is aligned correctly if it is a new differential?

http://www.titantalk.com/forums/titan-engine-transmission-drivetrain/117436-front-pinion-seal-how-fix.html

Thanks in advance for you speedy response!

 

If you have a dial indicator, you can index it to get minimum radial run out of the drive shaft, as measured with the dial indicator on the cylindrical portion of the shaft. SM maximum run out spec = 0.6 mm Excess run out = vibration.

 

So if it drives fine and I don't have any vibration, I shouldn't worry about it? I do not have a dial indicator.

 

Thank you kindly.

 

Thanks for this post, ill be doing this very soon...