Hopefully someone can explain this to me. I am looking into the Xterra 3rd member swap into my Pathfinder for the 4.9 gear set. Looking into this seems pretty easy, straight forward. Now im just wondering why the 33 spline X's do not have a lockrite available to them. I did not think a lockrite replaced the factory side gears (which if i am not mistaken house the 33 or 31 spline axle shaft) so shouldn't you be able to use the lockrite in any splined nissan h233b?? please someone set me straight. Having never seen the lockrite in person, im kind of shooting in the dark here.

The newer H233's have four spider gears, the older ones have two.

The carriers are different.

You will not be able to drop a X- third into your pathy because the axle shafts have different spline counts. Swap over your 30 spline carrier to the X third member and you'll be fine. With the old style carrier you'll be able to drop in a lock-right or Detroit. I recommend a Detroit locker if you can track one down.

If your Finder is a later WD22, you could probaby just use the ring and pinion gears on your existing carrier. That would require a professional installaton, unless you're good at setting up gears.

i guess i was not clear about the "swap" i already knew about the different spline counts, just did not know the number of spider gears jumped from 2 to 4. My plan was to ultimately swap the 4.9 ring and pinion into my third if all else failed. And the gear setup will not be a problem, my cousin does it for a living, so no cost there

quote:

Originally posted by Killing4aliving:
The newer H233's have four spider gears, the older ones have two.

My '87 Pathfinder H233B (31 spline) has 4 spider gears.

Acutally this is an interesting question. Why couldn't a person replace the 33 spline side gears with the ones from the 31 spline, allowing the use of the 4.9 gears of the newer axle and a lockright?

The splined axle ends go into the carrier, not the spider gears, and I think K4AL has it backwards. I think the newer ones have 2 and the older ones have 4.

If you wanted to use the 31 spline axles in a newer housing, the issue is width. The D22 axles are wider than the D21 axles, meaning the shafts would be too short.

The holy grail axle is the early '99 V6 Frontier axle that had the wider width AND still had 31 spline shafts. I'm not sure which carrier it had though, and if an open one would accept a lockrite.