The gears you need to are not made for your current H190 axle. You will need to upgrade to a H233B axle housing that is found ONLY on 86-95 2WD V6 Hardbody trucks. Cannot use 4WD due to spring perches as mentioned eariler. 2WD's are harder to find but they are out there.

2WD's did not come with low gearing, though. So you will need to find the 3rd member (diff carrier) out of a 4WD H233B that has proper gears. Generally speaking, automatics came with 4.625 and manuals came with 4.375, and some of the 4WD manual trucks with small tire options came with 4.11's but they are somewhat rare.

Your next problem is that your driveshaft will no longer work because the diff flanges are different, you will probably have to have one custom built.

Since you are in Riverside, try these JY's if you havent yet:

California Mini Truck - Ontario
Fermans Mini Truck - Santa Ana

Also try car-part.com. I tried to look but the site is down right now.

Scott

Nissan4wheelers.com Forum / Truck Babes

New category perhaps?

(a place to visit while you're waiting for those replies to come in)

Thanks everyone. Lots of good info. Scott, I'll look into that. Thanks.

it is the euphoria of this website.

breathe deep and relax.

Car-part is listing a few 2wd H233B axles over in Glendale junkyards...going for about $250 a pop.

I also took a look at the gear calcuator, and based on a jump from 195/75R14 to 31X10.5R15 tires, your new ratio needs to be 4.50 to get you back to where you used to be stock (not taking into account the increase in weight with new tires). So that puts you smack in the middle between 4.625 and 4.375, which are the only gears available in that neighborhood.

Also forgot to mention, LSD's were a popular option on 4wd H233B's. There are plenty of them to be found in wrecking yards.

Scott

Truck babes,

He said "Truck Babes", hea hea...

Ok,
So if I have this right I am looking at purchasing two axles.

1. an H233B out of a 2wd se V6 1-ton heavy duty Hardbody. This will bolt up to my truck, although this will not have the low gearing or the LSD I need.

2. An H233B out of a 4WD where I'm looking for the fender plate stamped HF43 (4.375) or HF46 (4.625). Then using this one's gears to put into the 2WD model.

3. I will need to have a custom drive shaft made to mate to differential #1.

Is this what you would recommend doing?

BTW, I have never broke down a differential gear set before. Is it doable, or would I need a shop to do that? Also, would another option be to purchase the gears new from a specialty shop? Probably big bucks though?

Thank ya...

The H233b has a 3rd member you can pull out.

You need to find axle #1 and a #2 third member. When you remove the third member. The R&P and carrier come out in one piece.

Beware virgin third members are a PAIN IN THE A$$ to pull. Took me a good while to drop mine.

The H233B is a dropout style, meaning you can take the whole gear assembly (3rd member) out of the axle without dissassembling the gears.

So you need a 2wd axle HOUSING. This does not need to be from a 1 ton, ALL V6 Nissan Hardbodies came with the H233B. You just need one out of any 2wd model from 86-95, the housings are all identical. Stay away from dually wheel H233B's which were found on the cab/chassis models.

The 3rd member gear setup will need to be from a 4WD pathfinder or truck, and you can find these with the factory LSD installed, or you can find an "open" unit (meaning no locker mechanism) and install a lockright locker. Junk yards will usually sell the 3rd member without the housing if that is what you prefer.

The driveshaft might be expensive. I dont know if the Nissan H233B flange is readily available. Might have to procure a driveshaft from a JY and have a driveline shop cut off the flange so it can be used on your custom shaft.

Scott

I'm at a bit of a disadvantage trying to understand how much of a challenge swapping out the whole gear assembly as a unit would be, as I have never seen this done before. On reading what I could find they talk about adjusting backlash with a dial gauge, adjusting shim tolerances, etc., but perhaps as a unit those steps are unnecessary? There is a video online that although it doesn't cover Nissan disassembly, still sounds pretty good:

http://smartflix.com/store/video/1356/Differential-Rebuilding

How does that grab ya?

My Haynes book does not cover the gear assembly aka third-member removal. So far I do understand how to remove the axle shafts as one of the first steps following oil draining and dropping the drive shaft. I would imagine that it would be prudent at this point to replace the wheel bearing(s) (both sides) (which probably will require a press) and a necessity to replace the oil seal(s) too. Additionally a Slide Hammer may be necessary to free up the axles (which I don't have). I should be able to do most of that myself providing the axles come free, although a shop would most likely have to press the bearings for me... although the BFH is a fun tool and I use it whenever possible.

So, is swapping out the third-member something I could do as a first timer, or better left to a shop? I've dropped in motors, tranies, clutches, heads, rebuilt carbs, did brakes, and more. Even put in a tape deck once. :-)

I do most all the work on my truck myself as I get a bit un-trusting when I get my truck back from a garage and find they put 60 lbs. of torque on my valve cover bolts. Well, I guess they could come flying off at any time. Could happen.

Take a look here:

http://www.currieenterprises.com/cestore/curriechpRE.aspx

The first picture at the top of the page is showing an axle assembly similar to the H233B. Its the whole assembly including housing, 3rd member, axle shafts, etc...

Below that, there is a photo of the 3rd member. This is the gear setup. Once axle shafts have been removed from an axle, this 3rd member can be unbolted from the housing and taken completely off, just as you see in the photo. Its very simple.

Read up on this...its a locker installation in an H233B with pictures...should help.

http://www.parksoffroad.com/miscinstalls/95pathfinderlo...hfinderlockright.htm

Scott

Ah mastah, you very wise.

Yes. I think I could do that in 5 tries or less.

Very cool. Feeling much better about it now.

Thanks!

It sounds to me like you are ready to take the next step and do the work yourself.

I have felt the same way about others working on my junk, so I do ALL of my own work now. I will buy rebuilt parts, but that is the extent of others doing my work.

I say do all of your homework and get after it.

Yeah, doesn't sound too bad. Finding a LSD third-member would be the easiest so I will look for one of those. The drive shaft sounds like the biggest obstacle. I'm thinking that I could just buy the drive shaft along with the LSD third-member and have the flange cut off it and welded onto my current one and balanced. I have to find a shop in my area that does that. I know the balancing is important so I need to find a competent shop.

BTW, is an LSD and a locker basically the same thing? Remember, no off-roading for this truck, street only.

limited slip diff is not the same a lockable upon demand diff..