Front driveshaft clearance on Calmini lift

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KonaPathinder
Posts: 10
Joined: Thu Nov 07, 2013 7:10 pm
Location: Hawaii

Front driveshaft clearance on Calmini lift

Postby KonaPathinder » Sun Nov 24, 2013 3:06 pm

Yesterday, I was creeping around under my wife's 2008 4x4 Pathfinder, attempting to control the corrosion, and noticed that the front drive shaft was really close to a crossmember. She has the 5" Calmini lift, and the airbags for support in the rear coils.
I installed a few spacers between the frame mounted bracket and the crossmember just to play it safe after I found this clearance issue, but it looks like the driveshaft may have come into contact with the crossmember at some point before yesterday.
The truck is driven off-road quite a bit, and not gently.

My question: Does anyone else have such a tight fit on their install, or is it just us?

Here are a few pictures of the rusty shaft and crossmember before I installed the spacers. The front of the vehicle is on the right side of the first photo.
Image
This photo was taken from the drivers side and the front of the truck is on the left side of the photo. You can see where the driveshaft came into contact with the support.
Image


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NmexMAX
Posts: 796
Joined: Mon Oct 11, 2010 2:35 pm
Location: Northern New Mexico

Postby NmexMAX » Mon Nov 25, 2013 11:00 am

Here's mine. This is the only pic I have, and it looks similar to yours.


Image

KonaPathinder
Posts: 10
Joined: Thu Nov 07, 2013 7:10 pm
Location: Hawaii

It sure does, but much less rust!

Postby KonaPathinder » Mon Nov 25, 2013 11:09 am

Thanks for the photo. I would guess that there shouldn't be much bouncing of the shaft; I inserted a few washers for clearance just in case.

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NmexMAX
Posts: 796
Joined: Mon Oct 11, 2010 2:35 pm
Location: Northern New Mexico

Postby NmexMAX » Tue Jun 17, 2014 2:10 pm

I have a transfer case leak and was recently under there looking at things, and yes, mine is the same as yours, horridly close. But I have done some fairly intense wheeling, and it has yet to make contact, makes sense though, since the differential is fixed and the UCA’s, LCA’s tie rods and CV shafts are responsible for wheel travel and not the actual differential.

I'll have some pics soon.


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