Swapping Armada diffs for better performance?

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Clay350
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Postby Clay350 » Wed Mar 07, 2012 10:04 am

rragpaoa,


Just to clarify. I can use the front 3.36 from a nissan Titan as well right. That might be my answer to this problem. I can not find a single junkyard that will seperate the ring & pinion from a armada diff. Its rare to find an armada in a salvage yard and the 10 yards I talked would not seperate. ANd they were talking 500 for the rear or front end.

My plan now is to find a titan front ring & pinion then buy a new ring &pinion for the rear. Im starting to wonder if im being ridiculous spending this kind of coin on a gear change.


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Clay350
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Eureka

Postby Clay350 » Thu Mar 08, 2012 5:23 pm

Ok i finally located my gears. I ended up having to buy a new front gear set for $360. I located a used set for the rear $180. Now I just need to find a good shop to do this switch.

Im not sure if I need to buy the bearing install kit or not? I should have my gears in a couple days and my truck in the shop next week.

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volvite
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Postby volvite » Thu Mar 08, 2012 5:59 pm

Nice. Looking forward to seeing your results.

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rragpaoa
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Re: Eureka

Postby rragpaoa » Sun Mar 11, 2012 2:46 pm

Clay350 wrote:Ok i finally located my gears. I ended up having to buy a new front gear set for $360. I located a used set for the rear $180. Now I just need to find a good shop to do this switch.

Im not sure if I need to buy the bearing install kit or not? I should have my gears in a couple days and my truck in the shop next week.
Good to hear that you've found the parts. I went ahead and changed the bearings. I figured, new parts for everything. Remember, I had the ARB locker so I wanted all brand new parts. I would go your route had I not had the locker.

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Clay350
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Postby Clay350 » Sun Mar 11, 2012 5:36 pm

Ya im just trying to keep the cost reasonable. Im also scarred about voiding my warranty. It has been my experience that Nissan will look for any reason to get out of fixing something.

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Clay350
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Postby Clay350 » Tue Mar 13, 2012 6:46 am

Why is it that every supplier insists the pathfinder V8 has a ring & pinion from a titan? I lost my rear end gear vendor because after 5 conversations they realized I was right and that the armada has a different rear end. I might have to go with a brand new rear ring & pinion now.

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doctahjones
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Postby doctahjones » Fri Mar 23, 2012 3:05 pm

tagging this because i'm interested in this as well. especially after i do the 2in lift and get a little bigger tires.

for the engine that we have i feel it's being way underpowered or something. i mean our engine pulls the armada/titan, so with our smaller frames and lower weight we should be killin it.

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Clay350
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Postby Clay350 » Mon Mar 26, 2012 11:11 am

Ok guys I keep hitting snags. I lost my source on a good set of used ring & pinions. Every credible shop is quoting over 1K for the switch and that includes no parts. I can not find any ring & pinion's used for the life of me and im convinced it is very rare. I can find yards that have 3.36 pumpkins but will not seperate the gears.

So at this point I am looking at around $2500 to change the gearing on this car.

-$380 new front ring & pinion
-$150 new bearing install kit front
-$500 new rear ring & pinion
-$150 new rear bearing install kit
-$1200 in labor

Can anyone tell me if the entire pumpkin from an armada would bolt in place of my pumpkins? If this was the case I could buy a good set of used aramda pumpkins and switch them out. Then sell mine to recoup some of the cost. Anyone know this.

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rragpaoa
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Postby rragpaoa » Mon Mar 26, 2012 1:07 pm

I am pretty sure the Armada pumpkin will fit.

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Clay350
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Postby Clay350 » Tue Mar 27, 2012 6:09 am

Doctah jones thats my point precisely. Our gearing is really handicapping our trucks. It says a lot that an armada with the 3.36 gearing wehiging 700 lbs more is faster to 60 than ours. Gearing is almost as important as HP itself. I was really dissapointed the first time I drove my truck to realize that it has "highway gears".

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Clay350
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Postby Clay350 » Tue Mar 27, 2012 9:03 am

Rapoga,

Do you happen to know if the differential sideshaft that is in the front differential is the same on the armada and pathfinder V8?

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rragpaoa
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Postby rragpaoa » Tue Mar 27, 2012 3:24 pm

Clay350 wrote:Rapoga,

Do you happen to know if the differential sideshaft that is in the front differential is the same on the armada and pathfinder V8?
Do you mean the front drive shafts, or the companion flange, or the side shaft that is internal to the diff? Everything should be the same except the drive shafts, which are longer in the Armada.
Make sure you get a diff that is 2007+, which Nissan made a change to the to strengthen the casing.

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Clay350
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Postby Clay350 » Sun Apr 01, 2012 12:57 pm

Another question for rappoga:

Ok guys heres the deal. Found a 2008 infini qx56 rear end with 40k miles. It has the 3.36 gears and i got it for $400. My plan next weekend is to replace the rear only. Then next weekend do the front. This should not pose a driving problem as long as i dont use 4x4 corect?

Clay

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rragpaoa
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Postby rragpaoa » Mon Apr 02, 2012 7:48 pm

Clay350 wrote:Another question for rappoga:

Ok guys heres the deal. Found a 2008 infini qx56 rear end with 40k miles. It has the 3.36 gears and i got it for $400. My plan next weekend is to replace the rear only. Then next weekend do the front. This should not pose a driving problem as long as i dont use 4x4 corect?

Clay
Do them at the same time. The difference in drive shart rotaion between front and rear will cause the ECU/ABLS/VDC to go haywire. The
Also, our transfer case is the AllMode TC, which is not a simple TC, so you could ruin that as well. I am not 100% sure, but I would play it on the safe side.

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Clay350
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Postby Clay350 » Tue Apr 03, 2012 9:58 am

Understood. I was worried about that. Need to locate my front diff this week. Also need to make sure i can ride the motorcycle weather wise for a bit. Im assuming ill hit some snag in the switchout so want to leave myself a buffer.


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