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2002 Nissan Xterra IFS Solid Axle Swap - Four Wheeler Magazine

2002 Nissan Xterra Sas drivers Side View Photo 18068695

The Nissan Xterra was introduced back in 2000 and has proven itself to be a fun and capable SUV. With a wheelbase a few inches north of 100, it's short enough to fit in some tight spaces, yet long enough for good stability and some rear cargo space.

Dee Schauer owns an '02 V-6-powered model and has been desert wheeling it for a good number of years. She uses it for day trips rockcrawling and trail running, as well as for longer camping trips in remote areas. It'd been upgraded over the years with a 3.92:1 transfer case and lockers, but she and husband Andy decided to take her rig up a notch in capability, and a solid-axle swap (SAS) was in the cards.

What was to happen was a homebrew axle and suspension swap, and we'll take you down that road here. The couple planned and gathered the parts over the course of a few months. What they found was that there are some good used parts floating around on the market, and patience can yield some good deals to help keep the mod costs a little more in check. Some parts were purchased from local wheelers, and the balance of the swap components consist of a combination of OEM and aftermarket pieces.

2002 Nissan Xterra Sas ifs Parts Removed Photo 18068716

The IFS has a lot of parts that make up its suspension. They all came off the Xterra and were pushed off to the side. Selling off some of these pieces to other owners of stock rigs can put a few dollars back into the project fund.

The Dana 44 axle with driver-side pumpkin was purchased as a used assembly, and already held chromoly axleshafts, high-steer arms, and some other upgraded parts. It measured 60.5 inches from flange to flange, a good match to the stock rear axle, which is about 62 inches wide. Follow along as we show how Andy and a group of dedicated helpers did the Xterra transformation.

Basic Shopping List
Complete front axle (hub to hub)
Steering arm(s)
Tie rod and drag link
Front leaf-spring packs
Spring shackles and frame tubes
Spring front crossmember
Shock mounts
Shocks
Brake lines
Bumpstops
U-bolts, axle plates, and perches
Driveshaft
Misc. steel plate scraps

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PhotosView Slideshow 1. The stock transmission crossmember was replaced with a tubular version from Calmini. While this unit does hang a bit lower than the stock piece, it does so to allow the front driveshaft the clearance to droop above it.

1. The stock transmission crossmember was replaced with a tubular version from Calmini. While this unit does hang a bit lower than the stock piece, it does so to allow the front driveshaft the clearance to droop above it.

2. With all the stock suspension parts stripped off the Nissan, it was time to fire up the torch. Jim Wickes deleted the myriad of IFS bracketry from the frame. Care was taken to cut the mounts as close as possible to the framerails without gouging the rails with the flame. Wet rags were used on the passenger side to keep excessive heat away from the fluid lines running along the side of the frame. With all the unneeded bracketry shed off the frame, cleanup grinding ensued.

3. The shackle tubes were going to be mounted through the framerails, so they were held in place under the frame, and fore/aft locations determined after careful measurements were made.

4. These are Calmini shackle mount parts. The 0.250-inch-wall tube will be inserted into the frame to support bushings for the top of the shackles. The sheetmetal form shown in this photo is a hole guide used to mark the location where holes will be cut in the frame.

5. Here you can see the sheetmetal pattern held in place. The tube locations are positioned to match the separation width of the front spring-hanger tabs. The location ended up right where one of the body-mount plates welded to the side of the frame. Part of the body mount was cut off where it interfered. Due to interference, it was not possible to cut the frame holes using a drill and holesaw. A torch was used in this case.

6. With the frame holes cut through both walls of each framerail, the shackle tubes were slipped into place, aligned, and tack welded. The red lines denote where a steel plate was later added back to the frame to support the body mount.

7. A Calmini Nissan shackle kit was used along with poly bushings and steel sleeves. Depending on the leaf springs used and where the rear shackles and hangers end up, the offset Calmini shackles may not fully clear the frame at full spring compression. Instead, it may be necessary to use straight shackle plates and steel bushing spacers.

8. One could use a variety of leaf packs for a conversion such as this based on the ride height and type of ride and flex you're aiming for. In this case, salvaged Jeep Wagoneer leaf packs with two added leaves in each pack offered the desired width and a low arch height in a flexy pack. A Calmini front-hanger crossmember was used to add the leaf springs to the frame.

9. After the shackle tube locations were rechecked, they were welded to the framerails. Here you can see the assembled offset shackles ready for some leaf springs.

10. The stock Xterra steering box and frame mount is a pretty decent setup and a good candidate as-is for a conversion such as this. Andy removed the pitman arm and used an SAE tie-rod taper reamer to slightly enlarge the drag-link hole and cut it to match an SAE tie-rod end.

11. A set of U-bolt plates with bump landing pads and some polyurethane bumpstops were sourced from Calmini to smoothen hard suspension hits and keep the parts from making metal-to-metal contact.

12. The Dana 44 axle was fitted with weld-on perches, inverted U-bolts, and the Calmini plates. The hardware was only snugged up as the perches would need to be welded to the axle later after the caster angle was determined and adjusted.

PhotosView Slideshow 13. With leaf springs and front crossmember bolted to the axle, it was rolled into place using an old set of wheels to make moving it around easier.

13. With leaf springs and front crossmember bolted to the axle, it was rolled into place using an old set of wheels to make moving it around easier.

14. This photo shows the flipped U-bolts that get the plates up top out of the rocks. These plates also have additional surface area to be used for the bumpstops that were added a little later. The two weld-on perches differ slightly as one sits on an axletube, while the other sits a bit higher on the tubular part of the centersection housing.

15. Shock mounts for the frame are a simple solution and as close as your nearest Ford dealer. These are PN E5TZ 18183A and typically sell for under $15 each. The stamped-steel towers weld easily to the framerails to accommodate longer shocks.

16. With the flexy droop of the front axle, it was time to get a front shaft capable of a good joint working angle. J.E. Reel Drive Line Specialists built this CV-jointed driveshaft. It uses a flange to mate to the Nissan transfer-case output and a 1310 U-joint on the other end to bolt up to the Dana 44 pinion. Long-travel splines were incorporated as well to accommodate the pinion falling down and away from the transfer case under droop conditions. Note that it's generally a good idea to order the driveshaft once the axle is mounted and some real-world dimensions can be checked.

17. Before the front spring mounts could be fitted, a little more grinding was needed to a portion of the sheetmetal bracing that spans the forward ends of the front framerails.

18. Dimensions were checked again to confirm the forward mounting location for the front Calmini crossmember. With it clamped in place, a couple of floor jacks were used to lower the Xterra to set the vehicle weight on the springs and check that the shackle angle would be angled slightly backwards under normal ride-height conditions.

19. Once Andy was satisfied with the location of the front crossmember, Jim welded it in place to the frame. A few small gusset plates were also added to further strengthen the area where the front ends of the leaf packs will reside.

20. With vehicle weight sitting on the front axle and springs, the front-axle caster angle was measured and the pinion rotated with a floor jack to set the caster at about 6 degrees, which should allow good road tracking manners and steering return-to-center. The perches were tack welded to the axletubes and then later fully welded before final assembly and tightening of the U-bolts.

21. The Dana 44 had a flange-to-flange width of 60.5 inches. The wheels used on all four corners of the Xterra are 8 inches wide with a 4-inch backspacing. To gain the clearance needed between the back of the wheel and the tie rod, 1.5-inch spacers were added to each wheel hub in the front, yielding an effective flange-to-flange width of 63.5 inches.

22. The drag link connects from the bottom side of the pitman arm and runs across the front of the axle to a passenger-side high-steer arm that bolts on top of the knuckle. This is one of the tricky parts of setting up a swap such as this. You need the tie rod and drag link to clear the leaf springs under all travel and articulation conditions.

23. Here you can see one of the Ford shock towers welded to the framerail using some additional steel plates to set the top of the shock far enough out to stand the shock up nearly straight while still allowing clearance between it and the tire. Calmini 11-inch-travel shocks were used.

24. A set of steel tabs were used on each end of the axle to provide lower-shock mounting locations on top of the axletubes. Longer-than-stock stainless brake lines mated the 1/2-ton Chevy calipers to the stock Nissan steel brake lines. The stock master cylinder does a decent job of actuating the larger calipers on the Dana 44 axle.

25. A snail's view from below shows the shackle angle at ride height, and the driveshaft dipping down from above the transmission crossmember to meet the axle.

26. With the stock Nissan pitman arm and the single high-steer arm on the passenger side, the drag-link angle is reasonably flat and resulted in minimal bumpsteer on the highway. The drag link and tie-rod parts are beefier than stock components, and the tie rod mates to the knuckles from above using the stock steering-arm holes. We should also mention that the height of the Xterra was balanced out with Calmini lift packs and Rancho 5112 shocks in the rear.

27. A closer view of the drag link running over the passenger leaf pack shows this setup has room to flex and keep the rod from hitting the spring pack or the U-bolt plate.

Conclusion
Once everything was checked and the final welding done, all the hardware was fully tightened, gear fluid was added, and the brakes were bled. A road test showed the vehicle was a bit nose-high to start, but handled well on the road once the toe-in was tweaked, and the front springs should settle just a bit more over time. After the swap, the final wheelbase ended up being close to stock at 104 inches, and the Xterra was shod with 33-inch BFG Mud-Terrains. Off-highway, the new setup proved to be flexy, but stable, and a considerable jump in trail prowess over the previous IFS.

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2002 Nissan Xterra IFS Solid Axle Swap - Four Wheeler Magazine

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