Chris James's Frankenfinder

Nov. 01, 2005 By Martin Chung

Chris James had a problem with his '95 Pathfinder -- to make it more trailworthy, he originally went with the usual IFS lift route (two-stage torsion bars, Old Man Emu shocks, Rancho coils, and so on). He also added some interesting bits and pieces such as a ARB winch bumper, Smittybilt rear tube bumper, Safari Snorkel, Borla exhaust, and dual-shock upper A-arms). But the suspension wasn't good enough for the hardcore rockcrawling trails he was running or wanted to run. He ended up breaking a good number of idler arms and other steering components.

Being tired of paying for replacement components, the obvious solution to him was to put in a solid front axle and enjoy the wheel travel and robustness benefits associated with it. While most of us dream about it and watch Toyota owners do it, he made it happen on his Nissan. His truck is now a highly capable rig, regularly seen on tough trails along with other heavily modified Jeeps and Toyotas.

Coincidentally, I live in the same city as Chris, so I had an opportunity to go 'wheeling with him, chat with him, and take pictures of his truck in action.

This is what he did. Take a 1995 Pathfinder SE with 5-speed, bought new off the lot. Remove the front IFS. Add the following:

1976 Ford early Bronco Dana 44 housing and radius arms
1978 Bronco spring mounts, saddles, and shock towers
Wild Horses rock crawling coils (3" lift)
Wild Horses Axles (Ford inner / Chevy outer)
4.88:1 ring and pinion (Dana 44 front & stock Nissan H233B rear)
3/4 ton Chevy spindles
Chevy K-series hub & rotor assembly disk (6 bolt)
Warn Premium locking hubs
New differential carrier
Custom wound rear coils
Rancho RS9000 adjustable shocks
Lots of bearings, bits, and pieces

Chris runs a 3" body lift in addition to the suspension modifications above. This nets about 6" of total lift. The rear runs custom-wound coils that recently replaced 0.75" Old Man Emu coils with custom spacers. There's enough space to run 33x12.50 Super Swamper TSL SX's currently, and he plans to put on 35" tires in the future.

There are few better candidates for a front axle swap than the Dana 44, an excellent choice for an axle swap because of its strength and availability. The D44 ring gear size is comparable to the rear H233B Nissan corporate differential, meaning that the Nissan differential is easily strong enough for this application. Both differentials were re-geared to 4.88:1 so that the ratios matched (luckily, 4.88 gears are available for both, and they help turn the larger tires).

The Ford Bronco D44 housing has the differential pumpkin on the correct side for the Nissan transfer case output (left/driver side). Happily, it is nearly the same width as the original axles (in fact, a little bit narrower), so there is no need to cut them down and have custom axle shafts built. The Chevy hub and rotor assembly were added purely to replace the existing 5-bolt hub with a 6-bolt hub to allow the fitting of the same wheels front and rear.

Because of the positioning of the D44, the oil pan had to be modified slightly to clear the pumpkin. This was done by slicing the sump horizontally and shifting it to the right. The exhaust had to be modified slightly to clear the driveshaft, and the crossmember was slightly notched to increase the driveshaft clearance.

The Bronco radius arms required custom crossmembers and brackets to mount them because the Nissan frame is wider than the original Bronco frame at that point. These crossmembers span the space between the existing frame crossmembers. In order to locate the axle properly with the coil springs, a panhard rod (track bar) was added as well.

A standard crossover steering setup is used, along with the stock Nissan power steering box and pitman arm. Repositioning of the steering box on the frame by several inches was necessary to align it with the rest of the steering mechanism. Finally, a Rancho RS5000 steering stabilizer was added to complete the system.

Chris didn't do the swap work himself, rather, he allowed someone with considerable Ford Bronco experience to do the swap, and he highly recommends this approach. The workmanship on the swap is excellent.

With the front axle, he claims an RTI of 985 for the Frankenfinder (compared to the stock 510 RTI) -- this figure will no doubt improve over time due to constant modification. You can see that it has impressive articulation in the pictures. I had the opportunity to traverse the same obstacle, once in my mildly modified Pathfinder, and the other riding in his. His Pathfinder effortlessly conquered the obstacle like it was not even there, while I had to take several tries and stack rocks. He set his shocks on soft, which made for a nice cushy ride up the rocks. On the road, the handling isn't quite as refined as it used to be: "Drives like a '76 Bronco", Chris told me. The Super Swampers emit their characteristic howl, but that is easily compensated by turning up his CD player.

The last time I spoke to Chris, he was planning to get his front radius arms "wristed" with swivel joints to allow for more front droop than the radius arm bushings allow. A recent problem arose with his rear panhard rod being too short for the amount of lift. He had not dropped the panhard mounting point, so the shortened length actually pulled the axle to one side, causing his new coils to become bowed in the middle! Hopefully the revised mount will allow the coils to regain their straight shape.

The stock rear axle trailing links are becoming too short for the amount of suspension lift he has. Therefore, he is investigating the possibility of converting the rear suspension to a system with a single central joint on the differential pumpkin located by an A-shaped frame like the design on the latest Jeep Grand Cherokees.

Of course, no trail rig discussion can be complete without mentioning gearing and power. He is going to figure out how to create a dual-transfer case setup on the truck, and has even far-off thoughts on perhaps swapping in a larger engine, though he is happy with the amount of power the stock V-6 provides with a K&N filter and Borla cat-back exhaust.

Whatever he does in the future, one thing is for sure -- it will be a quality job, with due consideration for maximizing trail performance. And with a name like "Frankenfinder", you know that he won't be limiting his search just to Nissan parts!

Other Pictures