Just wondering if any of you have considered swapping out the rear xterra axle with an older pathy axle? I was looking at upgrading the rear drum brakes to disc brakes and found that this would also allow me to run different lockers since it's a 31 spline. There is also some re-working to get the axle on leafs rather than coils, but still curious if this would be worth it.

well since the spline is diffrent it will take some more modification on it than just the coil to springs.... other than brakes why do you want to change it out??? the xterra rear diff is alot stronger than the pathy if i remember correctly....

True, the 1st Gen. rear axle is plenty tough. I wouldn't change it out either, unless I was doing an SAS with a D60 and wanted to do both ;)

Yeah the rear Pathy axle is still tough but....

Its narrower so you would need spacers to get the width right
The pathy axle has less splines so it is a little weaker there
Shockmounts dont match
Coil buckets will have to come off
Leaf Spring Perches would have to go on
E Brake will have to be changed/modified

hmmmm for all that work why not find a D44 or D60 same amount of work the only difference is using brake line adapters.

But the here is the bonus... Many locker options, Cheaper Locker Options, Lots of Ring & Pinon Options and much cheaper too, simply put.... MORE OPTIONS. Oh and it is WAY easier to find spare parts.

I think that I figured out a way to do disk brakes on a nissan axle... I am still working on it but I'll let you know how it goes. It will not have a parking brake thats the only issue. The other problem with using a pathy axle besides what kevin said is that they have a different gear ratio

Looking forward to seeing that Alex. Maybe you can modify a screw out type caliper to work for a parking brake?