Driveshaft options on SAS Nissan - Coil over radius arm, SUA, SOA leaf or 3 link.

Updated 1/6/2022

There is many options to make a front driveshaft after A SAS. SUA with leafs, Radius arms or a custom 3 link can be done with stock shafts if its a 1310 shaft. SOA leaf requires extra long travel. The front shaft is one of the hardest parts to get right on a SAS Nissan. I hope this page will help others with some ideas. I have tried 1,2, 3 and 4. My personal favorite is number 2. Its what I ran on the 92 pathfinder. The TX10 and TX15 used in most 4wds since 1987 to 2018 has the same flange on the front output. I have not tried a Toyota shaft. Mainly because it does not fit the dana 44. So it would need custom ends and uses special U joints. Nissans (Made or sold in the US since 1987) use Dana brand driveshafts with 1310 U joints, so Jeep shafts are the best option. 
 

Options to make a front driveshaft:

  1. Add A 1310 CV (Double Cardan) to the stock D22 or D21 (90+) shaft, remove Nissan flange from Dana 44 side and add NN adapter. (Note WD21 does not use 1310 U joints like D21/D22 trucks do)

  2. Buy a Jeep (TJ, XJ or Wagoneer) driveshaft and shorten to length and use an adapter. Add 211229x flange.

  3. Have a custom shaft made around an adapter.

  4. Have custom shaft made around Nissan tcase flange. (Bad idea) I tried this and had problems finding any shops that could make one.  I accidentally broke the custom flange and went with option 2.

  5. Buy a  Ruggedrocks.com driveshaft.

 

The Flange Spicer 211229x / Precision 627 / Rockford 404A (not tested) .

This flange is the closest flange to the Nissan flange. Its old so its SAE. 2.48" bolt to bolt 3.5" bolt circle. designed for 7/16 bolts. 

You can buy the flange at any driveshaft store, Napa, oreilys or the cheapest I have found online is $55 at shaftmasters.com 

The adapters I had made.

The adapter I use converts the Nissan female bolt pattern to a popular 1310 Spicer female centering yoke flange. Part number 211229x. This Spicer flange was used stock on:

1980-1982 Ford Thunderbird
1982-1983 Lincoln Continental
1980-1982 Mercury Cougar XR-7

Steel Version 1.0.

 

The bolt pattern is so similar. I choose to have the adapter tapped on both sides. The adapter has two Male centering pins. The Nissan side is hollowed out for the nut clearance. The CV side is SAE 7/16. The Tcase side is 10mm. I had a local machine shop make these for about $75 each. It was not easy to find a shop willing to do this.

Tapped both sides.
10mm x 1.5 T case side. use Class 12, 30  mm long bolts with lock washers and lock tite from Autozone
7/16 x 14 tpi CV side, use Grade 8, 1.5" long bolts with lock washers from Lowes.
 

Adapter Aluminum Version 2.0

6061 version. Much lighter, same cost to make. I found a local machine shop to make these. Alloy was made thinner and a smaller diameter than steel.

 

Aluminum compared to Steel

 Adapter Aluminum Version 3.0 

I had emachineshop.com make these. I changed the design slightly with some milling, drilling and sanding. This one use 1 in long 7/16 in bolts and OEM Nissan bolts on TX10 tcase side. 

 

Adapter Aluminum Version 4.0 and 5.0
All sold.

Option 1. Nissan shaft with CV and an adapter.

I bought a used 82 thunderbird driveshaft from car-parts.com for $30. I had the junk yard cut off just the CV to save on shipping. That was for the whole CV WITH flange! I cut off the tcase side 1310 U joint and flange. Welded on a Junk yard 1310 CV that already had the spicer flange I needed.

Ironically the shaft is the perfect length now. I removed the rubber boot and there is plenty of travel hidden in there.

Remove this flange from the axle side. The 1310 U joint is the same as the Dana 44 Yoke. So discard this flange. You should have 2 leftover when done.

Option 2: Add Spicer flange to used Jeep shaft and shorten to length.

Just need to shorten to correct length and add the spicer flange. All stock easy to find parts. Also need the an adapter like shown above. 

 

You can see by this picture the Jeep XJ/TJ shaft is more than long enough. It needs to be shortened allot. I picked up this shaft used on ebay $30.  This one is from a 98 Jeep Cheerokee AKA XJ.

Disassemble the CV and shorten the tube to length. Then weld bolt stud yoke back on. Then reassemble CV.

Comparison of socket yokes.

Sell the left over yoke to a jeep friend and save the tube for another project.

Compressed and extended stock and CV version. Measurement is at ride height.

More specifications. The axle side are about 5" long weld to weld. The long side needs to be around 11" weld to weld. If the CV is 2.75" cap center to cap center.

Another example of option 2 before and after. remove 7-8" add flange and an adapter.
My first D40 TX15 drivsehaft. The D40 Frontier has a 5" longer shaft. I should have started with a longer jeep cherokee shaft. I ended up splicing a piece of shaft onto one and making it long enough. Stock shaft does work but lots of vibes. Here is stock, stock jeep versus d40 and modified jeep shaft with flange added.

Update. After busting the GKN locker running 38s he kept wheeling until he twisted the front shaft. I spliced in a longer piece of DOM to fix it.

 

Option 4. Custom made shaft high angle 40deg working angle.

I had this made for the Nissan flange. It did not fit real good. I had to drill out my flange to make it fit. Then I overflexed the front suspension brooke the custom flange. I then made my own adapters. This has a 7" slip for the SOA flex. I later found out its not a 1310 H yoke, but a 1330 with conversion joints. The U joints were modified with a grinder to provide clearance. I have broken a few of the caps from clearance issues. The U joints are all still original.

 

Upgrade for higher working angles - more suspension down travel.

This is my D21 custom shaft with a the 1330 CV and old steel NN adapter. It has 1310-1330 5134x conversion joints. This allows more flex. You can convert a 1310 CV to this if needed. You need 2 new conversion joints and a new H yoke.

 

I picked up 2 more used driveshafts. A= 1979 wagoneer, B Jeep cherokee C=WD21 D=D22

Parts sources: