1995 Quest, question on axel hardware, and lift points

[nissanquest95]

Hi, I recently acquired a 1995 Nissan Quest with 150K miles.

Based on these images of front suspension, what do you suggest I shall replace?
I suppose strut (pre-build w/ spring), tie-rod, control arms? front hub? trans-axis?

Is this big square metal pump just behind the front bumper a jack point?

Looking at the axel nut, it looks like there are two parts to it. According to the manual, there's a adjusting cap, a insulator, and finally the wheel bearing lock nut.
Question is, what is this adjusting cap for?
The manual says it does not need replacement, but if I do want to change it out, what part number should I search for?

Many thanks for going through these questions for me.

[VStar650CL]

You can find the part numbers for the axle hardware here, but most of it is discontinued. It might be available from sources like Amayama:
https://www.nissanpartsdeal.com/parts-l ... _axle.html

I believe that bump is the correct jack point, the older Quests didn't have subframes in the modern sense and IIRC the lower radiator support was structural.

Vis your front end parts, don't fix what isn't broke. Look for cracked rubber especially, including motor mounts. Put a prybar on the ball joints and tie rod ends while elevated (should have zero play), bounce the car hard to check the struts (should go down-up-settle if the struts are good).

[nissanquest95]

Thanks for the quick reply.
Following your advice, the front strut most definitely needs replacement. The car bounces up and down several times when I push it down.

The Drive shaft boot is cracked, I'll replace that, and likely the wheel bearing assembly as well.

[AZhitman]

Yep. I'd do struts, axles, hub assemblies and motor mounts. Even if they look OK, they're old now. Cheap improvement.

You can reuse the cap (it's just to give the cotter pin some purchase). Axles should come with a new nut and probably a cotter pin.

[nissanquest95]

How do you remove the right axle?

I got the knuckle removed from the passenger side, but the axle appears to be on tight, can't really pull it out like many youtube video shows:

The manual says to remove drive shaft support bearing retainer bolts, then remove right drive shaft from transaxle.
Where are these bearing retainer bolts? Are they from the driver side?

Also, I don't believe the replacement axle comes with a oil seal, what do you recommend I should search it under?
Rock Auto has "Differential Seal" under "Drive Train", or is it "Output Shaft Seal" under Transmission-Automatic"?

new right axle.PNG (64.4 KiB) Viewed 640 times

Many thanks for your help.

[VStar650CL]

The support bearing bracket is always the big PITA on righthand Nissan axles. They freeze in the bracket and sometimes require everything short of explosives to get loose. The bracket is 39781 in that parts diagram, it sits right behind the inner CV and the bearing sockets into it. The other end of the bracket bolts to the engine block.

Nissan uses that 2-part axle setup to counteract torque steer. The inner halfshaft is very stiff and essentially makes the long side axle the same length as the short side, preventing it from excessively "winding up" like a torsion spring when you hit the gas.

You really should use the Nissan part numbers for the seals to make sure you get the right stuff. RockAuto has a very nice "Part Number Search" tab for looking up equivalents. I think the seals are 39752 and 39752+A in your diagrams, which would be 39752-0B000 and 39752-0B010 respectively.

Quest RH Axle.jpg (11.14 KiB) Viewed 617 times

[nissanquest95]

Unfortunately, I have not been able to find a seller for the genuine Nissan parts (39752-0B000 and 39752-0B010), they are all out-of-stocks or discontinued.

O'Reilly offers two types of axle shaft seals—Master Pro and Pioneer—both of which are advertised to fit my vehicle. However, they look quite different in design. Since I can’t find a reference image of the original seal and my car is parked on an unpaved road, I’d prefer to have the correct seals ready before removing the axles to reduce the risk of dust entering the transmission.

Based on the picture provided, can you tell which one is the correct seal? Also, I assume the O’Reilly seal works for both the left and right axles (since there doesn’t seem to be another option).

Much appreciate the help.

[VStar650CL]

Without a part number match it's hard to say, since Nissan doesn't publish mechanical specs for parts. But from eyeballing I'd say the top one looks like the axle seal and the bottom one looks like the dust seal. I'm not sure if a '95 uses both like all the later tran-nies.

[VStar650CL]

Without a part number match it's hard to say, since Nissan doesn't publish mechanical specs for parts. But from eyeballing I'd say the top one looks like the axle seal and the bottom one looks like the dust seal. I'm not sure if a '95 uses both like all the later tran-nies.

[nissanquest95]

Unfortunately, I can't find any genuine Nissan seals. They are all out-of-stock or discontinued.

O'Reilly offers two types of axle shaft seals—Master Pro and Pioneer—both of which are advertised to fit my vehicle. However, they look quite different in design. Since I can’t find a reference image of the original seal and my car is parked on an unpaved road, I’d prefer to have the correct seals ready before removing the axles to reduce the risk of dust entering the transmission.

Based on the picture provided, can you tell which one is the right seal? Also, I assume the O’Reilly seal works for both the left and right axles (since there doesn’t seem to be another option).

Oreilly_axle_seals_2.jpg (21.19 KiB) Viewed 268 times

p.s., I think there's a problem with the forum. I thought I posted this 8 hours ago, but it disappeared. May be it didn't go through. I was getting a lot of Cloudflare 404 errors.

[nissanquest95]

Today I replaced the axle on the driver's side.
After removing the axle, the old seal looks alright, and there is no sign of leak, so I didn't replace it, bad idea?

it was stupid of me to not take a picture of the old axle while it was still in the gear box. I put the new axle in, heard the "clunk".
Does it look like it is seated properly?

May be tomorrow I should remove it again to replace the seal.

This is what the old axle looks like:

[nissanquest95]

Is the bracket and the passenger axel bushing a tight fit?

I kept on knocking on the two screw tabs making it rotate left and right, but it doesn't seem to loosen up at all.

[nissanquest95]

Finally got it off. Holy moly, whoever designed this part of the vehicle, I hope they stub their toes every morning for this.

[nissanquest95]

I removed the AT mount today, something dropped down with it. It feels like it is made out of rubber. What is this?

[VStar650CL]

IIRC a lot of the old VG mounts had harmonic weights attached to absorb some of the engine vibration. You can still see that on the HR 4-bangers in the Versa which didn't have internal balancer shafts. In any case, I think that's what you're seeing, a broken and detached weight.

[nissanquest95]

Finally replaced the whole front shock assemblies.

A couple of lesson learnt:
1. the newer engine mount cannot withstand the rated max torque which is 41 ft-lb.

.
I destroyed it by torquing to 40 ft-lb.

35 ft-lb is probably the max it can go with.


2. the center beam cannot be removed directly, because the bolts are blocked by the ac low/high pressure line, the brake fluid, and the fuel line.

[nissanquest95]

to replace the passenger side inner motor mount, the center beam can only be partially removed and set to the left side, it is best to remove the passenger axle first in order to get the mount out.