Clutch or Rear Diff..Please Help...

[mark241307]

Ok, Please…need help from my Nissan people. Here is my situation. I have a 2005 Nissan Frontier, 4wd Manual 6spd 4.0. Love this truck. It has given me the usual emmisions issues and a few fuel related problems at 135000miles but my last one did as well. Problem is had new tires but on last week to get inspected, same size but bigger….Took it to my man for inspection…He took the rear brake rotors off to find gear ebrake covered in gear lube from the rear diff. I had been smelling for gear lube for quite a while so I wasn’t surprised there was an issue…so I had him rebuild drivers side rear axle/rear diff. Then..It was inspected fine, redid the rear brakes and a few other small things.
It drove fine for about 4-5 days…I felt a bunch more drag that I thought was due to the new mud tires. I also noticed when shifting from no movement to 1st gear, it took much more gas pedal, also from 2nd to 3rd. I just figured it was the meatier tires.
Then I broke down on the way home from work today, 8/1/15, I coasted to park. Thought my clutch went.

I think either my inspection dude had an issue with the rear diff/axles or my clutch took a poop. SYMPTOMS….Truck will not engage into gear. Stick goes in all gears but truck will not move. It will roll back when I try and go. I have been very easy on this clutch and my past frontys. I really don’t think it’s a clutch issue, I think something is not right anymore with the work I had done to the rear diff. It’s 4wd by the way. Can someone please help me to figure this out. I am not a pro on rear diffs or 4wds or clutches. I leave those issues to the pros. I would love to hear that my inspection guy messed up. I don’t wanna fix the clutch and have it go in a week again because my tires are too big or something. I appreciate any help you can give me….Also, If you need more info I am happy to provide it. Thank You In advance Nissan Family….Mark

[icrf]

While I don't really know what could be wrong, I'm going to throw a few questions out. Big tires should absolutely not cause this.

Any noises or smells when in gear trying and failing to move forward? Thinking burning clutch smell, or gears or bearings mashing sounds.

All six gears and reverse do nothing? If it's something in the transmission, some gears may act different than others.

Does putting it in 4wd let it move? If the rear end is messed up, but everything else is fine, the transfer case should still work and power the front wheels.

When trying to move, does the rear driveshaft spin at all? I would expect something in the rear end to be a seize, like a bearing or the diff itself, rather than a snap, which could happen to a side shaft. Either way, I would expect terrible noises from back there when trying to move. If something seized, you wouldn't have calmly coasted to a stop.

I guess if something broke in the transfer case and it's somehow stuck in neutral, it would act like that. Not sure how to test it, though.

All that does seem less likely than a clutch, though. Usually a clutch dies a little slower, a little more slippage over time. Tires would exacerbate it, but I wouldn't think it would come on so suddenly.

[whomadewho]

Hard to arm chair without seeing or driving. You stated you had work on the rear diff., if the diff.is not a drop out and the rear cover was removed, a lot of Nissans use a clutch pack in the diff. If the wrong gear lube was used the clutch pack can stick causing a lot of issues. If the clutch was bad,chances are the transmission would grind or not go into gear with the engine running. The only other thing would be a bad slave or master,not sure if your truck has one. If it has one make sure the pod if full.

[whomadewho]

One other check. Possible rear brake hanging up.