New guy here with an oddball question.

I am looking at Frontier/XTerra rear ends for adaptation into an early 50s Chevy pickup. The width and lug pattern are perfect, they just have metric studs. I know someone who put a 2001 XTerra rear end into his and loves it. He raves about how easy the parking brake was to adapt to the original Chevy linkage.

I’ve done some initial scouting at my local self serve yard. I’m familiar (thanks to this forum) with the door jam sticker and how easy that makes ratio identification.

My acquaintance used a 4.6 ratio rear with a removable rear cover. What little research I’ve done on the rear end options for XTerras suggests that some might have been like that, and others were no rear cover with removable third member. That ratio makes sense for his trans and tire size and usage.

Here’s what I’d like to accomplish, if possible: the simplicity of the XTerra parking brake linkage and a gear ratio numerically in the 3’s, with drum brakes. Mid 3’s would be perfect. All that I’ve seen at the yard are something like 4.3 or 4.6

1) Was early Xterra offered in such a ratio? Or is there a third member that would swap into an Xterra housing?

2) I have located a 98 Frontier rear with a HF35 sticker. Could that third member be swapped into a third member type Xterra rear?

3) Could a hybrid approach be employed? Perhaps the XTerra brakes from the backing plate on out…bolted onto that 98 Frontier rear?

4) Perhaps the most practical approach is just to use the Frontier 3.5 ratio rear and figure the parking brake out myself.

Oh, forgot to add. My teenage son drives a 2001 Frontier, so I’m not totally unfamiliar with these vehicles. His truck has a seemingly very different parking brake from the Xterra.

I'd probably opt for No. 4. Personally, if there was a specific gear ratio I was looking for, that would be priority #1. You'll spend more time dealing with the gear ratio than a parking brake. I wouldn't imagine too much difficulty adapting the P brake to an old pickup. I'll share something a friend once taught me when it comes to fabrication/engineering/design etc. The "7 P's": Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance. Also, how about a rearend/E brake from a Pathfinder, are they not as compatible as the Xterra/Frontier?

The second generation Xterra has a 3.13 and a 3.53 or 3.57 gears in the differential. You might look at the 2nd generation.