Thread: Old Nissan Safari query

Yep - side track option but if you don't mind getting out and engaging your hubs the manual spindle at $233+ will do the job if you also swap out the auto hubs. Most 4wd types do this as the standard Nissan auto hubs are bastards of things as if you go into reverse for a short section (rocking the vehicle) the auto hubs tend to unlock and if you can't rotate forwards enough to get them to re-lock in the forwards direction you can bury the rear end or end up parked and need a recovery or a winch. Or, if you're particularly lucky you can use the special locking slim wrench doohickey and manually lock them back up (if you can get to the center of your wheel!).

The other failure mode for the auto hubs is they try and engage when you are going forwards at 50Km/H which can get interesting. It's a hell of a bang at the very least. I had a set of auto hubs here for a long time after I replaced mine with manual type hubs, almost ripped the guts clean out of the right side one doing this. A guy heard me whining about them locking up like that, and made me an offer so he could replace one of his that did the same. Couldn't refuse, to be fair - I would have just fitted manuals but each to their own.