Chevy differential in a Nissan pickup

The differential went out of my Nissan pickup.No salvage yards around close had one but my neighbor had one out of a S-10 Blazer.So Memorial day we took the broke one out,measured,saw it would fit.Cut the spring saddles off and moved them out an inch on each side,welded them back down,cut one end off of each brake line of the Chevy and one of the brake lines off of the Nissan in two and took the nuts off of the Nissan line put them on 1/8 inch American line and connected it all up with 1/8 compression splices,bled the brakes,had a wheel cylinder out,fixed that made a plate with 4 holes in it like was on the Nissan driveshaft,lined it up by eyeballing it,welded to the Chevy yoke,bolted the driveshaft up and it doesnt even vibrate at 40 mph which is as fast as I had it up to so far.It will probably fly apart now since I said that.Surprised me it even worked.The Chevy is 2 inches wider,has 15 inch tires where there are 14s on the front,5 hole wheels on the back,6 hole on the front but it moves on its own again.

Ahh home engineering. I have an old Avery A tractor with a 60 HP Datsun engine and tranny in it.
Fastest tractor in the county.

What the heck, if it works, run it. Shows what a little inginuity will do. The compression fittings aren't exactly what the inspector would like to see but as long as you don't use the brakes hard it'll work.

Did something like that while going across Nebraska with my old 79 Dodge 3/4 ton full time four wheel drive with a 4:10 rear axle. Was pulling the service trailer when a rear axle bearing went out on the pickup and toasted the axle housing so bad there was no fix to it. Pulled off on a gravel road. This was Saturday afternoon and I was half sick cause I knew axles for 79 3/4 ton Dodges were as scarce as hen's teeth. Remembered going by a little one horse junk yard about ten miles back so we piled in the other pickup and headed back there. He had a few chevies and one old 66 Dodge that happened to be a 3/4 ton and just happened to have a 4:10 rear axle with the same size yoke as mine. This axle was something like a 5200 lb where my old one was 4000 lb. Asked the guy what he wanted and he said "well, I usually get $150 for axles. I couldn't shuck out the bucks fast enough!

We changed the axles on the gravel road and drove to the next town with no brakes cause the old axle had 3/16 lines, I think, and my pickup had 1/8. We did use compression fittings for awhile and they never blew.


When I drove away with the new axle under it I could tell right away the new one ran smoother than the old one ever did. Jim

For safety's sake, DO NOT use compression fittings on brake lines. Use ONLY double flare fitting.!

Love to hear stories like this. Used to do a lot of it myself. Getting too old. Dave

Well I went to a couple of parts stores to try and get a line or an adapter to hook a metric flex line to a standard brake line,no luck.This way worked.Never heard you cant use compression fittings on brake line.May not be ideal but it works.I need to do some fine tuning with a lathe.If I find somebody that has one around here I can put the Nissan yoke in the lathe and cut the coupler off,bore it out a little so a socket will go through to fit the nut,put the Chevy yoke in and cut the ears off of it,weld the Nissan front part to the Chevy back part and it will look factory.Maybe if I can find the right metric tap somewhere I can tap the metric threads on a brake line or somehow get a line to work from the American threads to the Metric threads.The way it is now I trust the compression fittings over some rigged line that might not work.

Please,,get rid of the compression fittings! Accident waiting to happen . you can take 3/16 lines, cut one end off, put metric on one end and chevy fitting on other, new DOUBLE FLARE, bleed it and good to go .

Although I wouldn't recommend using compression fittings for brake lines, I've got to admit that I've used them more than once, and have never had a problem. I salute your ingenuity, there's not enough of it around anymore.

Well, on that old Dodge of mine the compression fittings held for about a month and the pickup was driven every day pulling a loaded fifth wheel service trailer with electric brakes. When I finally had the time I rented a double flare tool in Woodward Oklahoma and did it right, but during that time the compression fittings didn't move any. By the way, I think I was adapting 3/16 to 1/4, not 1/8 to 3/16. Adapting to metric would be a little testy. Let us know what you end up doing. This is good old American inginuity at work. Jim

Same here, I have used em with no problems.

Yes, they say you shouldn't use compression fittings on brake lines. But I have seen it done many times. I used to use copper and single flare it and use it for brake lines. Like my uncle said a new copper line or compression fitting has got to be better then an old rusty line. Now I try to keep my lines sprayed with grease so as not to have to repair them. I would also now use regular line and fittings for replacement. I was testing the pressure at my front calipers on my truck trying to figure out why the brakes pulled and it would go up to 1500 psi ! scary isn't it.

You should have broken down by my house! I have plenty of Dodge parts......

<<<<<as long as you don't use the brakes hard it'll work>>>>>

And your first emergency stop when a child runs out in front of the vehicle? Get real. Go straight to gaol. Do not pass go. (as they say in the Monoploy game).

I might try a driveshaft shop. They may be able to adapt a chevy end on the nissan drive shaft. Then your drive shaft will fit the chevy yoke. I had something done like that one time. Cost me about 75.00 for the end and a new spicer u-joint. He rebalanced it as well.

Find a place that services big trucks. One by me has a drive line shop. They can repair or make new drive shafts. I had one straightened, new yokes, and balanced for reasonable. They can also make new shafts, all the parts in stock. Good luck! joe-

If you ever want to fix yer brake line mess before you kill someone other than yourself,,, 3/16 brake line and its metric equivalent are the same size line,,, just use your old metric nuts on the 3/16 line

Thats what I did except I need American nuts on the ends that go to the wheel cylinders,and metric nuts to screw into my flex line.American nuts can be made to screw into the metric threads just not tight because the thread pitch is different.Some of the American nuts are longer so I think if I can find the right tap I can tap metric threads on a longer American nut and fix it that way.The problem is I think the metric nut is a little bit bigger.I will go to a parts store tomorrow and see if I can get a double flare tool or inserts and try that but the last time I tried that the flare would crack right next to the line.I would rather use couplers than have a cracked line.Maybe I can find a coupler and tap metric threads in one end of it and use all American lines and couple an American flex line to my line that comes from the master cylinder.Maybe a different parts man will have a solution.

Thats what I need except theres no place like that around here close.There are people that have lathes I just have to find one that will do something and not try to make a house payment,car payment,and payroll for 10 employees for a week off of me.The shop in the next town wanted more than I gave for the pickup to make a driveshaft,claimed the driveshaft tube cost over 200 dollars.I was born but not yesterday,if they gave 200 dollars for a piece of driveshaft tube 3 foot long,nothing special thin wall steel,they got took and Im not waiting 6 months for them to get to it,the price tag they would have on that is beyond my means.I may figure out a way to fix it myself since I have a cutoff saw,welder,drill press and have made a driveshaft before,plus have the Chevrolet driveshaft anyway. Hmmmm,need a piece of pipe the right size and with a torch and grinder I might be able to whittle it down to where it will work!?Already scheming on something else.The broke differential would maybe make a homemade bandsaw?If I just had a motor and little more scrap iron maybe.

Standard 3/16 line is 4.7 MM,,,4.7MM is a standard size for metric line,,, if you look hard enuff and run into a metric line (dark green line) it will have 3/16 and the metric number on the tag

You should b able to use your old nuts (metric) on the 3/16 line,,, worst case buy the metric line for the nuts to use on the line and buy the 3/16 line for the nuts (BTDT)

Sometimes it takes trial and error to get the double flair down pat,,, so pratice on a test piece,,, google double flair for some tips,,, Put'n a little oil on the end off the line sure nuff hepls,,, adding vice grips to hold the line in the tool helps,,, you are gonna have to have a flaring tool with the dies to double flair,,, hope you get it right,,, for the well B'n of others

http://www.pharmacy.arizona.edu/staff/wunz/NoABSTCS/DoubleFlare.html

Get'n the line to not slip in the tool is also hard to do,,,3/16 is not as hard to hold as the big'er line,,, I have used valve lap'n compound to help the tool grip the line

Thanks,I can see where the vise grips on the line is a good idea.The parts store I was at the other day didnt have any metric line at all.Ill go to a different one tomorrow.I have all the nuts I need.All I need is the inserts for the double flare I have the rest of it.Someone borrowed my inserts,cant even remember who it was,but I know I did have them at one time.

Back in 1972 when I was still in school I worked for a farmer and we put a 396 Chevy motor in a 44 Massey Harris tractor and took it to some tractor pulls.It did alright but dropped a valve on the last one.Had a lot of racing fuel in the tank and the old 396 had been rode hard and put away wet when it went in the tractor.Smoked blue black oil smoke.Seems like there was coupling issues with that rig too like cutting the center out of a clutch,turning a truck transmission backwards and welding up a bunch of way dangerous stuff just to make the connection.One of the crew owned a welding shop and when we had a problem he would come look at it,go back to his shop and make what we needed,then the next day bring it back and we would put it together.Some kind of wide combine tires,maybe off of a Massey Ferguson combine bolted right up on it.It was way fast like about 60 MPH and would pull the front wheels off the ground just by yanking the throttle on the 4 barrel.Upside down fenderwell headers with truck stacks bolted to them straight up.Looked and sounded evil.Seems like we started on it on a Tuesday and pulled with it on Saturday and that wasnt the only tractor we had to work on,or all we had to do,like build fence,haul hay,feed or something along with it,besides work on the other tractor which was a souped up 6 cylinder Continental motor Massey Harris of some kind,dont remember what size,but we made a manifold,put a 4 barrel on it,had the head off for some reason,and painted it.Started on it a week or 2 before dragging the other one out of the barn to the shop.All we had was a torch,Forney welder,and one of those big hacksaws with a motor on it,and a bunch of scrap iron and some junk trucks.Quite a bit of Budweiser.When we went to the tractor pull we didnt even have anything that stuck out in the crowd much.I remember one of the tractors was an old Farmall F-20 with a 426 Hemi out of the junk yard in it.One of them was a big I beam with 2 motors hooked together,I think Hemis on it,Wide tires of some sort and a front axle like on a street rod with tractor tires on it with elevator wheels that have the pipe spokes.

(quoted from post at 03:02:07 05/30/09) Thanks,I can see where the vise grips on the line is a good idea.The parts store I was at the other day didn't have any metric line at all.Ill go to a different one tomorrow.I have all the nuts I need.All I need is the inserts for the double flare I have the rest of it.Someone borrowed my inserts,cant even remember who it was,but I know I did have them at one time.

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The VG's are used to squeeze the flair tool tight to the line,,, not on the line its self

I have Been were you are at and paid the price to learn about the metric line size,, had a late chebby with ABS that needed the brake lines replaced

No metric lines to B found and no bubble flair took either

So I ordered metric line in 3 different sizes and a $400 fancy hydraulic flair'n tool,,, when the line came in it was marked with the stand line size and the metric equivalent 8)

Then I found out a bubble flair was the first step of a double flair,,, O'l well the fancy tool does a nice job,, rusty brake lines around here are not often found,,, the car has to come from the beach are up north,,, it is becoming a problem tho,,, if the weather man talks snow are ice they spray down the roads with CC

The 4.7 MM number I gave ya is a guess cuzz I can hardly make out the metric number on the 3/16 line tag,,, I did mesure it and thats what both standard and metric check to B,,, good luck