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3.55 gears and a Rubicon front air locker in a '02 and older D44 rear axle

hot_rod_hooligans

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Indianapolis
I figured a few of you might be interested in this cheep alternative to an ARB air locker. It's going in an MJ D44 that I'm putting in my XJ.

I can't afford to regear right now because I have a Detroit locker up front and it's on the wrong side of the carrier break(I know, I bought it before I knew anything about gearing and carrier breaks), I don't want to loose my front locker so I'm just going to run stock gearing for now.

Here is the axle(with TNT u-bolt eliminators)
PB210406.jpg

PB210407.jpg

The hole
PC030405.jpg

Rubicon front air locker
PC030407.jpg

PC030406.jpg
 
The first problem I ran into was with the gearing. Rubicons use thick cut gears, and 7/16" ring gear bolts, where as a standard D44 uses 3/8" ring gear bolts. Dana 44 Trac-loc on the left, Rubicon Tru-loc on the right
PC030408.jpg

PC030410.jpg

The Rubicon case has a slightly larger bolt hole, leaving about 1/16" of play in the ring gear
PC030411.jpg

PC030412.jpg

I called up Randy's Ring and Pinion and they hooked me up with these little sleeves to make it a better fit
PC10040517-42-04.jpg
 
Sleeves installed
PC150416.jpg

Next is the bearing cap. Rubicons use caps specific for these lockers to allow for the air actuator, they are a little narrower, and have a notch for the air line
129_0208_02_z2003_wrangler_rubiconr.jpg

So I modified my stock cap to work. Shaved aprox .010 off the cap and notched out for the air line.:
PC150417.jpg

PC150418.jpg

Test fit
PC150419.jpg

And in the housing
PC150421.jpg

PC150420.jpg
 
Last edited:
lookin good. i am running a rubi 44 in the rear of my 97 tj and it works flawlessly. i just bought a stock air pump and wired it up a to a basic switch.
 
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