Trussing a d 30

[Gary E]

Aparently they are pretty flexy since they make arb bolts loosen up and Jessies Ox cover, that is more rigid than a stock cover also loosens up bolts.

Andys opinion is that a truss going across the face would be more beneficial than a tradition over the top brace. are there any other opinions to this? I don't know if the loosening bolts signify bending in the x plane or the Z plane.

There isn't much room around the coil buckets so I would probably just run trusses to them, it should still stiffen it considerably. I do have a plasma cutter so making intricate shapes to cut out around the housing will not be too difficult.

and finally in specific tricks to welding to the pumpkin and the Vac disco part?

[ChuckD]

Did you get the 37's yet?

[gearwhine]

I am planning on this as well once I get closer to the bigger tires. Search pirate4x4.com...there are a bunch of pictures and discussions on it. It should give you good ideas on how you want to do your own. By face do you mean the front of the axle....kinda like the superior 35 truss is, but welded on? I haven't seen that before on a d30. I've seen the half bottom half face type on 9's though.

[Jes]

Biggest question is, is it worth your time? I assume you'll build a 44 down the road anyway?
If you were to do it I'd suggest one that goes across the front of the axle. Seems to me that most of the flexing is drivetrain induced.

Jes

[XJguy]

I say over the top, I plan on doing the same. Flex of the housing, is one of the major reasons for axle and R&P breakage, not lack of strength. Those components were designed to be stressed in one way, once you start twist things all hell breaks loose. I wonder just how much more abuse a trussed 35 can take over stock, I would not be surprised if the strength increase would put it on par with a stock 44.

XJguy

[Gary E]

Chuck, no, I want to get the suspension set up first.

Gearwhine, yes in the same plane as the 9 inch trusses that weld across the back.

Jes, I am not sure if its worth the time or not, It would only take 2-3 hrs and I allready have the steel laying around. Yesterday I cut out a traction bar bracket for the axle end it took about 15 minutes to plan it out and 10 minutes to draw it out and 2 minutes to cut it out, I am really digging that plasma cutter. It had a bunch of odd shaped cuts on it also, so it was somewhat complex. I took a pic since it cut out so easy.

http://home.attbi.com/~mountainmarketing/trackbar_bracket.jpg

Yes I am kind of planning on building a 44 but I am torn between it and a 60. I may just run the 30 till I brake a few shafts, it doesn't help that it looks like I have a line on superior 30 shafts for free. looks like it may be time to get the polishing compound out :D

XJguy, I don't think a trussed 35 would come into dana 44 land but I do agree that the 30 and 35s flex way to much and that does contribute to a lot of problems.

[ZPD]

Gary,

I say get a Dana 44 and then give me those superior shafts ;)
one thing to think about is that if you do some sort of truss in the front then you could also incoroprate a diff guard into it.

[88justin]

might help to take a look at some broken diffs. and see where they're cracking. this would tell you what direction the stress that is causing the cracks is in and you could brace accordingly. Are there any pics from people who have destroyed the D30?

just a thought

[KarmirXJ]

which ever route you go make sure you put the housing on a strightener after you truss it or you going to go through bearings every few hundred miles... Trust me i speak from experiance:D

[Ted Z]

And how/where can you find a straightener?

[Gary E]

I am fresh out of straightners, how about a 1 inch weld every 6 inches to start off with? to keep from heating things up so much.

[zjmike]

how about something like this?http://fototime.com/E86D3FAEDE58F31/standard.jpg :anon:

[Gary E]

looks nice how did you weld to the cast?

[zjmike]

I didnt do it, that is actually a picture of a front axle an aquaintance of mine had done on his TJ.

You can weld to cast, providing you use a high nickel content stick on your stick welder....

another option is to run multiple passes, to make sure the pumpkin heats up to enough temp..

You might want to check with other guys that are more welding experts than I am... I have a hard enough time "booger" welding with my mig ....much less getting it to stick on cast...but I am pretty sure a good nickle rod on a standard arc welder will do the trick..

That setup was done by ORU in Arizona

[CRASH]

There is enough room, methinks, under the drivers side coil bucket for a couple of U-bolts, but I could be wrong. This would make the cover easily removable for gear/fluid changes.

Either way, you are going to be the proud recipient of this lovely prize:

http://home.off-road.com/~xjs/temp/polised%2520turd.bmp

CRASH

[Cheapjeep2]

Also check out www.bigoffroad.com, Johnjohn has had his D30 re-enforced as well.

[Gary E]

Crash, It looks like it would be easier to weld it from the back side on the center section along the tubes, then I wouldn't have to screw around with the cover and u-bolts. I would think the u-bolts would flex enough to take away from the magnitude of the turd polishing :D


btw, are those pieces of corn in that er...um... trophy?

[KarmirXJ]

Originally posted by Ted Z
And how/where can you find a straightener?

any axle shop should have one. they put it on a machine to see if its straight.. shouldnt cost you more than 50 bucks to throw that on the machine.

[Big Red]

Aparently they are pretty flexy since they make arb bolts loosen up and Jessies Ox cover, that is more rigid than a stock cover also loosens up bolts.


Gary/others:


I did some searching under the subject of arb bolts coming loose in my rev dana 30 with 4.56 gears. I found 2 of my bolts totally out of the bolt holes and 1 bolt head loose to the touch. It's very hard to tighten down the bolts again in the confined space of the diff itself. Were you able to reseat the bolts that came loose? Did they come all the way out? I plan on using some locktight on them, but am having a problem getting enough bit on the bolt head to tighten them down. What did you do? Please advise.
thanks...Troy

[witt]

looks nice how did you weld to the cast?

heat it up a lil.. use nickle rod or wire.... its expensive stuff.. like $15-$30 per pound of the stuff....
but if youre only workin on the pumpkin.. its not that bad...

[Jes]

Just to give an update on this old thread, I have had zero problems with diff cover bolts loosening up on my OX locked D30 in the past year and a half. In fact, I pulled the diff cover for only the second time in 3 years recently and the carrier bolts on the OX are still as tight as when I installed them.
Does the stiff OX diff cover act as a truss keeping the carrier bolts from stretching and backing out? Maybe.

[Big Red]

I revived this thread, but then started another 1. I had 2 bolts totally seperate from my arb unit, the small bolts holding the unit together. Is this a result of the flex of the dana 30? I will get those things lock-tited down.

[Root Moose]

Hmm, retro-threading this week... I'll take it ove rthe hyperthread variety.

For the truss, I'm hoping to use box tube across the top if it can be made to fit. This way I should get some benfit in both front and vertical planes.

JAT

r@m