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whos got a dana 30 with 35s locked

W

wishihad1

NAXJA Forum User
Location
charlottesville, VA
hey everybody

well ive got most of the stuff i want finally, and just got 35s, and a snorkle this week. im going to be working a lot over christmas break, and with the money i had left over from christmas i was thinking of anything else id like to get. to make a long story short, i had a locker in my garage for about a month when i had 33s, but knew 35s were coming soon so never installed it, and sold it to somebody. now it seems like though ive seen more people with dana 30s with 35s locked. it would definately be an aussie locker.

most of the wheeling i do is just mud, with the rest of it being slow really technical flexy stuff. ive got a pretty gentle foot. right now this is my DD so i cannot spend all of my time fixing axle shafts, and R&Ps. if i go easy on the 30 should i lock it or not:wow:
 
see thats where the problem comes in for me..i dont want to dump a load of money into it, and the only sets of axle shafts ive been able to fine for the front have been like 400+bucks

how much including the 297 u-joints, and axleshafts to fit should i be looking to spend total
 
I wheel a d30 with alloy usa and 760s. Aussie locked with heavy sticky 35s in BIGGGGG rocks. But I am very light and try to be careful with bindage.
 
wishihad1 said:
are 760s better then 297s??

sorry for the dumb questions
Click to expand...
the 760 joint has full circle snap rings, where he 297 joint has half clips. The snap rings on the 760 keeps the caps from walking out of the joint.

I have a d30 and 35's, with warn shafts, super joints and warn 5 on 5.5 hub conversion and a lockrite. Seems to be strong enough for the type of wheeling I do for now. I have 4.56's which is a strength advantage to 4.88's in the ring gear. Yes you should lock it, and carry spares.
 
I run 35" BFG MTs on a (now bent) D30 w/ a Detroit Locker, 4.56, 297. Snapped an axle shaft (and killed my D35 while I was there), when I wasn´t very careful.

I´ve thought about a D44 front, but don´t have the budget for that - would be like 4.500-5000$ over here in Germany.

So I´ll get a "new" D30 (from a stock "never offroad" XJ) and truss it, stuff it with a Super30 Kit (ARB locker and chromoly shafts) and hope that it´ll work.
 
If any part will hold up is up to you and the way you drive. Or how often it breaks anyway.
I just replaced my first axle after 5 years of offing (differential in deferent jeep). At one or two axle ever 5 years How long before it would have been cheeper to upgrade derferenrial then replace axles.
Unless some one will give me a drop in D44 there is no way I will put the time and money into upgrading this XJ? Or any part that breaks ever 5 years or so.
If it maters I am the king of easy does it.
 
Scrappy said:
I wheel a d30 with alloy usa and 760s. Aussie locked with heavy sticky 35s in BIGGGGG rocks one time. But I am very light and try to be careful with bindage.
Click to expand...

Fixed.
 
Ben H, I think you're getting your u-joints mixed up. The 760 is just spicers next generation 297. They changed their heat treating and sealing setup but besides that they are the same. Both use c-clips making them interchangeable so no modifications are required to your shafts in order to use 760's in place of 297's.

I ran a locked Dana 30 with 33" TSL's and 297/760 joints for about 4 years behind a stroker motor and 4.56 gears rockcrawling and only broke once so that gives you a general idea how I am with the throttle. This past year I switched to 35" MTR's and have broken shafts twice. Both breaks were passenger side at the end of the splines in the carrier and not the u-joint. The one break I had the passenger tire jammed in a notch and the other the tire came down spinning during a slick rock style climb. Both put the shaft under a good amount of stress but the point is the setup is very capable of breaking shafts if you're not careful.

If you go that route...bring spares and be careful.
 
If you go that route...bring spares and be careful.[/QUOTE]


And learn how to change said shafts!! theres a good write up over on Madxj.
 
onetallmj said:
And learn how to change said shafts!! theres a good write up over on Madxj.
Click to expand...

Jack up corner, remove wheel (5 nuts), remove caliper (2 bolts), remove rotor, remove unit bearing with stub shaft attached (3 bolts), remove shaft from axle, slide in spare shaft with unit bearing (3 bolts), replace rotor, replace caliper (2 bolts), replace wheel (5 nuts), lower corner, drink beverage of your choice.

Since locking my front end, my axle has been fine on Rubicon, Miller Jeep, Swamp Lake, Stoddard Valley, Johnson Valley, Rubicon, Prairie City :confused1 , and Hollister...but I don't wheel very hard.
 
well its looking more and more tempting as people post. it seems like as long as you dont hammer stuff i should be fine. i get my speed thrills on my bike, so im more of a "lets see who has more control" then lets see who can hit that hardest and make it to the other end type driver. so it looks like a locker is back on the list...MAN i wish i never sold mine
 
Don't forget you have to retrieve the broken axle parts. Sooooooo how do you pull the broken part of the axle out of the carrier on the trail? Especially if its the long side that is broken?
 
my 99 is on 35" baja claws with 4.56's, lock right, skyjacker truss system, and with stock biger size shafts and spicers. the only times im ever heavy with it is in mud under 12" and snow. whenever im in the rocks, its all slow and planned out. so far no problems but i do keep full shaft/u-joint/hub assemnly spares with me
 
I am locked up front with an ARB and have Alloy USA Chromo shafts. If I get into a really bad spot I just turn the locker off. Or just hope for the best!

I have Truxus Mt's for my 35's....


EDIT: I do carry spare shafts and hubs also.
 
Carry spares with you and give it hell. My brothers on 36" iroks suprised the hell out of me a couple weekends ago. He is running stock shafts from a 2000 year model xj with 760x joints and he only bent the stock tierod (severely). He bounced the thing off the rocks and what not with little problem suprisingly. I use to run 35s on a dana 30 (trxus) and I only broke the right side inner and outer as well as u-joint in half. Of course it only broke because I got the front end 5 ft. in the air with full throttle coming down. Here is a pic for your to believe me-----------------



tiresintheair.jpg
 
When you break at the splines the replacement procedure gets a little more complicated...especially in the field. In that case you have to completely disassemble both sides as well as pull the diff cover, drain the fluid, remove the carrier and fish out all the broken pieces. Both my recent shaft breakages have been at the splines which required this procedure.

The only downside I see to "taking it easy" are the timess where taking it easy doesn't always work. The harder the trails get the more situations arise where you're forcing tires to climb slight undercuts, where a little wheel speed is required to finish a climb, or where you have one shot at a given climb or you know you'll be rolling down backwards...when it's all or nothing.

I'd rather accept that you'll be breaking shafts and be prepared for it rather than taking it easy which really means running lesser trails as to not stress your components as much.
 
i thought 297s where the late model joints and 260 the early??

any way i ran the older disco shafts (i carry spares) and flog the hell out of it without breakage yet, i weld the caps and change out the joint before they explode, good early warning system if you check the joints regullary
 
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