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dana 30 axel swap and tranny and motor mounts

R

ranger125

NAXJA Forum User
Location
canada
okay guys here is what i am doing,i have a 1986 dana 30 with 410 gears and no abs,and i have a 1996 dana 30 with 355s and abs. what i am asking is can i take the axel shafts out of the 96 dana 30 and put them in the 86 dana 30 ?? i dont need abs er nothin i just want to up grade to u joints instead of cv joints with boots that tear. oh and i also need to install new motor and tranny mounts just wondern if this is a real hard job and if anyone had any tips plz thank u carl
 
yeah on the 86 axel there is cv joints in stead of u joints on the steering nuckle part , so thats y i wanna swap but can i keep the hub bearings off the 86 and use the 96 shafts?? cause they are new lol
 
yes it's a direct swap. personally, i would use the 96 knuckles, hubs and brakes though. they're a little better (in my opinion).

on my wifes 97 Wrangler, i installed a 89 XJ dana 30 and used her 97 knuckles, hubs and brakes. then you also have a good excuse to put in new ball joints.

PS: shit now you got me wondering. as long as the spline count between the CV and u-joint styles are the same, it should just swap out. but if not, then just take the knuckles and hubs from the 96 and put it on the 86. like i said, that's the way i would do it anyways.
 
well the hubs are worn out on the 96 and the brakes are gone on it lol but yeah the spline count on both are the same , oh and the hubs on the 86 are brand new so thats y i wanna keep them do u still think this is a good ideah ??
 
well so far what i see, it "theoretically" would be a direct swap.

BUT..

one thought that i did have was, when converting over to the WJ grand cherokee knuckle for example that also uses a CV boot style axle shaft such as your 86, the u-joint to balljoint location doesn't quite center right where it should be and so they end up using a spacer on the hub.

and that's throwing me off now. so without seeing it up close, i'm afraid of i won't be of much more help. hopefully somebody else can chime in. but as far as spline count and lenght, it should be a direct swap from what i can find right now.
 
umm the reason for gettin rid of them is that i assume they are weaker and a rebuild kit for them is almost impossible to find out here in the sticks also the rubber boot on them is a verry big weak point . also this is not a stock rig lol its got 9 inches of lift on it and 35s with a ford 8.8in the rear plus a billoin other little things i have on there lol, the only thing that slows me down on this thing is the diffs cause they are the one thing i havent messed with due to there compicating tolerences and the verry high price tag on gettin someone elso to fix them
 
mmmhhh.........makes sense. but with 35's, your cv's and/or u-joints aren't really the only week link in the front. you might wanna look into swapping a better front axle in.

as for the diffs. get yourself some good books. spend endless days reading and learning. talk to some local shops if they are willing to talk to you, and see if you can get you hands on a set of old axles. then take them apart and put them back together until you get good at it and learn how to measure and spec out setting up the gears and preload.

as long as you are serious about DOING IT RIGHT, sometimes the only way to learn is to just do it. so if you read up on how to do it, and practice on an old axle, then you can learn and if you do screw up, you can still drive to work in the morning because you weren't practicing on your jeep. LOL

pics/specs on this rig???
 
umm im not to sure about how to post pics but here are a few of the thing on my rig here it goes lol. ita a 96 4 door 4x4 with a 4.0,aw4,231 with advance adaptors sye,custom pats driveline drive shaft, ford 8.8 with limeted slip and 410s, custom anti axel wrap thingy i built , homebuilt front and back bumpers with 8000 pound winch, homebuilt steering box brace, 6.5 inch bds long arm lift with coil spacers and tall perches to make 9 inches ,umm homebuilt diff guards , banks headers ,afe intake, homebuilt swingout tire carrier yeah and a tonn of other lil things that i cant remember lol
 
here is the link for u i think
mehsomestuffofjuly07057.jpg
 
WOW..........that's a purdy and clean looking jeep. mine doesn't look anywhere nearly that nice. LOL then again i don't like standing for very long, so i usually lean up against rocks once in a while. LOL
 
thanks man yeah i have been building it up to get into the rocks a bit but there isnt much for rocks out here just muskeg,mud,sand,snow lol but not to many rocks a guy would wanna get near lol they are all near the rivers lol unfortunatly my rig doesent float lol
 
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