Dana 30 Front.. Swap Gears or Axle

I have a Dana 30 front in my 89 Limited, 242 case.. no Vaccum Dissconnect.

I just bought a Front and Rear with 4.11's to replace my 3.55's (Going to 31's)

The "new" front is a Vacc / Disco, but was gone through 6 months ago, new seals Etc,Mine has never been touched, but is in good shape. Should I swap the Gears from the new one into mine to avoid the disco gimmick (yes I can do the swap myself) or just put the new Axle in as is, The seller informed me the sleeve is slid over, and the fork put in on the opposite side to keep it locked. So I guess it boils down to.. How much better / Reliable overall is the Non disco ? Thanks in advance, ~Ace~

id run the new axel the way it is till you need to open it up for something then id just swap out the diso axle for a non-disco one and a new seal. I beat the snot out of my disco axel in my YJ and it has never had a issue

Thanks ! Any other opinions ?

with either axle id get rid of the vacuum disconnect. build a block off plate in place of the actuator, and put in a 1 piece shaft. everybody ive wheeled with has had problems with their 4wd not engaging which makes for a real PITA on the trail.

Just take the inner/outer complet off your non vac, and shove it in on the vac one. You wont have to by anything, unless you don't have a plate to cover hole.

If you can install gears, just do that.

I swapped axles in mine, had a non-disco, ended up with a disco axle. I put in the posi lok kit to control my front axle, but swapping the axle in was a pain in the ass to get everything to line up properly. Not to mention the used axle I swapped in seems to fight DW at least once a month.

Gerr said:

id run the new axel the way it is till you need to open it up for something then id just swap out the diso axle for a non-disco one and a new seal. I beat the snot out of my disco axel in my YJ and it has never had a issue

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sorry for the hijack, but im in the process of doing this as we speak, what inner seal can i use? i assume one for a non-disco 30 would work, but im not positive. i cant find any napa part numbers anywhere.

:cheers:use a Posi-Loc. We installed a disco in my sons 95, bought a Posi-Loc & it drives much better in 2wd. It's the poor mans locking hubs.