axle help

Alright, I picked up a D30 v/disco converted to non disco and a D44.

Both have 4.56's and the D44 has a Detroit soft locker.

Here are some pictures for reference.







The brackets are all welded on the outside but not on the inside. Is that enough?

I am not that familiar with leaf springs, so am I missing any brackets on the 44?


What can I use to clean the carrier and gears before I put it all in.

I would like to replace the outer bearing and seals.

I have oil seals, the outer bearings and retainer plates.

What else should I get.


Any help is appreciated.

I would pull it apart and inspect the carrier bearings, if there's any wear I would replace those and the pinion bearings. You can clean all the parts with paint thinner available by the gallon at Home Depot. I advise you to check the bolts holding the cap on the locker and if any of them are the least bit loose, take them out one at a time and clean them and red loctite them back in at the proper torque. It wouldn't hurt to do the same with the ring gear bolts. Oh, and the shock mounts are probably O.K. but if you have a welder and some time it wouldn't hurt to weld the inside.

Thanks for the info, I will check those bearings too.

If I take those out do I need to re-adjust the anything with the gear mesh?

As long as you want to guard against failure, reinforce the LCA brackets on the axle. Hopefully it has already been done, but if not, get some 1/4" (3/16" and a little boxing will do fine as well, but why go smaller..) tabs and make new ones. The stock ones rip off. Inevitably. :dunce:

Flip the 44 over, the brackets toward the ends of the axle are your leaf spring perches. The shock mounts should be hanging below the axle housing.

Before installing those new oil seals and outer bearings, take a good hard look at the surface on the shaft that the seals ride on. If there are any grooves or nicks, I'd recommend putting Spedi-sleeves on the shafts. I rebuilt my 44 and replaced the seals (and therefore the bearings too) more times than I care to admit before I installed the Speedi-sleeves. They'll run you about $30, but each time you replace the bearing and seal you're looking at $50-$70 anyways. Remember, if you're using the stock XJ shafts, they're over 20 years old now and have seen some miles.

lol, you wouldn't believe how long I looked at that trying to figure out why he would put them on for SUA, lol.

Duh Tom, turn it the right way, lol...

I will look at all that and probably go ahead and get the sleeves just in case.

fyrfytr1717 said:

Flip the 44 over, the brackets toward the ends of the axle are your leaf spring perches. The shock mounts should be hanging below the axle housing.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the info!