Dana 44 & 30 4.56 gear install questions

Hey everyone I'm new to the forum just picked up an XJ with 33's a few months ago and decided to try a 4.56 gear install for the first time. I'm pretty mechanically inclined so lets start.

I pulled the carrier out and had to find a way to remove the old bearings with out damaging them. I wanted to use them as setup bearings so I came up with this contraption.

Harbor freight Hydraulic puller with some kind of plate and stuff to make it work. Worked out great!

Couldn't get the ring gear on. I could have heated up the ring gear but I didn't feel like holding a hot ring gear so I tried to freeze the carrier instead.


A few days later and it worked! It didn't go on all the way but a few taps with a dead blow and she was set!


Now I put the carrier back in with the stock shims (went in easy maybe b/c it was still frozen).


Houston we have a problem!!! :doh:


I tried to do as much research as I could but I've never worked on a Domestic vehicle in my life! I've built Import engines, a little fabrication work here and there, Custom roll cages, Dyno tuned fuel injection systems, turbo chargers, Road raced, and Drag raced stuff and I thought that this did not look right. I'm pretty sure its a "Jeep Thing" hahaha! Cool, so more searching and found out that they have 2 different carriers for Dana 30&44 and probably others as well.

so I'm probably 99% sure I need a 3.92 & up open carrier for Dana 44 & 30. Can someone with more experience confirm? If yes, does anyone have a 3.92 & up carrier for sale? Thanks!

possibly the wrong carrier... that maybe a 3.55 carrier instead of a 3.73. did u buy a new 3.73 carrier or did u just swap the ring gear to your old carrier? if u only swaped ring gears out, theres your problem, u need a high numerical carrier. hit up rwkhauss offroad on here. hes very knowledgable and could set u in the right path.

btw, private message robertk (he is the owner of rwkhaus)

It was originally a 3.56~ so I guess I do need a 3.73 carrier. Haha! Yeah I purchased the 4.56 gears, Spartan, SYE, and Tera 2lo from Robertk! Everything arrived quickly, good experience with him =) I wanted to see first if anyone had a used carrier for sale before inquiring about a new carrier. Do you know if they are really hard to come by? Sorry I'm new to Jeeps in general so I don't know which parts are "rare" or easy to find. Thanks for the quick response!

if you have the cash, now is a good time to upgrade to a better carrier than a factory one. sell your stock carrier and lunchbox and get a full locker and have a much stronger combo.

sounds like he just bought the locker from Robert...

how did i miss that? see what happens when you let your membership laps? you start getting stupid. waiting for paypal to hurry up and do the money transfer so i can be ... well less stupid. but hey, it was a good thought wasn't it?

:anon:Hahaha WebDog is right! I've gone too far into into the D30 and D44 to turn back around :bawl: I'm not a hard core rock crawler so I'm hopping my XJ w/ 4" lift, 33's,rear lunch box and spare axles will get me through the Dusy Ershim and other local spots around the So Cal area. Its not a daily driver but will be driven to and from the trails.

Do you guys think my setup will work for what I'm trying to do? I don't have enough experience wheeling to know any better. If someone can chime in that would be awesome! I take criticism well :moon: Thanks guys!

You definitely need a different carrier for the D30. I don't think you will need it for the D44, not sure on that one. Are you using a setup bearing cup for the pinion on the D30? If you need some guidance in setting the gears up PM me, I would be glad to talk you through it.

actually if the OP has the 3.55 carrier for the D44 and didnt get the "thick" gear set, he will need a new D44 carrier too.
hey DriftXJ, if you are doing these yourself and want to know how, jeeperJohn is the man. i would take him up on the offer if i were you.

Jeeperjohn I definitely would appreciate your guidance. :clap: Just going to wait a few days for a used carrier to pop up, if not I'll bite the bullet and order a new one.

2stix you are 100% correct.

Thanks you guys rock!

DriftXJ said:

:anon:Hahaha WebDog is right! I've gone too far into into the D30 and D44 to turn back around :bawl: I'm not a hard core rock crawler so I'm hopping my XJ w/ 4" lift, 33's,rear lunch box and spare axles will get me through the Dusy Ershim and other local spots around the So Cal area. Its not a daily driver but will be driven to and from the trails.

Do you guys think my setup will work for what I'm trying to do? I don't have enough experience wheeling to know any better. If someone can chime in that would be awesome! I take criticism well :moon: Thanks guys!

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you should be fine with that.

I run Aussie front and rear and currently my jeep is my daily and trail rig.

3.73 and up carriers don't pop up used very often, I was looking for one for over a year and finally bought one from rob last month

Kudos to you for jumping in head first, welcome to the forum. Lots of great folks around here

Thanks Webdog and GrimmJeeper for the info! Couldn't find any used ones over the weekend. Robert contacted me today and offered me a very competitive price on the 2 new carriers so they should be here shortly. I appreciate him touching base with me even after I have already made a purchase with him.

I'll have to un-install my lunch box Spartan locker from the old carrier tonight. Those things go in really easy but something tells me its not going to come out easy. Hahaha!