Upgraded gears in your Daily Driver

Ok this is not a question about gear ratios so lets not go there as those threads always get so intense.

Basically I have a 97 XJ that will get an 87 XJ Dana 44 rear and maintain the Dana 30 front. Since this is my daily I want to swap in some new gears to get some mileage back and make it an all around better daily driver, as well as I believe the bearings in both diffs are about wore out at 234,000 miles. I have decided on my gear ratio of choice and now I just need to buy the gears.

So now to the question, what gears are you running in your daily driver and what would you recommend? Clearly brands like Yukon are top notch quality and I couldn't go wrong there. Then there are bargain brands like Nitro and Standard Gear (Yukon sister company).

Anyone running the bargain brands in their daily drivers? I want to make sure that this next set will be fairly quiet and last as long as my factory gears have. This will probably be one of the only times I opt to tear into the diffs. Only other time I would put the diffs under the knife would be to put in some lockers.

So what say you my fellow XJ brethren?

its a crapshoot really

souske said:

its a crapshoot really

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this. all depends on if they were set up and broken in properly when they were originally set up.

i run used 4.10s on my MJ's dana 30. they were dana spicer gears, so were probably set up from the factory. i dont think they are making any noise but its hard to tell since theres already a lot of tire/wind/road noise from the truck :gee:

I regeared a few months ago to 4.56s, using Yukon gears and Timkim bearings (included in the install kits with all the needed shims and seals).
At first I thought the gears were noisy but by after finely adjusting the driveshaft angles, now I mostly hear the tires and the transfer case chain. The Brown Dog rubber mount allow you to hear more mechanical sounds.

Ring and pinion gears are difficult and expensive to manufacture, why settle for cheap ones if you plan on keep your XJ for years.
Are you planning on doing it yourself?

souske said:

its a crapshoot really

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What he said ^^^.

There are only a few "manufacturers" of ring and pinions, and mostly they outsource the manufacturing overseas. Many name-brands are manufactured by one of these outsourced factories, and have the sticker for their name brand slapped on the box. In some cases, a "premium brand" ring and pinion may be the exact same identical part as a "value brand", simply packaged with one logo or another. Some speciality gearsets for oddball applications are manufactured only by certain factories, and all companies that want to sell that gear set purchase the exact same parts and brand them with their logo because it's not cost-effective to tool up an entire new factory just to produce a few oddball gearsets for customers that need/want them.

Unless you know the source of the manufactured product and the level of their quality control and processes, what you are buying is customer service and warranty. Buy from a reputable vendor/manufacturer who stands behind their product. Take your gears to an installer who knows his ass from an inch-lb torque wrench and have them installed properly. This isn't necessarily the "old salt" mechanic who does everything by feel and can tune a carberutor by smell. If/when something goes wrong, you have the installer and the vendor to fall back on, and if you chose wisely when ordering your gears and picking your installer, you will get taken care of.

I have run yukon gears (no issues) and Nitro gears (no issues)

The only real reccomendation I can give you is not to get the Nitro Master Install kits. The shim sets they supplied were all weird thicknesses and there werent enough of the smaller thicknesses. I ended up doing my gear job with leftover shims from an old yukon master install kit.

After talking about it with some people, I'm not the first to experience this either.

I won't be doing this myself, though I may be assisting if they let me or atleast observe since I love being involved. I do most of my own work on my Jeep but I do understand this is not something you can do 90% perfect and get away with it. If it is not 100% perfect then that can have catastrophic consequences. I just want to make sure I go with a brand that will last a long time and I only have to fool with one time for the next 10 years and 150,000 miles. I have had my Jeep 10 years and its not worth hardly anything anymore so it is worth more for me to just re-gear it and keep driving it since I know it is pretty good shape for the most part with only a few things that could use some attention. But the motor is in good shape along with the transmission and transfercase. I just know the bearings in the diffs are about wore out so a rebuild is in order.

I am using the 2nd quality gears made by Yukon (NITRO?) and I have had no issues at all with them. I think proper setup is a much bigger factor than manufacturer.

ktm racer 419 said:

I have run yukon gears (no issues) and Nitro gears (no issues)

The only real reccomendation I can give you is not to get the Nitro Master Install kits. The shim sets they supplied were all weird thicknesses and there werent enough of the smaller thicknesses. I ended up doing my gear job with leftover shims from an old yukon master install kit.

After talking about it with some people, I'm not the first to experience this either.

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I can't agree more with this post. I ran into the same issue when installing Nitro gears in my Dana 30, using their master install kit.

As far as quality goes they made a little noise during break in but quieted down during break in... I read of others reporting the same thing.

Now that I've been running them for a while they are just as quiet as the yukons that I blew up in the front (until they came apart obviously) and just as quiet as the yukons that are installed in the rear. I wouldn't hesitate buying and running another set.

I've used all sorts of brand names and I set my own gears. Set-up is more critical than the brand.

I recommend the Yukon master install kits and if you are going low(4.56/4.88) and locked, get them cryoed. I also recommend using a spacer on the 8.25 and ditching the crush sleeve. If you break a yoke on the trail, replacement is much easier.

On my DD I'm running Yukon 4.10 F/R with Detroit True Tracs and alloy shafts on 30" tires(these are my old axles from my trail rig so they are a little overbuilt LOL!)

On my trail rig, I'm on 4.88's, Yukon front/Nitro rear, both sets are cryoed. RCV shafts in the front/Yukon shafts in the rear, full case Detroits F/R, trussed F/R and a pinion spacer conversion on the 8.25

DD with 31 or taller, go with 4.56's. 4.88's on the D30 have a 2 tooth contact vs 3 tooth. I've had Yukons in my 44 for about 5 years now no problems. 4.56's are easier on the transmission and engine. You're not going to really be driving it over 70 or so anyway.

I'm running the value end of things. I have G2 gears in front and rear axles. My last two axle set ups were the same. I've never had issues out of them. They made a little noise initially but I think they all do at first. It's like already stated as long as its a good set up it doesn't really matter

By the way I dd this and wheel it like a trailer queen

xjtrailrider said:

I recommend the Yukon master install kits and if you are going low(4.56/4.88) and locked, get them cryoed.

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I would recommend getting a fullcase locker and skip the cryo treatment (if you have to choose one or the other).

All the D30 gearset failures I've seen have been using the stock carrier. The thing flexes like a wet noodle.

MoparManiac said:

I would recommend getting a fullcase locker and skip the cryo treatment (if you have to choose one or the other).

All the D30 gearset failures I've seen have been using the stock carrier. The thing flexes like a wet noodle.

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i agree

I had Spicer gears installed in my diffs during the regear. They are absolutely silent. No gear noise at all. The biggest noise on my rig while on the street is the KM2 tires.

When I did my regear we used US Gear 4.56 for the front and rear. No problems so far, the usual bit of noise at the start and now quiet as anything else (hell, the initial noise may have just been my ujoints as well).
They used the same supplier for the master install kits as well, no complaints there.

If you are going to regear, do the suggested spacer swap at the same time, makes a pinion seal swap simple
My 'New to me' 8.25 has a shot pinion seal, and since I'm going to have to have shop do it do to my lack of the right tools ... A spacer swap is planned so I can just swap the damn thing next time. I'm not a big fan of having to rely on a shop for a simple part.

Thanks for all the advice guys! I really appreciate it! Seems like the consensus is all brands of the actual ring and pinion are good if set up properly which is great to hear since my concern was noise. This will be my daily driver. It has been for ten years since I got it in high school with 75,000 miles on it. The old girl has been through high school, college, and now gets me to my job in early adulthood. Finally she gets some love after years of faithful service. So I will save my money of the gears but splurge on master install kits.

I will be keeping the stock front Dana 30 but swapping in a rear Dana 44 from an 87 XJ. The front will stay open for now and the rear will be getting a rebuilt Trac Loc that I got for free from a local member. I know it's not the best limited slip but I have a factory one in my 8.25 and it did good for what I needed. And I got it for free so why not! It looks to be in good shape but who knows how many miles are on it so I will be rebuilding it with new clutches. In my research I have found there are two clutch kits for a Dana 44 Trac Loc, a standard kit and a Power Loc kit that is more aggressive. I am leaning towards the Power Loc kit since that sounds like it would be better on the trail.

rkates said:

I'm running the value end of things. I have G2 gears in front and rear axles. My last two axle set ups were the same. I've never had issues out of them. They made a little noise initially but I think they all do at first. It's like already stated as long as its a good set up it doesn't really matter

By the way I dd this and wheel it like a trailer queen

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I've seen him wheel the bag off of it and I also had him install 4.10's in my 30. I live in central Indiana so its mostly flat but we have some hilly areas. I'm running 33's now and it doesn't seem to have any issue staying in overdrive when going up overpasses and such like stock gears and 32's did. Now if I lived in a more hilly or mountainous area i'd do 4.56's. Granted its not my full time DD anymore but it gets driven a lot and never trailered to the trail. I won't have a vehicle I can't drive on the street if needed.

MoparManiac said:

I would recommend getting a fullcase locker and skip the cryo treatment (if you have to choose one or the other).

All the D30 gearset failures I've seen have been using the stock carrier. The thing flexes like a wet noodle.

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This is why I want an ARB, RCV's and a cryo'd gearset.......its only money! :gee:

xjtrailrider said:

On my trail rig, I'm on 4.88's, Yukon front/Nitro rear, both sets are cryoed. RCV shafts in the front/Yukon shafts in the rear, full case Detroits F/R, trussed F/R and a pinion spacer conversion on the 8.25

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FlexdXJ said:

This is why I want an ARB, RCV's and a cryo'd gearset.......its only money! :gee:

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Thats what I'm running and well worth the money IF you want to stay stock width, keep it a driver/solid weekend warrior and get all of the ground clearance you can with the little D-30 in the front.

I'm happy wit my set-up with no issues pounding on it with 35's