front axel question{opinnion)

Seems to me their is more talk of replacing rear axel than front.? I have the 29 spline chry 8.25, and would like to replace only my front axel becaues it is a much weaker link? :smoker:I aim to turn 33s. Am I close or should I set the pipe down?

mn_xj said:

Seems to me their is more talk of replacing rear axel than front.? I have the 29 spline chry 8.25, and would like to replace only my front axel becaues it is a much weaker link? :smoker:I aim to turn 33s. Am I close or should I set the pipe down?

Click to expand...

What kind of trails do you like to enjoy? If your only going to run 33s and you have a sane right foot you should be okay with a D30 and 29 spline 8.25 wheather they're locked or not.

Jes

What year is your Jeep? If you have a low pinion Dana 30, I would say upgrade. If you have a high pinion Dana 30, keep it and polish it for all its worth A high pinion Dana 30 with 760x U-joints will handle 33's with out too much of a problem, just dont go crazy with the skinny petal.

AARON

It is a 97 I am kinda researching on the front axel swap because I want Hubs ....Waren kit gets up to near front axel price pretty quick ,right?

you could always slap a set of CrMo shafts into that D30.

you allready have a High pinion d30 non-disconnect.
a good set of 4340 shafts with 5-760x u-joints and full circle clipscan accomodate 35" tires. hub locks are not needed.

This is a tough decision for me too. I'll be going to 35s and I am very easy on the throttle usually so the d30 will probably last me a long time. However, I just got a rear 9" w/ 5x5.5" bolt pattern so I either need to go to a d44 front w/ the same pattern, or spend $900 on the Warn Premium hub kit. :dunno:

I know the d44 would be ideal, but time and skills are the main issue for me. I could bolt on the hubs in a weekend, be able to use the true-trac I already have, and be done.

:dunno:

33" tires stay with the D30.

Do the warn kit if you want hubs and have fun going wheeling.

If you lock it think about the 30 spline ARB kit.

That and the warn kit will make a great axle combo for your 33"S

But I'm sure CRASHitt will have another opinion of the D30!

mark

if you already have money invested in the D30, put D44 outers on it, which will give you hubs, will be stonger than the Warn hub kit, and much cheaper (assuming you can do some fairly basic fabrication)

oh, and with 33s, locked, your D30 with some 760 joints should survive anything but downright torture. as mentioned above, if it's low pinion, get a high pinion, I know I had to practically GIVE mine away when I put in my D44.

I'm actually trying to figure out what I want for the front end myself. I'll be going 33's. If you want some good articles on this subject go look at BillaVista's pages on pirate4x4. They've got a ton of info in them and the conversion is not too expensive.

http://www.pirate4x4.com/tech/billavista/Hybrid_Axle/HybridAxle.htm http://www.pirate4x4.com/tech/billavista/Steering/Steering_Index/SteeringIndex.htm

there is a guy on michiganjeepers.com putting D44 outers on his D30 right now, check it out: http://www.michiganjeepers.com/foru...6984/page/2/view/collapsed/sb/5/o/all/fpart/1

That doesn't seem easy or quick.

Thanks guys!!!!

Wold something like this work without changing the yoke?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/e...tegory=33564&item=2456202971#ebayphotohosting

I think the XJ has a 3 bolt spindle and this has a 6-bolt spindle which may still line up? Then is it just a matter of the stub axle length, or will there be other problems?

I have a '99 Xj with the D30 front and the D35 rear. I installed Superior Axle's Super 30 and Super 35 with ARB's front and rear. I love those kits!!!!! 30 spline axles and selectable lockers, perfect for me since this is my daily driver. I have heard that these 30 spline kits are basically as strong as a stock D44 (minus the housing). I don't think I will ever break them with 31's, and when I upgrade to 33's they should hold just fine.
Any questions ([email protected]).

Hey Basalt -

Might I ask, does your 8.25 have 4.56 gears and is it for sale?????? If so hit me with a PM and we'll talk.

This is a copy of a post I made recently in another thread on this subject. It may help give you some info:

A D30 can be upgraded to pretty damn strong in every area other than the housing and ring and pinion. The first upgrade to a D30 is to get 760x u-joints and snap ring them. This will work very well if you don't run real hard stuff with 33" or even 35" tires if you have a very light foot and easy driving style. The next upgrade is to go with alloy shafts (stock size...1.16" diameter 27 spline), which hold up pretty well with snap ringed 760's up to 35" tires. Warn makes chromo inner shafts, and Superior makes both inner and outer chromo shafts. Going to CTM's with alloy shafts is a damn strong axle combination, and a 30 spline kit (1.31" diameter, same as a D44) for the inners is even stronger.

A weak point on the D30 is the stock stub shafts (27 spline 1.16" dia), so going alloy and going bigger is a good thing. Superior makes a chromo stub shaft, and Warn makes a chromo stub shaft that comes with their 5 on 4.5" hub kit. The strongest setup is a Warn 5 on 5.5" hub kit that comes with a chromo 30 spline stub shaft. This chromo 1.31" diameter 30 spline stub is the same size, but stronger material, than a stock D60 stub shaft (1.31" dia 30 spline). So, the strongest D30 would be the Superior 30 spline inners with 30 spline Warn 5 on 5.5" kit stubs. This would be a stronger axle combination than a D44.

Since the axles breaking is the number one weak point, the D30 can be built very strong in this area. D44 inner shafts are 1.31" dia 30 spline, and stub shafts are 19 spline and 1.24" dia (correct me if I slightly missed the stub shaft dia). So, even with Warn chromo shafts for the D44, the 30 spline (1.31" dia) Warn D30 hub kit shafts are stronger than the 19 spline D44 stub shafts. Additionally, the HPD30 ring and pinion have proven to be pretty strong, although they can be broken. With as much abuse as many D30's are given, with strong axle combinations, a surprisingly small number of ring and pinions have been broken.

The problem with building a real strong D30 is the cost, which is about the same (or more) as building a strong D44. A 30/30 kit and Warn 5 on 5.5" hub kit are $2000, plus the cost of a ring and pinion and gear setup which is $300-500, plus the CTM's which are $350, plus a good steering setup, plus a WJ knuckle conversion if you want to have bigger brakes and hy-steer like you would get on a D44. If you did all that, you'd have an axle that compares vary favorably with a D44 (if you trussed/sleeved the D30), with stronger stub shafts but a weaker ring and pinion, and more ground clearance. The cost would be roughly $3200+-.

A similar D44, with Warn chromo axles, CTM's, hy-steer, and Warn premium hubs, would be around $2700+- including the housing, if you built the mounts and narrowed it yourself. Buying one set up this way from an axle builder would be much more. You can get the 30 spline chromo Warn stubs to work on the D44 if you use D30 knuckles, either CJ, TJ or WJ. You'd loose the bigger brakes with TJ knuckles, and you'd loose hy-steer with either TJ or CJ knuckles, but the WJ knuckles would give you both hy-steer and bigger brakes......but of course the price goes up with the cost of the Warn 5 on 5.5" hub kit, although you'd deduct the $320 cost for the Warn stubs and premium hubs.

A D60 is really only an option if you're going to very large tires. It is very heavy and has lousy ground clearance unless the bottom is shaved. The passenger side pumpkin GM/Dodge D60's can be upgraded to 35 spline (1.5" dia) stubs using D70 parts, but the 35 spline parts won't work on a Ford drivers side pumpkin HPD60, so you're stuck with 30 spline outers. Of course, you can get 35 spline outers if you have a HPD60 custom built, but then you're talking about some serious cash. So, without the huge cost of a custom built D60, you are either talking about a pass side, low pinion D60 with 35 spline stubs or a drivers side HPD60 with 30 spline stubs. With the new alloy axles that are offered for D60's, it may be possible to upgrade the Ford stubs to 35 spline, but I haven't researched that.

As usual, which is best comes down to the preferences of the builder. What type of wheeling, driving style, and size of tires, plus the degree of importance of ground clearance and light weight.

:worship: :worship:
Thanks !!!!!

do you remember the name of that thread? THANKS AGAIN

mn_xj said:

:worship: :worship:
Thanks !!!!!

do you remember the name of that thread? THANKS AGAIN

Click to expand...

"Dana 30 upgrades"

Here 'ya go: http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=16549&page=1&pp=15&highlight=D30

Like Richard said, throw some alloys in it & call it good. When you start breaking ball joints or snapping pinions it'll be time for an upgrade.

-jb