Another Dana35 Dilemma

Well, first off I must say I am sick, I have driven my jeep about a total of 200 miles, it has been trail/road worthy maybe only 10% of the time that I have owned it, and I am thinking of making the project even bigger. ...This might get long...

Now, here's my situation. I'm sitting on 31's with RE 3.5" superflex, and rusty's shackle. The 31's are all-terrains... I want mud terrains, as this is going to be 95% trail rig, 5% road rig. I've been reading where a lot of people are running 32's on this lift, and I can see why, I have a lot of space right now. I also have front spring spacers sitting in a box somewhere. (so all I need is an extra leaf, which I can get cheap from a local spring shop)

Now here's the problem. Currently, the jeep is sitting on stock axles, gears, and open diffs, a dana 35 rear. I got a killer deal on some axles with 4:56's in them, about 1000 miles since they have been all rebuilt. But they are of course the dana 30/35 combo. I also got a hell of a deal on a lock-right to put in the rear. (and will be getting one for the front)

What should I do? I mean, I have all this stuff sitting waiting to go into the jeep, then over the last day I've really been convincing myself how badass 33's would be, and how easily I could do it for cheap. (pretty much just the cost of tires) The idea is that I will never go any bigger then 33's with the XJ anyways. So I'm kind of thinking I might as well get it out of the way, and step up now. (I'm going to get a TJ if the bug bites again) But the rear end is scaring me. I mean, this isn't going to be a grocery getter, it is going to be my wheelin rig, so I want to be able to abuse it a little bit. I'm not talking lead footed rock crawling, but don't want to have to baby it all the time.

I was thinking and wondering about trussing. I mean I've read that a lot of the failures come from the housing bending. So I figure I could probably have the rear trussed, and that could help. But it might not. However, I do have a spare axle for parts.

To make matters more confusing. I just read in the NWC that there is a local junk yard that has a Dana44 from a XJ for 250 bucks. But then I have to gear and lock it. So I'm looking at what, another 750 bucks for the rear at the very least, with a cheap locker and me doing the gear set up. (which I can do, but I've only done a few and it was a year or more ago) But 750+ bucks for a rear end kind of throws the, "I can run 33's for cheap idea out the window."

Back to the trussing tangent. I really don't know much about it, I understand the concept though. I imagine that I have to pull the axle all apart, or at least the shafts out while it is being welded. Correct? I don't want to reset the pinion if possible. (Which I'm assuming at the very least I can pull everything but the pinion and still be good, right?)

Alright, I'm done, let the advice roll.

Trussing the D35 could be a problem. The mode of failure when they bend isn't all in the vertical axis -- they bend sort of at an angle to the ground plane, so it's bending both vertically and horizontally. Most truss designs are based on other axles, that only deflect vertically, so the designs don't provide much (if any) resistance to the fore-and-aft vector that the D35 experiences.

There's also the question of what we could call "headroom." It sounds like you want to weld a truss onto the axle. That means it's going to go either over the top -- where you may not have enough clearance to the floor pan -- or underneath, where it would steal ground clearance.

The Superior Axle and Gear D35 truss replaces the diff cover and fits BEHIND the axle, with several u-bolts around the tubes on each side. It provides stiffening both vertically and horizontally. It's a great solution -- except for the cost.

I guess what all this blathering is heading towards is -- if you know where there's a D44 available for $250, grab it while you can, because later when you break your D35 and the D44 isn't available any longer you're going to be kicking yourself.

I've seen that superior truss, and thought about it too. Really, looking at it, it doesn't seem like it would be that hard to copy. I mean, really with a spare cover, some square tubing and a little bit of time I could probably make one.

There is also the idea of a super 35. I can get a slighty used kit for around 400 bucks...

I don't think the Superior truss is available anymore. In any case, I would take what you have and put it together. If your wheeling in WA, its probably like my area. Lots of woods, some rocks but not like southwest. 35's live fine up here with 33's and bigger if you drive it with some sensibility.

If its going to be a 95% trail rig, why not just dish up the dough and build it like one. It will get more costly once you start breaking shafts each time out and maybe blow a carrier with that locker. IMHO

if u plan to wheel it very hard, that 35 WILL NOT LAST with 33s and a locker. without the locker u should be okay, for a while anyway. i wheeled mine with a non c clip 35 on a set of 33mts, worked fine for about 9 months of moderate/hard wheeling and daily driving, then i blew some teeth off the spider gears. so i pulled it apart, seeing the shafts, carrier, and gears(minus a few small chips) were all fine, i decieded to just weld it up so i wouldnt have to drop money in an axle i knew i wasnt going to keep. well that was great for about 3 more months of the same thing, then one of the bolts that holds down the carrier bearing cups broke off, and the pinion gear got trashed. not saying this is a normal break, but this time when i pulled the shafts out they both had a very visible twist in the splines, almost one complete spline of twist(hard to explain but one set of splines met up with the next row over after the twist) so the shafts wouldnt have lasted much longer anyway. poney up now and get an 8.8 or that 44 and be done with it.

kolby

Well, I guess if I can get rid of my geared 35 and the locker for a decent amount, then I wouldn't mind going with the 44. It is just that I have the money already into these parts and haven't even used them.

Take your parts for the 35 and put everything together since you have ot all anyway. Spend the money also and buy that 44 set on your garage floor until you break something, if you break something. I have seen the 44 on ebay a # of times getting up to $5 or $600. Plus the buyer pays shipping so it would would not be hard to offload if you did not want to use it.

Today a few freind and myself went wheeling. I have an xj w/ locked front and rear 3.55 gears, 33" tires. Another buddy has a tj same set up but 4.56 gears. Another buddy has a yj open front and rear with 35" tires. The tj and my xj made it up a pretty hairy trail with minimal problems. The yj busted a spider gear in three pieces and needless to say cut his day short.

After the yj left I went through some other trails that nobody else would do. There was 6 or 7 vehicles. I had the show. I thought that I was going to rip the axles out from uner my xj from the mounts before it would break. My xj was creaking and cracking and making all kinds of noise. I went through a tight ravine that once you were in you had to back out or go about 200 yards. I made to the other side. Other than the noise, it did fine.

With 33''s, no bigger, you can do alot more than you think. I must say that we weren't in the rocks, but if you are not hammering on the throttle you would probably be fine. If you can't get up the rock suck it up and go around.

Ther is always the possibility that you will break something so if you built the 44 it would give you a little piece of mind. It doesn't mean that you wont break it either, though.