Rear axle dilema...have questions

Well, I finally experienced some great axle carnage this weekend. I had to have a friend tow me home 2.5 hours and return with my $600 MJ to pick up my pop up camper. I'm running a '98 XJ probably not exactly light in the weight department with 35's. It's also my daily driver. I have a D44 front with an ARB, 4.88 gears and Warn shafts with Longfield joints. The rear was running a ARB equipped Waggy D44 with stock shafts and 3/4" spacers. I broke a rear shaft at the splines, but it broke into many pieces which ground around and pretty much ruined the end of my ARB. It expanded the bearing journal, broke the bearing, and broke the bearing race. I disassembled this thing in the field hoping to remove the remaining piece of axle from the ARB, but after seeing the damage, I gave up and trailered it home. Oh, I couldn't get the carrier out of the housing very easily and ended up threading a rag into the gears, turning the pinion with a pry bar, and finally, the thing popped loudly and moved out. The question is, what do I do now?

Do I purchase a set of 30 spline aftermarket alloy shafts for this axle and get a new Flange Cap for the ARB and call it an expensive day or do I do something else?

I understand some ARB's will fit 33 or even 35 spline shafts. Can my RD06 be retrofitted with new side gears to fit 33 spline shafts? I understand the 35 spline ARB's are a different animal than the 30 spline RD06. If I buy custom shafts, I might as well get 33 or 35 spline units as I doubt the price difference is much, but I'm not sure.

Is this D44 worth building more? Should I move on to a different axle? Cost is always a BIG issue.

Jeff

Oh, if I decide to fix the ARB, any suggestions as to the cheapest place to get parts? Thanks, Jeff

This is pretty tough. It all depends on the shape of your ARB really, since it's pretty much worth more than the axle itself.

I'd say go find an 8.8 and be done with it. They are pretty available at Junk yards for about $350. That way all you'd have to do is just get some 4.88's for it.

But if the D44 and the ARB is in fixable condition then upgrade to 35 spline shafts, get new bearings, and fix your ARB. All in all you'll spend about the same as you would for an 8.8 with 31 spline shafts, maybe new gears and you'd get disk breaks out of it too.

The only place I've been able to get parts was directly from ARB and they weren't exactly cheap.

Also did you damage the bearing cap? Those caps are machined to match the housing which is why you mark them before removing one. I believe Randy's sells some tools to do the matching at home though. I think you just put the new cap on then hone it to fit. A friend broke one about 15 years ago (forgot to mark the caps ) and he ended up having to strip the housing and have a machinest bore the new cap in place. $$$ at the time. We tried using junk yard caps and none matched up, there was always a lip where the two caps mated.

Depending if their on any repairs to the housing and cost I don't see any problem with keeping the 44. At 35's I would definately go bigger shafts though. If you go 33 than I would just go ahead and do 35 spline. If the housing has problems and the fix is going to be very much I would think hard about doing something else, but it will be about $3500 for a custom built axle with an ARB. Tera, Rockcrusher, Hi-9, Dynatrac, .... Plan on about $1200-$1300 to go to 35 splines in the 44.

Good Luck.

I think the housing is ok as there are no glaring issues. There could be less obvious issues, but everything looks ok. I disassembled the ARB and found the Flange Cap part number 020502 to be the only damaged part. It is the piece that the bearing presses on to. This bolts through a second piece (the other side of the case) to the ring gear. The side gear inside seems to be fine and I tapped the broken axle piece (as well as some small chunks) out of the side gear once it was removed from the ARB. I tested the ARB locking action with the damaged part off and it works fine. From what Lincoln told me, the 35 spline ARB is totally different from mine. What I would like to know is if the 33 spline ARB is the same with different side gears. If so, it might be worthwhile to get the 33 spline side gears for my RD06 unit and purchase some 33 spline alloy shafts. Jeff

That guy is pretty smart.

Call ARB to confirm but I show the 33 and 35 spline ARB's use the same carrier bearing (different than the the RD116 and RD06). Part numbers LM104949 cone and LM104912 cup in the Timken variety and 2" bore x .85" width. Stock is a 25590 cone and 25523 cup which is 1.796" bore x 1.0625" width. Sorry.

edit: those are the stock bearings and aren't for the ARB. I'll look for my crap and stop spewing so much.

if the parts are in fact different, what about getting the possibility of getting the 30 spline sidegears broached and re-treated to 33 spline?

BrettM said:

if the parts are in fact different, what about getting the possibility of getting the 30 spline sidegears broached and re-treated to 33 spline?

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Bore isn't large enough in the ARB housing and have you priced getting something broached? He'd be better off fixing and selling the one he has and buying a new one.

I'm still trying to find those part numbers for the RD06 bearings though.

Lincoln said:

Bore isn't large enough in the ARB housing and have you priced getting something broached? He'd be better off fixing and selling the one he has and buying a new one.

I'm still trying to find those part numbers for the RD06 bearings though.

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I was just thinking of the "Camo 60s" (camo, aka erik linker on the pirate board) he had D60 ARB sidegears broached to 40 spline.. figured if there's enough extra room on D60 side gears to go up a size there would be on a D44...

welp, never priced broaching, so I guess that kills that idea...

BrettM said:

I was just thinking of the "Camo 60s" (camo, aka erik linker on the pirate board) he had D60 ARB sidegears broached to 40 spline.. figured if there's enough extra room on D60 side gears to go up a size there would be on a D44...

welp, never priced broaching, so I guess that kills that idea...

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From what I've read about that it isn't cheap. The big problem with the 44 is the hole in the housing can't be bored far enough without the metal becoming to thin. Maybe Jeff will get his mic out and check it out since his junk is in pieces.

Jeff, grab those part numbers from the bearings and look up the demensions here and check the bore of the cone:
http://www.timken.com/timken_ols/bearings/GST/web_gst/BearingSearchTRB.asp

Check out the size of this bearing. There's plenty of room in it:

Just found some pricing on broaching from Camo:

Camo said:

if there is enuff material to do it then plan on spending about 300 + to acomplish it. you need to :

1. aneal
2. broach
3. heat treat

those process are not cost effective to do when you only are doing one at a time.

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Wackodrumr said:

This is pretty tough. It all depends on the shape of your ARB really, since it's pretty much worth more than the axle itself.

I'd say go find an 8.8 and be done with it. They are pretty available at Junk yards for about $350. That way all you'd have to do is just get some 4.88's for it.

But if the D44 and the ARB is in fixable condition then upgrade to 35 spline shafts, get new bearings, and fix your ARB. All in all you'll spend about the same as you would for an 8.8 with 31 spline shafts, maybe new gears and you'd get disk breaks out of it too.

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What, exactly, would you be gaining going this route?

CRASH

CRASH said:

What, exactly, would you be gaining going this route?

CRASH

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He'd be getting an 8.8. I read on a board somewhere that they're beefy as hell and pretty much unbreakable.

CRASH said:

What, exactly, would you be gaining going this route?

CRASH

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8.8's are a pretty common axle upgrade for jeeps. Mainly cause they are pretty common in Junkyards and they have just as much aftermarket product support as Dana axles do.

Also, if you find an 8.8 from a 96+ Ford explorer they have disc breaks. They also have 31 spline axle shafts. Plus... the width of the axle compared to stock jeep axles are almost the same. The 8.8 is about 2 inches narrower.

And yeah, you can beat the crap out of em'.

This guys runnin 36 Bias TSL's with his 8.8. He litirally beats the PISS out of it. I've seen it.

Wackodrumr said:

8.8's are a pretty common axle upgrade for jeeps. Mainly cause they are pretty common in Junkyards and they have just as much aftermarket product support as Dana axles do.

Also, if you find an 8.8 from a 96+ Ford explorer they have disc breaks. They also have 31 spline axle shafts. Plus... the width of the axle compared to stock jeep axles are almost the same. The 8.8 is about 2 inches narrower.

And yeah, you can beat the crap out of em'.

This guys runnin 36 Bias TSL's with his 8.8. He litirally beats the PISS out of it. I've seen it.

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What, exactly, would you be gaining going this route?

CRASH

Disc brakes and 31 spline Axle shafts.

Just think if he tries to upgrade his D44 to 33 spline Axle shafts he'd be paying about the same amount if not more for just the shafts that he would for a complete rear axle. Yeah, he'd loose a broken rear locker and the 4.88's but this was just a suggestion.

That's why I said this was a tough decision in my first reply.

CRASH said:

What, exactly, would you be gaining going this route?

CRASH

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In other words... The guys already got a 44 in the rear. There would be no benefit in swapping an 8.8.

Jeff,
I'd fix your ARB, swap in some alloys & call it a day. I've personally never broken an aftermarket (alloy) rear axle shaft in the 31 spline flavor & I would manage a guess that my rig is heavier than yours. Curious, where & how did you break it? BTW, it's pretty common to have to walk out the carrier with a rag or use a case spreader. I wouldn't attribute that to the broken ARB just yet.

Matt

Wackodrumr said:

Disc brakes and 31 spline Axle shafts.

Just think if he tries to upgrade his D44 to 33 spline Axle shafts he'd be paying about the same amount if not more for just the shafts that he would for a complete rear axle. Yeah, he'd loose a broken rear locker and the 4.88's but this was just a suggestion.

That's why I said this was a tough decision in my first reply.

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But, you end up with pretty much the same shaft size & the same shaft strength. The point to to make the axle stronger, not trade it for something that will cost you money & get you right back where you started...

FarmerMatt said:

In other words... The guys already got a 44 in the rear. There would be no benefit in swapping an 8.8.

Jeff,
I'd fix your ARB, swap in some alloys & call it a day. I've personally never broken an aftermarket (alloy) rear axle shaft in the 31 spline flavor & I would manage a guess that my rig is heavier than yours. Curious, where & how did you break it? BTW, it's pretty common to have to walk out the carrier with a rag or use a case spreader. I wouldn't attribute that to the broken ARB just yet.

Matt

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I'm thinking that I "stressed it" in AZ and I'm Damn glad it didn't give way out there. I was working a hill with loose sand, rocks, and trees, but I didn't think I was really hammering on it or anything. There was no big bang or anything either. It was more like "hey, your left rear isn't pulling." Damn, you're right and now I hear a crunching sound every so often. Better back off. I then drove it back to camp on easy roads where I dug into it to see what was wrong although I suspected a broken shaft. I jacked up that side and could spin the tire easily. I pulled the shaft and found many small chunks of axle in the tube. I used a magnet to pull most of them out and tried it on the stub, but no go. So we tried the welding rod stuck to the stub trick, but that wouldn't work either. So, I disassembled the other side, pulled the cover, and tried getting the carrier out. Once it came out, I could see all the damage and had to give up on it. The passengers side shafts splines look straight so it doesn't appear that it is damaged. Maybe I could have avoided some of the damage if I had stopped RIGHT away and pulled things apart, but they were crunching on the hill too, so maybe not. Jeff

Jeff 98XJ WI said:

I'm thinking that I "stressed it" in AZ and I'm Damn glad it didn't give way out there. I was working a hill with loose sand, rocks, and trees, but I didn't think I was really hammering on it or anything. There was no big bang or anything either. It was more like "hey, your left rear isn't pulling." Damn, you're right and now I hear a crunching sound every so often. Better back off.

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Better check them front shafts. That was quite the wedgie you got in when you broke your wheels.