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Dana 30 parts compatability...

ghettocruiser

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Norristown, PA
Hey everyone. I searched but didnt come up with much. I just bought a HP30 that already had 4.56s in it, boxed LCA mounts, and new balljoints, bearings, etc, etc. I believe the axle was from an 88 or 89. Great shape so far. Here is my question. I noticed the brake setup is different than my 94. Will I be able to bolt my calipers to the 88 axle brakets? If not...can I swap the brakets over? I just bought new calipers for mine so if I can still using them that would be cool. Both axles are non-abs, non-disconnect if it matters...
Im going to start cleaning the axle up tonight and give it another once over. Also...does anyone know how hard it is to re-attact the sway bar mounts on the axle? Or if there are any aftermarket mounts available??
Thanks in advance.

Justin
 
ghettocruiser said:
Hey everyone. I searched but didnt come up with much. I just bought a HP30 that already had 4.56s in it, boxed LCA mounts, and new balljoints, bearings, etc, etc. I believe the axle was from an 88 or 89. Great shape so far. Here is my question. I noticed the brake setup is different than my 94. Will I be able to bolt my calipers to the 88 axle brakets? If not...can I swap the brakets over? I just bought new calipers for mine so if I can still using them that would be cool. Both axles are non-abs, non-disconnect if it matters...
Im going to start cleaning the axle up tonight and give it another once over. Also...does anyone know how hard it is to re-attact the sway bar mounts on the axle? Or if there are any aftermarket mounts available??
Thanks in advance.

Justin


You can swap the outer steering knuckles. Then you can run the later brake calipers and pads. Just remeber that you have to use the hubs form the 94'. No need to press out the ball-joints.
 
Thanks for the info. I was just now sitting here thinking that I could probably just swap knuckles...so it looks like thats what Im going to do. Is that hard to do??? Do I basically knock the knuckles off the axle with the ball joints still in? Then put those on the new axle? Sorry...the knuckles are about the only part of the front axle I havent messed with.

Justin
 
ghettocruiser said:
Thanks for the info. I was just now sitting here thinking that I could probably just swap knuckles...so it looks like thats what Im going to do. Is that hard to do??? Do I basically knock the knuckles off the axle with the ball joints still in? Then put those on the new axle? Sorry...the knuckles are about the only part of the front axle I havent messed with.

Justin


It's easy, and you may only need a pickle fork.
 
Nice... I did some more searching...and thinking. Dont know why I was thinking that the ball joints came out with the knuckles. Im assuming that my existing knuckles will fit onto the older axles ball joint studs. Atleast I hope. I read an article that basically said to just hit the knuckle with a hammer and thats basically it. I plan on disassembling the "new" axle I just bought to clean it up...so I guess Ill figure it out.

Justin
 
There are these sway bar axle brackets from Rusty's...

http://rustysoffroad.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=ROTK-25&Category_Code=

They sound like they may result in the sway bar links being higher that factory, but if disconnect links are going to be used, depending on the change in height, a set for a shorter lift could be subbed in.

Or there's RE...

http://www.rubiconexpress.com/dynamic/mainpage.asp?Folderid=1306

The part you want is RE9992.

Either of them ought to work to reattach the factory sway bar location. HTH
 
Hey thanks for those links! Exactly what I needed to find. I was going to just make my own...but at 8.95 from RE I might as well get them. I must have overlooked the ones from RE about 10 times while looking through their website. Thanks! Looks like Ill be polishing the turd after all!!

Justin
 
Swap is going smooth so far. Just cleaning up the axle and welding in some reinforcement here and there. I had one other question... Im using my 94 steering knuckles with the 88 axle... can I use the 94 axle shafts? Or will I also have to use the 88 shafts? I tried to find info on all the parts differences, but came up short.

Justin
 
ghettocruiser said:
Swap is going smooth so far. Just cleaning up the axle and welding in some reinforcement here and there. I had one other question... Im using my 94 steering knuckles with the 88 axle... can I use the 94 axle shafts? Or will I also have to use the 88 shafts? I tried to find info on all the parts differences, but came up short.

Justin

Your unibearings will likely be different, but the shafts will interchange. Use the 94 stuff on the 94 knuckles and you'll be golden. The 88 brakes likely won't attach to the 94 knuckles...so just keep the outer knuckles/brake calipers/rotors/unibearings 94.
 
Thanks man thats good news. I was starting to get discouraged. I bought the whole axle...but I was soon finding all the stuff I couldnt use. So basically Im using all my 94 brake stuff, steering knuckles, axle shafts all from the 94. I think Im going to slap new ball joints in as well...might as well since Ill have the knuckles off anyways. The lower joints have some play in them anyhow. Thanks again for the info!

Justin
 
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