• Welcome to the new NAXJA Forum! If your password does not work, please use "Forgot your password?" link on the log-in page. Please feel free to reach out to [email protected] if we can provide any assistance.

Ford D35 lockout parts on a Jeep D30

Quoting the Ford guys...

From < http://www.therangerstation.com/tech_library/4wd_Front_Axles.html > bottom of page:

"Things To Watch:

Bearings - Ranger TTB axles are known for bearing problems (particularly when using wide-offset wheels). You should keep a close watch on your wheel bearings to make sure they haven't loosened up or become damaged from overheating. If you wheel your Ranger and carry spare parts you'll probably want to carry a spare hub and wheel bearings. The stock hubs are prone to break from hard wheeling and the wheel bearings could go out on you somewhere between the trail and home due to debris, heat and working their way loose. Loosening of the bearings can be minimized by torquing the outer bearing locknut to 225 ft-lbs instead of the book spec of 150. "

​
 
aintright said:
so to me the info above begs the question of, why not just put ttb 44 outers on?
Click to expand...

Harder to find and the wrong bolt pattern on the lugs. The D35 TTB isn't a cure all by any means. It should be roughly equivalent in strength to the D30 stuff in a manual locking hub format.
 
fair enough. makes sense. the article on rangerstaion.com didn't really go into too many details about bolt pattern and such with the ttb 44 stuff.
 
aintright said:
fair enough. makes sense. the article on rangerstaion.com didn't really go into too many details about bolt pattern and such with the ttb 44 stuff.
Click to expand...

Yes, you'll end up with extra track width and a 5.5 on 5 bolt pattern like many of the Jeep lockout kits which use CJ parts.
 
I wouldn't stress about the above quoted wheel bearing issue(s).

Most of that can probably attributed to poor wheel geometry on a lifted TTB setup.
 
My friend found the spindle at his house after I dug through the trash at mine. I'll put the micrometer on it tonight and see how it compares to the 3.92" XJ knuckle bore.
 
I think you'll have trouble getting a spindle and outer knuckle from the junkyard, especially from a TTB axle that always wears tires unevenly!!! ....that's where the conversion kits come in!!


I replaced the auto hubs on a friends exploder with D35 TTB with real warn lockouts. He bought just the hub assembly and not the expensive nut kit, then we went to the autoparts store and got the nuts and washers for a bronco Dana 44 and they were the same.
 
mjma said:
I think you'll have trouble getting a spindle and outer knuckle from the junkyard, especially from a TTB axle that always wears tires unevenly!!! ....that's where the conversion kits come in!!


I replaced the auto hubs on a friends exploder with D35 TTB with real warn lockouts. He bought just the hub assembly and not the expensive nut kit, then we went to the autoparts store and got the nuts and washers for a bronco Dana 44 and they were the same.
Click to expand...

What's an outer knuckle? I think you haven't been to a junkyard if you think it's going to be hard to find spindles from an early nineties ranger/explorer. The three piece spindle lock nut kit is $20-$30.
 
alaskan said:
What's an outer knuckle? I think you haven't been to a junkyard if you think it's going to be hard to find spindles from an early nineties ranger/explorer. The three piece spindle lock nut kit is $20-$30.
Click to expand...

outer knuckle is the part that bolts into the two ball joints and moves when you turn the steering wheel...it holds the bearing!! You can't just bolt a spindle to it.... check the taper on the TTB spindle mounting flange....it's going to be an issue, hence the need for the kits. If you don't agree, go try it and prove me wrong...I'll wish you luck!

At the time, wherever my buddy was ordering from, it was significantly cheaper to just pick the parts up from the autoparts store!!
 
mjma said:
outer knuckle is the part that bolts into the two ball joints and moves when you turn the steering wheel...it holds the bearing!! You can't just bolt a spindle to it.... check the taper on the TTB spindle mounting flange....it's going to be an issue, hence the need for the kits. If you don't agree, go try it and prove me wrong...I'll wish you luck!

At the time, wherever my buddy was ordering from, it was significantly cheaper to just pick the parts up from the autoparts store!!
Click to expand...

Oh yes, I'm assuming something will need to be done machining-wise to fit the D35 spindle to the D30 knuckle. If Spicer really loved me the would have made those knuckles with the same bore, though.
 
The hub locks are engineered to be the weakest link. Even premium hub locks should break before the axle shaft if they are properly engineered. The Mile Marker and Warn hub conversion instructions stress torque settings for the inner nut to 50ft-lb. followed by loosening the nut 180 degrees then re-torque to 3-5 ft-lb. All clearance (proper preload) should be removed from the bearings or the procedure must be repeated. The outer nut is then torqued to 125-150 ft-lb. Proper bearing pre-load is critical to their longevity. Exceeding the recommended torque specifications can lead to the early demise of the bearings and races. The loosening of bearings is due to improper installation or damaged components. I would ignore "The Ranger Station" advice on torque specifications. In this application, Double-row Tapered Roller bearing radial and axial load capacity is much higher than Angular Contact ball bearing units. They are meant for heavy-duty applications. The Factory XJ bearing units are designed for light-weight vehicles that do not have high load requirements. It's also much cheaper to manufacture bearing units than it is to manufacture locking hubs with live spindles. Bearing units also make it much easier to incorporate ABS sensors and other electronic data retrieval sensors. One other advantage to this hub conversion is that they are completely sealed. On our mud racing XJs, we have to replace the bearing units frequently because they separate once the ball bearings wear from debris exposure. They were not designed to withstand this type of abuse. Our XJs with the locking hub conversions have never had any mud or water enter the hubs or reach the tapered bearing surfaces. This is because they use seals that actually seal. ;)
 
alaskan

thanks for doing all the leg work for this, it is greatly appreciated. i really hope it can work out. cause if it can i'd be all about it when i swap out my shitty rusted out hp30 for my clean rust free hp30
 
Finally picked up a Ford D35 spindle last night and it has a 3 5/16"-ish bore. I didn't bother getting out the micrometer because it wasn't anywhere near 3.92".

The bolt pattern is also pretty small compared to the Jeep knuckle. It would appear that the Jeep knuckle could be drilled for the Ford pattern, but now you're looking at getting two custom adapters made and drilling 10 holes in the stock Jeep knuckles. I'm not really sure it would be worth the trouble.
 
Have you bothered to look at the offset of the whole setup yet? The bolt pattern might not be as much of an issue if the D35 spindles are the same surface out dimension as the conversion spindles are... If that dimension is the same, maybe someone that is a machinist on this forum that's sitting in the wings watching this thread progress can come up with new spindles for this exact ordeal... It would be well worth it if someone could com e up with new custom spindles if we could go yard hopping and get all the rest of the parts for cheap...
 
IdahoEagle said:
Have you bothered to look at the offset of the whole setup yet? The bolt pattern might not be as much of an issue if the D35 spindles are the same surface out dimension as the conversion spindles are... If that dimension is the same, maybe someone that is a machinist on this forum that's sitting in the wings watching this thread progress can come up with new spindles for this exact ordeal... It would be well worth it if someone could com e up with new custom spindles if we could go yard hopping and get all the rest of the parts for cheap...
Click to expand...


Well, get out your lathe and get to work. :)

I'm willing to bet most of the people who actually do that work know damned well already that the d30 unit bearing is amazingly strong for what it is, and that they would be going through a lot of work to build a part 8 people may buy to downgrade their front end. ;)

There are a LOT of hub conversions available for the dana 30. None of them sell really well. One of the main reasons people do it is for a change in bolt pattern. I ran a Warn 5x5.5 conversion on WJ knuckles for a really long time, and after a little while never bothered to unlock the hubs anymore as there was no gain. I had already purchased drive flanges for it when I sold that axle off, while the new owner hasn't run them, he's never once unlocked the hubs either.

If I could have found a 5x5.5 unit bearing, I would have done it in a heartbeat.
 
Why not just put a Dana 60 in the front? That has spindles. :gee:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

D
Specific Moab Wheel On XJ
Replies
16
Views
243
DirtySouthXJ
D
ehall
steering overhaul
Replies
7
Views
147
Evan03
E
X
My brakes are crap
Replies
12
Views
3K
xjklmnop69
X
J
Help needed with nightmare XJ ABS to Non-ABS swap...
Replies
0
Views
80
JBinNY
J
B
1990 turn and parking light issue left front and dash
Replies
13
Views
668
RCP Phx
R
Back
Top