D30 gear swap tips???

[Curly55]

new to the site. reading through and liked the out come so here i am. have new ring and pinion on the way for my reverse cut dana 30 on my '94 YJ and am hoping the you guys out there have some helpful tips and suggestions for someone taking this on for the first time.

[bandhmo2]

Well the short answer is that doing gears on a Dana 30 is no different then most axles. But that does not make it easy. Also if you are switching gear ratios you need to do the rear as well.

The first thing you need to do is a lot of reading. Read as many different install instructions as you can find as you will learn a little from each. Learn what to adjust and how, what you need to measure and check the setup, and what other parts you will need in addition to gears. Once you have read up on all that come back and ask some specific questions as needed.

I recomend the fallowing reading.

Pirate4x4.Com - The largest off roading website in the world.
http://www.yukongear.com/Downloads/T...structions.pdf
http://www.richmondgear.com/ringandpinion.pdf
http://www.ringpinion.com/Content/Ho...structions.pdf

[Jim_Lou]

Welcome to the board! Wilhelm has given yo excellent advice. I can't think of a thing to add, except that patience is your best friend. It's a job that can't be done in a hurry.

[pontiac58]

Just something else to think about. If you dont have the tools to do it, you will be better off paying someone to set them up. By the time you buy the tools you will be at least half way to paying someone.

Gears are not hard to setup. It just takes time and experince.

You will need a inch pd torque wrench that reads in the 0 to 100 range, and it can NOT be a click type. A beam will work but a dial is the easiest.

You will need different size bearing drivers. They are cheap and easy to make but you will need them.

If your changing the carrier you will need setup bearings.

A dial indacator will also be needed. I mount mine to one of the case cover bolt holes. Some guys us the magnet type. But i always knock them off.

If you can pull the rear and have the axles out, cover off, rear cleaned and ready to be rebuilt, most likely a rear end builder will give a break on the price of setup. I know i would. Cleaning and disassembling is the worst part.


Good luck

[GoldToyBox]

Ditto to all the previous stuff.

I did mine .... first time ever in side a diff for me.

Dial indicator is a must (take you time, under stand and document)
Lots of rags!
Axle spreader is worth it's weight
Start with everything clean, pressure wash everything you can.
Mark everything as you disassemble

It was a LOT easier on the work bench than it was under the rig. The dana 44 was a snap on the bench. The dana 30 was a pain working under the rig and I had to do it twice!

Have fun

[Pete88YJ]

I was a slacker on my D30, and instead of swapping the gears, I went out and bought a 4 cylinder D30 axle with 4.10 gears, and sold my D30 with 3.07 gears.

Problem solved, and my $ outlay was low. D30s can be had for pretty cheap money.

Of course, if you want something lower than 4.10, I don't think they were very common on stock Jeeps. I've heard of 4.56 on some "towing package 4 cylinder" versions, but if it's true I'm guessing it's pretty rare.

Good luck
Pete

[cordova]

I set up fr and rear scout 44s. Determination was an important tool for me. The more people tryed to discourage me, the more I wanted to see, for myself, what is so difficult about it. I read everything I could get eyes on for about a month or more. Then, with the axles on the bench, I worked on them for a coulple of weeks, on and off. Using set up bearings, I would get eveything set and walk away. I would come back with a clear head, check again, make some adjustments, and walk away. I did this several times over several weeks. I played with the shims, from within spec to out of spec and back to within spec until I really understood what I was doing. Sounds stupid, but I think monkeying around with this for weeks made me understand. This was my version of "patients". I had used 3.07 R&P which I don't care about, moved the used LS from rear to front...once again don't care, installed a mini spool in the rear (pretty cheap), new shims and bearings, If I gernade this thing, I really am not out much money. The education was worth the $$$. My set up does not have a ton of miles on it, but so far, so good. No odd noises, no excessive heat on the diffs...I think shes good to go. Good luck with it

[Curly55]

thanks ya'll the advice is worth it. ill keep reading to better my understanding and ill be back to tell ya'll how it went. thanks again.