I NEED YOUR INSITE ON A WRANGLER AXLE CONVERSION

I KNOW YOU ALL ARE TIRED OF ANSWERING THIS QUESTION BUT
I WENT THREW ALL THE PAGES AND WEB SITES FINDING INFO ABOUT
SPRING OVERS, TIRE SIZE, GEARS, HIGH CLEARENCE KNUCKLES,LIFTS
BUT IT ALL COMES DOWN TO MONEY AND AVAILABLITY.NOW I WONT
MIND SPENDING MONEY ON SOMTHING IF ITS HAS A REASONABLE PRICE
BUT I WONT SPEND 1200.00 ON A AXLE. I DONT THINK IT WORTH
THE MONEY.IT COULD BE TOP OF THE LINE BUT I DONT NEED TOP.
I WAS LOOKING FOR A DANA 44 AXLE FRONT AND REAR. ITS TO MUCH
TO GET IT MADE SO I LOOKED AROUND FOR THEM OFF THE RIGHT DONOR
TRUCKS. I GOT A 98 8.8 REAR AXLE FROM A EXPLORER BUT ILL BE DAMED
IF I CAN FIND A 44 FRONT END ANYWHERE WHERE I LIVE. I DONT WANT
TO CUT THE TUBE TO LENGHT. A WAGONNER I COULD LIVE WITH BUT
NO ONE HAS A JUNKED ONE.SO FINAL MY QUESTION IS A FRONT DANA 30
STRONG ENOUGH TO TURN 35" BFG WITH SRING OVER AND A WINCH
WITH MILD OFFROADING. IVE SEEN ON M.O.R.E.S WEB SITE A 87 YJ CLIMING
ROCKS WITH 35BFG SPRING OVER ON STOCK 30 AXLE.NOW I KNOW YOU DONT
BELEIVE WHAT YOU SEE BUT THATS WHY I ASK YOU THIS QUESTION?
WOULD THERE BE SOMETHING ELSE I CAN DO TO GET THE FRONT END STRONGER?
THANKS FOR ALL YOUR HELP
4X4 JOE

yes you can run a dana30 with 35's, guy in my club has been running one locked for a year now (thats when he lkocked it the axle is original in his jeep) he runs 15-35-15 swampers and a 350 chev tbi the only thing he has a problem with is the 5 bolt hubs exploding, went to 6 bolt last month and hasn't busted them yet.
as to stronger you can get shafts made out of stronger material that will match a stock 44 shaft, these could be fitted with a stock dana44 joint as well.

Since you said "mild offloading" I guess the 30 can do a good job but you have to be careful and don't abuse it. How? basically NO flying and landing on this axle. I've seen a guy bend his 30 while landing from a small sand dune jump.

I suggest that you weld a strong truss across the bottom of the axle pumpkin and to both axle tubes. This will make the axle stronger and better resist bending.

I had a 30 that developed a weird problem once. The passenger side axle tube rotated a few degrees. The tube was straight with no bends or anything, it just the rotated tube. Naturally this screwed up my spring pad angle, shock mount and the camber. The jeep wasn't very stable at high speeds. While fixing it I welded the axle tube to the pumpkin (they are normally pressed in) to make sure this never happens again. You might want to do the same as well as a precaution.

Hope this helps

PS: don't write your messages in CAPITAL letter. On the net it's considered SHOUTING

A.B.

I have a friend here in central Indiana that has a dana 44 and a dana 20 with one piece axles from an 84 grand thats for sale. Its 6 lug and based on what my front grand axle was they are about 65 inches long. Steve

Mopar360yj
87yj+20,74CHR.030360,SOA,35BFGATs,46RH,241DHD,
D60-44-4.10

running the dana 30 front is as good as you need to run either 33 or 35 inch tires. all the previous points were good ones in that careless abuse will take its toll, ON ALL AXLES. have been running the stock 30 in my 83 cj7 with locked 33's and have yet to have a problem. that's going on the last 10 years of my ownership. not bad. it definitely wouldn't hurt to truss the axle if you have the possibility of launching it. it is not the strongest axle ever built, but the jeep is not the largest fourby ever built, the axle is well suited to the vehicle, and that's what makes it work. so, if money is an issue, i would stay with the 30, gear it properly, and spend the money you saved on some rear discs or extra low t-case gearing. good luck, steve

What about axles from a Scout? I found Dana 44 front/rear axles from a 77 Scout II for $300 for the pair. Moving the spring perches, plus new wheels ( different bolt pattern) was all I needed to do. Well, I also had to create kind of a hybred steering setup, but it was pretty simple. Higher offset wheels will make up for the slightly different axle length. by the way, this was done to an 87 YJ.

[Brownbagg]

Cannot help on front axle but i know the Isuzu Rodeo comes with a dana 44 with disc brakes and the old postal jeep had rear dana 44 but was a little narrow to the regular jeep axles.

brownbagg </font color=red>

Okay, here's my $.02 after all the looking around I've done:
Since you got the Ford 8.8, you've retained the 5 on 4.5" bolt pattern. The only front Dana 44 with a 5 on 4.5" bolt pattern comes from Dodge 1/2 tons from 75-79. I forget which side the pumpkin is on though.
You can use the Wagoneer D44, but it's a 6 on 5.5" bolt pattern. The good thing is that it's set up for your driver side drop t-case.
The Scout and Bronco D44's are both drivers side drops and a 5 on 5.5" bolt pattern.

I'd stick with the D30, add a Rock Lock to eliminate the vacuum crap, and get a set of alloy axle shafts that are much stronger than stock.

_____________________
John
95.5 YJ with "stuff"
http://SonsofThunder4x4.com

any other axle for the front would be way too wide other than the scout and the wagoneer.The scout axle has 0 degrees caster o it makes for a real loose feel on the road. The wagneer is best and if you want to cut it you onlu need to cut one side of it. It actually isn't hard either. The dana 30 is ok. not great but alot of people use them since it's so hard to get front axles cheap. Warn sells axleshafts for it that use the bigger dana 44 u joints which is that axles biggest weak point plus the warn shafts are stronger chromolly steel. I know a guy who says another problem he had with the axle is that he kept spining the pnion gear but he is running 35" boggers locked, with a 401.
I have a dana 44 narrow track with 30 spline shafts and a centered diff. that I might sell.

Al
<a href=http://community.webtv.net/BIG-MAN-TT/BigMansJeepWorld>My web page</a>

Look for the axle shafts out of a 95 YJ with ABS - they are beefier and use Dana 44 u-joints. They are also completely interchangeable with earlier YJ Dana 30's. Then you shoud be ok.