Dana 30 ?s

Dylan W.

Dylan W.

lone resident of Bro-Lite Island
Joined
Mar 17, 2007
Location
Mocksville NC
I have ran a dana 30 with stock axles and joints for a while. I know it aint the strongest axle, but its stronger than you think, right up untill it breaks. I have never broke a shaft, just the joint, which then kills the shaft ears. Its usually an easy fix, if you have the spares...yada yada yada.

Ok my question is...Would upgrading to chromo shafts along with the H2o proof joints, be worth the money?
I run a 4.0 xj with 4.88 gears, locked on 36 iroks.

I know 36s on a locked 30 is questionable so no flaming!(unless you cant help yourselves)
I drive with finesse and usually am not the 'hammer down, go or break guy',but I do like the med/hard stuff.

What do ya think..any input welcome.

I won the h20 joints and think they are strong, but dont know.
 
Yep, worth the investment if you're NOT going any bigger in tire size :rolleyes: And I've seen your act! You're not scared of the skinny pedal :driver:
 
36s are a little much already, but I will make do ...somehow!
I wont be going any bigger with the tires and am trying to limit the skinny pedal action......Shoot..I think I drive with finess, compared to alot of YALL.:driver::flipoff2:
 
I'm not sure if the XJ D30s are much different than the CJ (CJ is low pinion, some XJs are high). I broke stock CJ joints like you, which would take out the ears. I polished my 4.10 geared turd with Superior choromoly shafts and the standard Spicer 760x joint, and have been good. I havent wheeled it a ton lately, but I have dished out some abuse with 36" SXs. I'm not saying it will last, I know if mine ever explodes, I'll get a million "told ya so"s :driver:
 
Dylan, talk to Greg Slade. After seeing Herpie at Mnt City thrash on Pull Cable, it was a true testament to upgraded D 30's
 
Dylan, I ran my D30 with 33s , locked, 4.56 and V8 for a long time. It had superior shafts and bigger ujoints. It never broke after the upgrades, but it wasnt much cheaper than the 60 after replacing all those broken shafts- and the upgrade. PS- you can break anything, so whatever.
 
Chuckman said:
Dylan, I ran my D30 with 33s , locked, 4.56 and V8 for a long time. It had superior shafts and bigger ujoints. It never broke after the upgrades, but it wasnt much cheaper than the 60 after replacing all those broken shafts- and the upgrade. PS- you can break anything, so whatever.
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So far I have been getting stock shafts on the cheap, so cost has not been a big issue. But that has to get old soon.
I gotta think about the 8.8 out back and need to match widths and bolt patterns with it....I would have to go full widths at both ends to havem' match...and I cant do that right now$. I still got a few shafts that need xploding,but they probably wont last.
 
my stock 30 shafts have held up to a lokrite and 33s with a fair amount of abuse. going to run 36s now so i got the yukon kit, now i just need to put it back together and go wheeling!
 
for the money upgrade to good alloy axles with the bigger joint. i talked to bobby long a couple of weeks ago and he said he was working on getting a birfield type axle out for a D30. that may be another option. the flat black xj with the red cage in the tennessee thread in past events had D30/D35 combo in it for a year or better. it went up everything in tellico and harlan. it was tough until he center punched a rock with the front housing. it bent it so bad that it broke the right side shaft flush with the diff. with some stiffening of the housing and welding the tubes to protect from this they are very tough.
 
What about these h20 proof joints? Thats all the package says, and seems like they cost around 50 bucks apiece, but I could be wrong..maybe more.

Anyone know about these?

Thanks for all the input so far!
 
Dylan, Run the chromos in the 30 and with the 8.8 youll be fine. its the same combo that was in your tj and you beat the snot out of that on 36s. HerBIE is runnin 36 tsls now and I beat it like it owes me money. I run the hardened spicer 760s and have been pleased so far.

Call me tomorrow and Ill get you a great price on some alooy usas with the 10 year warranty, they come with the better u joints and the full circle clips.

I also won a set of those H20 joints at dixie, so far I dont see anything spectacular about them???
 
I've run 36" Iroks on a HP30/D44 combo (4.56 gears) for several years now...using the chromo shafts, but sticking with Spicer u-joints.

The full circle clips in the chromos will stop a lot of the u-joint problems, but I figured if something was gonna break, I'd rather it be the u-joint than anything in the diff...

a light foot, plus ARB's, has been very helpful...

I carried my stock shafts as spares...and have never swapped one out...Tellico, DPG, Uwharrie, Crozet...

Greg
 
TPS said:
for the money upgrade to good alloy axles with the bigger joint. i talked to bobby long a couple of weeks ago and he said he was working on getting a birfield type axle out for a D30. that may be another option. the flat black xj with the red cage in the tennessee thread in past events had D30/D35 combo in it for a year or better. it went up everything in tellico and harlan. it was tough until he center punched a rock with the front housing. it bent it so bad that it broke the right side shaft flush with the diff. with some stiffening of the housing and welding the tubes to protect from this they are very tough.
Click to expand...
I couldn't believe how long this held up for Andy. As stated above, a little fab work would make this an inexpensive durable set up.
 
Dylan W. said:
hey Greg, Does the 10 year warranty cover the shafts if the u-joint breaks and causes damage to the shafts?
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best I can recall, the warranty ONLY covers use of Dana/Spicer u-joints and one of the really strong ones, maybe OX?

The Spicer 760X u-joint is what they ship with when bought new...

Greg
 
Dylan W. said:
hey Greg, Does the 10 year warranty cover the shafts if the u-joint breaks and causes damage to the shafts?
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I can tell you from experience, they will cover it. I have broken the u-joint that came installed in the shafts and they covered it. I blew up an ox-joint, they covered the bent ears. I was running 37x14.5's, they did not care. they also did not charge for shipping to me. Great folks to work with. If you upgrade to chromo's from Alloy USA think about their upgrade to a larger outter shaft with new unit bearings. It comes in a kit inners, outers, u-joints and unit bearings. I found I blew a lot of outer shafts until I got the bigger ones.
 
Rox&Mud said:
I can tell you from experience, they will cover it. I have broken the u-joint that came installed in the shafts and they covered it. I blew up an ox-joint, they covered the bent ears. I was running 37x14.5's, they did not care. they also did not charge for shipping to me. Great folks to work with. If you upgrade to chromo's from Alloy USA think about their upgrade to a larger outter shaft with new unit bearings. It comes in a kit inners, outers, u-joints and unit bearings. I found I blew a lot of outer shafts until I got the bigger ones.
Click to expand...
you just added another dominoe to the lineup!!! That sounds like a great idea(larger outers and bearing), but its probably high dollar.I will be lucky enough to get some chromos! I think the jury is back with a ''must get'' verdict on the Alloy USA axles.Thanks for all the input so far...any more?

37x14.50s on a dana 30, huh? Heck yeah!
 
I finally got and installed mine a couple weeks ago. Only have two trips to Uwharrie on them so far so my experience is limited.

IMG_1855.JPG


:bling:

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And for comparison the chromoly shaft is on the left and the stock TJ D30 shaft is to the right.

IMG_1859.JPG


IMG_1861.JPG


There is definitely more material around the ears of the chromos than the stock shafts. :beer:
 
Dylan W. said:
wacha gonna do with them stock shafts, Joel?:bounce:
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Keep em as spares. ;)

But I did sell my other two sets of D30 spares last week because I am overconfident. :)

I have a slightly tweaked long and stub shaft if you want em Dylan.
 
Dylan W. said:
you just added another dominoe to the lineup!!! That sounds like a great idea(larger outers and bearing), but its probably high dollar.I will be lucky enough to get some chromos! I think the jury is back with a ''must get'' verdict on the Alloy USA axles.Thanks for all the input so far...any more?
37x14.50s on a dana 30, huh? Heck yeah!
Click to expand...
It's a little more but new bearings are always a good thing. BTW: Did Tellico, Crozet, Callalentee etc... w/ that set up.
 
I would call AlloyUSA (Ron maybe) directly and find out if they will warranty their shafts with the H2O Proof joints. Never know.
I just recently got my Alloys too. Gonna step up to 36s sometime this year and see what happens. Shafts in pic are XJ D30 shafts. Gonna keep my TJ shafts/bearings as complete spares for easy swaps in case something not named R&P gives.
ai83.photobucket.com_albums_j309_GraySquirrel_00TJ_Dec07006.jpg
 
Thanks for all of the input guys. I think I am sold for sure!

Not one single post telling me its a waste of money.
From what I gather, they should hold up just fine to my kind of wheeling!
 
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