School Me: HP D30 Spider Gears

CJ2YJ2TJ

CJ2YJ2TJ

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 15, 2006
Location
Raleigh
Guys this is outside what I have done before so I am looking for a little guidance. Long story short apparently my spiders gears in my 99X XJ are shot and have been slappin' around causing the roar up front that I had mostly written off to half shot tires that weren't rotated enough by the previous owner. 4 brand new tires and the roar is still there just with a smoother ride so I took it to a pro thinking allignment was out of wack but he heard more, pulled the cover, and saw that the spiders were the culprit. He told me to give him and hour to price out parts and came back with a quote of $1300 give or take an hour labor to basically rebuild the front diff.

Here's where I stand. I see stock Jeep axle sets out of TJ's and XJ's for sale all the time when people upgrade. Gonna double check but I am pretty sure I have HP30 with 3.55 gears. Its completely stock minus 30" tires and has less than 100k miles on it. My mechanic didn't recommend just replacing the spiders - even if I did the work myself because good chance the wear extended past them but he's not a 4x4 specialist by any means. I have messed with suspension lifts on basically every style Jeep made with a straight axle but thats my extent of knowledge. I can unbolt an axle but I have never gutted a diff or anything like that past pulling the cover. My first thought was to find a HP30 out of a similar 97+ XJ and swap the whole axle. Does this make the most sense? I figure this can be had for less than 200 bucks. Or can I just find a carrier assembly and pull everything while leaving the ring and pinion in tact and replace the spiders, side gears, etc..? Is the mechanic off and should I just replace the spiders? Or would a mild lunchbox locker be my best option because that removes the spiders anyways correct? This is a DD and I want to keep it to highway friendly. I have my Wrangler to be the impractical toy. Most of what I suggested is based off not much experience but way too much time on forums and being the extra set of hands for friends over the last 10 years. Whatever I worded or said wrong please correct me. I just cant see spending 1300 on 5k Jeep with used parts so common to find. Sorry for being long winded - just wanna cover all my bases. Thanks :beer:
 
Going straight. Gets louder the faster you go for the most part. Annoyed me at highway speeds. Not that bad driving around town. In the mechanic's defense he was with me on swapping in something myself and not letting him do it so he may be high $ and/or wrong but I feel confident he's not just doing it to drum up a big bill. He's done many things in the past for me that he didn't charge me at all for when he definitely could have.
 
front wheel bearings ok? they like to roar. usually spider gears should make more noise in 4x4.
 
it would be very easy to find a used axle and bolt it up, in fact there might be a couple here on the forum that would be cheap, or possibly now would be a good time to upgrade to a d44, also, a locker would eliminate the spiders, but your mechanic is probly correct in saying that the damage might have extended further, possibly needs new carrier bearings and seals, if you are in there anyhow, you really should change them, but you are correct in thinking that its not worth putting 1300 into an axle that is in a 5000$ vecile, get a d44 and have it bolted up for that price
 
Just get a used, but good dana 30 for cheap and swap it out witha couple buddies.

way cheaper than 1300..I'll sell you mine for that amount and it's got chromo shafts and a locker.
 
Thanks for all the help guys. After reading the FSM, and taking advice of you guys and other mechanics we found it was shot hub assemblies with play in them. Replaced those and got it alligned and I am good to go. Spiders didn't sound right to me either so I am glad I asked you all and read up. Appreciate it.
 
Dang, just read this thread. Glad you found the culprit. Definitely didn't sound like spider gears to me either and was going to direct you to the unit bearings. Even if it was your spiders, I'd see about getting me a new mechanic. $1300 is extremely high.
 
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