Upgrade to my superduty 60

marty79

marty79

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 24, 2013
Location
Newton, NC
Hey everyone is this what is needed to really upgrade the weak links on my front axle. My driveshaft are all beef so seems the 30 spine outers would be first to go from what I've heard ...thanks for the input
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I know I have to drill the unit bearings but that's it it right? Thank you
 
I was gonna buy slugs but realized nows the time to do the upgrade to 35 spline unless I'm mistaken
 
rockcity said:
If you drive it on the road at all, slugs are not a great idea.
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no no lol my rig is very far from "road worthy" lol.
To my understanding, drive slugs take that "back and forth" play that you get from locking hubs, correct? (like with both front wheels off the ground, when you turn from one direction to the other, there is some "free play" before they engage. I hope I'm explaining this right, so that's what I was assuming drive slugs get rid of)
 
marty79 said:
no no lol my rig is very far from "road worthy" lol.
To my understanding, drive slugs take that "back and forth" play that you get from locking hubs, correct? (like with both front wheels off the ground, when you turn from one direction to the other, there is some "free play" before they engage. I hope I'm explaining this right, so that's what I was assuming drive slugs get rid of)
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The free play is only on the initial engagement, when the splines are hunting for the grooves. Once they are engaged, there is (basically) no more free play in a hub than in a drive slug, assuming the hubs are not severely worn. The hub has 4 torque transfer points (axle shaft , ID of hub engagement ring, OD of hub engagement ring, and wheel hub splines) whereas the drive slugs only has 2 (axle shaft and wheel hub splines). On a new hub, you might see a couple degrees of movement, whereas a drive slug is probably less than 1 degree. However, when you lock a hub, the splines have to rotate until they line up with a groove, so on a 24 tooth hub ring, that could be up to 15 degrees. I swear the old warn hubs had like 8 teeth, so that could be as much as 45 degrees. :gitrdun:
 
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rockcity said:
Unless you have big HP and big tires, I wouldn’t worry about the slugs.
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Yeah but upgrading to 35 spline, you'll have to do something. Slugs are probably the cheapest and definitely the strongest option. I don't know about the sd 60s but most selectable hubs other than yukon for hp 60s are dogshit.

:Edit: of course you could always just weld the outer shaft to the unit bearing and save the $200
 
There shouldn't be any free play once your hubs are locked
 
I'm going to waste a few key strokes you wont listen to.

Have you broken anything on the front SD60, yet?
If not I wouldnt do anything to it. Id wheel it and enjoy it and WHEN you break something upgrade that something.
 
agreed...and keep a spare hub. they're cheap
 
Ron said:
I'm going to waste a few key strokes you wont listen to.

Have you broken anything on the front SD60, yet?
If not I wouldnt do anything to it. Id wheel it and enjoy it and WHEN you break something upgrade that something.
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Broke a outer stub 6 months ago but I suppose seized up hub needle bearing played a role in that (cause it broke way too easy, but my buddy said that tire wouldn't spin, it dragged then snap). So that's been my main reason for thinking I need em.
 
Drive slugs are the upgrade for the locking hub which is usually the weakest link. Also the upgrade usually needed when upgrading to 35 spline outters short of expensive locking hubs.

I’m with Ron, I wouldn’t worry about it unless you break a hub often or an putter shaft and you just feel it’s time to upgrade.

It’s not a popular opinion, but I like my locking hubs. I have Chromos and SuperJoints. In my mind, my locking hub is the fuse, if you will. I have extra hubs and a set of slugs in the truck. Takes a few minutes to change if one breaks and I keep wheeling.
 
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Ron said:
I'm going to waste a few key strokes you wont listen to.

Have you broken anything on the front SD60, yet?
If not I wouldnt do anything to it. Id wheel it and enjoy it and WHEN you break something upgrade that something.
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This is my thought as well. No need to spend the $ if you haven’t broke it yet. I’ve given my SD 60 hell on my F350 diesel and have yet to have issues. I don’t see where an XJ would have issues with a stock SD60.

I say keep your $ for the day it breaks, if that ever happens. Use your $ on more important things.
 
77GreenMachine said:
Drive slugs are the upgrade for the locking hub which is usually the weakest link. Also the upgrade usually needed when upgrading to 35 spline outters short of expensive locking hubs.

I’m with Ron, I would worry about it unless you break a hub often or an putter shaft and you just feel it’s time to upgrade.

It’s not a popular opinion, but I like my locking hubs. I have Chromos and SuperJoints. In my mind, my locking hub is the fuse, if you will. I have extra hubs and a set of slugs in the truck. Takes a few minutes to change if one breaks and I keep wheeling.
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Does anyone else remember the short lived Warn hub fuses? Im thinking 99-01 time frame.
It was actually designed to break and protect both the hub and the shaft.
 
rockcity said:
This is my thought as well. No need to spend the $ if you haven’t broke it yet. I’ve given my SD 60 hell on my F350 diesel and have yet to have issues. I don’t see where an XJ would have issues with a stock SD60.

I say keep your $ for the day it breaks, if that ever happens. Use your $ on more important things.
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In all fairness half its life it ran on 6-7 cylinders!

Ron said:
Does anyone else remember the short lived Warn hub fuses? Im thinking 99-01 time frame.
It was actually designed to break and protect both the hub and the shaft.
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Yeap 3 sets in the excurison before I went back stock.
 
Ron said:
Does anyone else remember the short lived Warn hub fuses? Im thinking 99-01 time frame.
It was actually designed to break and protect both the hub and the shaft.
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Yeah, except when they broke the shock load cleaned the dog ears off a Detroit.
 
Well broke the hell out the outer drivers side hub this weekend. Now I need an upgrade.
05+ superduty is my best option?!!?
Bigger hubs, bigger outer shafts, bigger ball joints, well pretty much bigger everything for $381 complete axle...cant beat that but I'm open to suggestions within my budget means lol.
(1st time on right side of Daniel I won. This time same nearly spot I lost lmbo) but I kinda wanted to see how much it could take on these heavy ass 42s and humvee wheels so I didn't baby it either
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How did the shaft hold up? I'd throw some slugs in it, if they did fine.

05+ is a stronger axle, but you will have to redo all your mounts, etc. The outers won't swap onto the 99-04 inners. You could swap just the knuckles out, but I suspect making new mounts is easier.
 
paradisePWoffrd said:
How did the shaft hold up? I'd throw some slugs in it, if they did fine.

05+ is a stronger axle, but you will have to redo all your mounts, etc. The outers won't swap onto the 99-04 inners. You could swap just the knuckles out, but I suspect making new mounts is easier.
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Shaft held up but I suspect it won't take much to break one with my tires and wheels weighing 216lb plus the low gearing I'm running I believe is just as much stress as if I had a somewhat healthy v8. I see your point but I think I'm pushing my luck staying with 30spline outers on my gearing and tires...heck apparently I'm pushing my luck on 35spline axles with my gearing, weight of tires and weight of rig lol (according to some haha)
 
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this is what's in my budget so I can do some other "fixings" lol so now I need to know about drilling unit bearings. I have a different set than my current ones with only 74K miles on them. Plus I admit, don't have the patience or time (more of time issue) to redo my steering/track bar/link mounts etc) to mount a whole new axle considering the work it takes to clean up the 05+.
Anyone know of Machine Shop in Hickory NC area that would be familiar with doing this..or in the nearby area?
Unless Yall have a major point against going this route, going to order them this week. Thanks
 
rockcity said:
I don’t see where an XJ would have issues with a stock SD60.
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forgot to mention my 42s with original runflat double beadlocks, 12 bolt wheels weigh in right at 226 each...that's heavy as crap lol plus gotta factor my low gearing as someone else pointed out to me,(5.08.1) that gearing plus weight of stupid heavy tires, plus rig weighs 6k, that's a heck of a lot of weight and force being put on that stock 60. When I get on the rev limiter with that gearing trying to bump it up something, it's probably just as much stress as a healthy v8 pushing it. I'm always literally (up to this point) waiting to hear a loud snap when I'm on it, especially with my heavy new tire setup.
 
and what happens to the "needle bearings" that are in these hubs when you drill them out? they just get thrown out and the 35 spline shaft just rides on the hub now?
 
jeepinmatt said:
there is (basically) no more free play in a hub than in a drive slug, assuming the hubs are not severely worn.
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you might be on to something Matt...mine is welded so there's 0 play there. but since I built this thing a year ago, tires off the ground, hubs locked in (both spin same direction and locked in) when I turned the wheels back and forth I've always had like "lots" of play from one direction to the other. Like rotate forward, stop, and when rotating backward the tire would move like "a lot" before it would engage the axles to spin everything in reverse. (hope that made sense) so now you're basically saying these hubs have been "severely" worn since day 1 lol.
I'm just trying to learn this play I've always seen in my front end rotation/engagement
 
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