what to do? empty dana 30

Zebbie

Zebbie

Active Member
Joined
Dec 11, 2009
Location
Rock Hill SC
I just bought a 2.5L 97 TJ with an empty front axle. It does not have anything, no ring or pinion no axle shafts. I think the front is a dana 30 and rear dana 35. rear does not have a locker and I think it is 4.10 gears but not 100%. It is my daily driver but I will take it to URE about once a month. It has 35” tires. I would like to eventually add a locker maybe just in the rear. What would you do on a very limited budget?

A couple of options I was thinking are:

  • buy a complete dana 30 off craigslist with 4.10 gears
  • have a shop replace all insides of axle housing I have
  • buy a dana 44 front and rear off craigslist.
 
Go to pull a part & buy a front axle, make sure the gears are the same as the rear & just swap it. Get rid of the Dana turdy five & find an chrysler 8.25 for the rear.
 
Jeff B said:
Go to pull a part & buy a front axle, make sure the gears are the same as the rear & just swap it. Get rid of the Dana turdy five & find an chrysler 8.25 for the rear.
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x2, or make that an 8.8 in the rear. Its a TJ, either way, you're gonna have to rebracket the 8.25 or 8.8.
 
is the 30 stronger than the 35? i read a lot of people swap the rear 35. why dont they swap the 30 also?
 
do you guys know a rough price on how much a shop charges in labor to swap the 35 if i find a 8.25 or 8.8? I bet this has been talked bout a lot on here.
 
A friend recently had east coast gears do a 8.8 he brought to them. new bearings, freshen up some stuff, new ebrakes, brake lines, brackets welded on, etc was about 850-900. That was just giving him the axle to put in himself.
 
the 8.8/8.25 isnt gonna solve your D30 problem, just find a junkyard axle or one on CL, etc. for the front. It would be way more work/expense to add all the part in to your empty housing.
 
RenegadeT said:
the 8.8/8.25 isnt gonna solve your D30 problem, just find a junkyard axle or one on CL, etc. for the front. It would be way more work/expense to add all the part in to your empty housing.
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awesome! thats exactly what i needed to know and what im going to do.

thanks everyone
 
I imagine it has the outer shafts still installed, but if it doesn't...stop driving it. The wheel/unit bearing will literally fall off. I would personally keep the front housing and use this as a chance to regear to 4.56 or higher. The carrier would have to be replaced either way and stock 30 shafts can be found for dirt cheap.
 
I have a dana 30 that I will be pulling out of a yj. Use your housing and my inners...$100
 
If you go the route of replacing the whole front axle with another D30, then pull one out of a later model Cherokee as it should be a high pinion. That will give you a stronger gearset because it will be loading the ring teeth on the drive side of the gears. The later model housing will also have the better series of stock U-joints. Should pretty much bolt right in for what you are doing.
 
AlxJ64 said:
If you go the route of replacing the whole front axle with another D30, then pull one out of a later model Cherokee as it should be a high pinion. That will give you a stronger gearset because it will be loading the ring teeth on the drive side of the gears. The later model housing will also have the better series of stock U-joints. Should pretty much bolt right in for what you are doing.
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Some of the later models were low pinions. Just something to keep in mind.

From wikipedia:

1984–1996: Dana 30, High Pinion, Reverse Cut, 27-spline axleshafts (1989 – 1995 : with ABS used 5-297x universal joints, non-ABS had 5-260x universal joints. Certain XJ models were produced with constant-velocity joints instead of universal joints.)
1996–1999: Dana 30, High Pinion, Reverse Cut, 297x/760 universal joint, 27-spline axleshafts.
2000–2001: Dana 30, Low Pinion, Standard Cut, 297x/760 universal joint, 27-spline axleshafts.
 
you are going to hate it on the trail with that 2.5L, 4.10's and 35's, if you go the 8.8 there going to have 3.73 so you gonna need a regear either way, and a 8.25 out of a XJ is gonna most likly gonna have 3.55 can't remember if i've seen a 2.5L XJ with a 8.25 but i'm sure there out there somewhere
 
I did find a Dana 30 from a member on here. It was from a xj and had cv shafts. He was very nice to swap it to u joints he had laying a round. Yesterday I got my jeep back from Galloways. They did not touch the front except putting in stub shafts so I could get back home. Deryl found the back pinion was moving up and down. He took cover off and I had to get new ring also. Someone put 4.56 in it and did a crappy job. Since I could not match 4.56 with a stock axle in the front and had to get new rear ring and pinion in back I went with 4.88.

When I got it home jonathan and i swapped out the d30. It did bolt right up. I am very lucky to have a good friend who helped me swap the axle. So I'm all set and just need to save up to put 4.88 in front since Galloways took all my money.
 
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