YJ lift and axle questions

Jones4WD

New Member
Joined
Mar 21, 2005
Location
Wake Forest, NC
I am in the process of buying a wrecked 89 YJ 6 cylinder 5 speed. This is going to be a low budget build but I wanna make it tough. It runs good but the front axle is messed up from wreck. I want to run 33's for now and maybe 35's in future. I want this rig to be a weekend wheeler but also a spare vehicle to drive in bad weather. I am trying to figure out what axle and lift combo to use. For now I am thinking of swapping in a set of axles that are already geared to 4.10 so that I don't have to spend a lot on regearing. Should I go with a stock dana 30 w/ 4.10 and an 8.8 or a set of Waggy Dana 44s. If I go with the 30 what is should I look for in an axle to swap in? I hear alot about vac disconnect and spline count. I know I don't want full width so thats not an option. Also what about lift I was thing of 3.5 RE or Tuff country to run the 33's. Lets hear some opinions.
 
i had a 93, 3.5 rough country,2 in shackle lift 85 waggy axles (44 front 20 rear) 4.10 gears were stock. one piece rear axle, and ran 33 x 12.50s.vthe swap was easy i only modified the pitman arm (with a unibit) to fit the 44 in the front. the rar youl have to flip the perches an shock mounts unless you are spring over. i did the whole thing for $500 including new brakes all the way around
 
with a small lift, id say its not much of an issue... youll need to outboard your springs on hte YJ to use dana 44s though...

for 33s-35s, id say leave HP30 front, upgrade to 8.8 or d44 rear... go with 4.10-4.56 gears with locker atleast in rear
 
On the YJ you do not have to outboard the springs, the CJ's you do. You do have to move the center pins a 1/2" each though. As for the swap, the waggy 44's are about as simple as it gets and they are cheap.
 
mclovin said:
i had a 93, 3.5 rough country,2 in shackle lift 85 waggy axles (44 front 20 rear) 4.10 gears were stock. one piece rear axle, and ran 33 x 12.50s.vthe swap was easy i only modified the pitman arm (with a unibit) to fit the 44 in the front. the rar youl have to flip the perches an shock mounts unless you are spring over. i did the whole thing for $500 including new brakes all the way around
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I did a swap from a 88 waggy in my 94 YJ. I wouldn't mess with the stock pitman arm..it affects your steering. you will have the turn radius of a bus with that short stock pitman arm and the longer waggy knuckles. I used the stock waggy arm and cut off my upper track bar mount for clearance. I'm running 3.5 inches of lift and no binding issues yet. (EDIT: the angles aren't as bad as they seem in that pic. the springs hadn't re settled yet after having no weight on them a while) there's some grinding and redrilling needed for the centering pins up front too but it's not a big deal.
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