Advice on switching gears / axles to avoid welded differential

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Steven

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Jun 19, 2018
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Recently found a good deal on a Dana 30/Dana 35 with 4.88 gears. However the rear is disassembled and has a welded diff. If I were to make the purchase, and take the ring and pinion off and just use the carrier that is currently on my jeep (also a Dana 35) would that hypothetically work? I checked the teeth on the gear and pinion and everything looks great, and the asking price was below the cost of the gear sets themselves.

To put into perspective, I'm currently running 33's on the stock 2.5L with 4.10 gearing and having to sit in 4th around 3050 rpm at roughly 110km/h (roughly 70mph). I would like to upgrade the rear axle (Super 35) in the future, but for the time being I'm just doing light overlanding so I have no desire to run anything over 33's, or get lockers for now as it is the Dana 35.

Question being - would it be worth grabbing the axles and putting the two rears together?

Just looking for some advice before doing anything I regret.
 
By the way it sounds you are still running factory gears. if i remeber correctly that will require to purchase a different carrier to run the 4.88 gears.
 
Is the cost of the axles, gears and a regear in the rear worth it to you? Especially since you’re going to a S35?
 
The easiest way is to use the 4.88 rear end but install the carrier from your current 35. That is only a backlash set up. If you pull the 4.88 out you will need an entire gear set up.
 
JMT said:
Is the cost of the axles, gears and a regear in the rear worth it to you? Especially since you’re going to a S35?
Click to expand...

The S35 will most likely not happen anytime soon. The 4.88's would make highway driving more manageable, however I want to make sure I don't want to dig myself a hole with this purchase.
 
Steven said:
The S35 will most likely not happen anytime soon. The 4.88's would make highway driving more manageable, however I want to make sure I don't want to dig myself a hole with this purchase.
Click to expand...

Just throwing this out there; 4.88 will be much better but, 5.13 is really what you want for 33's and the 4 cyl. I can say from my own Jeep running 4.88 and 31's, I do not think I would be happy going up to 33's. And that is with the 6 speed trans which has lower gearing than the AX5 you have. Something to consider.
 
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