Beefing up a Dana 35

[jeepXcore]

So I'm planning to hit Rauch Creek in the warm seasons...feel like my Dana 35 probably won't last too long as it is. With my current budget, upgrading to a Dana 44 seems out of the question for now.

I was thinking of investing in a Super 35 Kit along with lockers. I know it isn't comparable to a Dana 44 swap, but I'm assuming it's better than running a stock Dana 35. What do you guys think?

Also, should I worry about the Dana 30 I have for a front axle?

 

[Brantley]

If you do it, buy the Revolution Gear & Axle kit. Made in America. I'm going the Super 35 route and will be running 4.88 gears with my 4.0 5-speed. I don't think it'll be a bad decision.

The Dana 30 is a good axle, but if you're going to be running larger tires, it would be smart to upgrade the shafts. I'd go to Revolution for that as well.

 

[Rob5589]

If you look around the site you will see the Revo Super 35 kit is good to go per @mrblaine . The S35 kit gets rid of the 35's weak points; axles and carrier. The 30 is a good little axle that handles lockers with stock axles. Throw in some alloy axles and you are set.

 

[jeepXcore]

If you do it, buy the Revolution Gear & Axle kit. Made in America. I'm going the Super 35 route and will be running 4.88 gears with my 4.0 5-speed. I don't think it'll be a bad decision.

The Dana 30 is a good axle, but if you're going to be running larger tires, it would be smart to upgrade the shafts. I'd go to Revolution for that as well.

I'm running 33 tires right now with no plans to go bigger, think I'll still need to upgrade the shafts on the Dana 30?

Also, this is the Revo kit I was looking at, should I purchase a locker too?
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00SQNBF66/?tag=wranglerorg-20

 

[Brantley]

Just to be on the safe side, I would eventually buy new front shafts on 33s but I won't say you have to...somebody more experienced might be able to answer that.

You will have to buy a locker, there is no open carrier that supports the 30 spline Revolution shafts. Your choice is either a Detroit locker or an ARB air locker. Either one will have to be 30 spline and made for the Dana 35.

4lowparts.com sells the Super 35 in a kit with your locker of choice and you may even be able to get a discount, @Garza would be the person to contact about that.

Allen's Off-road also sells the kits with locker choices and he can be contacted at @AOR. May be able to get a discount there too, at least for the gears I think you can though I'd recommend having your installing shop supply gear and gear installation parts itself.

If you're going to do this, do it right and regear while you're at it. You will have to have the backlash set for the locker that you end up getting so you might as well have the installer go ahead and regear you to the correct ratio while he's in there doing all the work installing the locker.

What year, engine and transmission do you have? I will base my recommendation off of 33" tires since you say you have no plans to go bigger.

 

[Jerry Bransford]

I wouldn't worry about the front shafts with 33's. It took an extremely tough trail in Johnson Valley CA with 35's and a front locker to finally bust the OE shaft's ear that holds the u-joint on my first TJ many years ago.

 

[Brantley]

There's the answer I was waiting for, leave it stock. Worst scenario, you have to do it later, but it sounds like you won't have that happen.

One measure you can take is to upgrade your front axle shaft u-joints to the Spicer 760x joints. Otherwise on stock shafts, sounds like you'll be okay from what Jerry said.

 

[Jerry Bransford]

The u-joints themselves aren't the problem, making them stronger won't help in the way many would expect or think.

When the axleshaft u-joints fail, they fail as a result of the non-hardened OE shaft ears that hold them failing first. The stock unhardened ear fails, that releases the u-joint which then spins free and busts up as it collides with the two pairs of ears... main shaft and stub shaft.

So what stops the u-joint from failing is an upgraded hardened alloy shaft.

But this doesn't really happen enough to worry about until you get to 35's.

The time to upgrade to the stronger 5-760x u-joint is when the shafts are upgraded or when the factory 5-297x u-joints need replacement.