Can I put a locker in my stock Dana 44 without breaking it?

[JMT]

I have 01 TJ with rear Dana 44 and front Dana 30 on 33’s. Installed Eaton E locker in the rear a couple of years ago and have been wheeling it reasonably hard. It’s been the best upgrade on my Jeep above all others. For me the selectable rear locker is the way to go. Whether you go ARB or Elocker is personal preference, I certainly wouldn’t mind having the onboard air compressor but what I went with performs well.

Re-gearing at the same time is an excellent suggestion as well as strengthening you front 27 spline axle shafts.

This^^^

I have the same set up and very happy.

 

[mgroeger]

You know I'm looking at like an air locker right now but I haven't quite put my finger on it have any suggestions? It would need to be a selectable locker

I have an Eaton electric locker up front and I am very pleased with it. I had an Eaton Detroit Locker in the rear and as a daily driver I wasn't fond of the way it felt, but that's just me. Here is the info from my CL posting. We are heading out to Sedona, Moab and Ouray in one month. If you are interested in the locker we can meet up

Eaton 68315 TO Detroit Locker Differential for Wrangler w/Dana 44 Axle.
Stamped on the locker it shows:
68315 TO
Eaton 420
On casing it shows: 14114
East Coast Gears in Raleigh removed the locker for me and confirmed it is in good working order.
At some point in it's life before I owned it there was a ring and pinion failure in the rear and this marked the locker housing. THERE IS NO DAMAGE TO THE LOCKER it is purely cosmetic as confirmed by East Coast Gears. It is for 3.92 and higher gear ratios.
Asking $400 OBO

https://raleigh.craigslist.org/pts/d/apex-jeep-wrangler-tj-parts/6893077644.html

 

[Westtown Willy]

For me the selectable rear locker is the way to go.

agreed. I like them because I’m in the leave them open all day until I need them camp, this short clip was about 5 hours into my day & because we had been on the bunny trails all day I hadn’t had occasion to use my lockers so when I hit this little hill & slid back a foot or so I hit the button & went on my way.

sorry for the crappy quality of the video, I uploaded it right from the iphone just now & I'm not sure why it's so bad but what happens is when my rear passenger tire goes over the rock the front passenger & rear driver tires start spinning in the loose dirt & boom, no go, & although I'm always surprised just how far you can get on open diffs this is classic open diff bullshit right here. Certainly lockers weren't necessary, may have taken an extra 30 seconds to wiggle around & get up there open but man it’s nice to have the option for when you need them or just when you’re tired and/or lazy

DELETED

Edit: I was able to re-upload the video from my home computer & the quality is much better. It's a great illustration of how open diffs are great until they're not. In the video you can see the Achilles’ heel of the open diff, the small flat rock was just enough to give better traction to the passenger rear tire long enough for the torque to flow to the driver’s side rear & without what was probably an equal distribution of torque up until that moment the driver’s side broke free, lost traction & the whole show stopped. Flip the lockers on & that same rock that caused the problem just gets shot out the back as all 4 corners pull forward in harmony

Lockers: one of mankind’s great achievements

 

[Fouledplugs]

There is little reason (in my opinion) to upgrade the front to a TJ Dana 44. Other than the carrier and the inner axle shafts, all of the components are the same. The axle tubes, inner Cs, ball joints, brakes, outer axle shafts, and u joints are all the same on the TJ Dana 30 and TJ Dana 44.
Personally I would only upgrade it to a JK Dana 44 or ProRock Dana 44 (or other aftermarket Dana 44) if I wanted to run 37s

An early Ford 44 (high pinion) would be nice since it has selectable hubs that come with it.