Looking for thoughts and advice on axle swap and re-gear
- Thread starter 97TJNM
- Start date
Here's a idea 
for you.
Swapping in the rear Dana 44 should be fairly easy. If I remember correctly your driveshaft might work or you might need a conversion u-joint to go from a 1310 to 1330.
Then you can see if you like the gearing with very little cost or labor.
Then if you do like the gearing swap in the front axle and either fix the steering issue. Or swap your Dana 30 knuckles onto the front axle.
I know that I hated the 3.07 gears in my daughter's TJ with 31" tires. I live in the mountains of WA so I'm not at your elevation but I have hills to climb.
Edit: I am not positive if your current driveshaft will work. Hopefully someone who knows will reply.
for you.Swapping in the rear Dana 44 should be fairly easy. If I remember correctly your driveshaft might work or you might need a conversion u-joint to go from a 1310 to 1330.
Then you can see if you like the gearing with very little cost or labor.
Then if you do like the gearing swap in the front axle and either fix the steering issue. Or swap your Dana 30 knuckles onto the front axle.
I know that I hated the 3.07 gears in my daughter's TJ with 31" tires. I live in the mountains of WA so I'm not at your elevation but I have hills to climb.
Edit: I am not positive if your current driveshaft will work. Hopefully someone who knows will reply.
OP
Man, that is actually a great idea! Thanks!Here's a idea
Swapping in the rear Dana 44 should be fairly easy. If I remember correctly your driveshaft might work or you might need a conversion u-joint to go from a 1310 to 1330.
Then you can see if you like the gearing with very little cost or labor.
Then if you do like the gearing swap in the front axle and either fix the steering issue. Or swap your Dana 30 knuckles onto the front axle.
I know that I hated the 3.07 gears in my daughter's TJ with 31" tires. I live in the mountains of WA so I'm not at your elevation but I have hills to climb.
Edit: I am not positive if your current driveshaft will work. Hopefully someone who knows will reply.
OP
I did get a really good deal. But, you are right in that it wasn't exactly what I was looking for. When I saw the price, though, I couldn't help myself. I grew up mudding the piney woods of North Louisiana. I saw what I was getting for the price, and my inner redneck came out.
Valid point that I ended up buying what I wasn't originally looking for though. Thanks for replying.
Vtx531
TJ Addict
I know what he paid. I don’t know if it’s a good deal or not and it doesn’t matter what I think about if it was a good deal or not. I was offering advice for him to apply depending on how he views the situation. Go give someone else a hard time. Maybe go fight with your wife or something
edit with the above post:
You say it’s a good deal - Perfect. Sell for profit and you got some gears for “free” or cheap
OP
From the search I just did the Dana 44 is about 1" longer than a Dana 35 so a new rear shaft would be needed.
I'd still swap in the rear axle and see if you like the gearing and then if you do swap in the front. But that is me and I sometimes do things the hard way.
A rear shaft is $250 from Tom Woods.
https://4xshaft.com/collections/jeep-tj/products/stock-tj-rear-drive-shaft
Well just the lockers alone are about 2k, plus time and money to install them. They are matching geared set with a ratio that might work for him. Chromo shafts are probably another $500 per axle, not exactly sure, and I sold basically an empty rear TJ 44 housing for $850 recently. So yeah he did alright
Yeah, he should sell the lockers and buy light bars instead…
At your elevation (lack of dense air) 4.88s would be fine for your purpose running them with 31's. It will be slightly lower geared than stock which isn't necessarily a bad thing when you're that high up in the mountains. I have had the benefit of moving from sea level to 5200 feet and back for lengths of time and the 4.88s will allow you to run (seat of the pants) power wise like 4.10s would at sea level.
OP
Excellent! Thanks for the response. This is some good hands on experience information. I appreciate it!
next yr it'll be i'm ready for 33's and i wish i had kept those axles.
OP
Yeah, that Grim Jeeper calculator is pretty great. I've been playing with it some. Another tool that I picked up by lurking on this site!
OP
Hahahahahaha. Right? Hoping to mitigate the Fear Of Missing Out as much as possible.
Vtx531
TJ Addict
I’ve determined I want new tires for my Jeep.
After looking for months, I found a friend of a friend had a lawnmower for cheap so I picked it up.
Any advice?
All in jest! but sort of my point and how it looks to me as an outsider. Good luck with your decision
After looking for months, I found a friend of a friend had a lawnmower for cheap so I picked it up.
Any advice?
All in jest! but sort of my point and how it looks to me as an outsider. Good luck with your decision
OP
I halfway get your point, but I think it is more along the lines of:
"I was looking for some new 33 inch tires for my jeep.
After looking for a few months, I found a friend of a friend who had a set of 35s mounted on beadlocks with less than 100 miles on them for 50 bucks less than I was going to spend on the 33s alone.
Any advice?"
I mean, I think that this is at least a closer comparison than tires and lawnmowers, hey?
But what do I know? I'm just some dumb redneck asking for advice.
Well IMO you got a SMOKIN deal on the axles considering what lockers they have in them and then the other addons also.
If you look at the Grimm Reaper gearing calculator you'll see that if you drive at 60 MPH in 3rd gear it's turning 3K RPM's with your current gearing which is close to what you'd be at with the 4.88 gears and 31" tires in 5th gear. Just to see what you think of spinning the engine at that RPM.
If you look at the Grimm Reaper gearing calculator you'll see that if you drive at 60 MPH in 3rd gear it's turning 3K RPM's with your current gearing which is close to what you'd be at with the 4.88 gears and 31" tires in 5th gear. Just to see what you think of spinning the engine at that RPM.