Need advice on building up Rubicon Dana 44s to run 35 inch tires

The smart move is to let the shop supply the parts. Most good gear shops will refuse to install customer supplied parts. The shops willing to let you supply the parts won't warranty the labor if something goes wrong, at least not if they have functioning brain cells.

You have the cart before the horse. Your first step is to find a jeep and/or gear shop you can trust.

I didn't plan on purchasing it directly, I'm just trying to make sure that I know what the correct parts are and what it should cost me. If it weren't for this site, I wouldn't have known that my TJR doesn't need a SYE and I wouldn't have known that I was getting bad advice from that shop.
 
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Internal axle sleeves do NOT increase axle housing strength and your axles don't need to be trussed... my Rubicon does extremely tough trails and neither are sleeved or trussed on my Rubicon, I wouldn't consider installing them. 4140 rear shafts are fine too.

Yukon gears are fine but I'd rather have Revolution Gear gears since you know their origin and who made them which is Circle K in S. Korea... the best at this point. Yukon also sources their gears from Circle K but they do from other lesser quality sources too so there's no guarantee what you'd get from Yukon... though for the most part, you shouldn't have any trouble with any of them providing they are installed and broken in properly. Proper break-in to new gears is CRUCIAL. I'd use ONLY conventional gear lube during the gear break-in. Revolution Gear also specifies that ONLY a conventional gear lube be used for break-in.

Here are some photos for you on that rubicon axle issue the installer needs to understand and know how to work with before starting. There's an unusual sensor inside the 2003-6 Rubicon axles, it is there to tell the computer when the locker is locked. When the locker locks, it pulls the sensor to the side which sends a 'locked' signal to the computer which turns off the flashing locker light.

The first pic shows the position of the sensor, it is hidden from view when the carrier (locker) is installed. That red thing in that photo and in the second photo is the trick to the technique of getting the carrier/locker reinstalled without damage. That's a piece of a red wooden toothpick with a 2' piece of fishing line attached to it. That toothpick's job is to hold the sensor out fully extended, past its normal position, so the carrier/locker can be reinstalled so it ends up on the correct side of the 'button' at the end of the sensor. Once the carrier/locker is reinstalled you pull the toothpick out with the fishing line.

The last photo shows how it fits together. When the locker locks it moves left and pulls the sensor left with it. So that toothpick is used to hold the sensor open far enough so the edge of the locker will be on the correct side of that button on the end of the sensor.

If that procedure is not followed the locker will be jammed and in a half-locked/half-unlocked position which is bad news. Make sure anyone who gets inside your axles is experienced with this.

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Jerry , this is a good post...helpful , illustrated and relevant .

This guy needs to back up and start over ...I may be dead wrong , but I have a bad feeling about this .

A good shop , the one we all need, knows exactly what they are doing .

In your and Mr. Blaine’s posts, there is a lot of “ been there /done that” .........this shop seems to be missing that.

There is only one way people really get that...they earn it.

I make my living with tools , and job vision is both critical , and an indicator of experience.
 
Jerry , this is a good post...helpful , illustrated and relevant .

This guy needs to back up and start over ...I may be dead wrong , but I have a bad feeling about this .

A good shop , the one we all need, knows exactly what they are doing .

In your and Mr. Blaine’s posts, there is a lot of “ been there /done that” .........this shop seems to be missing that.

There is only one way people really get that...they earn it.

I make my living with tools , and job vision is both critical , and an indicator of experience.

I'm going to be taking it somewhere else for any gearing and axle work, along with any future work. I'm probably going to let the existing shop do the lift/suspension work and the Vanco brake kit and just watch them closely.
 
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