MallCrawlOnTons
TJ Enthusiast
https://wranglertjforum.com/threads/recommend-me-a-dana-35-diff-cover.23636/post-381528
Post 6. I love when a member post a photo
Recommendations for a better diff cover?
- Thread starter Adams2123
- Start date
https://wranglertjforum.com/threads/recommend-me-a-dana-35-diff-cover.23636/post-381528
Post 6. I love when a member post a photo
Those pics and your assumption don't tell us anything real. Ask the guy to cycle the axle and report back.
MallCrawlOnTons
TJ Enthusiast
I like the cast Dana 30 cover from Teraflex, is that the cover you're talking about? I thought the drain plug would scare off somebody that really bashed these things on the rocks. Guess it's not an issue on the Dana 44 cover either way.
MallCrawlOnTons
TJ Enthusiast
Wow!
Small banjo or big banjo ford 9s?
Aftermarket or oem housings?
Sheet metal diff covers? I’m confused about this? I’ve seen weld on armor but not a diff cover.
There’s a couple of vans with ford 9s at the scrapper near me I thought about asking a price on. Looking for info from your experience.
For whatever its worth, I have Solid diff covers on front and rear Dana 44 axles (installed by previous owner) and have no clearance issues with the track bar or gas tank.
YMMV
YMMV
I don't know which banjo specifically. Just the one that Currie used to build their front axles. They are formed from sheetmetal and the front part covers the diff, therefore, sheet metal diff cover.
MallCrawlOnTons
TJ Enthusiast
Unfortunate. Probably the car housing hahaha. I think it’s safe to say they arent much of an upgrade. Their website still lists them. 3” tube with .188” wall. While stronger than a 30 tube, it’s the small banjo which is found in cars. Not many jeepers swapping in car axles that I’m aware of.
3" .188 wall is about twice as strong as 2.50" x .250 wall found in our front car axles. Point still remains, you will mess up any axle housing we typically use before you reach the limit of most covers.
Head Lice
TJ Addict
Gale Banks has done some design research into differential covers . . . www.youtube.com
Although it's not for Dana 30/35/44, the theory may be of interest.
Although it's not for Dana 30/35/44, the theory may be of interest.
MallCrawlOnTons
TJ Enthusiast
Curios to where you got your facts?
3” .188 wall doesn’t appear to be no where near twice as strong compared to 2.5” .250. See link I found to compare tube strength.
https://www.roguefab.com/tube-calculator/
And a car housing is still a car housing. Most common way to build a ford 9 for a Jeep appears to be using the big banjo at the minimum, but preferably an actual sheet metal housing not a stamped steel housing for hot rod cars you referenced to earlier.
Shortly after getting my TJ in late 2016 I did a ton of research on axles & ended up deciding that rebuilding my 30/35 made the most sense for me. I’m happy to say the effort paid off, into the 3rd season now & it’s all performing as advertised & I never hesitate to recommend the S35 & S30. It was a really expensive adventure to put all that stuff inside those housings so I also decided to put it all behind much thicker covers because that makes sense doesn’t it?
Unfortunately for whatever reason it didn’t occur to me to do the same type of research on diff covers, looking back it just never occurred to me that a cover could cause any issues so I spent very little time looking around. Part of my axle rebuild included ARB lockers so I naturally found myself on the ARB website more than once during that effort so when it came time for covers I had seen them already & their description of what they had to offer certainly made sense (drain plugs for convenience, magnetic plugs & dipsticks to collect those nasty metal shavings to spare your gears from recycling them constantly, added rigidity to the housing reducing potential flex that might harm the innards &, of course, indestructibility where it counts most…). Given all that I didn’t hesitate to pop a front & rear in my cart & move along.
It was only after I put them on that I learned of the potential for interference with the track bar up front & the gas tank in the rear. I drove it anyway for months because shit, it was prime off roading season
, but eventually made it back to the shop that did all the work to have the suspension cycled (only the front) & it turned out not to interfere with the track bar. Thinking back now I’m not sure why I didn’t have the rear done so I can’t say with certainty that there’s no interference with the gas tank so I can only say anecdotally that I’ve not seen any evidence of contact. Following each trip I do a 5-10 minute inspection underneath, get on the creeper with the shop light & look over every square inch for signs of damage, check all the nuts & bolts, control arms, steering, drive shafts, brake lines, diff housings, tires & so on…. Where there would be scratches, grooves or other signs of contact caused by the ARB covers (front and rear) I’ve never found any. Doesn’t mean it’s not possible, only that I haven’t seen evidence of it.
Point of the story is I made some mistakes along the way, a failure of analysis. Fortunately for me it hasn’t turned out to be an actual problem but knowing what I know I would certainly have done it differently at least in terms of more research & I’d urge anyone reading this to do the same. My takeaway was to be more critical from that point forward with every part I’ve put on the TJ regardless of whether or not it seems like it couldn’t cause a problem.
As related to the ARB cover itself, I share the sentiments of @toximus above, where I go off road there is simply no avoiding direct, TJ stopping, impact with the front diff; lots of underwater rocks that are un-seeable plus enough on dry land that are either obscured or inadvertently launched into due to slippery conditions. I've hit that thing so hard I've been afraid to get out & crawl underneath thinking something had to be broken but I've been lucky. So far
Unfortunately for whatever reason it didn’t occur to me to do the same type of research on diff covers, looking back it just never occurred to me that a cover could cause any issues so I spent very little time looking around. Part of my axle rebuild included ARB lockers so I naturally found myself on the ARB website more than once during that effort so when it came time for covers I had seen them already & their description of what they had to offer certainly made sense (drain plugs for convenience, magnetic plugs & dipsticks to collect those nasty metal shavings to spare your gears from recycling them constantly, added rigidity to the housing reducing potential flex that might harm the innards &, of course, indestructibility where it counts most…). Given all that I didn’t hesitate to pop a front & rear in my cart & move along.
It was only after I put them on that I learned of the potential for interference with the track bar up front & the gas tank in the rear. I drove it anyway for months because shit, it was prime off roading season
, but eventually made it back to the shop that did all the work to have the suspension cycled (only the front) & it turned out not to interfere with the track bar. Thinking back now I’m not sure why I didn’t have the rear done so I can’t say with certainty that there’s no interference with the gas tank so I can only say anecdotally that I’ve not seen any evidence of contact. Following each trip I do a 5-10 minute inspection underneath, get on the creeper with the shop light & look over every square inch for signs of damage, check all the nuts & bolts, control arms, steering, drive shafts, brake lines, diff housings, tires & so on…. Where there would be scratches, grooves or other signs of contact caused by the ARB covers (front and rear) I’ve never found any. Doesn’t mean it’s not possible, only that I haven’t seen evidence of it.Point of the story is I made some mistakes along the way, a failure of analysis. Fortunately for me it hasn’t turned out to be an actual problem but knowing what I know I would certainly have done it differently at least in terms of more research & I’d urge anyone reading this to do the same. My takeaway was to be more critical from that point forward with every part I’ve put on the TJ regardless of whether or not it seems like it couldn’t cause a problem.
As related to the ARB cover itself, I share the sentiments of @toximus above, where I go off road there is simply no avoiding direct, TJ stopping, impact with the front diff; lots of underwater rocks that are un-seeable plus enough on dry land that are either obscured or inadvertently launched into due to slippery conditions. I've hit that thing so hard I've been afraid to get out & crawl underneath thinking something had to be broken but I've been lucky. So far
My apologies. I played with that calculator a couple years ago and where I got the incorrectly remembered twice was the difference between an inner sleeve for a .250 wall 2.5" tube compared to just a 1/8" external sleeve. The inner sleeve has to bring the wall thickness to almost twice or .700 when compared to the .375 that a 1/8" external sleeve's strength will add for the same resistance to bending. But, that leaves a 1.100" hole in the middle that won't allow you to get an axle shaft in.
The 3" .188 wall is 21% stronger than 2.5" .250 wall in the same material. The housing I was running used .250 wall 3" which is 49% stronger. I was able to weld it back together the first time, tossed it the second time and put the Fabbed version under it. (not my favorite but it works)
MallCrawlOnTons
TJ Enthusiast
Lots of folks like them. I'm not one of those. I prefer the HP 60 given a choice.
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