I'm just running 33" tires with a 2" body lift. Want to add a 2" or 4" suspension lift. It's mostly myvdaily driver, but looking to have more peice of mind to off road more. I want to add a locker but don't wanna hand grenade the stock dana 35, a lot cheaper to add a truss and upgrade the shafts than to find a 44 or bigger and re-fir and re-gear
Should I upgrade my Dana 35 axle?
- Thread starter Chris
- Start date
Ok 33s 456s super 35 is what i would recommend cuz thats what i have i daily drive mine. On weekends i drive 150 a day to work and back . I wheel it when i dont work.
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I will tell you this when i went to build mine i listen to some of the smartest people on the forum i lurked did research for months. When i did it i had save a boat load of cas and did everything at one time and it was a boat load of money and work. But it was exactly what i wanted at that time.
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Mostly just Mud and Snow and occasionally a rock littered trail... I probably don't need a Super 35, but my goal is to drive it down and do the Moab
If you're but going to do the Super 35, you should really go ahead and regear too. Since you have 4.10, I'm gonna take a wild guess that you've have a 2.5 5-speed and you're on 33's?
PStov98TJ
TJ Enthusiast
Well I'd suggest you do a little research and figure out what a truss is actually for. If you get a locker, some 30 spline chromoly shafts are necessary as you know. However, I seriously doubt you need a truss with that set up. Also, once again, I'd rethink your choice of locker for the rear axle. Lunchbox lockers work great in the front axle that only gets power when you put it in 4wd. However, they have terrible road manners in the rear axle.
X2 to that. Lunchbox lockers should be deemed illegal in rear axles, because they suck that bad. Either save up money for a Super 35 kit with one of the 2 lockers and 30 spline axles, or don't do the upgrade. A truss is definitely not necessary for light wheeling. Use that truss money to put towards actual worthy upgrades such as gears and the S35 kit.
Nope... 6cyl 4.0l 5-speed...
so if I go with a super 35 kit I should skip the lunchbox and go with a selectable locker and if I go with a 30 spline I don't need to re-gear AND I can skip the axle truss??
Well, 4.10 still isn't ideal for those tires and that setup...up to you if you want to regear or not. 4.56 would be the most common setup for 33's, although personally I'm going to run 4.88 when I do mine. The Super 35 isn't a bad idea at all but I would skip the truss and I would absolutely not install a lunchbox locker, if you can even find one. I didn't think there were 30 spline Dana 35 lunchbox lockers in existence.
Definitely don't need a truss though.
Thanks for the advice... I've been drivin Jeeps most of my life but am VERY new to doing mods!!
There are 3 options for lockers with the Super 35.
1. Buy the package deal with a Detroit. This is non selectable; meaning it automatically locks and unlocks on it's own.
2. Buy the package deal with the ARB. This is the route I would go as it's selectable and the ARBs are awesome. Downside is you have to pay for the air equipment.
3. Buy just Super 35 shaft kit for $277 and then go and buy an Eaton 30 spline E-locker for Dana 35.
All three of those routes will get you on 30-spline 1541H steel shafts, which are much better than stock. You must have a locker to fit the new shafts, because the shafts are too big and won't fit in the stock carrier.
Gears are up to you. If you're happy with acceleration, just leave it alone. Personally I do not like the 4.10 with 33 combo, it's not powerful enough to me. Depends on if you want to spend the money.
Side note, how do you know they are 4.10? Stock is not 4.10 and I would be surprised if a PO regeared it.
Cool thanks alot for the advice, I've been pretty happy with how the 4:10 have been for me, I've been running these gears for the 10yrs I had her. I just went to 33's 5years ago and it works fine for the highway. (I do about 100km per day)
So my new plan will be:
Upgrade axles to a 30 spline and add a matching 30 spline selectable locker (electric/air/cable) and then skip the truss... Sounds good??
I don't have the funds to re-gear front and back and due to a back injury am limited to what I can do myself.
I had the Jeep Rebuilt back in 2007, and we re-geared it with 4:10s So my rig is:
1997 TJ sport
4.0l 6cyl
Dana 35R Dana 30F 4:10 gears
Open axles
2" body lift
Eagle alloy offset rims
33x12.5x15 Duratracs
2" throttle body spacer (lol)
Cold air intake... (again lol)
LED headlight and tail lights
Lightbar (always befor locker )
Inside and ouside of tub rocker gaurd
Warn Bumpers front/rear
Coming:
Super 35 kit/selectable locker
Tube flat Fenders
Runva 9500 winch...
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PStov98TJ
TJ Enthusiast
Your new plan you already mentioned sounds like a good one. But I just want to clear something up that sounded a little confusing to me. Whether or not you need new gears has nothing to do with the amount of splines your axle has. Yes, the locker, gears, and axle shafts are all connected, but spline count is more or less a measurement of strength of the shaft. Where as tooth count on gears is a how you calculate gear ratio. More splines does not equal lower gear ratio. Whether or not you need new gears can be slightly subjective, but I'd regear once you have the funds.
I have it in my mind that an Eaton E-locker is the way to go in my rig (has a Dana 44 with 3.73 gears). Has anyone had any experience with this e-lockers? I've seen a lot of write-ups on air lockers, but not so much on the other. Any words of wisdom?
Love, Love, Love my E-Locker. I have Rubi axles and the rear locker finally gave out so it was replace with the E-Locker a little over a year ago.
Very cool. It's something that I plan on doing this summer. The rear end is currently an "open" unit...
OP
Go with an E-locker, you'll love it! I plan on getting them if my factory Rubicon lockers ever fail. I read nothing but good stuff about the E-lockers, and they're easy to install compared to running air and everything.