TJ's TJ

The Dana 30 is much the same with the following differences:
1. The carrier shims (for backlash adjustment) are placed under the pressed on carrier bearings, so setup carrier bearings are required
2. The pinion has oil slingers (both inner and outer). I am told that the factory used the inner slinger thickness as the method to set pinion depth, so you likely will not be able to reuse your inner slinger (mine was too thick), I ordered a new one from rock auto hoping it would be thinner (there is no thickness listed) and it came at 0.030" thick (factory one was 0.060" I think). With this thinner slinger, I was able to add shims under the pinion race to set the pinion depth.
3. The axle seals are inboard so they need to be put in before installing the carrier for the final time.

Other than that it is the same process.

Here is a picture of the inner pinion slinger (with the tool made for pressing the bearing on):
upload_2018-9-17_8-30-25.png


Here is the new pinion seal installed with the outer bearing in place and the outer slinger:
upload_2018-9-17_8-32-23.png


Here is another homemade tool for installing the inner seals, some people use all extensions, but I didn't have enough, so I welded one to a piece of 1" tubing:

upload_2018-9-17_8-34-20.png


upload_2018-9-17_8-34-51.png


Tool is put through the tube:
upload_2018-9-17_8-35-43.png


Then the socket is added to drive the seal in:
upload_2018-9-17_8-36-56.png


upload_2018-9-17_8-37-31.png
 
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Ball joints, lubed with lithium grease (no heat or cold applied) went in a lot easier than they came out:
upload_2018-9-17_9-5-8.png


upload_2018-9-17_9-5-46.png


upload_2018-9-17_9-4-50.png
 
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Great work . I’m currently playing with gears in my mind. It’s taking me awhile to figure this out but I can follow most of what you are saying.
 
Thanks, he appreciates it and is very proud of his work and we are having fun working on it together.

The funny thing is that none of his friends get it, they just can't understand why anyone would want an old jeep that needs a ton of work...
 
Did you run the gears at that depth? It's too shallow, fyi.
You think his pattern is too close to the top land? So to fix that would you need more shim on the ring gear side, or more shim at the pinion? This is practice for my memory
 
That is not a great pic, the pattern looked better after a few more good revolutions to bring it out, but I didn't get a good picture of it.

But to answer your question, below is pattern that shows that the pinion needs to come into the housing more (by adding pinion shims), backlash adjustments (changing the shims on the carrier bearings) will not fix this, it will only shift the pattern up or down slightly, vertically, in the picture:

upload_2018-10-2_10-2-41.png


upload_2018-10-2_10-2-22.png
 
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Have you considered a Ford 8.8 rear axle from an Explorer. They come in 3.73 gears, have 31 spline, a limited slip and disk brakes. Looks like you can weld, so the swap should be about $500 for everything.

I like your work.

Edit:

I just realized you have already done a lot of work to the axles, maybe for future reference. An 8.8 and a high pinion Dana 30 from a Cherokee can be had for about $100 each. The XJ Dana 30 is considerably stronger than the TJ's and a direct bolt in. The 8.8 is leaps and bounds stronger than the Dana 35 and has tons of after market support to transplant it in a TJ.
 
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8.8, low hanging housing, funky side offset, still needs re-gear, the lsd is weak.

HP Dana 30, better driveline angle, more clearance, but it isn't "considerably" stronger. There is internet talk how it is stronger due to the r&p drive side but I have yet to see any actual evidence.
 
Have you considered a Ford 8.8 rear axle from an Explorer. They come in 3.73 gears, have 31 spline, a limited slip and disk brakes. Looks like you can weld, so the swap should be about $500 for everything.

I like your work.

Edit:

I just realized you have already done a lot of work to the axles, maybe for future reference. An 8.8 and a high pinion Dana 30 from a Cherokee can be had for about $100 each. The XJ Dana 30 is considerably stronger than the TJ's and a direct bolt in. The 8.8 is leaps and bounds stronger than the Dana 35 and has tons of after market support to transplant it in a TJ.


Yes, thought about an 8.8, but at this point we are not looking to go too crazy, remember that this will be a DD for a 16 year old. If he eventually gets into alot of off-road, we can always upgrade then. Right now it seems to make sense to keep it fairly stock.
 
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