Yup, the cascading effect is exactly how it is. You just keep going further down the rabbit hole.

35's are more than capable, and anything over that size has huge diminishing returns. Pre-covid days regears across most of the country could be had for $1500 +/-, but these days everything is ridiculous. My opinion would be to regear cuz it's going to benefit you both driving around town and offroad. I'd put a selectable locker in the rear at that time. That non-rubi rear 44 is going to be plenty axle back there and the locker would upgrade you to new 35-spline shafts. Then, you can go out and use the jeep and see if it's adequate or not for your use. IF you decide you need to address the front axle, then your only sunk cost is what you paid to regear that axle. That is still cheaper than just buying a whole new front axle to start with that may or may not be necessary for your use.

With the 3.6L and 35s, 4.56 gears will be very similar to factory feel. I would tell you 4.88 would be more than acceptable too if you don't mind a little higher revving engine at highway speeds. I am one who does not mind that. I've seen a lot of tire and gearing combinations myself over the years and I am perfectly fine running 3k rpm at 70mph. It's nice to not have to downshift if someone in the car in front of you farts. Also, the lower gearing is nice since you don't have the rubi transfer case. Either will be acceptable though.

 

Y, the carrier isn't much though...maybe $125....or used to be. Might be $2k now.

I run Fox 2.0 resi shocks and yup, they are stiff. I'm jsut used to it though. I run ~27psi in my 37s which helps. A bigger factor for me is those shock lengths are the perfect sizes for my build, which has nothing normal about it. I'm sure the Falcons will be fine. I wish I had something that was adjustable, but my jeep is a toy these days so not the end of the world for me.

Sorry we've kinda messed up your build thread. It's good information for you though.

 

You haven't messed up this thread. These are decisions I'm making for my build so it's all relevant. Thanks for the input!

I like that plan; build the rear w/ locker, gears, and 35 spline axles... Leave the front a D30 for now with just a new carrier capable of holding the 4.56/4.88 (Thanks JKRefugee I didn't know that about the carrier difference) and run that for awhile and get a feel for it.
I'll need to price the front out ultimately to make that decision. If the cost of a locker is not much more than the carrier then...

Do you have a strong option about air or E lockers? I feel like I would lean to E-lockers but I don't have hands on experience with either. My Ranger has LSD
Lots of hills and mountains where I live both on and off road.

I think I'll take the same approach with the springs. Put it all together and see how I like it. I like working on my cars so just another chance to use my jack stands

Are the Rubi transfer cases geared differently?

 

The rubi transfer case is 4:1 and the non rubi is 2.72:1, which might not sound like a big difference but it is. It is not the end-all-be-all of conquering some obstacle or not, but it's nice for those that have em.

A selectable locker is gonna be ~$1k each, so big difference from a cheap carrier that will just hold the gears. Both ARB air lockers and e-lockers are good. My preference is e-locker due to simplicity. The air lockers obviously need a compressor and then you have air hoses under the jeep that can develop leaks. The actual actuators on the carrier can be finicky at times too.....which means complete disassembly of the diff if you have an issue there.

 

Well It's been a year of collecting parts and my Jeep decided it was time to have me put them on. As I drove to work last month, its back end was all over the place. I pulled over to find the track bar dangling like a dingleberry. Who ever put this cheap bracket on did a terrible job welding it and it just popped off. I got the jeep home and put the back end on jack stands and started to re-do the backend. I had been putting it off because I have another project in my shop and didn't want to work in the mud in the rain... well, that didn't work out for me.




I discovered the frame mount track bar bracket bolt hole was hammered and stretched into oblivion so I needed to repair that, too. I also have a pair of Falcon shocks to install along with weld-on skid plats for the lower shock mount. At first I tried to do the work with the axle still on the jeep for some unknown reason. (it's my only vehicle so I was stressed to get it running). but after incredible difficulty laying on my side on the ground welding I came to the brilliant idea of removing the axle and putting it on my bench. Should have done that from the beginning.




Anyhow, I thought why not add some pics to show the before and after. I can't afford a $7k axle so to me it was worth the work and investment into this axle. Next year I plan to re-gear it w/ lockers and new axles at which point I'll decide if I want to sleeve the tubes.

I stripped the axle, drained the diff, checked the gears, and inspected everything else. This is the list of things I did: (pics to follow)

1) shock mount skid plates (Falcon)
2) axle mount track bar bracket (Artec)
3) frame mount track bar bracket (Synergy)
4) re-shape control arm brackets and reinforce (the upper ones have square holes and the bolt bounces around in it) so I added 3/16 steel plate to all brackets after reforming them to fit new control arms. also drilled 9/16 holes to fit bolts well.
5) welded tubes to diff housing
6) replaced the pinion seal and installed the yoke for my new Adams driveshaft
7) did the same to the transfer case.
8) replaced the diff cover (ARB cover and lube locker gasket)
9) pulled the sway bar and replaced the bushings with poly and added a grease zero so I can keep it siliconed. (the sway bar had been worn in the bushings and I can't afford to replace the it with an anti-rock bar). (energy Suspension)
10) I probably made a mistake with the sway bar by stripping the eurathane coating off and repainting it. I expect the paint to come off in short time, but maybe by then I can afford a new sway bar.
11) installed new, longer links (Synergy)
12) replaced upper bump stop and lower pad (metal cloak)
13) New bolts all the way around.
14) Control arms and Track bar (Core 4x4) - I bought the Camp series but now regret not getting the crawl series which have Johnny Joints on both ends. The poly bushings are not bad but JJ's would have been worth the extra $350. live and learn

I have a Big Brake Kit from Teraflex. Their Delta kit. I'm gathering all the supporting parts before I install those. I am going to replace the rear axles with Chromoly at the same time along with all the parking brake bits. I'm trying to decide if I should just install it or wait until I can come up with a J8 kit and do it all at the same time.







I have driven it about 100 miles now and everything is just peachy. Except now, the back end is so tight and dialed that it makes the front end issues more noticeable. it seems.

This summer I plan to do the same thing to the front axle, except I have a bigger decision to make, which I talked about in previous posts. I have a D30 in front, and I've contemplated looking for a used or stripped D44 front axle to build. I want to put a locker in the front and I figure I can build this D30 with the locker, gears & axles for around $2k ish... But all the used D44's near me I'm finding people want $1500 for. Which puts this put of my budget and adds a lot of delay.

I'm not going to do big rock crawling with this rig. It's more of an overland with good capabilities (and my daily driver). That's my goal. There are areas this will be over-built, and I like that. But money is a thing. I have 35's and don't really have intention to put anything bigger on it. Anyhow I have some months to think about it yet.

 

i have had a rear TB bracket sever from the axle tube like that as well when driving. no fun! thank goodness that back then I still had factory control arms which didn't allow the axle to shift too much as I limped to safety, but addressing something like that in the middle of colorado while on a trip was a pain!! axle looks good. nothing wrong with that D44, outside of being semi-float, but that is what it is.

 

I always treat breakage as an opportunity - time to upgrade! Looks like you are in that same frame of mind.

J.E.E.P. = something about empty pockets!

 

I was thinking about that when I was installing my new control arms. Breaking that on a trip must have sucked. I'm not prepared to carry a tool/parts trailer with me on trips which is why I'm over-building now. Plus it's my nature. Plus it's fun.

It emptied more than all my pockets... but I'm use to that these days.