Okay .. so as to those that said I need to pop the diff. cover off. We did .... the gears are all perfectly A-OK ... the axle shaft was broken into a few pieces.

Come to find out, when I got home, I was driving with 3 wheels. No wonder it was a bitch to drive. All over the stupid road.

Besides the fact. So we are going to be replacing the front axle shaft, is it cheaper to do that and just stay at my current goods of 3.73s and a D30 ... or would it be better to go the route of a D44 and up in gears?

If you go to a higher gear ratio, don't you have to do the mate, so the rear axle too?

Just curious how it all works about?

 

Yep, front and rear gears have to match.... Otherwise, your front and rear wheels will turn at different speeds in 4wd. This would at least be very unstable and impossible to drive and at worst cause massive damage to your axles/drivelines/transfer case.

If you regear, it has to be both axles. In my opinion, if you're gonna do it, you might as well go to 4.88 or 5.13 rather than the 4.10 that comes in the d44.

If you are planning to upgrade to the d44, and you have the $$$ to do it, you will have to regear the rear, as to my knowledge, 3.73 is not available for the d44 front (if someone knows better then chime in). If you are gonna regear the rear, you'll probably be better off going with the 4.88 you list as 'wants' in your Sig which will mean regearing the new front d44 too.

You'll have a bit more work to do as the Mopar d44 comes with a locker, so you'll want to figure out a way to wire it up and activate/deactivate the locker, and hey, while you're in the rear regearing it, you might as well slap a locker in there... it's just money, right?

The cheapest/quickest solution is to replace the axle shaft... of course, as I learned from years of wheeling d35 equipped YJs (weak link being the rear axle shafts) they seemed to work fine until you broke your first one... then you could find a way to break anything you replaced it with. I used to wheel with a spare rear shaft (or two) and have had to replace them on the trail.

In short, different model rig, different part, but if you found a way to break it once, you might just be able to find a way to break it again.

--Sky

 

If money isn't a real issue then I would go for the D44 front, and swap both axle's to the 4.88's (which looks like you'd be much better off with anyways). Adding a locker to the rear would also be smart if you did the gears. Otherwise, replace your D30 shaft and carry on until you can do your next round of upgrades.

 

You weren't using 4WD on the road, were you?

 

no ... i wasn't ... just kinda forgot how twisted the driving is right now ... my tie rd was turned completely in, after looking at it yesterday before we fixed it! :(

 

as to the fix. I talked ot the shop, he said it be cheapest just to replace the axle shaft.

When my husband wants to spend the money to upgrade, now I know ... lol

so I have to go to a D44 and regear it to get different gear ratio n' a locker? Is that right? Along with the rear? Then add a rear locker while regearing?

 

Points in the thread so far.

If you re-gear the front the rear neds to be done also. One axle will turn faster than the other if they are not in Sync.

You can regear to 4.88 or 4.10 but since your regearing just do the 4.88 escpecially if you get bigger tires (35"). Yes you can run 33 or 35 on 4.10 but you know what? I am and I wish I was running 4.88.

As for Lockers and Axle types.

Your axle came stock with a Dana 30 in the front. Since you are changing two compnents of the Axle already folks are stating that if you can afford it go get the Dana 44 front rubicon axle.

If you are opening the rear diff to swap gears, consideration to do the Locker is a good thing to do as it's already open and the labor is cut by 80% compared to if you did both things separately.

 

Call me stupid, but here it goes....

If you brake an axle and replace it with a stronger chromoly one, do you need to replace both or just the broken one?


Jkgirl.....sorry for the swerve there, I am just curious.

 

As far as I know, you should be able to replace one side. The're pretty expensive though. I think about $400 each.

In you're situation, I'd either:

1-Just replace the broken shaft, and have somebody that knows how tack weld the ujoint caps on. I suspect that's what caused your breakage.

2-Upgrade to a D44 and regear to your preference, and still tack in the ujoint caps, unless you put in chromos.

In other words, I wouldn't spend $$$ to upgrade the D30, but it's fine (economically) to fix and run for now.

 

As for 4.10 gears I took a quick look in the for sale section. https://www.jk-forum.com/forums/jk-axles-gears-drivetrain-118/4-10-ring-pinon-33046/ they are out there from previous owner re-gearing. You might even find a set in the Free section once in a great while as they usually are not that expensive to get used ones. Just a thought.