A factory 44 is a nice upgrade internally, but, he already had sleeves installed in the d30. They didn't prevent a catastrophic break. As previously noted, the factory d44 housing is the same strength as the factory d30 housing.

So instead of just dropping his internals into a new d30 (take-off, factory, teraflex, whatever) he would be paying for a 'complete' factory 44. Then paying, again, to rip it apart and have new sleeves installed. Then, probably, paying to have a truss welded on since the sleeves alone didn't stop the break? At some point in the cash outlay, it has to make more sense to bypass a factory replacement (plus the additional build costs) and look aftermarket.

Which way to go with it just depends on the budget and what the insurance company decides. Hopefully they are cool with cutting a check and letting him choose how it gets spent.

 

Remember that the PR comes with either 5/16" or 1/2" tubes, your choice. (I believe the Tera housings can also have 1/2" tubes?) After someone bends or shatters a factory housing, don't know why they would choose these 1/4" or 5/16" options...

 

Is that normal? Does everyone with sleeves drill multiple holes in their axle tube? The crack formed at the hole. The hole and subsequent welding made a weak spot which caused the crack. Am I really the only one bringing this up?

 

In a perfect world, yes, multiple holes would be drilled in the axle followed by pounding the sleeves in followed by plug welding all holes. Many people get lazy and just pound the sleeves in, assuming that the extra wall thickness will be alright.

 

There are hammer in sleeves which do not require welding.

I do not believe that drilling a hole and plug welding will create a weak spot. On the contrary, if done right, that spot would be even stronger than the rest.

There's no substitute for thicker wall tubes. Sleeves add some strength, but obviously, not enough. I lean towards trusses over sleeves, myself. The truss is welded (mostly) down the entire length of the tube. Seems like it would be engineered to be stronger over a sleeve. But, I am no engineer. I have seen photos of failed tubes that were sleeved. I'm sure it has happened, but I haven't seen anyone with a failed trussed housing to date. I would be interested to hear about those circumstances if anyone knows of it.

 

Post #31 in this thread has a link.

https://www.jk-forum.com/forums/modi...n-axle-318231/

I think I have only seen 2 other reports of shattered housings with trusses since I asked about it in that thread.



And the first link in post #30 is an interesting read, for people who have an hour or two to waste...

 

I agree just didn't want to post it

 

The photo is proof that drilling a hole and welding it up caused it to be weaker. Look at it like this. If you drilled a hole in a 20 foot pipe, welded it up, bent it till it broke, and it broke exactly on that weld, the hole/weld was the problem. That is exactly what we are seeing here. Had the hole not been related to the issue at all, it would not have broken at dead center of that hole. The odds of it just happening to nail that hole dead on are very small.

 

I agree. My point was, that if it was done RIGHT, I wouldn't think this would happen. Merely speculation on my part. But I have had engineers/welders tell me that a weld, if done right, is typically the strongest part.

 

I can't think of a better way to toss $3500 away for an axle the same as the one you just broke. Bad choice from my perspective.

The Tera30 minimizes flexing of the center section and has had a good reputation based on users of not breaking gear sets like a factory flex housing. The term flex housing is a bit of a joke, but it is very likely to be the reason that the Dana 30 breaks gears so much more often for a fellow who moves to a Tera30 and does not break gears again.

A Dana 30 has all of the shit-issues of a the 44 and the smaller ring/pinion to boot. A Dana 44 is a Dana 30 with all the shit-issues of a Dana 30 but has a bigger ring and pinion for some more strength.
A Pro-Rock 44, Tera44, or Core 44 have some of the shit-issues of the D30/D44 primarily ball joints and unit bearings) but with greatly increased tube and casting rigidity and strength along with D44 gears, huge inner C's and a housing that will not flex and stress the axle shafts and gears under extreme situations.Trying to compare a D30/D44 Mopar/Dana OEM axle to an Aftermarket is just silly. Sure, you can still talk balls/bearings. But that's about the end of where you can compare them. Show me the list of ProRock 44 broken gears, Tera 44 broken gears or the Core 44 broken gears. They will be like finding hens teeth!

But a Dana/Spicer OEM D44 is a bad swap choice. If you broke the tube on a 30, the 44 is the same damn thing.

The hole is not what made it weak. The bad weld made it weak.

So much!

Obviously a Mopar/Dana 30/44 is not strong enough, being that you broke a sleeved one. D30/44 are the same damn thing aside from the cast center and inner spline count. So an aftermarket axle housing is what you want.

Some engineering numbers:
Going from 2-3/4"x1/4" and stepping up to 3"x1/2" gives you a 105% increase in torsion and stiffness (bending).
Going from 3-1/2"x1/4" and moving to a 3"x1/2" tube is a 6% increase in torsion and stiffness.
So the 3.5"x.25" wall is almost the same but doing it with much less weight. Adding diameter adds strength much easier than thickness.

The weld at the break point had a defect that created a stress riser. The flaw began to propagate and travelled into the tube and became catastrophic.

The 1-ton thing is all great and well if you want to go down the rabbit hole.... but an aftermarket 44 is a simple 3-4 hour bolt in deal at your house. It's clean and easy. Plug and play. Yea, you still have small unit bearings and small ball joints that will die every couple years, but that's silly/easy shit compared to shattering housings and gears out on the trail.

I destroyed my D30 (sold it's corpse to Chuck the Ripper) and moved to the Dynatrac ProRock 44 Unlimited with the 1/2" HD tube. For me, this was the only option that I could agree with. I looked at the options, did some calcs, compared costs, spoke to NorthRidge, drank beer and read tons and tons of articles and no matter what, the PR44U HD was always the best choice for my situation.