I am planning to re-gear and upgrade my axles. I plan on doing the axles myself, but I am not sure what is involved in installing new ring and pinion. So here is my question. Do I intall the axles first or wait until I have had the shop install the new ring and pinion?

 

No, just want to know which to do first.

 

The shop has to yank the axles to do the gears. If you're talking rear axles, talk with David at Northridge. He sells them with bearing seals and tone rings already pressed on. If you're talking front, the Superiors will need different seals. The AlloyUSA's use the stock seals. As the shop has to yank the axles anyway, they should be willing to put the new ones in. Mine didn't even charge me for it.

 

It wouldn't hurt anything to put the axles in first if you are budget-constrained and want to do one at a time. However, as everyone has said the shop will have to slide out the axle shafts to replace the gears anyway. Whether the slide out stock shafts and slide alloys back in should make no difference.

I upgraded axle shafts first in the front. Now I am regearing and putting in lockers, and then when funds allow I will put alloys in the rear as well. Running a 30/44 combo, I know the front won't ever really be "bulletproof", but it is always going to be better than the 30/35 combo a lot of the TJ guys have.

The other thing to remember (at least with the rear 44) is that if you do the shafts, locker, and gears at the same time, you could probably move up from 30 spline shafts to 35 spline shafts. ARB is already making the 35-spline side gears for their locker and Eddie has this combo in the back of his, but I think the shafts have not officially been released yet.