Re-gear or Driveshafts First?
 

Hi All,

Looking to upgrade my driveshafts in the near future however, I would like to re-gear eventually as well. My question is, if i go with Drive shafts first (thinking Adams or tom woods 1350 rear/1310 front) will that effect gearing? I have the Rubicon (3.8 6-spd) 4.10 gearing currently with 35's and 4 inch lift. it is actually tolerable and i can deal with it for a while but, I know my front drive shaft will go one of these days probably sooner than later. I'm probably going to go with 4.88 gearing which involves removing the Drive shafts, pinion gears, etc. Based on that, I feel like i should re-gear first but, I know my front DS will give soon. I was wheeling with a friend of mine last week with a similar set up and his front DS went, we installed Adams 1350 front and rear on it yesterday However, he had his axles re geared prior. Any thoughts? thank you in advance!

Could be years until the front driveshaft starts slinging grease, or could be weeks. No way to predict it. And you can always yank it off and drive just fine without.

Since you are ok with the current gearing, you could wait until you can do both at the same time. I suppose that might save a small amount on the labor to swap the yoke/flange?

Actually the gearing will take some fo the stress off the driveshafts making them last longer. You also don't need the more expensive and heavy 1350 driveshafts with the 3.8 motor and 4.88 gears. Look into flanges vs yolks and decide what you want to run. Flanges are stronger but require a bolt connection like the factory set up is. A yolk can use a bolt on cap or a U-bolt which if you break is easy and cheap to fix. A broken bolt on the trail may be and easy fix or not if you can't get it to back out and need a drill and extractor. You can also break a yolk on the trail so in reality you should consider that you may need to carry spare yolks which can be rather pricey. There are pros and cons to both.

With 35's, I would just stick with 1310's. Definitely overkill.

I agree 1310's are plenty just get the solid u-joint if you want a little more strength. 1350's are overkill and will just transfer the weak link to something that probably cost more to fix.
IMO i would do gears first...get that big expense out of the way if you have the funds.

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jk-...39713589a7.jpg

She is ready to ship to Papua New Guinea. I finished the work on the very last day before I left the US again. Now I'm down in Peru until May...
I had the same concerns. I decided to go for the gearing first. To save money, I decided to try to do it myself. It was a royal pain, and not for the faint of heart, but with some mechanical skills and patience, it can be done saving a lot of money for your new shafts. I went with 5.13 gears instead of 4.88s for my 35" tires, but I'm up at over 5000' elevation in the mountains of Papua New Guinea, so I needed a little extra power.

Tom

For a regular lift I would say go with factory shafts till you need to break them. Get the gears first. How much travel is your shocks? if lots of downtravel would reverse the order and get shafts then gears ( or put limit straps on ) would be the only reason to reverse the order.

Glad to hear your DIY regear went well Tom.

I'd say regear. I'm running 4:88's with 37's AT and 3.6 motor. If you go 4:88's you should be fine with 35's and 37's when you upgrade (because we all know you will!!)