Sir Sam

And now I see that you missed this part after I wrote a clarification of what I said before. No need to send me any gears, its not that I couldn't get some 3.55 LP gears, its just that I'm trying to figure out the best way - keep at this axle, or spend half a day driving to the junkyards and working in nasty conditions to get one. (when I can stay home and work in nasty conditions to get one.

For my recent WJ flip I needed to replace the front axle. Since it was a 4L it had 3.55's I haven't been able to find a 4L WJ for quite awhile. So I decided that I would just pull a V8 axle and switch in my gears. So now I have a good WJ D30 with 3.73 gears and a badly bent WJ D30 with the 3.55 gears. Since this is not a personal project but a income generating project I need to get it done as quick as I can, I don't have the luxury of waiting a month untill I can find a 3.55 front axle. So yes it is the gears I want, and I might just have to pull them from my MJ just so I can get this WJ back together, but I am also considering busting out the earplugs and grinder tomorrow and trying to cut through the tube to get the axle free.

Ya think its fair to say the JK is 4" wider. But the axle is not all that much wider, 1.9" by everything I can tell, its nearly impossible for me to measure correctly right now but that seems to be the consensus online, and thats about right if the XJ WMS is 60" I've looked at it before when I started planning my swap, and I looked at it again last night, the control arm mounts are the same pattern, but each one is .5 inches further out, I haven't tried it, and I might have to now with my JK axle while this WJ axle is out to make sure that stock arms will boltup to it, I see no reason aftermarket heims wouldn't go on no problem. The JK coil buckets are exactly 1" further out, but in addition to that they are setup a little different for the JK sways. My plan for this swap is to use aftermarket control arms with heims and push the axle about an inch forward(nessesary to clear the oil pan). Then cut the coil buckets and shock mounts off to use on the XJ. Now the axle is bolted up, sways, coils, shocks hooked up. Steering from a WJ could be used for the highsteer/crossover. Input is meant for a CV, so converting it to a yoke would be REALLY nice. Now its 1" wider on each side, and you have 5x5 wheels(probably the worst part about this), or hubs and rotors that need to be redrilled to 5x4.5. If you wanted more width spacer adapter could do that just fine, But I really don't want 2" more sticking out on each side so I will redrill the hubs and rotors. I really want to stick with 5x4.5 wheels since I am wanting to run the silverstars. If I wanted moabs I could just get a set of JK moabs and run a JK44 rear(cheap really, like 300-400 for a 44 with 4.10s).

Cool. I love learning something new. Just when I think I've seen it all there's something new and cool(or likely old and cool).

more like 1.9" wider.

I had actually seen those before on the dodges and thought they looked pretty good. I like the utilitarian look of them, and I personally hate the look of soft 8's.

Mother@#$%@#$@#%$@#!@#!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Man I'm pissed at this thing right now. Time for a beer and bust out the welder. If you don't mind ruining the gear set, you can grind off the part of the ring gear teeth that interfere with the cross shaft. Uh, the only reason I'm going to this trouble is because I need the gears.

So ya, I'm fukked right now. Not sure what to do next.

Nope, and I'm considering how to do that. right now my best thought is to remove the knuckle, which I need to do eventually, and then weld on a slide hammer to the end of the axle shaft and try to get it to come out. Don't have the plate for the lug studs? Ah no, way past that now, I hammered off the unit bearing and all and I'm down to the inner shaft now. If you've got the bearing, and the plate for the slide hammer, personally, I'd put it back on enough to use the hammer. But that's me. :dunno: I don't think you understand, the force of me hammering it out separated the joint, the hub and "stub" shaft all stayed together. (don't get me wrong through, I appreciate the willingness to help ) I welded a bar onto the end and then tried to hammer it off, I did nothing but rip the metal away at the edge of the HAZ. Looks like I need to source some D30 low pinion 3.55 gears. Might just pull them out of the LP D30 thats in the front of the MJ right now. Dammit this sucks.

Nope, and I'm considering how to do that. right now my best thought is to remove the knuckle, which I need to do eventually, and then weld on a slide hammer to the end of the axle shaft and try to get it to come out. Don't have the plate for the lug studs? Ah no, way past that now, I hammered off the unit bearing and all and I'm down to the inner shaft now.

Also looks like the new JK D44 front has gone up in price, now its around $1700 for a complete axle from moparpartsamerica Part number P5153825AB if you interested in searching around.

I've seen JK fronts cheaper than TJ fronts. (almost consistently so, like I said everyone and their mom wants a TJ 44, so its hard to find deals on them) Heck you used to be able to buy the JK front new for like $1300 complete.

Mother@#$%@#$@#%$@#!@#!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Man I'm pissed at this thing right now. Time for a beer and bust out the welder.

Nope, and I'm considering how to do that. right now my best thought is to remove the knuckle, which I need to do eventually, and then weld on a slide hammer to the end of the axle shaft and try to get it to come out. Even then I think I'm going to skip the slide hammer, if the axle didn't want to come out with all the hammering I did I doubt a slide hammer is going to help. Right now my best idea is to take a piece of steel, weld it to the end of the shaft, then get my porta power out and put one end on the axle somewhere(maybe the part of the housing where the pinion sits) and then try jacking it out that way. Man, I really wish I had found an axle with 3.55's. Dammit.

Chicken or the Egg? Well I suppose I should have RTFM because the FSM shows you removing the carrier, then removing the pinion, and then drive out a pin that holds the cross shaft in, I get the feeling I am not going to be able to do that in this case, so I need to figure out another way to get this axle shaft out. Blast!

I've seen it on XJ's, but I suppose most of the GC's I've seen have the gray cladding. Was body-colored cladding an option? Limiteds on both the ZJ, XJ, KJ and WJ line have body colored tupperware.

Working on a 01WJ replacing the front axle housing. Housing is bent and the passenger axle shaft is bound up and won't come out. Right now I'm thinking that if I can get the cross shaft out, and then the spider gears out that I will be able to put a rod through the drivers side tube and try tapping the axle shaft out. BUT; There does not appear to be a bolt to remove to let the cross pin fall out, and I've tried giving it a few taps and nada. So.....anyone know how to remove the cross pin from a D30? any other thoughts for me?

not particularly rare, its paint code PR4 - Flame Red, and its one of my favorite colors:

Ya I have family from Texas and one uncle in particular who freaks out about elevation, even the most minor hill and he has trouble coping with it.

It's ok, your only human.

Thanks, but actually its more fun to go UP. You are on the edge of the road more often, you can keep the vehicle under power instead of having to use brakes to slow down all the time, generally you can go faster up than down.

Here is a JK D44 front compared to a WJ D30 front. The important things to note here are that the WJ coil buckets are 1" too far outboard comepared to the XJ, and that the JK uses different shock and swaybar brackets. That JK D44 front is what will be going into my MJ with redrilled hubs and rotors. At only an inch more tire on each side sticking out I can live with that. The link mounts on each side are .5 inches wider than XJ/MJ/ZJ/WJ/TJ mounts, so they are not a problem to boltup to stock arms, or especially aftermarket arms.

you just need to get the 91+ headlight bezels and grill to match the 91+ header panel.

The TJ Dana 44 front is nice because: Its a direct bolt in. It's the right width. Its the right bolt pattern. It's not nice because: It's low pinion. It has weak tubes. It's SUPER expensive, because everyone and their mom wants one. Now, consider the JK Dana 44 front: It's 61.9 WMS vs 60 for the XJ/TJ D30/44 High pinion. Comes with dual piston brakes. Comes with E-locker. Has crossover steering. Has bigger brakes than XJ brakes. Cheaper than TJ D44 front. Cons: 5x5 bolt pattern(needs adapters or hubs/rotors redrilled). Has CV style pinion flange. Needs coil buckets moved inward 1" on each side. If you do built a TJ D44 front use WJ knuckles/calipers for cheap big brakes and crossover steering.

You have the second set? Those are the 5.9 seats that you have then. No comment about the steering, but if you would like to talk more about heated leather seats then I'm your guy.