starkizer

Gave up trying to replace just the gear set inside. Once the pinion gear is removed you have to set the gears just right or its not gonna be pretty. So at the advice of everyone in the Comanche Club, I pulled the whole axle out of a 1992 XJ. This is a Dana 35 geared to 3.07, Exactly the gear ration of my front end. So it should be perfect. Came out of a '92 XJ Loredo 4.0L standard transmission. Remember if your doing the same thing, from now on if I buy rear brake parts they are from a 92 XJ not an 89 MJ :P The fine people in this club have informed me that the mounting plates will need to be taken off, moved and rewelded to work with the MJ leaf springs. So I plan on grinding them off, cleaning up all the rust and making it nice a pretty. Then taking this one and the old one to a local welder as I don't have my own, and saying hey, make this one look like that one. Sounds easy enough. I will be doing all this in the next few days and will get pictures up as I go along.

Alright, well I have a friend that gave me the phone number to a local welder. So what I will go buy a grinder, get the things off, take all the brake lines off get all the rust off, clean it all up and make it look pretty, then take it to him and say hey, put theses exactly where theses are. Then probably paint the thing put all the brake lines back on and slap her in. I will have him put them in the exact spot and reuse my shock plate things from the old ones, that way my shocks line up, I won't worry about lifting it or none of that. My shocks are about 5 months old too so at least I won't have to buy new ones. I should have all this done Tuesday, Wednesday at the latest. You better believe I will have pictures up on build thread. I hope that in the future someone reads all this and it helps. :)

So is it as simple as taking both axles to a local welder and saying hey, make this one look like that one? Please tell me I can at least do that????? I know how to weld, I wish I still had a welder! I already planned on buying new Ubolts and nuts, my old ones are pretty nasty and I wouldn't trust them. I think 6" is a lot of lift, so I'm thinking since I have to cut it all off and weld it back on anyway. I may as well go back to the leaf springs under the axle and not have to change the shocks around. Would it be cheaper to pay someone to weld or pay someone to set the backlash on the gears and just put all the new carrier and gears in the old axle? What do you guys think?

Also, I plan on removing all the brake lines, cleaning the rust up and painting it. Is there a ready made brake line kit or anything, or do I need to buy solid lines and bend them and make new lines.... or reuse the old ones?

So there is no way to do it without cutting and welding? Bummer. Not a major deal, just adds a little time to the project. At least I have an axle now. So will any of the mounting stuff from the MJ work on the XJ axle? I mean would that help me at all or do I just use all the XJ stuff? And since I am going to have to weld perches and mounts and such what does everyone think about SOA and all that? I am running on 235 75 15 Tires, if it ends up lifted that high will it look retarded with those tires? Or if I am wleding anyway, should I weld it all back the original way of the MJ axle and not lift it?

Ok so I know its been a minute since the last update I bought a new set of spiders from a CC member :) They didn't fit in my carrier :( So that was a bummer, no big deal they were cheap and I am thankfull for them anyway. So the other day I spent a good number of hours at Corpus Christi U-Pull-it Auto parts, Under a 1992 Cherokee Loredo. I happend to find one that was a manual transmission 4.0 :) No swapping the front gears for me!!!! It is geared to 3.07 (of course) I moved it around and its nice a quite, and dry so no leaking seals. Big time score in my oppinion. So my question is as follows The Cherokee rear end mounts under the leaf springs, the MJ mounts over the leaf springs, so the Cherokee rear end is going to lift my MJ about 3 inches... which is great thats cool whatever, now I got to lift the front to match :) So how to I mount the shocks? The Ubolts that hold the axle on mount through the shock mount thing for the XJ and you really can't take them off without some form of cutting or torch. The MJ shock mount thing just falls off when you take the axle off. That and the shock mounts on the MJ are both faceing the same direction and the XJ are facing oppisite directions. So will the old shocks work now that its going to be a different hight and whats the easyiest way to mount the shocks now?

Pm sent

Man, the complications just keep adding up. It's like the manufacturers just like to add insult to injury. And just when I thought I was starting to get it too! I'm just going to hope I find a 4.0 5 speed and stick with what I have so I don't have to change the front! Thank you everyone for all the info, I have learned more about rear axles then I even knew was possible. And, this is most likely the most replies I have ever gotten on a single topic.

So is it strange that I ended up with 3.08 and not 3.07? OR is it just 3.07 front 3.08 rear was the normal?

The manuals had the 3.07 and the autos had 3.55 basicly. The front axle isn't as hard as I think and the shocks are no problem. So if I want to not mess with the front, find a standard transmission MJ. Is that standard for JUST the Dana 35 aspect ratios or is it the same for the Dana 44?

See Eagle, I was thinking that too! I knew that the 1994 thing had to be wrong. From the research I have done you are right about it being 1990 that they switched to the C-clips. I have not yet found anything that would lead me to believe the spiders are interchangable between c-clips and not. I haven't found anything that would tell me they are not interchangeable either though. As for the gear ratio on the ones I found. I am trying to remember now whats what because I looked at like 5 of them yesterday. I THINK the only one that I would actually se the plate of was another 35 and all I could see was last digits where like .55 or something. The first number was faded and covered in gunk. There happened to be an old bottle of windex under tha cheroke but that didnt help! The 44's I found either didnt have a plate on them or I couldn't read it. If the majority of the 44's are indeed 3.07 Then I would be willing to take the risk. Especially if that is a good price. I just want to be able to use my 4x4 if I need it. And my front is 3.07. I think if thats the case I can rig something up for the shocks

Looking for spider gear set for a Dana 35 Non c-clip axle. Would take the other 2 gears on the axle shaft side too but don't really need them. Give me best price with shipping to 78332

I couldn't figure out the 94+ thing either.... The only reason I mention the shock mounts is because the only Scrap Yard I can find in my area has no MJ's but they do have a bunch of Cherokee's. I found a Cherokee D44 rear axle they want $180.00 bucks for. I would have already picked it up, but A: I don't have 200 bucks to drop, and B: Its no where near the same gear ratio as the front and I really don't want to never use my 4x4 or have to swap the front too. I don't know why but it never even hit me to post for just the spiders in the classified forums. I posted for the axle, and I think I even saw a guy that had the spiders for like 20 bucks... still never even hit me. DUH!

They have one listed for 94 and earlier, but no price listed. Wonder what the difference is. I'm still leaning to buy new parts, I just trust new more then used. You just don't know what you're buying when you buy from a junk yard. Honestly, I kind of like the challenge of rebuilding (or replacing) the thing.

http://eastcoastgearsupply.com/i-133043-dana-35-spider-gear-kit-1-560-94-newer.html This says 94 and newer, but it also says Dana 35, I can afford 80 bucks for sure, will this fit?

Yes, I may have over exaggerated a bit. There is (or was) 8 bolts not 12 holding the ring gear in place. I only removed 1 actual bolt. The ring gear has 1 very small part taken out of one spot. its about the size of pea. maybe smaller. Same of the pinion gear, pea size or smaller maybe like the size of an eraser. I priced a new rear axle at the junk yard today and they want $179.00. I could not find one with anywhere near the same gear ratio, so I would have to not use the 4x4, which I really don't want to do. I am thinking that the ring and pinion gears are in good enough shape that they would be ok. I can get the bolts out of the ring gear, so it should be alright. I am hoping that it would be alright if I simply left the pinion gear alone and swaped the spiders out then I would be ok with what I have. I know that everyone says to swap axles, but I don't have a welder or anything like that so time wise I think I am better off just putting in new spiders. Of course I would change out anything else while I was there. I am big into restoration and original equipment and I really only drive my truck a few miles a day NO wheeling. So I am still just not sold on a bigger rear axle. Especially if I will end up welding new shock mounts and all that sort of thing. I am just not sold I guess. I'm very torn. I figure if I put in new spiders and the thing still doesnt work then i'll be right back where I started, you know? No big deal.

off to the scrap yard in the morning... here's to hope :cheers:

Well, I know you can buy new ring and pinion gears and the bearings and crush sleaves and all that stuff new. As for the axle, I am still kind of hoping that I come across another MJ or a cherokee that just happens to have 3.08 gears and I will simply take the insides out and NOT have to weld anything or rip apart anything more then I have to. I am still hoping that I can have it all back together in a few hours and drive it to work Thursday. I know that its not horribly hard to swap axles, and everyone says get a bigger one. I just don't feel like I need a stronger axle as all I do is drive my truck to work. I hardly ever even seen a dirt ally way, let alone the trail, so I really have no problem with my whimpy D35. However, I agree with people here and if all I can find is another bigger axle, then I will do that to. So as you can see I am a bit torn. I don't have a welder or even air tools, so simple is better. Bottom line, I just want my baby back.

I know that I can't just slap in new gears, but I had hoped that I would either find a new axle, or I would find the same axle I already have and use the insides of it. So, of course I want the new Dana 44, but if I can't find one, are you saying that I can NOT put in new gears? By the way, my build thread is updated with pictures

So this is what I working on at the moment. Don't know if you can see, but there is a few stripped gears in my Dana 35 rear Axle. Countless youtube videos will tell you how to remove the carriers to replace the spider gears and all that so I will skip a few steps here. What I did not see anywhere was what you do in the event you have a Dana 35 rear end made before 1990 that does NOT have c-clips. I have not found a video on how to remove the axle shafts without c-clips so I hope that this will come in handy to the next guy. So in this picture I left the little puch rod in place to show you. In the C-clip axle shafts there is a 12 point bolt right there. Pre 1990 (like mine) use this dumb thing. I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to get this thing out. I thought it turned out like a bolt... NOPE! There is a little whole on the left side of the ring gear that you just get a punch or a screw driver and just hammer it out. Its easy. Then the rod falls out with the spider gears. BAM! I would have been done if it was a c-clip style. Nope. The axle shafts are bolted in from behind the brake drums by 4 bolts. You don't even have to open the diff if all your doing is something with the axle shafts, if you don't have c-clips. Those 4 bolts are all that hold the axle shafts in. Mine where 9/16 and I removed all brake parts to get to them, which I will simply buy new. So after all bolts are removed its time to get a BFH and give it a few good smacks. Big Freaking hammer! I figured if I messed up a lug stud, oh no, heaven forbid I have to replaced another part! So a few smacks and it comes right out. Theres the two drive shafts out and the only tools I used. It just shows that you don't need a fancy garage or even air tools. I did it all with just a few decent sockets, my BFH and a couple wrenches. Well theres the problem! And this is what caused all the headache! Count 8 bolt wholes.... but wait, I only took 1 bolt out of this ring gear.... That explains all the pretty little chunks of metal that fell out when I opened the diff. Weird huh? So tomorrow morning I plan to go to the pull a part in Corpus Christi and either find a complete D44, or all the parts from a D35. Don't worry, I will keep them pics coming.

Yeah everyone is really bashing the D35 telling me to get a 44. I seriously only drive my truck a few miles a day, and never go wheeling. I really don't need the same axle people use to go rock crawling. My truck is not lifted, no 33" tires, nothing like that. I am big into restoration, not overhaulin' Know what I mean.

I got everything out of my axle today. So my plan is to go to the yard tomorrow and find an Axle. Thats plan A. Plan B would be to grab the innards of another 35. Swapping out the Axle, I'm gonna have to figure out how to lift the truck. I think if thats my only problem I should be ok. So I figured out what happend. There was only 1 bolt holding on the ring gear. Just 1! All other bolts where wither missing all together or the heads had broken off. Well, broken off heads and missing bolts spinning around inside your differential apperantly has a tendency to shred the other gears. Who'd a thunk it? I will be posting pics in my build thred

Looks like everyone (from other threds) is pushing me into getting rid of the stock Dana 35 rear end and doing a complete axle swap. Should be interesting to say the least

So. I will take everyones advice and do an axle swap. So what axle should I be looking for? Dana 44 seems to be a popular choice. What is the likely hood that I will be able to slap it in and NOT have a million other things happen that I need to change? IE, the drive shaft doesnt line up or something crazy

upon the advice of pretty much everyone that has ever even seen a Jeep of any kind.... I am going to swap axles. I should be excited I know, but I am dreding it for some reason. I just want to be done and driving my baby again!