i will be in the process of swapping out my dana 35 rear with an 8.8, and need to change my front gears and carrier to work with it. i have access to a 91-92? cherokee. have not looked to see if its CAD yet, but my question is will this hp dana 30 work with everything on my 2001 xj dana 30. brakes, hubs, drive shaft, axle shafts. pretty much the whole 9 yards. what can i swap over and save money on not replacing? thanks

 

With minor mods you can use everything off the old LP30, including the axles. If its CAD, that is. The CAD housings are stronger.

 

so i WANT one with the air disconnect?! and what sort of minor mods are we speaking of?

 

Yes, the vacuum disconnect axle has a stronger housing because of the disconnect.

I think you have to replace a seal on the housing, but you can use the one piece, newer style axle shaft.

BlueXJ is the guy who helped me with the info. He's a great, very smart guy.

 

your current brake calipers and rotors wont work on the older knuckles. I don't know if you can swap knuckles and everything with it or not.

you can use the CAD housing and your shafts with the bigger U-joints, you just need to remove the outer seal and install one in the inner location (google it I haven't done it) and block off the CAD part of the housing. eliminating the CAD.

hopefully somone who has done it can chime in.

 

while the cast housing of the disconnect is strong, the addition of it between the tubes means more weak points.

the "weakness" on a non-disconnect dana 30 is tha passenger side upper control arm mount. it is stamped steel, just over 1/16" thick. not very strong. simple fix...reinforce the mount.

 

BlueXJ

 

so the only deal for swapping i need to know is if the knuckles are able to swap over. other than that i can swap everything else. this jeep has been sitting for sometime so all new brakes is more than i want to spend. as far as i am concerned, either one of the high pinion frontends are better than the low pinion i have now; just need to know how much can swap.

 

The knuckles will work also. If you are wanting to use the brake parts off of your current axle, you have to use everything. Unit bearings, rotors, calipers to make sure that everything is compatible...Wouldn't put any money on a CAD axle housing being stronger than a non-CAD...

 

case and point.

go with a non-disco. truss it if you're worried about strength. easier to truss a non-disco since you only have to weld to cast on the differential housing, rather than the disco housing as well.

 

this was what i was thinking of doing. there is alot of newer parts on my frontend now and i would like to not have to buy everything again. strip the donor housing bare and add everything i possibly can from my dana 30 now. besides ball joints and the 3.73 ring and pinion/ carrier, will have to be new.

 

I didn't say they were indestructible, you can nuke either.

But very wise men have said that the CAD housings were built stronger.

 

so heres the update since i finally got to go out and look at the xj. tenth character in the VIN is an F. so im looking at an 85 from what i can tell. no CAD. how is this axle?

 

Should be fine. Use your current axle shafts so you get the stronger 297/760 size u-joints. Are you sure it's not a CAD housing? I thought all the ones that early were CAD, but i could be wrong (actually its pretty likely...) Hope this is helpful and good luck!