Mullins_j

So my friend gave me a 8.8 with 3.73's. I bought 3.73 gears for my dana 30. I also bought a new carrier. My question is, I don't have the money to do a professional install and I've never done gears before, what is the best way to do this? I'm alittle worried about changing the carrier cause I would have to start for scratch, or could I just replace the ring and pinion gears? With the carrier I have in there now?

xjmarc

If you have 3.55s now it will need the new carrier. You will need all new bearings and if you don't know what you're doing you will more than likely ruin the new gears. Save some coin and have someone with experience put them in.

JeepingDan

x2

Iant333

No joke it will cost you more money to buy all the tools to do it yourself. Pay someone else unless you are really interested in how it works.


I spent about 500 dollars on tools to do my gears. I could have had them done for the same price.

Mullins_j

There lies my problem. I've only been able to find one shop around here that does gears, and they wanted $400! and told me they had to take the axle out to do it!?

Also I'm going from 3.07's to 3.73. I did buy the ring and pinion gears, minor install kit, and carrier. This is for a '96 Dana 30 axle.

I think I may try it, I've read up on this alot, and it just seems as long as you get the pattern on the gears right, you should be all set, right?

Any help would be great. I'm in the MA/NH area.

Thanks,
J

84zmyfavorite

Aw man... Ive got 3.73 gears stock in my 84 XJs Dana 30 front, Dana 35 rear. Search the junkyards. Earlier year XJs with the 2.5 four banger and the 2.8 GMV6(briggsNstratton power) engines had 3.73 geared axles stock fairly common.

Dugualla

$400 dollars for labor to install the parts you have and new bearings is not a bad deal, as others have said it will cost more for the tools that it will take to rebuild it. Yes, it is normal for them to remove the axle. Trust the experts in this.

84zmyfavorite

You could proabably get a Dana 30 vaccum disconnect front with 3.73 gears for under $100. And since it will be a vaccum disconnect, the ring and pinion shouldnt have been stressed as much as a later year Dana 30 without the disconnect, so hopefully in better shape. You can take the vaccum shift motor off and slide the axle shaft coupling over the two shafts, slide the shift fork as far right as you can, so its not able to move the coulpling, and bolt the shift motor back on. Thats what I did, and works great. This will give you a vaccum disconnect Bypassed front Dana 30, with 3.73 gears already installed. Or you can make a manual shift lever for the vaccum disconnect motor with a cable and housing operated choke lever from a lawnmower, and route it into the cab by the 4x4 shift lever. This would be great if the front axle has a locker and you didnt want locker characteristics on pavement.

Mullins_j

So like normal, I decided to install 3.73 gears in my dana 30. I think I did pretty good. The only thing is I get a whining noise when I slow down. Sounds fine while driving, and speeding up. Anyone have any ideas of how I can fix this? The gears I install were used so it was a little harder to get a good tooth pattern.

Anyone?

xjmarc

Do you know if they whined in the other axle? If the installer the first time didn't install them right they will wear a bit and whine. If it is a slight whine you should be OK but if it's loud the gears will wear out prematurely and get knife edges and break.