Gotta get the old axle yanked out from under the Jeep so I can get the gears, Locker and axles out of it. Once I get the new axle painted and the Brown Truck drops off my Ball Joints I can start assembling it.

 

Well, to my surprise I received my "new to me" used Rough Country D30 Diff. Guard in the mail yesterday. I think that is the fastest I have ever received anything from an E-Bay buy. I spent last night watching the Daytona 500 so no work was done to the axle. Dale Jr. missed it by a hair. Too many Fords in his way holding him back...LOL. He did get a close second so I was happy with that.

 

Tonight I think I'm going to do some clean up work on the axle housing with the grinder and wire wheel and if I have enough time I will prime and paint it. I'm borrowing a Ball Joint/U-Joint press from a guy I work with tomorrow. Hopefully my new Ball Joints come in the Brown Truck today or tomorrow.

Still need to pull the old axle out of the Jeep but the past few nights have been frigid once the sun goes down...LOL....Brrrrr!!

 

Well, I've done about all the cleaning on the axle I think I'm gonna do. I'm going to primer and paint it today. I also just looked at the Fed Ex tracker for my new XRF Ball Joints. They should be delivered this afternoon. Looks like the assembly of my new axle will be in full swing over this weekend...unless the boss has different ideas...LOL. I hope she doesn't.

 

I went out in the garage and worked on the axle a little bit tonight. I pressed all of the old nasty ball joints out and I did a little more cleaning up around the "C"s after the ball joints and around the rest of the axle housing with the wire wheel. I realized that through all the grinding and wire wheeling, leaving the differential housing cover off was a really bad idea. I cleaned all of the medal shavings and dust out of the diff housing with Brake Parts cleaner and then compressed air. I cleaned up the Diff cover with some degreaser and then the wire wheel. I 4 pointed the diff, cover and then started painting. Sorry the pic is so blurry. my phone was dying. Tomorrow after I put a couple more coats of paint on it and press the new Ball Joints in, I will take a couple more pics and post them.

Then, comes the fun part. Pulling my old axle out of my Jeep, so I can transfer over the Ring and Pinion gears, the Locker and the axle shafts to the new housing.

 

Here is the new CHEAP Super 30 axle housing. Its all painted up and pretty and has the new XRF Ball Joints installed.

 

So, I started the disassembly and removal of my old D30 out of my Jeep last night. I pulled the axle shafts out, cleaned them up and removed the old standard Duralast knuckle U-joints which were pretty much destroyed and replaced them with the new Duralast Gold knuckle U-joints I bought. When I installed the old Duralasts I did the old Hammer and socket method. I used a press when I installed the knuckle U-joints this time. I think that alone will make them last longer. Not beginning a life of abuse in a Jeep by being beaten into place with a BFH...lol.

 

i love how simple your building your 30 and even though its a very nice and simple build i know its going to be really strong, great job not overkilling it!

 

I will stay with the stocker shafts and Duralast Gold joints unless axle breakage starts becoming an every trip thing. I now have 2 sets of spare D30 shafts I will be carrying with me on every trip. I have a strong feeling this setup will work excellent with 33s, which is what am currently running. So if anybody who goes wheeling with me ever needs a D30 shaft on the trail. Remember I have you covered.

 

im currently running 35's on my dana 30 so go figure haha, but quick question my xj is a 98 and did the dana 30's come 29 spline on those?

 

I leave on a 5-8 month deployment to Afghanaistan in May of this year. My next round of upgrading which I plan to start when I return will be to put either 35 inch Maxxis Bighorns or 36 inch Swamper IROKs on my Jeep. I will add Rough Country drop brackets and 6.5 inch Rough Country coils to the front. I will add Rough Country shackle relocation brackets to the rear and maybe a longer shackle or small axle lift block to level it out. At that time it will be time for some new shocks for my Jeep, too. I haven't put new shocks on it since I first installed the Rusty's 4.5 inch lift kit on my XJ back in 2005.

 

The D30s for the full run the Jeep Cherokee XJ, (84-01) were all 27 spline as far as I know. Good question, though. I will definitely be researching that.

 

After I install mt 35 or 36 inch tires during my next upgrade period, I will do some 4wheeling runs. If I start snapping D30 shafts and joints I will upgrade to Chromo shafts and Super Joints. Then, the haters who think my Cheap Super 30 isn't a Super 30 without chromos, will be happy.

 

yeah because i went to the junkyard to pick up some spare axles and my buddy said the 96+ came with 29 spline but im not sure
chromos are expensive! haha just keep spares

 

All d30's are 27spline. Jeep never made a 29spline d30. You can get the super 30 kit which is actuall 30spline shafts