It sounds like a proper fix,but is is a Dana 30... That concept will work, but this housing is now worth dropping any more time into. YES, I could of built another axle... But if the bare housing gets destroyed, I can spend $100 to buy another housing, and then I would have to cut and turn it AGAIN.


Why spend more time than I already have, when the housing will only last 2 years before it gets tweaked,


You are saying to cut and turn my Dana 30 to correct the pinion angle... Let me stop you for a second. I pondered that idea,and chose against that. Let me explain why...
First off that is a temporary fix. Beacuse I have bent 6 different Dana 30s over the last decade. YES, I could essentially rotate it up, and the shaft would be straight. But the 30 has a weak tube. The axle I am building NOW (my 7th Dana 30) will have sleeves inserted into the tube. Then I will truss the top passenger side as well.That will help from bending the passenger tube AGAIN.

The biggest reasons I am sticking with the 30 is because a Dana 60 is over 300 pounds heavier than a 30... (At 500lbs) The sheet metal where the long arm is welded to the control arm on the Jeep body will fail.. PLUS as of right now, I have took a bare HP30 housing, and installed everything NEW you can buy for a 30... I have $3700 into the complete axle....

New ARB, gears and labor installed, Master bearings, hubs, new rotors, calipers,pads, Wheel spacers, chrome moly shafts, Sleeves for the tubes, Ballistic truss, Diff guard, Ballistic, lower tabs, shock tabs, and a couple bucks to squirt some paint on it.



I am known to drive 40 MPH over river rock, so I am to fully blame for the for destroying them. But is is a blast to see the tires dance at full throttle as you blow past everyone in the desert.

 

My caster right now in the Jeep is at 6 degrees right now. If I crank up the driveshaft, it wanders on the nose of the tires, and the pulling would make me end up in a ditch upside down.
Today with the axle set as it is, I can cruise at 80mph (With no swaybars below my Jeep at all) with no problem. My driveshaft right now isn't a double cardan on both ends, that setup blew up 10 months ago. But it was a good lesson at the time. An expensive lesson at that.

 

Sounds like you drive like me. Lol. Why do you jump from a Dana 30 to a Dana 60 as your axle choice? Why not a 44 that comes with 1/2" axle tubes, also a bigger overall diameter.

K so you dumped money into the 30. Sounds like you are building your next axle up to withstand the abuse you are throwing at it? With all the reinforcing you are doing to it and all the time you are spending building it i would hope this axle will withstand that abuse. So. My question is, why not spend the extra 2 hours to rotate those guys back a little bit? The time you take now could save you the 2 hours you are stuck on a trail with only 2 wheel drive.
Also. With your driving style I assume you catch air on numerous occassions? I know I do... are you running limiting straps? If your driveline is already at that much of an angle, I would hate to see what it looks like dropped all the way out.

Keep up the good work. I look forward to seeing the boat sides. Also like you, I am not doing the rectangle tubing but a formed boat side using 1/4 and 3/16 lasered sheet.

 

A double cardon at both ends is pretty interesting. Never seen that. Sounds like a good theory. Details on what went wrong with it though?

Side note. I would not recommend pointing up the pinion WITHOUT rotating the axle c's exactly for that reason.

 

There are two Dana 44 ideas. The full size 44 axle housing, cut down, with custom axle shafts. Then all of the brackets made.... Plus the extra weight...
Then you have to deal with a different lug pattern in the front, compared to the back. This would lead to needing to carry two spares, of each lug pattern....TOO much to carry on the trail.

The Rubicon D44 narrow axle is an option, but it is a low pinion, and that makes the shaft issue, and the droop of the shaft even worse. The nose of this axle is longer, so you have to pay to shorten your current axle... There isn't a good, and EASY go-to axle exchange.

On the HP Dana 30, if you cut and turn the C-s, you run into a problem with the coil spring perches. The entire plate, with the shock mount would need to be cut off and rotated (This is not as easy as it sounds). The Drag link mount would need to be cut off, and fabricated to match up as well.... Plus your two or so hours rewelding the C-s...

My idea, to install a dropped crossmember, grind the inner part of the driveshaft was by far the easiest route to go.

 

Here is some photos of the flex on the trail. This is a 35 inch MTR, and the tire never comes off the ground easily. This is the Z-turn at Terminator at Table Mesa Arizona.
Below is everyone else's wheels off the ground... in the same spot.

 

That thing looks even meaner on the rocks.

I might have missed this but are you not running chromos in the rear? Almost all chromo shafts are drilled for both 5 on 4.5 and 5 on 5.5. No need for custom
Shafts. Order 80+ waggy shafts. Within one inch of the stock 30. Then you run ford outers on the front axle. Your rims can match.

The coils and track bar can definitely take the approximate 10 degree rotation. It will
Not cause any problems, no reason to relocate those brackets.

I'm just trying to help you out and give you some ideas. You seem pretty sure this problem can be fixed with different drivelines. I'll let you get on with your build thread though and I'll be sure to check it out to look for those Boat sides.

 

so are you recomending building my dana 30 or droppin in dana 44s or dana 60s

 

I am saying for the lighter weight of the Dana 30... stick with it. There are a ton of them at any local junkard around the country, and with this axle, you can safely run a 35 inch tire on it. Any bigger tire on a 30 will break the axle shafts alot more frequently.

To add a Dana60 housing, you are cutting it down, and spending the time to figure out where all of the mounts and tabs go, and go from a D30(less than 200lbs) to a D60 (Almost 500lbs)....

Your adding alot of stress to a sheet metal body.I don't think unless you are wheeling a 4.0 or above rated trail, you need to run that kind of axle.

I do not have Chromos in my 8.8... So I don't have the option for the bigger lug pattern. Besides, I just bought these rims 14 months ago... Not really thrilled on buying 5 new rims ABOVE everything else I would need to convert to..

 

why not run a shortened dana 44 front? you could've had one already if you didn't waste all that money on the d30. besides, while you may not break shafts on the 30 anymore the ring and pinion is now the weak link. my buddy ran 35s on his dana 30 for a short while before his ring and pinion busted. it survived years on 33s before. you may get away with it you may not, just seems like a lot of money to be pouring into an axle thats gonna be running on its limits all the time.

 

Let me show you over the next two weeks, of what I am personally doing to my Dana 30. I have read JeepSpeed threads, and have seen other ideas of what to do.

I just picked this axle housing up this morning. My Dana 30 housing in my Jeep now bent the passenger tube. There are two different things I'm doing to this axle.

This morning...

 

I am going to install these inner sleeves. At the time I bought them, they were $175... Now you can get them from PolyPerformance for $100

http://www.polyperformance.com/shop/...t-p-20274.html

Plus this Ballistic fab truss...
http://www.ballisticfabrication.com/...XJ_p_1748.html

 

I've got a spare set of everything for my 30.... after this last shot at the 30, I will do your axle idea. My parts are relativly new. I bend housings.... not blow up internal R&Ps. This ARB and gears I have are 1200 miles old, the Chromos, and all parts from the C-s are 10 months old... It is fresh money out of my wallet.


I could easily spend $3000 on a Narrowed 44, but as my Jeep is going to slowly be converted into a Hybrid type of buggy, I'm gonna give the 30 one last stand.

 

If i go with what you said the dana 30hp what would you recommend for the best things to do so i dont have to swap them out ever month. I heard about putting the sleeves in the axles. and building a truss, what else, i know i should put stronger axle shafts and r&p in but any sugestion on what brand i should go with, and what would you say would be the best gear ratio, for haulin *** through the mud but still being able to crawl threw the mud and drive down the interstate when i need to?

 

For a majority of guys who wheel Jeeps, the Dana 30 is a suitable axle... ONLY if you do scheduled maintnence. Most every Jeeper wont ever run a 2.5 rated trail, let alone a 4.0 trail... SOME will.

Remember that I bent all of these axles because I didn't install the sleeve kit, and ran maybe 45 MPH on this type of terrain...


And 25 to 35MPH over this for miles at a time... How long do YOU think ANY axle would take this abuse.