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JL Dana 30 & Dana 35 - how strong are they?

Jeep’n Jay

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Posted yesterday trying to identify my axles, looks like I've got the M186 front and M200 rear. My local 4x4 shop suggested not to do a regear on the dana 35 and definitely not on the dana 30, instead just save up for new axles all together, purely because they aren't strong enough. I'm not sure if he's basing that decision on the old JK axles.

Looking to go 4.56 or 4.88 with 35's. Anyone have any experience regearing on the 30 & 35?
A couple of things, the new Dana 35 rear is a 29 spline axle (The old original Dana 35 was only 27 spline for reference). So it is actually closer to the JK’s sport 44 which is 30 splines. The axle tubes themselves are the same as the D44 and much thicker than the JK,s.

I have the D35 D30 set up with 4.56 Yukon gearing and 35 inch tires. I have wheeled it quite a bit including trips to Moab. I run open differentials and I’ve had no issues at all.
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DadJokes

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Basically, the way I understand it, the Sport and Sahara benefit from the need of the now wider Rubicon axle tubes to be thicker. One axle tube for mass production purposes with the housings being different.
 

fat_head

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Yes I have, extensively. For a little better than ten years I ran 30/35 axles in a YJ Wrangler. The stock rear axle never gave a problem (Dana 35 w/c-clip). The front (Dana 30) was a whole nuther story. Broke inner and outer axles time and time again using an Aussie locker. Broke knuckles time and time again. All of that was mostly on 32" and 33" tires. Finally I threw in the wallet and went with e-lockers, along with chromoly shafts, larger knuckles and 30 spline count, inner and outers. At the same time the rear got a c-clip eliminated rear with chromoly shafts, semi-floater if memory is correct. At the same time as the axle upgrades 4.56 gears and 35" mud terrains were added. Never a problem and wheeled for five years like that, what a pleasure.

For all the work on that YJ it became a reliable, trail worthy rig. There were no Rubicon editions back then. If I had to do it today, I would get Rubicon takeoff 4.10 axles. Simple swap and wiring job. Have fun in your endeavors. The 3.6 Pentastar can handle 35s with 4.10 gears, those old straight sixes didn't quite cut it, hence the 4.56 gears.
Do you blame the aussie locker for some of your failures? Leaning heavily to putting one in my front.
 

roaniecowpony

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Seems like 35s are the new 33. Bigger tire, bigger load on the axles, and I'm not talking about their weight. IMO, Non Partisan put the whole issue in perspective and gave some great information to make a good decision.
 
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blkhawk_jl

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My guess is they were trying to tell him not to spend the money on those axles....probably with the thinking that he was going to actually wheel it on 35s.
I just realized I have a 3.45 axle ratio, pretty sure that's the carrier break max for the Dana 30. I'd have to get another carrier just to actually do the regear to 4.56. Looks like we're staying on stock gearing for the foreseeable future.
 

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Jeep’n Jay

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I just realized I have a 3.45 axle ratio, pretty sure that's the carrier break max for the Dana 30. I'd have to get another carrier just to actually do the regear to 4.56. Looks like we're staying on stock gearing for the foreseeable future.
you will not need a new carrier. I run 4.56 gears, originally had 3.45’s.
 
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blkhawk_jl

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you will not need a new carrier. I run 4.56 gears, originally had 3.45’s.
Really? I thought the 3.45 couldn't accommodate anything larger, I was told you need the 3.73 carrier in order to fit anything larger. Also side note, what tire size are you running and hows your mileage and power the the 4.56?
 

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im waiting on prices to drop more!. i'd love to get a set for my sport!
 

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you will not need a new carrier. I run 4.56 gears, originally had 3.45’s.
admittedly I know nothing about gearing and axles. I do know I have a M186 front axle and a M220 rear axle with 3:45 gears on my Sport S. Dana 30 and 44 if I’m correct?

So if I wanted to regear for 35’s I could just have the ring and pinion changed to 4:56 gear ratio?
 

SecondTJ

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Seems like 35s are the new 33. Bigger tire, bigger load on the axles, and I'm not talking about their weight. IMO, Non Partisan put the whole issue in perspective and gave some great information to make a good decision.
I agree. For 20 years it took 3”+ of lift to run 33’s on YJ/TJ. Very few messed with the 5” of lift needed for 35’s.

Then JK came out and people found it took only 2”+ lift to run 35’s! Now 10+ years later it’s the norm and consequently made “37’s the new 35’s”
 

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Non Partisan

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Do you blame the aussie locker for some of your failures? Leaning heavily to putting one in my front.
No. The Aussie is a nice lunchbox and it did quite well. The failures, in my opinion, came from weak axle shafts and knuckles. Not that they were defective or under engineered, but my use of them exceeded their intended engineering. Notice that I did not have failure in the axle gears, carrier or Aussie locker. Just the knuckles and shafts. The YJs had a 3 piece passenger side, much like the current models. One outer and two inners with a connecting collar. The YJs were vacuum actuated.

In addition, the new passenger side chromoly shafts went up in spline count (equals larger diameter too) and it was a full length inner, eliminating the connecting collar. The stock shafts and Aussie locker will probably hold up to easy wheeling. If wheeling alone ya really need a winch installed. Example: break a shaft on the way up from a valley with both exit directions uphill, you get the point hey. Had one shatter on the way up a staircase which was the only way in and out, no way to get out in two wheel drive. Best wishes in your upgrades.
 

fat_head

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No. The Aussie is a nice lunchbox and it did quite well. The failures, in my opinion, came from weak axle shafts and knuckles. Not that they were defective or under engineered, but my use of them exceeded their intended engineering. Notice that I did not have failure in the axle gears, carrier or Aussie locker. Just the knuckles and shafts. The YJs had a 3 piece passenger side, much like the current models. One outer and two inners with a connecting collar. The YJs were vacuum actuated.

In addition, the new passenger side chromoly shafts went up in spline count (equals larger diameter too) and it was a full length inner, eliminating the connecting collar. The stock shafts and Aussie locker will probably hold up to easy wheeling. If wheeling alone ya really need a winch installed. Example: break a shaft on the way up from a valley with both exit directions uphill, you get the point hey. Had one shatter on the way up a staircase which was the only way in and out, no way to get out in two wheel drive. Best wishes in your upgrades.
Well I'll have an aussie in my Jeep to go with my 4:1 transfer case before heading to Moab again this spring. If that doesn't break it, I think it will be fine.
 

fat_head

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I'd recommend a new carrier if you go with a lunchbox. I used to work with the SW regional sales engineer for Powertrax (maker of Lockright/No-Slip) and he admitted the failure rate for his lunchbox lockers was 25% over the life of the units....but it wasn't the locker that failed...it was the stock case b/c the carrier has a "wear pattern" in it if it's got any miles on it....and even with the hardened thrust washers, the locker will oscillate and make a new pattern that can eventually wear through.

I had it happen on a 7.5" Toyota IFS diff when I bought my first Lockright with 19K miles on the truck.....put a new carrier in and that diff is still going in a different rig....over 200K miles now....lots of those offroad.

And I'm not knocking lunchbox lockers....I like them a lot. In fact, in some applications, I'd run a lunchbox over a full carrier'd Detroit since Detroit refuses to fix their failure prone dog clutch; something Yukon's Grizzly has remedied. Too bad Grizzly has limited applications by comparison to the lunchbox units.
Thats good information to know. I guess the question will be if there are any aftermarket carriers available? I haven't looked but I will now. Thanks for the information, I appreciate it.
 

fat_head

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You want Dana Spicer. I'm not aware of any aftermarket cast iron cases.

Keep in mind...you can roll the dice and you have a 3 out of 4 chance of not having an issue...EVER. Murphy and that fucked up law of his always seems to bite me in the ass when I play those odds. Hopefully you have better luck than I do, lol.

The carrier/case is usually pretty inexpensive....$100-200 from someone like Randy's Worldwide or one of the other drivetrain specialists.

Downside is that you have to reset up the gears...which likely means a master install kit too. If you're doing it yourself, it's not that bad cost wise. If you're paying to have it done, then it can get spendy fast.
Ugh. I can do my own gears, i just didn't want to get into that on a d30. Being cheap that I am, I didn't want to spend a whole lot of money on gears/ selectable lockers when the longterm plan (a year from now) is replacing it with a d44. I can't bring myself to rebuild the d30 and NOT upgrade the gears. I think I'm going to roll the dice. YOLO?
 

Therby

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Honestly, if I were in your boat...I'd do the same. It's not like you're building an axle you plan to keep.
Im close to the same, i have the artec truss amd gussets to weld on too my d30. Then when i can ill go to the torq locker and see how that does. Can install everything myself and will be less than $700 and when that exploded a nice ultimate 44 would be nice to replace
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