Fixing the ugly gap on rough country diff skids

[stretch-bsn]

After banging my rear diff on an obstacle at wolf’s den I decided before going to Moab (heading out on the 29th of this month!) I should get some diff skids.

I had the Dana 35 and 30 RC diff skids and they were great. I heard and have seen the RC diff skids for the Dana 44 axles don’t bolt into the diff without a gap so I was able to remedy that. I had some old brass spacers from a chopper project I never used for the rear and then just found some nuts with the same thread pitch to level out the front.

Rattle canned with some silver to match the new shocks and good to go!

best thing was I only lost 1/2” of clearance with these. That’s a win in my book!

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[BillyToronto]

Thanks for the post, was installing my RC rear skid yesterday, had the 4 dif bolts on and noticed the gap on the rear bridge piece. I stopped and took it off, figuring there was no way RC would make the piece 1/4"-1/2" too short, as the front skid had a perfect fit.

 

[c20040215]

I dont know why they didnt include the spacers. I measured the gaps and got spacers from the hardware store, both front and rear. Everything else is fine and they have done their jobs.

Good cost to performance ratio.

 

[stretch-bsn]

I dont know why they didnt include the spacers. I measured the gaps and got spacers from the hardware store, both front and rear. Everything else is fine and they have done their jobs.

Good cost to performance ratio.

yeah man I agree I have no idea why they wouldn’t either.
Have you heard of the front diff skid bracket hitting the oil pan during hard wheeling? I just ran across 2 different people on this forum who said that….I wasn’t sure if it was a freak thing.
I had these same diff skids on my Dana 30-35 before I swapped axles to the Dana 44’s and never had an issue.

 

[Terrymo]

After banging my rear diff on an obstacle at wolf’s den I decided before going to Moab (heading out on the 29th of this month!) I should get some diff skids.

I had the Dana 35 and 30 RC diff skids and they were great. I heard and have seen the RC diff skids for the Dana 44 axles don’t bolt into the diff without a gap so I was able to remedy that. I had some old brass spacers from a chopper project I never used for the rear and then just found some nuts with the same thread pitch to level out the front.

Rattle canned with some silver to match the new shocks and good to go!

best thing was I only lost 1/2” of clearance with these. That’s a win in my book!

Looks like you got some great help for all your projects

 

[c20040215]

yeah man I agree I have no idea why they wouldn’t either.
Have you heard of the front diff skid bracket hitting the oil pan during hard wheeling? I just ran across 2 different people on this forum who said that….I wasn’t sure if it was a freak thing.
I had these same diff skids on my Dana 30-35 before I swapped axles to the Dana 44’s and never had an issue.

Not oil pan but the bracket did contact the upper control up slightly. I have control arm drop brackets that change the geometry of control arms. That may be why. I trimmed off the diff skid bracket about 0.25" and that solve the issue.

 

[CopperMtnGuy]

Interesting - same axles and same skid plates, I don't have a gap on either of mine. I've wheeled it decently (two trips to Moab and some local stuff), both stock and lifted, and since being lifted, added an Evo oil pan skid, never had any contact with anything (even with the sway bar disconnected).

 

[stretch-bsn]

Interesting - same axles and same skid plates, I don't have a gap on either of mine. I've wheeled it decently (two trips to Moab and some local stuff), both stock and lifted, and since being lifted, added an Evo oil pan skid, never had any contact with anything (even with the sway bar disconnected).

are you sure you don’t have a Dana 30 and Dana 35 set of axles? I had an original set of Dana 30 and 35 with the rough country skids and it fit well but when I swapped axles out to the Dana 44s and got Dana 44 rough country skid plates that is when the gap occurs

 

[CopperMtnGuy]

are you sure you don’t have a Dana 30 and Dana 35 set of axles? I had an original set of Dana 30 and 35 with the rough country skids and it fit well but when I swapped axles out to the Dana 44s and got Dana 44 rough country skid plates that is when the gap occurs

Oh I missed the part that you swapped! yeah I'm 30/35.

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