Dana 30 Axle

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deadlance

New member
I figured I'd show off my new (to me) axle upgrade. A buddy had an extra dana 30 jk axle sitting in his backyard, and I am in desperate need of a regear, so I talked him into letting me have his spare (in exchange for my current axle) so that I could get a truss on it and regear it without crawling under the jeep to do it all.

I've got an artec truss all welded up and am about to install 5.13s in it. Sadly still an open diff. I can't quite afford lockers just yet... but soon... hopefully.

Our first welder died during the installation of the truss, so we ended up having to get a new one.

I've also got Teraflex HD ball joints and the ARB diff cover for it.

I sandblasted it down completely and when everything was finished up, painted it with high temp brake caliper paint.

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Nice job but as mentioned, I would leave it open. All that work won't do squat to prevent ring and pinion from blowing, especially on a 5.13 in a 30.
 
wayoflife said:
Nice job but as mentioned, I would leave it open. All that work won't do squat to prevent ring and pinion from blowing, especially on a 5.13 in a 30.
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I never thought about that, I was actually just debating on getting a limited slip instead of a locker, mainly for cost purposes, but this makes it sound more like a good idea than I thought.
 
deadlance said:
I never thought about that, I was actually just debating on getting a limited slip instead of a locker, mainly for cost purposes, but this makes it sound more like a good idea than I thought.
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I think the concern is 5.13s will RUD under the stresses because the pinion is too small. And ANYTHING in your differential will be ruined in the process. If you put a LSD in it it'll be a less expensive loss. But when the pinion explodes it'll take everything inside with it...
 
deadlance said:
I never thought about that, I was actually just debating on getting a limited slip instead of a locker, mainly for cost purposes, but this makes it sound more like a good idea than I thought.
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If you are already short on money, spending anything on a Dana 30 is like lighting the money you have on fire, and hoping it don't burn.

Keep saving for a 44, for it to have any chance of survival with 5.13 gears. Don't even think of a locker or even a limited slip. The ring and pinion won't survive either.
 
jdofmemi said:
If you are already short on money, spending anything on a Dana 30 is like lighting the money you have on fire, and hoping it don't burn.

Keep saving for a 44, for it to have any chance of survival with 5.13 gears. Don't even think of a locker or even a limited slip. The ring and pinion won't survive either.
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I've managed to survive so far on a dana 30 with an open diff and 3.73 gears so far. My gear rebuild master kit only cost me 500 bucks and the truss cost me 100 bucks. I have been hunting for a dana 44 front end for a while but haven't been able to afford any of them that I have found yet. Our scrap yards / pick n pull places around here think they're made of solid gold, so this was my next best option at the moment.

So far I have about 650 bucks in my both of my axles. I already have a limited slip rear diff carrier, so for now, that's enough. I have done some decent rock crawling and haven't needed lockers just yet and have only pulled winch line 1 time in 6 years - thanks to door knob deep mud.

I'm still setting money aside for bigger and better stuff, but I needed new gears REALLY bad, so this just had to be the way for now.
 
deadlance said:
I've managed to survive so far on a dana 30 with an open diff and 3.73 gears so far. My gear rebuild master kit only cost me 500 bucks and the truss cost me 100 bucks. I have been hunting for a dana 44 front end for a while but haven't been able to afford any of them that I have found yet. Our scrap yards / pick n pull places around here think they're made of solid gold, so this was my next best option at the moment.

So far I have about 650 bucks in my both of my axles. I already have a limited slip rear diff carrier, so for now, that's enough. I have done some decent rock crawling and haven't needed lockers just yet and have only pulled winch line 1 time in 6 years - thanks to door knob deep mud.

I'm still setting money aside for bigger and better stuff, but I needed new gears REALLY bad, so this just had to be the way for now.
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I think the concern is going up to 5.13's on a dana 30. The ring and pinions are way to small in a dana 30 and trying to fit a gear ratio that large makes them susceptible to exploding...
 
Primo82 said:
I think the concern is going up to 5.13's on a dana 30. The ring and pinions are way to small in a dana 30 and trying to fit a gear ratio that large makes them susceptible to exploding...
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Truth ☝️

If you want to reheat the 30, maybe go 4.88 instead, so the gear set is stronger. It won't be quite as good of performance, but then again, how much performance can you get when you make the ring and pinion crunchy every single time it gets in a bind.
 
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