Swapping 2.35 gears out of the front... questions

[FredCDobbs]

I have been through this ordeal with the front Dana 30 geared for 2.35.  When you say you bought a front axle geared for 3.54 I hope you mean housing and all.  The difference lies in the housing used for the 2.35 and the rest of the ratios.  I don't know if it was dana or amc that modified the housings.  The carriers for the 2.35 gears are the same as the other low range carriers.  In order to change my front gears to 3.45 I had to by a housing from an 82 wagon already geared for that ratio.  I have yet to dive into the Dana 35 rear axle to change it to 3.54 and put in a Detroit Truetrac which I just bought.  Please Lord, let there be no surprises there!

[txjeeptx]

I don't know about all that - I did get an entire housing, shafts n all. The shafts were damaged in shipping. The ends where the CV 1/2 shafts mount were severely bent.

The axle shop (Thrash Differential, SATX) had already pressed a couple of bearings and fresh seals into my 2.35 factory housing, so we took the gears and carrier from the 3.54 housing and stuffed em into the 2.35 housing, and it worked fine. It doesnt make sense that there would be two different housings, but three or even four different carriers for the D30 is plausible, since its been around for about half a century.

Hmmm, there's the Jeep D30 with two carriers that don't work in the Eagle D30, then there's the Eagle carrier for 2.35 to 3.07 gears(which won't work in a Jeep D30 or fit the aftermarket 3.55 Jeep D30 gears), then there's the 4 cylinder Eagle D30 with factory 3.54 gears(which is probably unique, didn't get a pic, can pop off the cover for a pic), so that's a total of four  different carriers for the D30.

In the end, I have the gears I needed in a well built housing. The key was locating the factory 3.54 gearing, which was from a 4 cylinder car. Now for a coating of POR-15 black and a mock-fit to the engine, which I will definitely take pics of. Has anyone ever taken a pic of the front axle mounted to the engine out of the car?

And Woody, you've been Outlawed.

[demonicdragon]

this whole front axle housing is making my head go in circles. lol. so confusing..i hope i have the right carrier to put in 3.55s

[FredCDobbs]

[FredCDobbs]

Per reply #35. Yikes another typo.  The phrase "jeep Dana 35 case will not help" should read "jeep Dana 30 case will not help".   Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.

[eaglefreek]

Thanks Fred! Tha's quite a lot of info and also answers a few questions including people getting half shaft fitment problems. Is what you are referring to as the case the same as the carrier, what the ring gear bolts to?

[FredCDobbs]

Yes, I am using "case" and "carrier" interchangebly.

[demonicdragon]

jeese...this does not look good to give my 85 eagle the 3.54 i wanted to put in her...

[havasuhd]

YUCK!!!  I was just pointed to this thread by Eaglefreek and what a mess!!  I have just installed a Ford 8.8 rearend in my Car with 3.73 gears and want to put those gears in the front as well......

So....... I saw something in the beginning of this thread posted by Dansvan that I am hoping is a loophole, Can I just make a custom ring gear spacer to put 3.73's in my current carrier?

[mick]

YUCK!!!  I was just pointed to this thread by Eaglefreek and what a mess!!  I have just installed a Ford 8.8 rearend in my Car with 3.73 gears and want to put those gears in the front as well......

So....... I saw something in the beginning of this thread posted by Dansvan that I am hoping is a loophole, Can I just make a custom ring gear spacer to put 3.73's in my current carrier?

A spacer is just what I was thinking.  You could start by stacking washers of the same type between the ring gear and carrier, obtain a propper setup pattern, remove the washers, have a spacer machined to that size and you should be good.  Be sure to put some shims under both carrier bearings to give some adjustability when the spacer is machined.  Sounds to me like there may be a bit of demand for spacer.

[demonicdragon]

that sounds like an idea

[txjeeptx]

I was going to go the spacer-route Mick has described, but was able to find a 4 cylinder Eagle front axle with 3.54 gears at a salvage yard. Eventually the 4cyl front axles will become pretty hard to come by. Mine wasn't that bad $-wise, even with shipping it from Massachusetts to Texas. I could have had the salvege yard ship me just the carrier with the 3.54 ring'n'pinion, since that's all I used.

Fred, thanks for the article.

This thread can get very confusing - Basically, if you have a 2.35 geared car, you can not use the original carrier to install lower gears into the front axle. The good news is that the lower gear carrier can be found in salvage yards in 4 cylinder Eagles, and it can be swapped into the original housing that had yer car's 2.35s in it. I dont know if aftermarket gears work with this carrier, since I didn't have to replace the gears for my axle(the ratio was right for me, and the gears were fine for re-use), so there may still be an issue with trying to swap in aftermarket 3.73 gears.

Another thing to consider is that the half shafts under the Eagle are not very well suited to low gearing coupled to large tires - there comes a point where its better to just bite the bullet and do a solid front axle like Mick's creations.

I fergot to take pics of the engine and front axle mock-up out of the car. Sorry, y'all.

[IowaEagle]

So basically, we need to salvage front and rear? differentials from all of the rusted out 4 cylinder models we can still find.

[txjeeptx]

Definitely  the 4 cylinder front axles need to be saved at every possible opportunity, since they came with the lower gear carrier. It is the key to lower axle ratios with the factory IFS.

I wonder, since the Dodge Dakota 4x4 pickup uses a Dana 30 front, if it shares low ratio carriers with our Eagles. 

Rear axles are not as important to save, unless you really want to stick with original equipment, since there are better design axles in abundance and they are relatively easy to swap in.

[mick]

I agree from this day forward...............................
NO SCRAPPING OF 4CYL FRONT AXLES!!!!!!!!