Front differential

Sport · **Posted:** Mon Sep 11, 2006 12:39 pm

Okay, so we have a d30 something up front with 3.7? gears and the diff is made of aluminum which has been proven to be not very strong when beat the right way.

Is there a differential out there that is stronger and would enable us to run 4.56 gears? also could it bolt up to the IFS?

DarbyWalters · **Posted:** Mon Sep 11, 2006 1:03 pm

No easy swap but with some work one could be fitted or made. It would take someone to make a steel housing for the stock internals...or...someone to make custom mountsn for a donor diff, new front driveshaft/ring/pinion and either customize the housing for the stock CVJ/axles or custom fit ones that work with the donor diff.

Personally I think a good fabricator could build a steel diff housing that accepted our front shafts but would be able to use standard ring/pinion...then add a new front driveshaft to compensate for the new pinion length.

Jeger · **Posted:** Mon Sep 11, 2006 1:23 pm

If I was still working at the machine shop I used to work at and had some extra time I would make a fixture or two and design a steel diff housing for the front . Once you had the fixtures made up it wouldnt take long to put one together. But I suppose if you were going to go that far why not upgrade right? It would be cheaper just to buy a custom steel housing and swap out your internals but would that suffice for the hardcore crowd?

What do you mean by "standard" R&P Darby? Or should I ask what is not standard about the ones we've got?

Jeepjeepster · **Posted:** Mon Sep 11, 2006 2:11 pm

Or, you could just swap out a front diff from the WK and call it a day. Would be much easier to figure out a way to mount it in the libby than to make a housing to fit the libby.

Sport · **Posted:** Mon Sep 11, 2006 2:16 pm

what is the stock gearing?

jg45 · **Posted:** Mon Sep 11, 2006 2:25 pm

Looks like RRO is offering a 4.11 and 4.56 for the Lib. See below:
http://www.rocky-road.com/kjdrive.html

Sport · **Posted:** Mon Sep 11, 2006 2:32 pm

Yeah, I had seen that but I think our front Diff is slightly different then a d30. I can't remember, I think Jeepin Al had said something about it.

This is what Al had said about them..

"The Dana 30A pinion gear in the front have longer shafts than the reg. Dana 30. This is what I was told a while back by a guy at Dana. I belive no after market company has gear sets yet. I have swapped in the 4.10, they work fine, but I need 4.56's with the 33's.

Al"

Jeger · **Posted:** Mon Sep 11, 2006 2:47 pm

Jeepjeepster wrote:

Or, you could just swap out a front diff from the WK and call it a day. Would be much easier to figure out a way to mount it in the libby than to make a housing to fit the libby.

How much does a front diff from a WK cost? Its a D44 right? A guy I go to church with just got a new grand, I almost couldnt resist asking him to look at the suspension and diff last sunday :lol:

Maybe I will this week.

Its not just a simple swap out is it? You would have to modify the liberty or at least fab up some custom mounts, maybe even modify the D44 in some way as well. If it is too complicated not a lot of people will go for it just to get a stronger diff, now if somehow it would enable a higher lift it would be more popular, but for the average joe or jill it would be easier just to swap out internals into a new case and maybe throw in an ARB or True-trak while you are at it.

Sport · **Posted:** Mon Sep 11, 2006 3:00 pm

jg45 wrote:

Looks like RRO is offering a 4.11 and 4.56 for the Lib. See below:
http://www.rocky-road.com/kjdrive.html

Well I called RRO and asked if this was accurate that they were selling gears for the front Liberty differentials. He didn't seem to know what I was talking about and says "these aren't the same as lockers right?" He did speak with someone and they said that they were selling the gears for the liberty, so I don't know what the story is.

Jeepjeepster · **Posted:** Mon Sep 11, 2006 4:28 pm

I dont believe the front is a dana 44 in the grands. I think its a dana30 steel housing. Could be wrong though?

jason thompson · **Posted:** Mon Sep 11, 2006 6:47 pm

the easy way's I think wold be to do a ford or gm IFS front swap I would bet that something that one of them made/makes has a front end that is very very close to the same as a KJ maby even a toy or nissan?

The other ,that I can not figure for the life of me why no one has done this, is to pull the old housing ,pull a steel 30 from a TJ, put in an arb with the r&p you want fab brackets and machine the tube ends so that they will work with the KJ shafts and be done
This is some thing that could be sold in kit for with you needing to provide the center section but they ,mfg, could supply the rest
it would be no differant than retubing a D30 diff
the drive shaft would be easy just get any of the many for the rear of a TJ and retube it
with this set up you could run 4.88 and full lockers

Jeepjeepster · **Posted:** Mon Sep 11, 2006 8:01 pm

I dont understand it either jason. Would be a very easy way to fix our problems. I guess were doing good to get what we can though.

jason thompson · **Posted:** Mon Sep 11, 2006 9:50 pm

Jeepjeepster wrote:

I dont understand it either jason. Would be a very easy way to fix our problems. I guess were doing good to get what we can though.

I would take it on my self but at the rate it takes my to install a simple skid plateon my TJ and looking at the cost
it would take me 2 years and cost me $5000 for that I could buy a used YJ and just blow it up

Front differential

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