Front Dif Collar -where can I buy? & gen. front dif Q's

scoobysnax · **Posted:** Mon Nov 12, 2007 4:43 pm

I’ve read a couple of posts about people’s front difs cracking. First off, my heart goes out to all of you how have had this fail that absolutely sucks. Hopefully the dealer covers it but it sounds like it’s been a toss up (and I can’t believe they still haven’t changed it.) Now here are my questions:

1 – I have read about a Front Dif Collar that you can buy. I saw a picture of one installed and it was yellow and I believe it’s also aluminum. Where can I buy one? How much does it cost? (I have an ’04 Limited with Select-Track (Full Time))

2 – I have some fears now about mine cracking. I know I’m not going to get a certain answer but I’d like to know everyone’s best guess one the following scenarios. The manual says don’t spin any wheel faster than 25mph so let’s assume that to be true in all cases.

A – driving on a snowy/icy road up a hill. Your front wheels are spinning and then one of them catches on a clean area of pavement

B – driving up a hill on a dirt trail with large dips. The underlying surface is bedrock that is exposed in certain sections. Your front wheels never leave the ground but one is spinning from the loose dirt/sand/gravel and then suddenly catches

I guess I have another question as I’m thinking about this. Is it better (to prevent this from happening) to be in 4L rather than 4H? My thought is that in 4H you wheels might spin faster due to higher gearing but you’ll have lower torque putting less stress on the components?

Or is 4L better b/c you’ll have better control of the tires if they spin and you can (try) to back off the gas. Maybe going up hills backwards is better so you have more traction on the front wheels and won’t need to worry about them slipping as much? Ha!

scoobysnax · **Posted:** Mon Nov 12, 2007 10:54 pm

No one has any thoughts? I realize know one will be able to take this as gospel, I just want to get an idea of the limts. Anyone? Bueler? Bueler?...

0311_DoC · **Posted:** Mon Nov 12, 2007 11:23 pm

the only thing I ever heard of was from this custom 1 time buy:

http://www.lostjeeps.com/forum/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=9691&highlight=diff+collar

03CDKJ · **Posted:** Mon Nov 12, 2007 11:44 pm

I'd like one also. Just in case. If you find any please advise.

Troysterr · **Posted:** Mon Nov 12, 2007 11:47 pm

I don't think anyone has any difinitive answers. The lousy thing just blows up when it wants to.

The only sure fix for the problem is to swap out the suspension for SFA. The diff collar is a theoretical fix that makes sense to me, but there isn't any real proof that it will do anything. I think the collar is worth the expense (so I bought one), but I'm too lazy to actually install it. :oops:

On the other hand, I haven't heard of anyone blowing their diff after installing the collar. Anyone else?

scoobysnax · **Posted:** Tue Nov 13, 2007 12:04 am

Troyster - you too lazy to ship it? If it's just laying around maybe I could take it off your hands?

scoobysnax · **Posted:** Tue Nov 13, 2007 12:07 am

How about the snow situation? There is a road I know I am going to take this winter at least twice. The first 80' of the road is a right turn followed by a very steep paved section. You can't make it up in 2wd if there is any ice and in 4wd there is always a lot of wheel spin. I don't want to find myself 300 miles from my place s. out of luck.

BeepBeepJeepJeep · **Posted:** Tue Nov 13, 2007 12:10 am

scoobysnax wrote:

How about the snow situation? There is a road I know I am going to take this winter at least twice. The first 80' of the road is a right turn followed by a very steep paved section. You can't make it up in 2wd if there is any ice and in 4wd there is always a lot of wheel spin. I don't want to find myself 300 miles from my place s. out of luck.

wheel spin is okay as I understand it, it's the sudden grabbing of traction that kills it.

Troysterr · **Posted:** Tue Nov 13, 2007 1:39 am

scoobysnax wrote:

Troyster - you too lazy to ship it? If it's just laying around maybe I could take it off your hands?

You'd be amazed at how lazy I am.

I'll give it some thought--if I don't get a chance to install it soon I'd rather you get some use out of it. I'll let you know.

Rush345 · **Posted:** Tue Nov 13, 2007 1:58 am

Troysterr wrote:

scoobysnax wrote:

Troyster - you too lazy to ship it? If it's just laying around maybe I could take it off your hands?

You'd be amazed at how lazy I am.

I'll give it some thought--if I don't get a chance to install it soon I'd rather you get some use out of it. I'll let you know.

You got any sliders or skids you don't want?? :-)r

USAFCOP · **Posted:** Tue Nov 13, 2007 2:12 am

I have the collar on my diff, and everyone seems to think I abuse mine, and it has been fine...

Also, my collar will be for sale with a lot of other stuff (probably will have a huge sale after I get back from the sandbox in Aug if RL doesn't sell the stuff for me).

bugnout · **Posted:** Tue Nov 13, 2007 11:56 pm

Success, see this topic in the CRD section http://www.lostjeeps.com/forum/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=26526

FastTRX · **Posted:** Wed Nov 14, 2007 3:30 pm

scoobysnax wrote:

How about the snow situation? There is a road I know I am going to take this winter at least twice. The first 80' of the road is a right turn followed by a very steep paved section. You can't make it up in 2wd if there is any ice and in 4wd there is always a lot of wheel spin. I don't want to find myself 300 miles from my place s. out of luck.

You'll most likely never ever hear of someone cracking the 30A without bringing a front tire off the ground. Most all of the Midwest guys (including myself) broke theirs by bringing a wheel up (climbing rock), and just the wheel spin and coming down hard takes the cake.

If you're scared of it...don't wheel the liberty. It's simple as that. I would like to think they engineered these parts to withstand some beating...but if the diff cracks while you're spinning on an uphill....I'd take it and throw it through the HQ of Chrysler.... :lol:

J/K!!! Dont worry about it...drive the Jeep! Like the motto goes...."Life is good!"

03CDKJ · **Posted:** Wed Nov 14, 2007 11:43 pm

Whatever Evan! Hahahha, Yo whatup it's Chris. quit messing around on this forum and post those pics from the Halloween Run or I'll throw a Diff collar in your face. :twisted:

Oh and is the KJ back together?

FastTRX · **Posted:** Thu Nov 15, 2007 12:27 am

cdiekhans wrote:

Whatever Evan! Hahahha, Yo whatup it's Chris. quit messing around on this forum and post those pics from the Halloween Run or I'll throw a Diff collar in your face. :twisted:

Oh and is the KJ back together?

Chris,

I'm tellin' ya....Garret is too busy messing around with his girlfriends to get them sent to me via email. If they were my pictures I'd have them up already!! lol...yea the KJ is back and running (thank god). Hows your friend doing?

When you ready to ride again? I'm ready... :twisted:

-Evan

Cobalt-60 · **Posted:** Sat Nov 17, 2007 9:56 am

bugnout wrote:

Success, see this topic in the CRD section http://www.lostjeeps.com/forum/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=26526

Okay, so does anybody know if this one will work (with modification) for the gasers?

Or any other current options?

Dje Ryu · **Posted:** Sat Nov 17, 2007 1:39 pm

The company that I work for makes split rings like those but, they're about twice as wide. However, I'm sure we probably already make one that would be about the right diameter. If anyone can get me the outside diameter of the differential (measure a couple of directions to see if it is "egg-shaped") as well as measure the amount of clearance, or just get the measurements from one of these collars, I could probably make a bunch for relatively cheap. I'd have to talk to my boss about materials and such but, I'd need to know how much metal would be involved. I can already tell you that it's about 2-3 hours of machine time to make one though so don't expect to find them for wal-mart prices, anywhere.

I can measure my diff but being as it's cast, each one is likely to be slightly different so measurements from several to get a good average would be good, then the ring could be made to fit snug on all of them.

bugnout · **Posted:** Sat Nov 17, 2007 6:32 pm

Cobolt-60 wrote:

bugnout wrote:

Success, see this topic in the CRD section http://www.lostjeeps.com/forum/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=26526

Okay, so does anybody know if this one will work (with modification) for the gasers?

Or any other current options?

Same differential, less space on the CRD due to different cross member, so if it fits on the CRD, it will definitely fit on the gasser.

Front Dif Collar -where can I buy? & gen. front dif Q's

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