Kk front axle

jduncan14 · **Joined:** Fri Apr 18, 2014 11:22 am **Posts:** 6

So this is my first post and unfortunately it's not a good one. Over the weekend I cracked the front axle housing on my 4x4 kk. Now I plan on doing the labor myself at my uncles shop only problem I'm running into is that I can not find any kks or nitros in the junkyards where I live. I have however found a few kjs I also found a kj on craigslist that was being parted out. My question is do both models share the same front axle? I'd rather not spend $500+ if I don't have too

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NAMoulton1 · **Joined:** Tue Aug 12, 2014 7:01 pm **Posts:** 1054

Yes, but no...

KJs have a D30a and KKs have a D30. Difference is that the pumpkin is made of of aluminum in the KJs (hence the "a"). The non-aluminum is much stronger than the aluminum one.

John3:17 · **Posted:** Tue Mar 17, 2015 9:47 pm

jduncan14 wrote:

So this is my first post and unfortunately it's not a good one. Over the weekend I cracked the front axle housing on my 4x4 kk. Now I plan on doing the labor myself at my uncles shop only problem I'm running into is that I can not find any kks or nitros in the junkyards where I live. I have however found a few kjs I also found a kj on craigslist that was being parted out. My question is do both models share the same front axle? I'd rather not spend $500+ if I don't have too

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KK's & KJ's are different - sorry

jduncan14 · **Joined:** Fri Apr 18, 2014 11:22 am **Posts:** 6

Man ok well Im definitely buying the skid plates along with the replacement housing lol. Expensive lesson learned, Thank you for the quick responses. :-)r

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Bmxer524 · **Posted:** Tue Mar 17, 2015 10:11 pm

Out of curiosity, how did you manage to crack the housing?

jduncan14 · **Joined:** Fri Apr 18, 2014 11:22 am **Posts:** 6

Haha ya so I was camping in an area called crown king here in az. My wife and two cousins left the campsite to head to the saloon which is down a road that is fairly primitive. long story short my stock suspension seemed to have had preloaded all the shocks at one time and with my luck we came down very hard on what seemed to be the only large rock on the road. I think between the gear we had and the weight of the people and dog it may have been a little to much.

tommudd · **Posted:** Tue Mar 17, 2015 11:43 pm

Lesson learned the hard way that skid plates are needed

PALiftedKK · **Posted:** Wed Mar 18, 2015 10:40 am

skid plates indeed! HD shocks and springs. and, you found the weakest part... better now then later. well, lesson learned.

you must have been really cursing! I also don't have skid plates. visually, I have never dropped down on the diff, but have taken a few beatings to the bottom of the housing. you'd be surprised on the trails I had taken my stock KK on before. I've had people tell me I wasn't going to make it. I then told them that this was my 3rd or was it my 5th time on the trail. they looked at me in dis belief.

tommudd · **Posted:** Wed Mar 18, 2015 10:56 am

But only takes one time.....................

PALiftedKK · **Posted:** Wed Mar 18, 2015 10:57 am

tommudd wrote:

But only takes one time.....................

who doesn't like shopping for Jeep parts Tom? :SOMBRERO:

jduncan14 · **Joined:** Fri Apr 18, 2014 11:22 am **Posts:** 6

PALiftedKK wrote:

skid plates indeed! HD shocks and springs. and, you found the weakest part... better now then later. well, lesson learned.

you must have been really cursing! I also don't have skid plates. visually, I have never dropped down on the diff, but have taken a few beatings to the bottom of the housing. you'd be surprised on the trails I had taken my stock KK on before. I've had people tell me I wasn't going to make it. I then told them that this was my 3rd or was it my 5th time on the trail. they looked at me in dis belief.

I'm not going to lie I was going a little faster than I should have. And ya I'm hopefully getting the OME or tommudd econo lift in may.

WhitbyKJ · **Posted:** Sun Mar 22, 2015 9:09 pm

Got halfway through reading this post and put the brakes on!!!

The kk diff is also aluminum.

The kj diff swap is possible but you need the following parts:

Kj cradle and front driveshaft
Kj dana30a
Kj intermediate shaft.

You must reuse your cvs, because the kk has 31 spline outers vs the kj's 27.

Didn't read all the way through this thread.. So excuse me if I am off key here. I just panicked when I saw that somebody said the difference between the two diffs was that the kj was aluminum... They are both alum.

I am currently swapping in a kk diff to my kj.

jduncan14 · **Joined:** Fri Apr 18, 2014 11:22 am **Posts:** 6

Lol ya I didn't say anything but when I picked the silver dollar sized chunk of axle housing up off the ground I was pretty sure it was cast aluminum.

WhitbyKJ · **Posted:** Sun Mar 22, 2015 11:35 pm

And it's a witch to braze

jduncan14 · **Joined:** Fri Apr 18, 2014 11:22 am **Posts:** 6

Oh ya I bet brazing is pretty difficult on that. Still no luck at the junkyards looks like I'm going to have to go brand new. At least I found it online for $500 instead for the almost $800 dealer price.

Kk front axle

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