[XJ-Ray]

Hello everyone, first post here (I have a '93 Bronco that I have posted about on BroncoZone). My son has been playing bumper cars with my 2000 XJ. The last event involved a jumped curb that punched a 3" hole in the tire, damaged the aluminum rim and the lower swing arm mount on the right side (the flange on the axle now has an "N" shape to it, body shop said not repairable). I have acquired a HP Dana off a '98 from the salvage yard. Asking for some opinions/advice. Gotta love the tree huggers, the salvage yard (at least here in VA) drills the bottom of the diff cover to drain the fluid so it doesn't leak into the dirt; 1st question, any recommendations on a replacement cover? Stock steel, chrome, aluminum, with drain plug, w/o, recommended manufacturers? :dunno: I'm thinking stock w/red paint... too generic? I've replaced the front fenders and the grill, going with an Army standard camo paint job w/Rustoleum flat camo, so far I have base green on the fenders, grill and hood, the rest is burgundy =:-o

I've been cleaning the axle in my driveway. There is a significant amount of gunk on the right side, mostly on the upper side of the lower arm where ball joint mounts, wondering if there may be a bad axle seal? The other side not nearly as bad. The whole axle was very greasy, so donor vehicle must have had bad engine seals anyway. I want to replace the axle seals and bearings, is that possible without removing the gears? My first foray into the realm of axle rebuilds. :thumbsup:

I don't have a good bench to work on, so my plan is to clean, paint, then install, which will provide the holding power to get the axle nuts off. Then I can disassemble the steering knuckles. The U-joints look good, I'm thinking the ball joints may be good as well, maybe even the hubs. Wondering if I should just replace while I have it opened up, or drive with what's there first and see how they perform?

Any thoughts and recommendations will be greatly appreciated, thanks!

 

[XJ-Ray]

So, I did some searching on YouTube for 'Dana 30 rebuild' and found some good stuff that answered my questions. I can't post the links yet, but you can copy the switch and paste it in after 'youtube.com/' and they should come up...

/watch?v=AxVdKoZXWmo Dana 30 teardown - if this kid can do it, I can do it...
/watch?v=vCJ3HYUJUf0 Dana 30 build - This is a much higher level of complication, installing and setting up new gears. I don't have the dial indicators and vernier calipers for this, so, if I keep all the same stuff in the same places, I should be good.
/watch?v=3ff8SuQmTrU 89 XJ Dana 30 Axle Tube Seals, HD Diff Cover, Adams DS, Unit Bearings - Now this guy is pretty funny, colorful language; but answers my question as to the diff cover, installing new seals - the carrier has to come out of the differential housing. Even though I have the axle off the car, it may be just as easy to work on it when in place on the vehicle. So, keeping the existing bearings in the diff, not messing with the pinion gear/drive shaft yoke, will remove the gears, pull the old axle shaft seals, clean the tubes and housing, put in new seals, and reassemble... piece of cake, right? Riiiiight....

 

[XJ-Ray]

I have the axle staged in the driveway near my garage on my car ramps so I can work on it. Two cans of engine degreaser and two more cans of carburetor cleaner, a significant amount of wire brushing and wire wheeling with the drill and the axle was essentially clean. Unfortunately, most of the grease and gunk is now on the ramps, will need to clean them before they get used again.
Gave the axle a good wash with dish soap, rinsed and let it dry; then painted with Rustoleum rusty metal primer, followed by rustoleum gloss black. I didn't paint anything outboard of the slingers. Will work to get the axle installed in the Jeep this week.

Last night I ordered the Poison Spider Bombshell diff cover. Also picked up National axle shaft seals, Valvoline 80/90 gear oil, a Fel-pro diff cover gasket and more brake cleaner for when I'm inside the housing. Will likely get the outer axle shaft seals to replace the slingers. Need to get new shocks to put in while I've got the front end broken down to parade rest. :salute:



Happy Fathers Day everyone!

 

[XJ-Ray]

Flash back to the body repair, obtained replacement fenders, bezel, grill; disassembled damaged components, painted and installed the salvage parts... Had a visit by a very cool spider at one point. Have the grill and headlight bezels in place now as well.

 

[XJ-Ray]

The Poison Spyder diff cover arrived, its very cool. Will likely paint the spider design red as in the pic, or flat green to match the camo. On track to drop the axle this weekend; need to order shocks!

 

[biffgnar]

Make sure you cycle your front suspension with the springs removed. Big aftermarket front diff covers have a habit of hitting trackbars with your front end geometry. Bumpstop extension can be necessary to prevent.

 

[XJ-Ray]

Thanks for the heads up, the diff cover is a little deeper than stock. Shouldn't interfere from what I've read, but will check it out.

 

[XJ-Ray]

Began extraction of the old axle, only broke one sway bar link at this point (those things tend to weld themselves together somehow. Old shock out, shot. Most fasteners coming loose without too much trouble, liberal amounts of PB Blaster in use. Should have it fully out and the new one in place by end of day Saturday.

 

[XJ-Ray]

After much PB Blaster, wire brushing, sweat (90 deg this week in the driveway), and swears the old axle assembly is out. I have an electric impact wrench which came in handy. This was the second axle, a shop put it in; mechs seem to always over torque bolts (i.e. to the point of deforming the steering stabilizer mount point). Picked up new SensaTrack shocks and Moog Sway Bar links and put those in as well. Used a trolley jack to move the replacement axle into place and lift it. First put the springs in place, then the sway bar links, the axle shaft, shocks, steering stabilizer and cross member, steering linkage to the knuckles. The lower swing arms connected up with a little shoving, the left upper required a torque applied at the steering knuckle using a a piece of wood from the hub to the lower brake slide to tip the axle back. Here's where the problem lies - the upper right swing arm is about .5 in. back from the mount on the axle. This must be a result of the trauma to the vehicle when it went over the curb, the mount point on the unibody frame is out of position from the impact. It also appears that the front sway bar has a twist as the angles are different on the left and right links. A body shop on the corner said they can relocate the right upper swing arm mount with a frame machine they have. Next stop after the diff cover goes on and fluid goes in and all the bolts are torqued. Probably not a good idea to drive very far with only three of the swing arms connected!

 

[biffgnar]

Get yourself an adjustable control arm that can be lengthened. Changing the control arm mount on only one side going to do screwy things to your link geometry. Then once it is hooked up you'll need to check that axle is square.

 

[XJ-Ray]

Get yourself an adjustable control arm that can be lengthened. Changing the control arm mount on only one side going to do screwy things to your link geometry. Then once it is hooked up you'll need to check that axle is square.

Yes, I've seen some of those I need to consider. I did manage to get the 4th control arm attached, I put that update in another thread, 'hard time installing passenger upper control arm' I copied that post from 6/30/18 here:
"Ran into this today. My solution was to remove the sway bar link (to eliminate the downward force from the sway bar), jack the axle from just under the tie rod end at the steering knuckle, and to lift the body to alleviate that downward force from the spring; running a rope from just under the upper right bushing mount on the front axle to the rear axle and put a strain on it, as well as jack the left front at the spring mount to add additional torque to turn the axle top toward the rear. Ultimately, I got the holes to line up within a 1/16 in., had to press the bolt through with a C clamp (the bolt does have a significant taper to the end, maybe for this reason?). At any rate, front axle attached."

As the axle I replaced was damaged in a 'curb-jump' incident, I'm not convinced the passenger upper control arm mount on the frame isn't somewhat deformed, if only a little. I'm working to replace the ball joints (Moog) and the bearing hubs (Timken), as well as all the dust boots on the tie rods. Once I get through all that I'll get an alignment and see what they find, and then go for the adjustable UCR if needed. I just installed dark tinted glass extracted from a '98 in the salvage yard, both rear doors and quarters. After the hubs are in, I'll be having a dark back glass installed at a shop as its mounted like a wind shield with bonding glue. Still need to finish the camo paint job, once it cools off and the humidity drops, likely in September.

 

[biffgnar]

Once bolted up, I'd suggest measuring to see if the axle is square.

 

[XJ-Ray]

Once bolted up, I'd suggest measuring to see if the axle is square.

What would be the best points to measure from / to? Is it primarily front to back on each side?

 

[biffgnar]

What would be the best points to measure from / to? Is it primarily front to back on each side?

I believe a lot of people do a criss-cross measurement

 

[XJ-Ray]

Wow! Time flies when you're having fun! My bad to leave this thread hanging... I decided to go with new upper and lower control arms and bushings. All was going well until I got to the uppers that press in. I didn't want to go into a pitched battle with the bushings so I took it to a local garage, he had it for three days. One day the vehicle wasn't even at his shop! I think he took it somewhere else to have the bushings pressed out and new ones pressed in - glad I farmed that out. There is a Jeep specific tool for that job, but I couldn't locate one. Since then it's had an alignment and a new set of Cooper Discoverer AT3 4S P235/75R15s. Running well, though I've noticed a slight whine from the front diff when I take my foot off the gas. Pulled the diff plug and the magnet had a good bit of shavings on it (maybe 1/16"?). I changed the fluid and put in Lucas 75W90 GL5 synthetic gear oil. Now I'm looking into a front differential rebuild! That on top of the transfer case NP242 that is slipping and needs a rebuild as well. 220,000 miles on the engine, lord knows how many miles are on the front diff.