Dana 30

Which hubs are you using? I know a couple of guys with CJ7s who wheel hard rock trails with Dana 30s and 35" and 37" tires. The one with the 37" tires is running RCV axles, and I am not sure about the other one. I'll try to figure out what they are doing for hubs. Neither one has broken anything on the trail with me, but neither of them are throttle jockeys and they are good drivers.

Factory warn currently but I'm looking to upgrade everything on/in the axle.

There are a couple variations of CJ hub five or six bolt if I remember correctly. Both suck. Warn internal hubs are much better but you have to spend some more money.

Start by upgrading to a 44. Don’t polish a turd.

Yeah, I strongly agree.. upgrade to at least a 44

Dana 30s are gayer than aids

Says the guy driving a Toyota.

Says anyone looking at a Dana 30 under a rig a riding lawnmower has bigger axles and u joints

The old upgrade was to swap D44 knuckles and outers on.

Like others said, don't dump a bunch of money into it, but if it fits your needs, some internal hubs might be a decent up grade.

I'll be the one to go against the grain and say (old style) D44s are gay, the u joints are no bigger than the D30, so unless you are blowing r&p's up its not a huge upgrade.

In before Super HG! Oh wait .

I've battled in my head for years now on this very subject.
The D30 is getting built up a bit. Here's why:

I've sleeved, gusseted, yukon zip locked, and swapped the ring and pinion ( thanks, @waynehartwig) on a JK D30 on a weekend. Not cheap but now that I've done it a couple times, the labor isn't that bad. You just have to be patient and get it right. I now understand how awful it is that you need shims at all. Everyone else is cheating with an adjustable third member.

This particular vehicle is going to stay leaf spring under the axle. If I am going to clean off axle tubes and build it from parts off @ruffstuffspecialties, it opens a can of worms that needs to be on a different rig. When I build a crawler, it will start from a different platform. This thing is just to get me from spectator point to spectator point, fairly gnarly trail rides for what it is, or show up the Jeep Clubs struggling up some bs with "rigs" that cost 10x what mine did.

This thing was stock and cherry when i bought it. I've built it myself the whole way, including rebuilding the t4 on the floor of my garage. I actually wheel it somewhat frequently and I try my best to keep it ready to go at all times (minimal down time). Maybe it's a bit sentimental or "my baby" or something. But it's come a long way and I see the end. We've got a ways to go, but I'm only taking this one so far.

I'll do my best to document the D30 work here in between the comments on how HG I am for doing this. I know, not popular tech.

oh btw
86 Jeep CJ7 Renegade
4.2L bored once, decked. head cleaned up with new guides, seals (by pros) I reassembled.
Carb'd! MC2100 Carb. Man I thought that was the shit when I did it. Needs EFI (it starves downhill)
t-4 rebuilt by me on the floor of the garage
d300 needs rebuild and 4:1
D44 rear yukon grizzly locker 4.88 gears installed by me under the jeep on the floor.
D30 front 4.88 gears installed by me as well
Brake booster off a YJ (No power brakes for years! Had gears and a rear locker first!)
Still no power steering (I've got a stock set up on the shelf that I "recently" got for free. Just need to install)

I guess I'm a glutton for punishment.

Yes and no, those old Dana 30s had 260X joints. Cherokees with ABS in '91 are the earliest application I know of with 297X joints in a Dana 30. You are correct though, the U-joints have always been undersized on a Dana 44 in relation to the ring and pinion size. I don't understand why Dana Spicer didn't offer them with 1350 series or 1410 series U-joints from the get go. If Jeep would use some decent housings, the JK and JL axles would be pretty sweet for a rig running <40" tires.

You've got issues with your carb tuning then. My 2100 does just fine at angles. Here is a picture of my rig from this last weekend. It was running fine. Shut it off to hook up a strap for my passenger to help pull down on the front, got back in, fired it up and drove out:


Not down hill I know, but I don't have a good picture of me going down a steep hill. I haven't had the slightest issue going down hill though.

The cj ujoints are smaller than a regular 44 260 vs 760.

When I was budget building my cj dana 30 I ran Chevy small bearing knuckles spindles and used ford hub and rotor to get away from the shitty cj hubs. The problem was that cj inner shafts were the smaller 260 joint vs 760 joint on most 44 stub axles.

gm had a 44 1970-71 that used the correct length stub shaft with smaller 260 ujoints. I happened to find a set and ran this for a while until I started breaking ujoints instead of hubs.


I then narrowed a Chevy 44 housing that was the same width as my dana 30 and kept the outers.

I still have the funky stub axles if your interested and need a temporary solution.

That's the other thing that cracks me up.

"I gotta narrow this axle so my tires don't stick out"

Then narrows an axle to 52" and runs 15x10s with 3" back spacing