Gunhand1
Well-known member
Over the last couple years it's become more clear that the dirty 30 just isn't gonna cut it anymore, as much as I've tried to work around the numerous weaknesses. Between the Harlan trip cut short by a busted R&P and a pile of broken shafts(a new one nearly every trip) and constantly changing out worn parts I've finally had enough and decided to do something really dumb........I'm gonna build a dana 50 to run 35s and eventually 37s.
I obtained not one but 2 dana 50s for free from a buddy who wanted them out of his way. They have set at my house for 2 years while I pondered what to do with them. Finally I decided that they aren't worth much, so if I eff one up chopping it apart I won't feel too bad. So I cracked the top on a silver bullet and set to the work of measuring and figuring just what to do to this POS to make it fit the way I wanted.
Now I really like the way this jeep performs (when it holds together), on 35s I can crawl a lot of trails, squeeze through some tough spots with my narrow width, and it is killer at bombing down the trails. I don't really want to lose any more of those characteristics than I have to so I decided that narrowing it was gonna be on the table, and because I'm keeping the current 35s for the time being that big ole dana 60 sized chunk was gonna need dealt with.
So, Beer in hand, I set to work cutting brackets off and getting the C removed:
I measured the balljoint spacing of the 30 and the 50 and then measured and compared the BJ center line to the WMS of each and decided they were sufficiently similar to work. The final number I came up with was removing 4.75" from the long side of the 50. ( I'll have to dig through my notebook and dredge up the other dimensions).
That said the tube was hacked to size and the C was "pressed" back on.
Next up is the housing. Dropped the 9" ring and carrier in and their is a ton of room around this thing ( WTF Ford/Dana). I laid a straight edge across the face of the housing and leveled it in relation to the tubes and, giving myself about 1/16" clearance below the ring I scribed a line, and got busy with the sawzall and grinder. An hour and 3 or 4 blades later the housing was cut and cleaned up:
Now we have to close the bottom up somehow( did I mention I've never done this before?)
I traced the rough shape I'd need out on cardboard and hooked up the Amazon plasma cutter. I decided to make this a 2 piece laminated plate, one that goes inside, and another that covers it from the bottom. I don't know if this is the right way or wrong way, but it's the way I did it. I preheated the housing and set to work with the metal glue gun, welding the upper plate both inside and outside the housing. Then I ground the bottom flat, fit the lower plate, added a little more heat, and re-commenced the gluing.
A little bit of work with the grinder and file to flatten it all out and this is where she sits:
As it stands I managed to get the diff down to 4.75" from axle centerline on this heavy pig, which looks to be identical to a D30 (as best I could measure still in the jeep)
Hopefully by the end of the week I will have the diff cover figured out. And I'm gonna have to do some fitment work to make the 15" wheels fit( they should but it's tight).
Braniks website has a service for cutting/respline shafts, I'm gonna call them and make sure that the goofy necked down on these shafts won't be a problem. I'm reasonably sure that the stock shafts will live behind 35-37" tires and a tired 4.0, but time will tell. This is a budget build, obviously, but if I need to buy chromolys to keep wheeling I will.
The goal here is to keep this XJ on the trails and as trouble free as possible while I build a TJ on tons, and V8, and blah blah blah
