December 17, 2022 By Nick Viggo
So it’s been almost 2 weeks since my last update. What is going on?
If you remember when we first started with white jeep, the rear differential was welded and looked like it had been chewing on loose metal bits for a while. I decided then that the diff would likely not be used for this project. I just don’t like the idea of selling something that I am completely aware that it’s just wrong and going to fail. the second issue is that it’s not really treatable. A fully locked differential will dramatically shorten tire life and possibly snap axles if driven on asphalt on the regular. So I wanted at least a drop-in locker. Well, this is not an axel that people build, it’s just not very robust. I will likely sell the jeep with the 31’s that are on it or maybe 33’s. Most people say that a 33 is the largest tire you would what on a dana 35 so maybe I’ll just stay with 31″ I think that will probably be fine for the new Jeeper/explorer or average hunter. But… there’s no taking that welded mess apart. The good news is I have another dana 35 that came out of Gray Jeep when it received the dana 44. This is where the problems start. That differential had 3.07 gears in it. We had 3.55 in the front so we need to change gearing and we definitely don’t want to go to 3.07 so here we are regearing a dana 35 and installing a drop in locker. I got myself a set of gear’s a master install kit and a lock right locker and set out to rebuild this thing myself. Now it’s not like I have never done one before but it has been a very long time. I planned on documenting the whole process but after issues with realizing that the carrier is different for 3.55 up and 3.55 down. Meaning the gearsets get thinner in the higher ratios and require a carrier to compensate for that. had to wait for that part to come in. then find out that the locker is now incorrect because the carrier now has the smaller holes for the side gears and the locker didn’t fit. I fixed that by machining the lockers coupler down to the same size as the original side gear. As best I can tell that the only difference between the two locker types, so it should be same same. We will find out in testing I suppose. Now that was resolved I can test fit the locker. Now the next issue may present itself, there is way to much gap between the spacer in the locker and the pin. So now I get to order side gear shims. I get why shops charge what they do for this work. It’s just a pain in the ass, it’s dirty, parts are confusing and it seams that almost no two axles are the same.
In any case I will let everyone know the results when this finally gets done. I will apologize now for not documenting the process but to be honest with you, it was frustrating enough without stopping to take photos all the time. The next one I should be a little better prepared for and that will likely be the Dana M210 that I will build for Gray Jeep. This is a modern axel out of the Jeep JL Rubicon model. so…. that means Eaton e-locker is present. I’m looking forward to building that!