Hey Guys,
  Just some questions, I've a 91 2 door with an Auto tranny. I've the calmini 3 in, and Lockers.  I'm thinking of putting a Dana 30 out of an older CJ5 in the front.

 I'm curios has anyone out there done this? What's the width diffierence, as this is my daily driver I, don't want to go any wider than I am. Also is there anyway I can get away with using my stock Disc brakes? or will it be better to try to find some off a Cherokee or something?
 Any advise, I'll Take it.
Thanks in advance

As far as brakes go, I'm pretty sure you'll have to get some Jeep brakes, as the kick ones probably won't work.

Why not Toyota pickup solid axles? Aren't they stronger than Dana 30's and about the same width as a TrackKick?

Make sure you can match the diff gear
ratios too, would be a shame if you did
all that work and you can't get gears to
work out tha same ratios

I think the width is OK, if you want a SAS
on a Track/Kick, I'm staying IFS, I think
it's got a better ride, on and off road

Wild

Thanks,
And keep it coming.
    As far as the Dana 30, I can't beat the price. Free is always happy.  I was afraid of that on the Brakes though.

    The biggest reason for doing the SAS is trying to Bullet Proof the under carrage as much as possible. I've a bad habbit of trying the impossible until I break something and end up walking.  It's getting to the point that the dogs even hesitaing to come wheeling with me anymore.

     As far as the Gears are concerned, I think that you can find almost gear in the Dana 30 can't you.  And for that matter I wonder how hard it would be to addapt it to take the Suzuki 3rd member.

yes just about every gear not 5:12's. u can have a set cut from any gearshop. look in offroad mags for info. the brakes if they r drum i would buy a dics conversion and call hoses specialties they can fit any fitting to any fitting and they have stainless sreel line availadle. i got the # from my peterson's mag.

soory i forgot the dana 30 will not be as strong as ur rear axle if u upgrade with calmini shafts. i am going to have a custom set mad from an industrial aloy taht can take 2500 kilitons of twist on 1 inch diameter. good luke and post pics there worth a thousand words,

Thanks,
And keep it coming.
    As far as the Dana 30, I can't beat the price. Free is always happy.  I was afraid of that on the Brakes though.

    The biggest reason for doing the SAS is trying to Bullet Proof the under carrage as much as possible. I've a bad habbit of trying the impossible until I break something and end up walking.  It's getting to the point that the dogs even hesitaing to come wheeling with me anymore.

     As far as the Gears are concerned, I think that you can find almost gear in the Dana 30 can't you.  And for that matter I wonder how hard it would be to addapt it to take the Suzuki 3rd member.

If you are trying to Bullet Proof you'r under carrage, why a 30?  Your still going to have breakage.  I'm in the same boat.  I have 35 inch boggers that love to ruin my stock running gear.  You mentioned cherokees.  I had planned on running 44s front and rear out of a cherokee.  Then my last trip happened.  When we all finaly got to where we could play on some serious rocks...BANG! another left rear axle.  I don't ever want to worry about breakage.  If I got the 44s I would be going to a tire around 38" tall...too much.  Since that is the size I would like to run, and I don't want to be as wide a Rockwells I decided on a bigger axle that will keep me on the trail ALL day.  ( bigger than a 44 not bigger than a Rockwell).  I guess after my tangent, my two cents is, if you are going to take the time and money to swap out axles, why not swap in what you will think will be overkill.  If your like me it wont be overkill for long.
Brian

Width you will be fine. I was measuring this weekend;\Stock Kick rear axle 57.5" from wheel mounting surface(WMS) to WMS,
Stock CJ 56" WMS to WMS
CJ Wide track 58" WMS to WMS

How big are you wnating to go? A D30 will be OK up to 33's with hard use but would need to be upgraded if you did much more than that.

Definately check the gear ratio's available. I bet it's expensive to have some custom made fro you.

Zig

Thanks again,
 Fort the advise, right now I'm only Running 31's for a couple of reasons: Street leagle with constant changing lift laws, anti-breakage, lower center of gravity for the, Dang I shouldn't be here moments, and power concerns.
 I was out with some Jeep guys the other day  and learned that my Trackick with 31's had more clearance over the rear pumpkin that a guy that was running 35's with a Dana 60 so that was a good thing.
 I appreciate the info on width and the conversion stuff for the disc brakes. I've learned the hard way to like those a lot. (Last rig started with drums)

I have a 74 CJ6 which has trhe D30 front with the drums. To get discs on, I have to swap the knuckles out from a Jeep D30 with discs, or go custom.

One of the things most people don't think nor anticipate with axle swap is the braking and unsprung weight. The weight is a really big deal. It takes horsepower to get going, then takes larger brakes to make it stop. It's a big drag on the performance of the vehicle. Something to be concerned with.

As for comparison to a D44 to a D30, only majoe differences is the size of the overall ring and pinion, and the axle diameter coming out of the carrier. Otherwise, it's all the same. Both axles use the same joint (D30 axles upgraded and not stock from years ago). Both axles are machined down to their appropriate size to fit into the carrier.  Usually, the axles get sheared at this location, unless the joint blows.

Now in the latest Petterson's I think, Tri-County Gear has worked with ARB to get the D30 locker to use the D44 shaft (slightly larger diameter) to be used in the D30 housing, as well as the D44 locker to use the D60 shafts. This provides lower unsprung weight, better ground clearance, and better axles overall.

So if you go the D30 route, match it up with a D44, and follow Tri-County's work. They use this setup under their competition YJ crawler - that yellow bodied, blue framed thing.

Superior Co. already has a "Super 30" kit that beefs up

the Dana 30 axle with chromemoly 30 spline shafts

(stock is 27 spline)and the larger 297/760 U-joints.The

kit comes with an ARB locker,so it's expensive.

High numerical ring & pinions available for the D30 are

4.56 , 4.88 , and 5.38.That might be an issue for a

Sidetrack.Forget about having a custom ratio made

unless you're prepared to pay for a run of a 100 sets.

ok ur dana 30 proposal got me thinking because i have an old jeep with the same set up. oh newer jeeps have a drivers side output form the t-case those who care and a tracker is a passenger side output. ox has a set of shafts, u-joints, and stubs that they claim will make ur dana 30 as strong as a 60. a 44 would be more that enough with 44 inch tires and 160 hp. of corse that is on a rubicon and he has had no breaks sence he bought it. the dana 30 with the upgraded shafts should work great and ox said they will cut custom gear sets but that it can get pricy.

ox has a set of shafts, u-joints, and stubs that they claim will make ur dana 30 as strong as a 60. a 44 would be more that enough with 44 inch tires and 160 hp. of corse that is on a rubicon and he has had no breaks sence he bought it. the dana 30 with the upgraded shafts should work great and ox said they will cut custom gear sets but that it can get pricy.

You can upgrade the shafts on a D30 but there's nothing you can do about the strength of the 7.2" diameter ring gear and the higher you go numerically with the ratio the weaker it gets.
 Also,most of the D30s out there are narrowtrack which is 53" between WMS (by my measurement),that's too narrow for a Kick.You'd need a widetrack,it's 3 1/4" wider.I'm not trying to knock the idea of using a Dana 30 but I think it'd be a better choice for a Samurai where you can adjust the high range gearing with a transfercase gearset.

If memory serves the diff on my scout 800 is about three inches wider than my CJ5 was.  To bad its only a dana 25 (and I even have a posi for it).

If memory serves the diff on my scout 800 is about three inches wider than my CJ5 was.  To bad its only a dana 25 (and I even have a posi for it).

I think your right, A scout should be a little wider that a CJ widetrack (59-60")

Zig