Hello,
I own an 02' TJ with a Dana 30 front axle (open diff.) and a Dana 44 rear axle (stock limited slip).  I have been slowly building the vehicle over the last 3-4 years since I have owned it including a Teralow 4:1, RE HD fixed yoke kit and Tom Woods rear drive shaft.  Since my 305-70-R16 MT/R's on 04' Rubicon Moab rims are almost worn out I am considering going to 35"-36" mud tires.  I am a bit nervous about going to this size tires due to the Dana 30 axle.  Recently I was looking at some older issues of your magazine and saw an article on the 07' Rubicon.  It seems that the driveline has been improved in almost every place possible over the previous model.  So, heres my question.  Is it feasible to swap my front Dana 30 with a new 07' Rubicon Dana 44 front axle?  I realize that the bolt pattern on the wheels will be different but I was planning on buying new wheels anyway.  I also realize that the axle is wider by 3" or so.  I was planning on either running wheel spacers or ordering wheels with less back spacing for my stock axle anyway.  I also realize that I should change the rear to the same bolt pattern for proper tire rotation.  I believe that adding an ARB locker and new gears would be approximately $1,600 with installation.  An 07' Rubicon rear axle is selling for $1,300 and I would lose the useless drums.  According to your article the suspension systems are essentially the same (5 link) but I doubt/don't know if the brackets and spring perches are located in similar places.  Or if my control arms and trac bar could be mounted to the new axle.  Then there's the issue of making the locker work!

This idea came after I saw brand new 07' Rubicon axles on ebay selling for about $1,400.  I've read your article regarding options for replacing the D30 and noticed that my scheme was absent, probably for good reason.  If this is too difficult or simply won't work than I plan to buy a Dana 44 assembly like you guys ended up doing in your TJ for $2,600.

Thanks in advance and keep up the great work.

Brian  

Yep, way doable. We left it off the list because it's not an easy bolt-in, and frankly, the axles were not easy to come buy at the time of the writing of the story. Anyway, the swap will require heavy fabrication skills. The new axles will not simply bolt up to your suspension. The JK brackets will need to be torched or cut off and replaced with TJ parts (welded on). The JK lockers are operated via a 12-volt circuit. Easy.  

I appreciate your response.

If you don't mind me asking, might you have chosen this option if they were available at the time of your build?  You guys often do similar fab work on junkyard axles so I don't believe that would be a deterent.  If the only fab I have to do is cut the brackets and weld new TJ brackets on, then I can handle that.

A side note... After recently putting a Teralow kit, RE HD fixed yoke, Tom Woods double cardan shaft, Belly Up and RE Superflex rear upper control arms to rotate my axle on my TJ, the angle of the rear spring just seems wrong.  And I seem to be bottoming out somehow.  A spring compressor is on it's way so I am going to do some driveway testing.  I think that it is either a jounce shock issue or the driveshaft is bottoming when the rear axle is fully compressed on hard hits while driving.  I see that Nth makes a bracket to fix this problem, but it adds over 1 1/2" of lift.  Suppose I do buy the 07' TJ axle, shouldn't I simply weld the spring perch and maybe even the control arm mounts to the clocked pinion angle rather than replicate stock locations?  In other words, put the brackets/perch where they were prior to rotating the axle.

Thanks again,

*** this stuff is fun.  

Not for that particular Jeep. We wanted it to be mostly bolt-on. We have another project that might get these axles though.

You can simply remove the coils and cycle the suspension to find problems. No coil compressor is needed for that but you may have to pull the shocks to let the axle droop far enough to get the coils out. It's really a smart move to check for problems like this. It could help avoid a really bad trail failure.

I would cut the JK brackets off clean and use Dynatrac or Rubicon Express heavy duty brackets for the conversion and rotate as needed. Unless there is plenty of adjustment in your control arms, then go for stock. But make sure the caster on the frontend is correct.

John