48 thousand miles. This jeep has seen all kinds of action over its life. So should it be surprising that the front axle needed some major work? i mean, it's only a Dana 30! How long should this axle last? In retrospect, i would say we did a great job.
So, i had scheduled my biz trip to NC and also planned on hitting the Uwharrie trails with my good buddy Tim and his new Zuki Samarai. But, when turning, i noticed a wheel wobble. Let's check this out before driving 1400 miles and hitting some of the hardest trails on the east coast.
It was easy to see with the driver side jacked up that the UV joint was "not good". It was easy to see with the passenger side jacked up that the bearing was "toast".
i'm not going into details on this post about how to do this. There are posts all over telling you how to work on a Dana 30. What i want to focus on are the few points that made this take longer than it should, being my first time.
Point One: Bearings go out quickly! If you ride anything other than stock tires, and even then, check your damn bearings. The passenger side on mine was checked 2K miles prior to this work and was barely detectable. At the time of repair the damn brake rotor would move a 1/2 inch!
Point Two: Dana 30, 35 and 44 axles have no outer axle bearing. if you move the wheel and the bearing pack is bad, the axle will appear to move and you'll think "look it's all crusty that must be shot!". The axle is held by the bearing in the differential and then outside by the bearing pack at the wheel. That's it.
Point Three: All the videos will show how easy it is to press out UV joints and knock spindles out of the bearing packs. Bullshit. Especially if you installed your gear with Michigan Locktight (aka rust). In the end we had to pretty much blast the old bearing pack off of the passenger axle. "Cut off" is not a phrase usually associated with removing bearings. i would strongly suggest that if you are going to do the axle bearings or "outter" hub assembly, get tougher axle shafts as 1, they are so easy to replace at this point and 2, the UV joints should be done and 3, the stock UV joints blow. i replaced my UV joints with serviceable or grease-able joints so i can at least squeeze the water out of them. If you were really smart you'd get new shafts, fix the old ones and keep them around for you or some other wheeler who breaks theirs on the trail. i've seen at least 5 broken Dana shafts or UV joints.
Point Four: Use Lucas Oil in the differentials. The differential was in perfect shape. We noticed a slight increased tolerance in the thrust pin but no heat and no shavings.
So, i put it all back together and drove it. HOLLY COW! Man does it drive like a new jeep. i could write another 4 pages about the difference but i won't. The axle made it 48K miles but i guess i would have done it more around 35-40.
Really? Axle maintenance at 35K you say? Ok, so i had about $450 into this. Assuming the differential continues to last, you can do this again at say 70K. Then maybe once more at 100-110K. You can roll with the Dana 30 and get better gas mileage the whole time, or you can pay thousands of dollars for a Dana 44 (same outside problems) or even MORE for 1 ton or some other axle. It doesn't really make sense to me cause i have never broken anything even having my axle 3ft off the ground and running 33" tires.
Also, i know how to service this axle readily and could handle most repairs on the trail. That is worth so very much. This rig also drives from NC to MI and back. i think on this rig i'll continue to roll the 30 up front.
So did the repair work?
Check me out going up Kodak Rock! Or maybe the Daniel Slabs. Or maybe the Dickey Bell Hill Climb.
Pretty weak driving in my opinion. i was tentative with the new repairs and stalled it like a noob too many times, but you can see the front tires both digging in. You tend to get one wheel peel when you have bad bearings or frozen UV joints.
