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Convering 86 d30 cad to 93 d30

9

93bluebeast

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Oregon
So here is the skinny, i have a 93 xj witj stock gears, 3.55? I plan on lifting it but being that its my dd and im cheap/broke im trying to do it in stages. First problem is tge gear ratio. I pulled a dana 30 out of a 86 xj with stock 4.10 gears and i plan on pullin a 8.8 with 4.10s out of an exploder cuz i cant afford to pay someone to regear my axles and i wouldn't dump any money into my d35. I bought 2 sets of g2 balljoints for 80 bucks off of cl and am lookin at doing hubs assembly as well. My question is can i pull the knuckles, rotors etc off my 93 and put them on my 86 axle and then just go buy 93 hub assemblies? I plan on pulling the inner shaft off of it as well and doing the seal and plate kit from rustys to get rid of the cad system. I would stick with the stocl knucles but dont want to buy new rotors calipers and pads for the 86 when the 93s are new.
 
Thanx clyde, been a p.i.t.a. trying to get this project going on a tight budget. Local shop wanted 1200 tp regear just the fronts and another place wanted 500 with me buying all the parts. Cost me 150 for the axle, 125 for the ruffstuff diff, 80 for ball joints and maybe another 100 if i do the hub assembly. I know shops have to kill baby unicorns and use the horns to install gears but 1200 fpr one axle?!?
 
$1200 for one regear is a ripoff even with parts. If you were closer I would help you do it yourself. Check with some of your local guys I bet someone can help....
 
Thanx for the advice mopar, so keeping with my cheapskate project i was curious if i were to run 32s should i pull some 95+ axle shafts with the larger u joints or keep my 93 shafts? Also do i reuse my 93 hub assembly or buy new and if so are the timkens worth it? The 93s bearings feel tight and i doubt i would be doin much with boulders. Sorry if my questions are dumb and im sure it's frustrating for most here with the money to build what they want how they want.
 
Don't read too much into the smaller d30 ujoint hype. I ran heavy 33x12.50s on steel wheels on stock 91 axles with no issues at all. Replaced all ujoints and converted car vacuum to cable driven just because I didn't want to lose caster or balance my front driveshaft.
I think even the hyper naysayers agree that you don't need to upgrade housings and shafts until bigger than 33s go on.

Put you 93 knuckles on the 86 30 with new ball joints and run it. If there is any slop n the unit bearings, change them too.
 
I don't recall exactly, but I think all 96 and newer XJ d30s came with the larger u-joints, or any year XJ with abs. The shafts are a direct swap with no mods and can be had for cheap at most junkyards. I would go with this easy upgrade while you have it apart, should work great for your setup.
 
XJalltheway85 said:
I don't recall exactly, but I think all 96 and newer XJ d30s came with the larger u-joints, or any year XJ with abs. The shafts are a direct swap with no mods and can be had for cheap at most junkyards. I would go with this easy upgrade while you have it apart, should work great for your setup.
Click to expand...

Swapping a solid passenger shaft into a CAD housing isn't easy. That's the issue he's running into now, plus a bunch of threads saying the CAD housing is a ticking time bomb.
 
Pump the brakes dan1977p, I read the whole thread before I posted. It is a very easy swap going to a solid shaft, especially considering he said he's swapping to an 8.8 rear. The 8.8 rear is much more involved than popping off a c clip, changing a seal and adding a block off plate. I would not run a CAD axle but have seen them on rigs with 35s. Considering how he mentioned hes doing this on a tight budget I'd say go with the CAD and swap a solid shaft in. We are all just trying to help by giving advice, no one is right or wrong here dan1977p.
 
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Have you tried the swap? You have to pull the carrier, machine a surface for the new seal to go in, drive said seal, replace carrier, torque the caps to spec and remember which cap goes where, close it up and refill.
None of that mentions what's required to pull the shafts in the first place. What would be easy is getting YJ shafts since they have 760 ujoints anyway, but for what the OP is saying he wants to do, completely unnecessary.

If it was easy, I would completely agree that if he has the budget, grab some shafts with 760's, but it sounds like he's really trying to pinch pennies so why spend money on something that he will never see a benefit from?
 
Wow thanks for all the responses. Not all 2.5s have 4.10s but your right they were an option for all the years i believe, problem is finding them. I think i would have more luck findin a d40 around here than another d30 with 4.10s. Unfortunately out of the 8 xjs at the 3 different yards i went to there was only this one with 4.10s and the rear was a 35 no 8.25 or 40 unfortunately. I do have a welder though and am confident i can set the pinion angle on the 8.8 so i figured it would be a pretty solid option. The cad swap looks pretty straight forward to me, just driving out seals and driving in new ones after pulling the carrier etc.. I would have stuck with the cad but since i have it out i figured i might as well just go to solid shaft in case i ever need to swap it on the trail. I doubt it will ever come to that with 32s and what i do but it doesnt cost much to do the swap and it gives me peace of mind. As far as the axle housing being a ticking time bomb i hadnt heard anything about that... i do plan on trussing the axle, more for the hell of it and for the just in case factor than for thinking i actually need to but again peace of mind, do you think that will alleviate some of the issues with the cad housing?
 
dan1977p said:
Have you tried the swap? You have to pull the carrier, machine a surface for the new seal to go in, drive said seal, replace carrier, torque the caps to spec and remember which cap goes where, close it up and refill.
None of that mentions what's required to pull the shafts in the first place. What would be easy is getting YJ shafts since they have 760 ujoints anyway, but for what the OP is saying he wants to do, completely unnecessary.
Click to expand...

Granted its been over 10 years since I did mine, but I dont recall doing anything like that on my '89 CAD D30.

Bought an aftermarket shaft, pulled the stock two shafts, and put the new one piece shaft in.

Honestly Im not even sure how one can machine a seal lip into a fully assembled housing. :confused1
 
No machining is required, just a different size seal from the other side. The caps for the carrier are typically stamped at the factory so you can tell which goes on what side and in what orientation. You should do the solid shaft swap and get the bigger u-joints since it's already torn apart. A truss would help you some, the weak part of the housing is the section where the CAD is, I have seen axles break in half here when severely abused, like 35s and jumping the crap out of it at the dunes. You have the right idea, go for the truss, then your CAD front should be just as strong as any non-CAD Dana 30. Factory 4.10 gears only came in dana 30 & 35 combos. I don't think they ever made a 8.25 with factory 4.10s.
 
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I was under the impression that while the stock seal does not fit in the axle you can get a seal that does like hopefully the one i got with the rustys cad delete kit and that the lip is inside the diff housing and not the axle tube on the cad side axle. I honestly have no idea as i have never done the swap but so far thats what i have read on the good ole internet. How much of it is b.s. who knows. I would feel alot more confident knowing that the seal im getting will fit with no machining since its part of the cad delete kit but seeing as how its from rustys im definitely starting to get a little concerned. Lol
 
Thanks xj all the way, thats about what i was thinking. If i can get the shafts for under 120ish from the local auto graveyard ill be pulling em. Having everything out and doing things piece by piece is allowing me to slowly dump a little more money here and there. I am cheap/broke but i understand some things you just dont skimp on. Working a second job on the weekends trying to pay for this build so it will be slow going. So far in the past month ive gotten the axle, ball joints, ruffstuffs diff cover and the cad delete kit. With any luck ill be letting everyone know how the cad thing played out if dan can ever get my diff cover shipped anyway...
 
Don't pay too much for the shafts, $120 is a little steep, I could get a whole axle at the pull and pay for that price! I have some in my garage, but it would probably be to expensive to ship them to you. I built a HP30 and Dana44 in my garage in my free time on the cheap and swapped them in over a weekend since my rig is a DD. You'll do fine, just take your time and don't over pay for your parts.
 
You already have solid shafts from your 93 so just run them until you have the funds or find an actual need to upgrade to 760 ujoints. Or did I miss something and you broke the ears off them or something?
 
Nope you got it right dan they are fine. Just wanted to be sure because some people are so adamant about the larger u joints it was sounding like the axles shafts i have now are held together with some big league chew and if i put anything bigger than 30 inch tires on they will snap and hitler will be reborn. Well i feel 10x better knowing that i should be fine and can spend that money on a decent truss instead and that should be that for the d30. I was looking at the iro truss and will most likely be ordering one tpday after a bit more research. Appreciate all the help and advice everyone and ill be back to pick everyones brain on a different topic in the near future im sure
 
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