2 low i think is a good suggestion. Chromos and full case lockers are a must for reliability. I think you are probably set at that point with 33s. You wheel alot. This setup will take alot of stress out of your life.
I like the sound of that. I need a reliable setup. a full case locker, chromo shafts, and a quality gearset sound nice right about now.
I wonder if something is tweaked causing the ears to bind under certain circumstances? Housing? knuckles? C's?
I don't think so. Well, at least I hope not. Ill explain what I think caused this breakage below. But wanted to point out that I have broken 297x joints and 760x joints both tacked and not tacked, both spicers and napa's heavy duty line. Never with full circle clips that I can remember - which I think may be part of the problem. The one time I welded the caps, the welds broke on the caps and then it spat them out. I think that a lot of the breakage has occurred due to old ujoints, or the lack of full circle clips. Although I have only broken 1 broken shaft while hammering down or binding it up, I can relate one more broken joint to happening within a mile after doing soup bowl, and two more after very hard wheeling. Regardless, I'd like to upgrade and take the guess work out of it. I'm in desperate need of some reliability up front.
I pulled the diff cover today and went panning for dana 30 parts. Turns out I broke two teeth off the ring gear, chewed up the pinion, chewed up the cross pin, and the pin that secures the cross pin fell out.





So here's what I think happened. The pin that secures the cross pin slipped out and got wedged between the ring gear and the pinion gear and bound up. When it couldn't bind up any more, tooth #1 broke off and threw another piece of metal into the ring gear which once again, got bound up with the pinion and popped tooth #2 off. I can only assume that the u-joint and axle shaft blew when the ring gear released all of its bound up energy as it broke one of its teeth off. I was making a hard left when the teeth went out and I am assuming that the jolt of energy running through the shaft/u-joint at that time took it out. That's my theory at least.
So I need:
Shafts
Ring and Pinion
Locker cross pin and set pin
Can someone please recommend a quality gearset to me? I have USA Standard gears in there now (which to my knowledge are Yukon or AlloyUSA blemishes), but I might as well spend a few extra bucks and not have to do this again.
Since I have to put new gears in, it is a perfect time to do a full case locker. I really want air actuated and if I don't do it now, I never will.
Dana 30 Yukon Zip Locker:
RWKHaus: $725 + shipping +tax +compressor
DavesOffroad: $805 shipped including tax AND a free compressor if I order by 9/30/15
Obviously leaning towards Daves.
Now for shafts. I am looking at RWKHaus' shafts and ten factory shafts. Robert at RWKHaus claims that his no name shafts are the exact same shafts as ten factory, but with a 1 year warranty, rather than a 10 year warranty. I'm not sure I believe this, but people have had good luck with them from what I hear. I just really like the idea of utilizing a no questions asked quick warranty exchange 9.5 years from now if needed.
RWK No name shafts w/ 760 U-joints: $370 + shipping + tax
Ten Factory Shafts w/760 Ujoints: $500 + shipping + tax
I am also toying around the idea of 30 spline shafts. I have always hated this idea because of the lack of available spares on the trail, but I can always throw a rag in the tube and toss the stub/hub back in and drive it out in 3wd. I doubt id break a 30 spline chromo anyways. I will only entertain this idea if the 30 spline zip locker and 30 spline shafts are the same price or close to that of their 27 spline sibling.
So total pricing for a full case locker and chromo shafts before a gearset is:
Cheap route: $725 + $370 = $1095 + tax + shipping + compressor
More expensive route: $805 + $500 = $1305 + less tax and less shipping with compressor
So actually, they both work out to about the same price in the end after you factor in the compressor and the tax/shipping. Still hurts a bit too and I still need to address the actual gear set as well as figuring out something to do in the rear. This is turning out to be an expensive wheeling trip haha.
So any thoughts about the above? Any reason not to go with the zip locker (6 year warranty - 2 of which cover up to $2,000 in collateral damage)? Any thoughts on the axle shafts - would the ten factory shafts really be worth it? Thoughts on 30 spline shafts?
Sorry if the pictures are a bit big. At least you can see all the details of the breakage :gee:
Thanks a lot for the input and the humor guys. I appreciate the help.
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