2000 Jeep Wrangler Sahara Rear Axle

[Chris]

Anyone have one by chance?

Bill (Mr6dwg) needs one since his is tweaked. He's going to try to resurrect my dead HD and I offered to assist in getting the axle replaced. I'll happily do the grunt work, use my garage and tools if someone can provide some guidance for me.

He has Dana 44 with ARB so if anyone has the experience to share or the axle itself that would be great. If nobody has the axle itself he's willing to buy a new one.

:cheers:

[Brody]

Learn me 'tweaked', please...

Is the housing tweaked? Are the axles bent or broken? Are the R&P shelled? Are the seals trashed? What is the spline count on the axles? Are the axles stock or beefy after market units?

Midwest Spring can straighten the housing. You can probably yard a Dana 44 axle...or housing for that matter....

[Chris]

Bent axle apparently Pete.

[Brody]

Need a spline count and length.

The right axle, it'll only take a little work to replace it. You just disconnect everything from one end, pull it out, replace the axle, and put it back together. I don't even think that you have to mess with a C clip on this axle, but I could be wrong. If you do, then you do have more work as you have to open up the carrier to access the clip. Still not super big deal...(read no special tools, common sense, brute force and ignorance)

[Chris]

Right up my alley you're saying then - no special tools, common sense, brute force and ignorance! No idea on the spline count. Does the ARB present anything else being needed Pete?

[Brody]

Right up my alley you're saying then - no special tools, common sense, brute force and ignorance! No idea on the spline count. Does the ARB present anything else being needed Pete?

Right up mine, too...

No, the ARB essentially replaces the spider gears much like any locker does. The axles will still slide into the main part of the carrier without doing anything to the ARB. Like I said, if you don't have to deal with the (if any) C clip, then everything can be done by the removal of the the brake assembly,disc or drum, the bolts on the back side of the axle, and just giving the axles a tug to get it out of the axle housing. If you keep thinking 'simple is better' and look before you start unbolting stuff, you will be surprised at just how little you actually have to unbolt to remove the axle.

If you have rear discs, you will need to remove the calipers. Drums, just remove the wheel and the brake line and pull the whole axle out, drum and all.

If the axle is broken back in the housing (rare, but it happens. The breaks are usually toward the outer ends), you will have to remove the carrier or cover to get to the other end. The only thing to watch for is trying to support the axle when you replace it in the housing so that you don't damage the inner seal, a job a little harder than it sounds as the farther you push the axle in, the more the end wants to drop and the harder it is to keep it from angling down. Luckily the inner seals are pretty stout to begin with..

Here are a couple of links on the axle replacement. You can see why I asked about the spline count...there are so many companies making after market axles for the 44 and so many different 44 axles out there.

http://www.4x4wire.com/jeep/tech/axle/superior02/

http://www.4wdandsportutility.com/tech/superior_axle_dana_44_upgrade/index.html

http://mightymo.org/Proj_D41-2Replacement.html

http://www.stu-offroad.com/axle/d44/d44-1.htm

I like this last one the best:

http://www.jeepbrokers.com/jeep_project_8_dana_44_axle_swap.htm

You should, if you are lucky, be able to ignore all the gear/carrier information in these articles and simply deal with the axle replacement. Part of that depends on what axle you ended up with to swap in as sometimes the bearing and rings are already on and sometimes you have to install them. Needless to say, if they are already in place, it is much simpler. Try to find out all the specifics that you can befor ehand so that you don't get too many surprises....

[Funrover]

I know where one from a YJ is at.. but wouldn't be straight bolt on.. would need to go from leaf to coil! You would also have drum rear instead of disc

[Mr6dwg]

Charlie came over last night. We took a look at it and he seemed to think that it is not a big issue. So, maybe I will wait until something "breaks". I might be making a bigger issue out of it than what needs to be.

[Patrolman]

or I have a Ford 8.8 for sale. Discs, LSD, stronger than 44.

[Brody]

Charlie came over last night. We took a look at it and he seemed to think that it is not a big issue. So, maybe I will wait until something "breaks". I might be making a bigger issue out of it than what needs to be.

I couldn't find anywhere where you described what the problems were in the first place and what led you to think that your axle /axle housing...whatever was bad/failing, etc

[Chris]

Pete, it's somewhere between a slipped belt on the tire and bent axle. Looking at it from behind you can see it move back & forth like a slipped belt but it hasn't changed with tire rotation. The shop says it's a bent axle.

Bill suspects the axle flange in bent rather than the shaft as I think the shop is saying. I don't know what it would take to bend the flange where it meets the axle on a Dana 44 and it would seem bearing would be damaged but I'm just guessing now.

[Brody]

Have him call Midwest Spring. This is something that they do-straightening axle housings. Here is a picture of the press with an axle housing being straightened.

My suggestion, if the price isn't prohibitive to get the housing straightened vs getting a new housing and making it work, is to get the housing straightened and, once it is straight, add gussets so that it doesn't happen again.

This actually happens a lot, especially if the rig is subjected to some pretty hard wheeling...and happens to just about anything under a Ford 9". This is one of the reasons that I have gusseted almost every Yota axle that I used for wheeling, too.

I am a big fan of preventive maintenance...and gussets....

[Chris]

So you're saying it's the housing vs the axle itself as Bill and I were discussing. I'm guessing the axle would break rather than bend so your explanation makes sense.

[Brody]

So you're saying it's the housing vs the axle itself as Bill and I were discussing. I'm guessing the axle would break rather than bend so your explanation makes sense.

It has been my experience that the axle housing will bend before the axle breaks unless the axle is placed under a very sharp and abrupt load. This happens more with the front axle, and more yet with a front axle with a locker. It happens a lot with an IFS that is locked up.

For some reason the rear axle housing is more prone to bending. This would be the first thing I checked or suspected as it is the least expensive thing to actually fix, though still a bit labor intensive.

The only indicator that I know of, without getting into dial indicators and more exotic tools, is to look at the wear on the bearings themselves. They would certainly show a bad wear pattern on one side or the other. It could also be that nothing is actually bent, but that there is a bad bearing, too, though the question would be "why did the bearing(s) go out". My thought is that if there is a bad bearing, that something is bent.

Some input from some other, more experienced folks would be appreciated here as well as a simple way to check the straightness of an axle housing.

I wouldn't be surprised if Joe(greenramp),Jeff (patrolman), Ken (Gecko Cycles) or a few other folks would know a quick and dirty way to check this.

[Chris]

I suggested he throw hos spare on and make sure it's not tire related even though he rotates regularly with no change. Next on the list was to check the bearings. Sounds like a reasonable approach.

[Mr6dwg]

Thank you for your time on this issue. I am not hard on my equipment. That is another reason I find it hard to believe the axle shaft itself is bent. Tonight or first thing in the morning, I will put on my spare. It only has about 10 miles on it, so that will be a great test. I will get back with you and let you know the results.

[Chris]

Pete's saying it's probably the axle housing rather than the shaft Bill. Putting on the spare will remove the question about the tire from my mind and is a good start.

:cheers:

[Brody]

And on the KISS principle, it could be as simple as a bent rim. I usually go through a set of rims every two years or so. I just keep rotating the ones with the most wobble to the rear....If they wobble too much over 70, then they get tossed.

[Chris]

I forgot to mention that Bill can feel it in the steering wheel at low speeds but it goes away at higher speeds. I'm sure this is significant but not sure why. :erm:

[Brody]

Can he actually see the wheel itself wobble? Sounds like it could be the pinion bearing if you can't see it in the wheel.