TK's Yellow Krait LJK Buildup by tkfx

3 minute(s) of a 91 minute read

So a very unfortunate turn of events... Unbolted the donor Rubi D44s and found out they were both bent. The rear axle has a nice smiley face and the front only has a bent long side tube. Also the axle shafts in the rear were bent a long with the front driver side shaft. All the ujoints, unit bearing, balljoints and calipers were toast.

Also, the stock lockers on the front and rear are toast. The solenoid on the rear locker has broken and the wires have vanished. The front locker still has its wires and solenoid but the locker will not lock or unlock when given power. Seems like a simple locker design, give the elctromagnet power and it pushes a ring that forces the locker to lock, turn it off and it pushes the ring away, however I don't seem to get any power to the locker magnet. Basically the rear axle is trash, and the front axle is rebuildable.

So today I went and picked up a JK Dana 44 rear with 5.13 gearing and a 1310 yoke installed already for $350. SO my rear axle is set, all I need are calipers.

For the front axle, I plan on retubing it in to get rid of the bent tube and to put in a much thicker tube. I will source a used OEM e locker for cheap and add that in along with 5.13 gearing. I will find or order a set of driver side axle shafts, and I plan on buying a used JK Dana 30 and taking all the balljoints, unit bearings, calipers and rotors and swamping them onto my housing. It will be cheaper for me to rebuild it that way then to purchase new everything. Then I will start replacing things that break with new parts as time goes on. And pictures:

So what do I gain and what do I lose from switching to a JK Dana 44 rear instead of a Rubi JK D44 rear? What I lose is the strength of a 8.8" ring gear and a pinion almost comparable to a D60, along with 32 spline axle shafts. What do I gain? I gain a axle that is a lot cheaper, stronger then a TJ D44, a wider selection of lockers, and an option to do a 35 spline upgrade like the Rubi44 in the future. I don't lose much except for strength, which quite frankly, I am not too worried with these axles under a LJ.