Dana 35 Idea . . .

Ricky B

Ricky B

Wiiide Open
Joined
Mar 20, 2005
Location
LKN - Tha Dirty Mo (Mooresville, NC)
I had an idea, since Dana 35's are so worthless you can pretty much get em for free if not extremly close to it. So I started thinking, what exactly are the weak points on a dana 35 looked it up and found that its the spider gears and the shafts which are held in place by C clips which causes the infamous tire "walk" when a shaft breaks. Since Dana 35's are so frikin cheap and easy to find I was thinking about doing this:

On a trail only rig that's just budget lifted for now (my bro's xj) until he can afford to build his larger axle combo he has, why couldn't I just pop the diff cap and literally weld the entire spidergear, c clip, axle shaft ends, carrier into one big frikin ball of metal?

This would not only give you a locker, but would also fix the problem of the weak spider gears since its pretty much one huge hunk of metal after that. You would also never have to worry about the c clip failing.

Granted the shafts are still weak but like I said b4 dana 35's are as easy to find as unwanted used clothing, not only that but we already have and extra set of axles anyway. And swapping in a rear leaf sprung dana 35 is easy as crap. So if you blow up a shaft, big whoop toss another one under it ya know?

Honestly since Dana 35's are not really heavy and since we have tha backseat pulled we could carry the spare axle when we wheel and if one breaks we unbolt ssome bolts, bleed some brakes and viola keepon goin, easy trail fix.

Feel free to give me some feedback on what im not thinking about, etc. etc.
 
not really gona work liKe that. If you weld in the c clip. how the hell are you gonna pull out a bad shaft? And it's not the clip itself that is the problem it's that there is nothing on the tire end of the axle to hold it into the housing. So, if you weld it in, and break a shaft (almost a given it will happen w/welded diff and some skinny pedal), your tire will still walk out of the housing, and you can't replace your shaft.

Just use the normal welded diff, and carry extra shafts. No need to try and reinvent the wheel (axle).
 
yep, like Chris said, it's not the C-clip and end of the shaft that are the weak point. It's usually just out board of the Carrier (about 2"-3") from the end of the shaft that it breaks. Pretty much where the splines end. You're better off leaving it open and not welded to keep from breaking.
 
I have heard a theory that the shafts break because the housing flexes. Regardless, best of luck with the pipe dream.
 
i say weld the spider gears leave the c-clip alone.i welded a dana 35 up for a friend about 2 years ago.he just now had to replace it.the axle tube rotated and wrapped the springs.he is not easy on it at all.if he is not wheelin, he is doing burn outs in the road.he has a xj with 33 swampers.it comes down to luck.if it is going to break it will if it isn't going to, it won't.
 
66bronco said:
if it is going to break it will if it isn't going to, it won't.
Click to expand...

Great point. But seriously, dont weld it. I dont want to be behind you on a trail when you break a shaft and we open up your diff cover to see 2 pounds of booger welds all over everything. That would really suck.
 
just get a non c clip axle assembly from an 87-90. they're better than the c clip crap on 91+ axles. weld your spiders if you want, but be prepared to break shafts. wheel it with an open carrier and have no worries unless you guys TRY to break it and beat the hell out of it. i wheeled with my non c clip axles for 2 years and only broke 2 shafts with 39.5" boggers... but i was kind to the skinny pedal...

ps- i have a set of non c clip axles for sale for $50 :)
 
when i said welding up the cclips and end of axle shafts i knew i wouldnt be able to pull the shafts if they broke i was talkin about carryin a whole extra 35 with us. Them things are light as crap i can curl them things so that wouldnt be an issue having a whole extra axle in the jeep then you dont have to worry bout openin up the diff or tryin to replace shafts, you unbolt the u bolts and drive shaft and bolt your second axle in. There so plentiful and cheap/free getting extra axles would be no issue at all. Be way easier than tryin to fix some welded broke axle just replace the whole damn thing by unbolting u bolts.

This is an 88 xj im talkin bout so i guess there's no c clips then
 
jrraw23 said:
when i said welding up the cclips and end of axle shafts i knew i wouldnt be able to pull the shafts if they broke i was talkin about carryin a whole extra 35 with us. Them things are light as crap i can curl them things so that wouldnt be an issue having a whole extra axle in the jeep then you dont have to worry bout openin up the diff or tryin to replace shafts, you unbolt the u bolts and drive shaft and bolt your second axle in. There so plentiful and cheap/free getting extra axles would be no issue at all. Be way easier than tryin to fix some welded broke axle just replace the whole damn thing by unbolting u bolts.
This is an 88 xj im talkin bout so i guess there's no c clips then
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Wow, that would be an interesting sight on the trail...someone carrying an ENTIRE complete spare axle. I'd mount that sucker to the roof with some tires so you could roll it and just keep going.
 
Dana 35 idea
what?
swap in D44, use D35 to fill in that hole in the back yard (use as anchor for your boat).
 
Well, you would actually have to disconnect and reconnect all of the following:
Ubolts
Driveshaft
Shocks
Swaybar links (if applicable)
Trackbar (if applicable)
Parking brake cables
And most importantly, brake lines (the frustration of bleeding and such too)

If you preferred to just swap the brake assemblies, you would still have to pull the axleshaft to get the backing plate off, in which case it would be simpler to just swap the axleshafts.
 
jrraw23 said:
you unbolt the u bolts and drive shaft and bolt your second axle in.
Click to expand...

and break a break line disconnecting the brakes, have to find a way to cap off/jerry rig your brakes, Pulltires and brakes Drums and possibly brakes to disconnect E-brake cables, reassemble brakes, hoping you recall which way they went..... and loose the cargo space to carry that axle... not toemntion when you roll over you have a 150# chunck of steel flying around ready to break your neck...

or put in an 8.25, 8.8, 44, ...... and not worry about it
 
So I think I have summarized all the above as follows:


"There are no stupid questions, except this one. Bad idea try again"

:flipoff2:
 
I still don't think its a bad idea thou :flipoff2:

- No parking brake on the truck anyway so no problem there
- no rear shocks either so not an issue either
- swaybar got junked first thing
- no tracbar cause its an xj
-and bleeding brakes lines is super easy and takes a total of 5 min
-cargo room not really an issue since there is no backseat,
- and saftey wouldnt really be much of an issue either because i have alot of the the huge ratchet straps they use to hold boats on big rigs from work this summer, if they can hold a boat they can hold a little dana 35 down
-If break lines break not really an issue either just swap in one of your spares from all the free anchorwieght dana 35's you can find

I seriously think this is a pretty good idea, the only real downside I can see is breaking in a really weird position that would make it difficult to jack the vehicle to swap in a whole rear axle, otherwise bolting in another dana 35 would be way easier than trying to replace a shaft and meesing with the drum brake BS especially if your axle is c clip and then you gotta pull the diff cover too.

I mean honestly I'm probably not gonna do it just cause having 35" tires on a locked 35 wont even last out your driveway, but for someone who has on on like 32's or maybe even 33's I would def do this. :driver:
 
you've obviously never had to do any sort of real repair on a hard trail. swapping in a whole different axle would be a damn nightmare, not to mention extremely unsafe. much less involved repairs are generally still precarious at best.

i won't even get into issue of hogging a trail up while you swap a whole axle out, when there are much better solutions.

you seem to be a nice enough guy, but i gotta say i don't even know why you post these sorts of questions. it's obviously a bad idea, people tell you so and give legitimate factual reasons. you then proceed to argue about why it's a good idea. if you think it's such a great idea, why ask? just go ahead and do it.
 
RufusTheRam said:
you've obviously never had to do any sort of real repair on a hard trail. swapping in a whole different axle would be a damn nightmare, not to mention extremely unsafe. much less involved repairs are generally still precarious at best.
i won't even get into issue of hogging a trail up while you swap a whole axle out, when there are much better solutions.
you seem to be a nice enough guy, but i gotta say i don't even know why you post these sorts of questions. it's obviously a bad idea, people tell you so and give legitimate factual reasons. you then proceed to argue about why it's a good idea. if you think it's such a great idea, why ask? just go ahead and do it.
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Yea I mean the only place I was really thinkin of was uwharrie and honestly there are plenty of places round there that you could yank the vehicle out of the way to do the reapairs to (trust me if i break something im not gonna leave my junk in the middle of the trail, that aint right). If you were at like tellico or soewhere else I've never been there so i don't know what the surrounding areas are like so I cant really speculate but im sure like i said above there would be plenty of crazy places to break your stuff in wierd positions.

I mean as far as asking the dumb questions, I don't know I just get ideas and rationalize them in my head, but i know there are many other who know more than me so i post it up to get feedback then when soembody caomes back with a response i respond back in kind with my side of the argument so that we can both clarify who has the best ideas. I mean half the stuff people say I have responses to and like to hear what they have to say about it to see if my responses were any good or not. Thats how you learn stuff presenting ideas to others to get feedback and respond in kind.

kinda like a teamate saying were gonna do process x, and you say well why cant we do process B, then he says because process x does this and this, then you say process B does the same thing just quicker, then the first guy is like oh good idea lets do B then

you learn from getting other peoples feedback to your ideas.

Not saying im right about this whole dana 35 thing, just saying you won't know till you ask, ya know.
 
"there are plenty of places round there that you could yank the vehicle out of the way to do the reapairs to (trust me if i break something im not gonna leave my junk in the middle of the trail, that aint right). If you were at like tellico or soewhere else I've never been"

surrounding areas mostly look like vertical rock walls or vertical drop off's down the mountian in the woods. so youwould be supporting the vehicle with some new kind of jackstand that likes being on uneven rocky terrain? im doing a axle swap now at home wheels chocked (front) frame on 5 ton jackstands, just think theres the potential for severe bodily harm doing a full axle swap on the trail.
 
rear 44's are cheap as hell anyway, just swap one in.
 
haah, i can't help but lol at this thread. it went from "bad idea" to "wtf" in less than 12 hours.

the thought of carrying a spare turd axle, let alone wheeling a vehicle that you KNEW was going to destroy an entire axle, makes me cringe.

just leave the carriers open and wheel it. you don't need lockers for uwharrie if you can drive anyway.
 
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