Cherokee front axle??

I took a trip to the junk yard today in search of a few things for the jeep when I noticed a `95 ish Cherokee with a front axle that had much larger U-joints than mine. I was thinking that they had Dana 30's so I looked at all the other Cherokees near by and sure enough Dana 30's. Unfortunately I could not tell what trim this would have been, i.e. Cherokee Sport.

Does anyone know if there was an optional front axle for the Cherokee. If so, would it be a good upgrade?

I have trying to do a bit of research but I am am finding is that the Cherokee has a Dana 30.

Thanks!

zj d30's have bigger ujoints then the tjs and xjs

Yes its newer TJ's, 95 YJ's and all XJ's and ZJ's have the larger U-joint. I have to check my parts bag for the seal # that I used when I did the TJ axle shaft swap in my YJ. Its a common swap for YJ's to get rid of the Vacuum disconnect and gain larger U-joints. I wheeled stock TJ shafts for a year.

This was not a Grand. It was a normal Cherokee like this:



The U-Joints were much bigger than the ones on my TJ. Again, they were also bigger than all the other normal Cherokees there.

After doing some research it looks like there was a high pinion D30, could this be it?

Maybe I can swing by next week and get some pics.

Add to that:
What would it take to swap a ZJ front axle? Is it bolt up? (fingers crossed)

no nester all xjs do not have the larger u-joints. This was one of the cheap upgrades they did on the cheap xj build they did on trucks, so I know this for a fact. As for swapping in the larger joints all you have to do is find a 4.0 zj (the v8 zj do not have them) pull the front two axels and slide them into your jeep.

md4wheelin wrote:

no nester all xjs do not have the larger u-joints. This was one of the cheap upgrades they did on the cheap xj build they did on trucks, so I know this for a fact. As for swapping in the larger joints all you have to do is find a 4.0 zj (the v8 zj do not have them) pull the front two axels and slide them into your jeep.

I guess I should leave the Dana 30 Tech talk to the guy still running a dana 30. Most XJ's that you will find in the junk yards (personal knowledge not fact) have the larger U-joint. Anything 95 or newer will have the large U-joint. I know that there is was still some Jeeps that used the small U-joint but it has been a year or two since I read up on Dana 30's and my bookmark list was lost with me old lap top. I did check on the axle shaft swap and Joe is right. You should just be able to swap in the new axle. I know that with the YJ D30 you have to change a seal when you swap in the one piece axle.

Oh dude don't waste your time thinking about swapping a Dana 30 for a Dana 30. Waste of time. Save your money and hunt down a Rubicon Dana 44 front or build a High Pinion 44. The only thing worth while at this point would be the shafts swap for a larger U joint. Other than that I would start looking in to other upgrades.

I thought TJs already had the larger ujoints. I had one large and one small on mine cause I swaped out one side for a yj one (samller) because I needed a shaft in a pinch. but I ran it that way for over a year. In a HP30 the ring gear would be stronger but that is not the weak link in the lp30. The shafts are.

1994 and below Dana 30's have the 260x u joints. 1995 and up have the 297x which is now superceded by the 760x u joint. The YJ's and XJ's have high pinion dana 30's while the tj's recived low pinion dana 30's. The high pinion are stronger in the forward direction while low pinion's are stronger in reverse because of where the pinion is relalted to the ring gear. The YJ's and early XJ's (not sure of year) have a front disconnect axle on the passenger side operated by vacuum from the transfer case. They have two piece axles on passenger side The TJ's and later XJ's do not have this disconnect. These have one piece axles on the passenger side. A popular swap for YJ's is to take the axle shaft out of a later xj or tj and swap them in.

I hope this clears things up a bit though i may just be restating stuff that has already been said

[quote="makitupthehardway

I guess I should leave the Dana 30 Tech talk to the guy still running a dana 30. [/quote]

I'm counting the days till i'm out of the d30 club

Wait, I am getting more confused now.

1) Is the 760X larger than the 297X?

2) Is the 760X found on the ZJ, or is this the "larger" U-joint everyone is talking about.

What is confusing me is that everyone is talking about a larger U-joint found in the TJ. I have a TJ and I am in search of something bigger.


To makitupthehardway:
Do you have info on what needs to be done to a D44 front to get it to work on a TJ? Doing a search only brings up info on swapping a rear.


To add to all this I got my last replacement axles for free.99. (a friend of a coworker owns the junk yard) Maybe I can go back and swap out the ones I got for these mystery larger ones I found?

Thanks for the help guys!

The 760x and the 297x are the same size and thus interchangable. The 760x supercedes the 297x and is stronger. When you buy a replacement ujoint for a tj, you will be getting a 760x. The xj that you saw may have had aftermarket axle shafts and u joints

md4wheelin wrote:

[quote="makitupthehardway

I guess I should leave the Dana 30 Tech talk to the guy still running a dana 30.

I'm counting the days till i'm out of the d30 club [/quote]

Let me tell you I haven't even wheeled on my D44 yet but just looking at it makes the jeep look better. The way it should have been a long time ago.