Replacing A Dana 27 With A Nt Dana 30 In My 1970 Cj5

Mcruff sells a nice kit. You can run the steering shaft under the cross member.

 

I started to take my old axle off today. I cannot find my brake line wrenches. Off to buy a set. I'm sure they will show up as soon as I get the new ones home. This looks like it is going to be pretty straightforward

Edit. It's $20 for the three wrenches. I can't buy a single 3/8 flare nut wrench. If you're going to lose stuff, and be stupid it's going to cost you.

Note to self: dont be stupid and careless. Its expensive

 

Dana 30 is bolted in. Next its brakes. Then steering. Then order the tom woods driveshaft.

The bolting of the dana 30 in place was literally the easiest swap I've done.

 

I didn't need a new driveshaft when I did mine. When I did the sm465 swap I had 2 new ones made. All 1310 ujoints.

 

How about the ubolts? My new set came with 4 the same size. But i need one larger to go over the pumpkin part. What gives?

 

I reused the ones the D30 came with. You will need new larger ones

 

I know people like pics, but not much to show. Going to stick with the ross box for now. Working with mcruff to see what his steering kit is all about. I reused the longer tie rod from the original setup, and used a new one i had laying around for the shorter section.

 

So, to do yet, i need to get the one proper ubolt, getting the steel braided flex hoses for the brakes, then install/bleed the front calipers, put all its own weight down and see if the original front driveshaft will work. Then its getting loaded up and taken in for an alignment

 

Im confused by this. You didnt need a new driveshaft, but had 2 new ones made?

 

I did the SM465 swap years prior to the D30 swap. At that time I had the new driveshafts made and all u-joints were upgraded/matching 1310. They made a new input for the D27.

 

pics please?

 

Here a a few pictures I have

 

Following up....i ordered the flexible brake hoses last week Tuesday, overnight from autozone. They still aren't here.

 

Flex hoses came in last week friday, 12 days after i had them overnighted.
Maiden voyage today was good. Uneventful. Steering is improved greatly! Im sure its a combination of all new parts, and moving that tie rod out a few inches, and also having only 2 tie rods. Need to bleed the disk brakes more, but tomorrow is another day. Im pouring 5 yards of concrete Wednesday and replacing all the door jams/frames, trim and carpeting throughout the house.

 

review:
this was a pretty easy/straight forward swap. I was given a "free" dana 30 axle. it cost me about $1800.00 dollars to change gearing/replace worn out parts/rebuild the axle.
the steering, while still retaining the Ross box, and it is still manual steering is greatly improved to the point of WOW, is this for real?!?!?!
the front disk stopping is very good as well.

i still need to order a new driveshaft from Tom Woods. i could use the existing driveshaft, but, meh. what's another 300 at this point. so, about 2100 total to do this swap.

this is a good example of just because its free, doesn't mean its a good deal. I think the cost I incurred is on par with a brand new front dana 44 from Roxor. also, going this route, I had a fall back with the wife....but honey, your dad GAVE me this axle!

was it worth it? I am a wheeler of two track fire lanes and pavement. the proverbial mall crawler. but knowing what I have and what I'm able to do, makes me sleep a little easier at the end of the day. so yea, it was 100% absolutely worth it.

next project, is to install my Eaton LSD and the Metcalf electric brake/disk brake conversion to the back axle.

 

Glad you are happy with the end result. I know what you mean by "free". When I did the D30 swap it was free to the tune of around $1,500. I was very happy with the selectable locker and better turning radius though.

 

Turning radius alone is worth all those pennies

 

My free one was geared correctly and had discs and 6 bolt hubs so it only cost me about $300 for misc new parts