Dana 27 & 44 Rebuild

I have a new ring and pinion I bought and don't need. 4:88.

 

Tough to tell from the photos, but your gears may be okay. Better to take a picture of the gears at an angle so we can see the wear pattern on the mating surfaces of the gear as opposed to a straight on pic. If they still look good, one option would be to use the money not spent on new rings/pinions and buy an overdrive. That way you'd have the nice low range gearing, but overdrive as well.

 

5:38 gearing on an ECJ is pretty darned good.

From your pics, the gears look fine. no obvious out of round, chipped or cracked gear teeth. since its opened and apart, replace all of the axle seals, or look into a rear ARB locker at this point. I wouldn't just rebuild them to rebuild them.

 

The pictures aren't great. The spiders are trash. They have pitting and some deep grooves. The rings are grooved a bit, but not horrible.

I was talking with a guy from Woody's 4x4 who said the 5:38 would be pushing it for my setup. I'm going with 31-32" tires and a small block V8. This will be mostly driven on the road but may take it to a creek or mud pit every now and then. He suggested 4.27 ratios. Any advice?

 

maybe I missed that in this post....but yeah, 5:38s would not be good with that setup.

 

I run 5.38's and 35" tires. I pull about 3200 rpm at 58~60 mph with no overdrive

 

and a V8? with a v6 it would sound like your pushing it, no? wouldn't a V8 sound even more like you are pushing it?

 

Street driven V8? 4.27s are prolly ideal, specially with an OD. No carrier break needed either, so you can reuse both.

That 44 didn't look too bad. The 27 was goobered, so the bearings are prolly gross. Without having em in my hands, and just going off the pics, I'd do the 27. Axles innards are one of the more sturdy moving parts on a Jeep.

OR you can find a guy to swap you a set of axles already with 4.27s.

The whole case vs carrier thing is dependent on where you live and what places you buy from. Suffice to say, potato potAto, lol. That is a flame war already had on these boards, let's avoid derailing the thread..

 

I wouldn't put the money in a 27 at this point. Look for an NT30

 

Unless it’s a restore, I’d have to agree, though I’d prolly shop around for a drop in axle with the right gears first. The NT30 doesnt require a ton of changes, but it isnt bolt in either.

 

Yes, you are crazy.

For $3000, you should be able to buy at least 30 Dana 25s (or 27s) to replace the front axle. Should be one good one among that group.

Seriously, if you want to keep the factory axles, start looking for identical replacements. That's assuming your existing axles are broken or worn out. The axles are generally the last component to wear out on an old car, so bringing them back to as-new condition before the rest of the car is finished seems backwards. Look around and find decent used axles for a reasonable price. No one wants the 25 and nutted 44 (41?) except for repair/replacement in a CJ-5.

If you can't do this work yourself, it's going to cost way more than the vehicle is worth. Most of us work on these vehicles ourselves, and discount our time to zero. If you have to pay someone to work on this Jeep for you, you are locked in to a losing bargain, wrt money. A '55 CJ-5 is cool , but it's not really valuable ... yet. Maybe in 20 years...

 

NT30?

 

Dana 30 Front narrow track (1976–1981)
Dana 30 Front wide track track (1982–1986)
2-Piece AMC 20 Narrow track rear (1976–1981)
2-Piece AMC 20 Narrow track offset pumpkin Rear (1976–1979) Only for QuadraTrac #1339 equipped vehicles
2-Piece AMC 20 Wide track rear (1982–1986)
Dana 44 Wide track Rear (mid-year 1986)

 

Standard fix for every 41-71 Jeep is to use the axle from a 72-81 CJ5. Narrow track Dana 30.

 

I've decided to rebuild them myself. I think it's definitely worth the learning opportunity and if I monumentally screw something up, yall have given me some great options for replacements.

 

Oh! I kept coming up with a nissan axle, wondering what you guys ave been holding out on me!