4x4 North

Getting ahead of myself a bit, a guy at work has a cj-7 he’s wanting to sell in the spring and I’m first in line of it sells. It needs work but isn’t rusted right out, frame seems decent and so on. Anyways after cleaning up the body, I’d like to set it up for my 37” milestar. Maybe up to a wider 38 when they are done. Keeping it super light is my priority. It’s got a t18/spicer20 combo I’d like to keep so that leaves me finding a stronger front diff. My first thought was cutting and flipping my jk d30. It’sa fair bit of work for not a ton of strength. But I’ve got almost 2 whole complete ones already, plus wheels and tires that are interchangeable with my gladiator, it’s new stuff so parts are easy to get. I can also have access to all the tools I need at work as well. I’ve got a 79 F-250 d60 front end but it drops wrong way and really heavy. The Toyota mini truck stuff is too narrow and I don’t really have much access to parts on them. What else is a solid option ? I really am prioritizing weight and parts availability. It needs to be strong enough but not necessarily bullet proof.

I can't think of much without some major fab work or credit card skills. There's multiple low pinion D44 options and all of them are pretty much garbage, but they'd probably be strong enough for you. Maybe Land Rover stuff? Parts aren't super available but they are tough enough. A guy could retube a Ford HPD44, but if you did a JK one it would be lighter. A JK D30 might even be strong enough, but that then leads to looking at JL parts because I think they shed a little weight off them over the JK.

If you want light it really depends how much you're willing to spend and how strong it needs to be.

One of the major issues is there is basically two brand options for front axle donors that are still readily available. Ford and Jeep. There also is Dodge, but I count them out, as the AAM stuff isn't really advantageous for offroad use.

Everything else is now old, so it's hard to find and often completely clapped out.

So, not much for options without accepting you're going to be fabbing or swiping a card.

My thought it I wheeled the jk d30 for 4 years, broke a worn out u joint and a carrier, at 5k pounds. Losing 1000-1500 pounds I’m thinking it should be alright. The old low pinion d44 stuff has more gearing options and more splines on the axle but I think the jk d30 high pinion is really close in strength. It’s the axles and carrier/spider gears that are weaker. I’ve been kinda looking around and didn’t really see anything for sale passenger side. I guess the other option is to sell all my garbage and get a housing built that’s flipped. Having absolutely no experience with this I can see it going out of hand but I can’t see it being that hard to flip the housing, but a sleeve kit and cut the short tube in the middle, long side same distance from the carrier.

Can you flip the D20?

No you can’t flip the d20 from my understanding. But I do like it because you can twin stick it with is on my want list.

Southern Alberta is a long ways away. Buy the time I get that axle it’s a $1500+ diff Before I spend money on it.

Scoobienorth wrote: ↑Mon Dec 05, 2022 6:45 pm Southern Alberta is a long ways away. Buy the time I get that axle it’s a $1500+ diff Before I spend money on it.

still would be a better set up then a 30. id even take a chevy 10 bolt over a polished 30 that you will have to do a bunch of work to get it set up for your rig

I have a chevy 10 bolt from a 82 suburban. 6 lug. Stock as stock can be. Have matching rear diff too.
Williams Lake area.