Ring gear spacers - hack or not?

[Scott Cee AKA 2drx4]

As some of you have guessed I'm trying to amass some parts for a build and figure out pricing.

One option I have is to steal the D44 Zip locker out of my current Comanche. Honestly it makes sense to do so because I plan to sell that Comanche and would get pennies on the dollar for the locker and plumbing being installed in it. The problem is that axle has 3.55 gears, which is below the carrier break, and I'd like to use the set of thin (regular) 4.56 gears that are with the "new" axle.

Normally in this scenario you'd just order thick gears and not worry about it.

So is a ring gear spacer a hack thing to use?

In this situation it's maybe more suspect than normal too, in the D44 Zip lockers are drilled for oversized ring gear bolts, I forget the dimensions but I think they're 1/2 holes instead of 7/16. This is because of some rare application (Dodge Viper D44 IRS and "Super D44" kits) they use the larger bolts, so Yukon decided everyone should have big holes. You know because the end user can always drill a hole smaller but not bigger, that's how that works right? I did pick up Yukon's overpriced sleeves to "correct" this, but they're slip fit in the holes and not actually the right length, so the application is a bit dubious. I'm aware it's a friction clamp scenario and the ring gear is a mild press fit onto the carrier, but putting a spacer in there might compromise that?

[Snowracer]

id run it, its a 44 so im sure something else will blow apart long before them ring gear bolts let go

[Snowracer]

could always make sleeves that are long enough to do the carrier and the spacer to help hold it all together if really worried about it

[Scott Cee AKA 2drx4]

could always make sleeves that are long enough to do the carrier and the spacer to help hold it all together if really worried about it

That's a valid point.

[pointsnorth]

pretty sure jk rubicons have a factory spacer in them

[Provience]

as long as the spacer is flat, have at it. as long as the holes are close, i wouldn't worry about the fit to the space from the bolt, more concerned that the bolt is a good fit to the carrier.

[Johnny5]

Weld spacer in. Then its not a spacer, its a “fish plate” lol

[Provience]

well, if you do that, bolt everything down tight first and then weld it so that you aren't fighting the weld at all

[Scott Cee AKA 2drx4]

pretty sure jk rubicons have a factory spacer in them

I thought they were thick gears from the factory. Mind you I've never pulled the cover of mine to look.

Weld spacer in. Then its not a spacer, its a “fish plate” lol

That's probably just a little too terrifying for me.

as long as the spacer is flat, have at it. as long as the holes are close, i wouldn't worry about the fit to the space from the bolt, more concerned that the bolt is a good fit to the carrier.

Well, the bolts aren't really a good fit in the carrier. The fact Yukon made the holes too big means the bolt is seating pretty far out on the shoulder of the head. If anything they should have provided a larger flange head bolt to at least somewhat unfuck what they did.

I mean it's probably not a problem either way. I haven't heard of any ring gear bolt failures that were associated with the Zip locker.

[Provience]

redilling the ring gear to match the 1/2" bolts on the carrier isn't an option?


edit: you're probably right that it doesn't much matter though

[Scott Cee AKA 2drx4]

redilling the ring gear to match the 1/2" bolts on the carrier isn't an option?

I'm not sure how easy that would be to do. Blind tapping some heat treated 8620 doesn't sound like the most fun a guy could have on a Saturday night.

[Provience]

yeah right after i said it, i thought about how much it would probably suck

everything to make it better falls solidly into the 'not worth it' camp. I guess if you want to get fancy, machine the spacer to include the bolt spacers all as one piece, but also not worth it when making the spacer, then making new spacers at whatever length, and buying new bolts would be easier, faster and the same result in the end.

or, just cut the holes big on the ring gear shim, use the bolts you already have and the bolt spacers you already have and know that it will work just fine

[SasquatchCdn]

Nothing wrong with a ring gear spacer.
We stock Dana 60 ones cause ordering the wrong gears or carrier is a pretty common mistake that people make, lol.

I know you can buy 8.8 ring gear spacers cheap too but as far as a d44 goes your probably stuck making your own.

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[Scott Cee AKA 2drx4]

Nothing wrong with a ring gear spacer.
We stock Dana 60 ones cause ordering the wrong gears or carrier is a pretty common mistake that people make, lol.

I know you can buy 8.8 ring gear spacers cheap too but as far as a d44 goes your probably stuck making your own.

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Interesting, I'd assumed they were available since it's a common enough solution. Turns out you can get them for damn near every axle but the D44 from the looks of things.

[SasquatchCdn]

Nothing wrong with a ring gear spacer.
We stock Dana 60 ones cause ordering the wrong gears or carrier is a pretty common mistake that people make, lol.

I know you can buy 8.8 ring gear spacers cheap too but as far as a d44 goes your probably stuck making your own.

Sent from my XP7700 using Tapatalk

Interesting, I'd assumed they were available since it's a common enough solution. Turns out you can get them for damn near every axle but the D44 from the looks of things.

Yeah, not sure why.

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