Front diff ring

[Murray]

I read somewhere (i think on LOST KJ) that you can get a steel ring to put on your front diff to make it stronger . My diff split today and i was thinking of finding one of these rings. The person said that he can't say if it works or not but he wheels hard and never had a problem . Pros and cons. Where can i get one (ie part # and what auto parts place) I travel to up state NY and i could pick one up.

 

[Corwyyn]

Yeah there was quite a bit of disscusion on LOST about this and a few folks put collars on their diifs but in the end someone still broke a diff even with a collar on...

 

[tjkj2002]

Better to put a DTT up front or a ARB locker and learn how to limit front wheel spin to keep the D30A in one piece over putting collar on that does nothing.

 

[Atrus]

TJKJ, maybe you could answer this....I assume it's due to cost....

Why doesn't someone manufacture a steel housing for these? Wouldn't that alleviate these issues? I don't know much (or anything at all really) about the D30A, but really couldn't a housing be made and use stock axle shafts and bearings?

Understandably, a SFA is more reliable that CV's (as you've proven, CV's break), but for those of us who don't wheel hard enough to justify the SFA this may be a middle-of-the-road upgrade.

If it was a reasonable amount - i.e., $300 or so, I would heavily consider it just for the insurance it'd offer. Chances are I'll never crack my D30A, but for the headache it'd cause I'd be willing to swap this out. I'd think they could be manufactured as just the shell for that price, then you'd have to swap the stock diff, axles, and bearings into it.

 

[JeepJeepster]

Its all about cost and demand atrus. They look at the population of people that actually offroad their libertys and see that its a small population, so no one is interested in making diffs for our libertys.

A diff ring is not the end all fix all solution for the breaking diff's. People see that one person broke their diff and say, 'welp, those dont work,' when that is probably not entirely true. The collar will make the pinion area stronger but is it really enough to keep them from breaking? With a lot of wheel spin you can break anything.

Getting a DTT in the front, a good locker in the rear, and also the collar should keep the diff from breaking if you are aware that its a weak point when offroading. There are times when youve just got to gun it if you want to make it so in that situation youve just got to pucker up those butt cheeks. Just be careful if you have a seat cover, you may lose it!

 

[Atrus]

Understandable Blake, economies of scale need to be taken into account. Large demand means fixed costs drop per unit, not to mention variable costs can even drop due to leveraging economic order quantities. I guess my reason for questioning it is that RL makes bumpers and rails, heck, even ARB makes a bumper. They found the demand to be enough. I was curious to know if it's that much more involved than I am thinking (doesn't seem like it would be).

 

[jerbacher]

Understandable Blake, economies of scale need to be taken into account. Large demand means fixed costs drop per unit, not to mention variable costs can even drop due to leveraging economic order quantities. I guess my reason for questioning it is that RL makes bumpers and rails, heck, even ARB makes a bumper. They found the demand to be enough. I was curious to know if it's that much more involved than I am thinking (doesn't seem like it would be).

bumpers, rails, and such are all made from formed and welded sheet steel or rod. the tooling cost is very low to make these products. in comparison, a differential housing is a cast part requiring a much higher initial investment in tooling.

you could go out right now and get a tool designed to make cast housings for a steel kj diff, but its gonna cost you $10k or so. you'd be better off to spend that cash to make an SAS kit.... like rock lizard is.

 

[Atrus]

I guess I was thinking more of tubing and plate steel "pie" shaped to make the diff housing. Aren't that how some/most of the aftermarket units are done?


Edit - Or, taking an existing rear one and shortening up the housing to make it work.

 

[jerbacher]

I guess I was thinking more of tubing and plate steel "pie" shaped to make the diff housing. Aren't that how some/most of the aftermarket units are done?


Edit - Or, taking an existing rear one and shortening up the housing to make it work.

not sure about that. i know some of the covers are plate steel, but i dont know about the housings themselves. dont really know too much about it.

 

[tjkj2002]

TJKJ, maybe you could answer this....I assume it's due to cost....

Why doesn't someone manufacture a steel housing for these? Wouldn't that alleviate these issues? I don't know much (or anything at all really) about the D30A, but really couldn't a housing be made and use stock axle shafts and bearings?

Understandably, a SFA is more reliable that CV's (as you've proven, CV's break), but for those of us who don't wheel hard enough to justify the SFA this may be a middle-of-the-road upgrade.

If it was a reasonable amount - i.e., $300 or so, I would heavily consider it just for the insurance it'd offer. Chances are I'll never crack my D30A, but for the headache it'd cause I'd be willing to swap this out. I'd think they could be manufactured as just the shell for that price, then you'd have to swap the stock diff, axles, and bearings into it.

We looked into making a cast iron D30A housing,your looking at about $30,000-$40,000 for the prototype,after that the cost would drop to about $1200 per diff housing(bare housing only) if 250 were ordered,$1000 for 500 ordered.

 

[Atrus]

We looked into making a cast iron D30A housing,your looking at about $30,000-$40,000 for the prototype,after that the cost would drop to about $1200 per diff housing(bare housing only) if 250 were ordered,$1000 for 500 ordered.

Wow, yeah, forget that! I didn't think it'd run that high.

Any reason why it'd have to be cast? It doesn't really support weight, right? That's why I was thinking plate steel center (maybe like a hexagon or decagon) with steel tubes.

 

[tjkj2002]

Wow, yeah, forget that! I didn't think it'd run that high.

Any reason why it'd have to be cast? It doesn't really support weight, right? That's why I was thinking plate steel center (maybe like a hexagon or decagon) with steel tubes.

Great idea for a 3rd member style diffs(Ford 9" and toy axles) but will not work for standard diffs that use the housing as the main support,which 3rd member diffs do not.

 

[Atrus]

Ah, OK.

So, last question then...shortening an existing SA wouldn't work either?

 

[tjkj2002]

Ah, OK.

So, last question then...shortening an existing SA wouldn't work either?

Looked into it,again cost and the whole front driveshaft location knocked that down also.Custom brackets,custom CV(drivers side),custon inner shaft(passenger side),custom front driveshaft,and where to put that driveshaft due to having to shift the diff over more then the CRD's do for clearence.That all was with a HP30.Can it be done? Yes but again it would be over $1500 for me to make one,that's with no gears or locker/LSD installed either.