jeep 2.5l and full size axles good or bad

I'm running a 44 front and 12 bolt rear with a 2.5 and 35s with 538 gears
it does fine crawling and around town just lacking a little on the freeway going up hill
 
I will tell my dad to look into the 5.2 swap. I am a mopar Guy that's why I am building a ramcharger. That being said it seems like there is more support out there for chevies. I have also had some good experiences with the 5.3s. My father in law has one with 305k with no rebuild.
 
Why are 60s and 14 bolts overkill for 35's? It's all in the driver, and what you're driving on/over. If you are putting a 60 in a mall crawler on 35s, then yes, it's overkill. But, I have seen people break 60 shafts with 33s.
The JK 44s (in stock form) aren't much of an upgrade over the stock axles in any wrangler, and by the time you upgrade them to where they will hold up, you would be better off (time and money) just doing the 60 swap.

Understand that this is just my opinion.


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Why are 60s and 14 bolts overkill for 35's? It's all in the driver, and what you're driving on/over. If you are putting a 60 in a mall crawler on 35s, then yes, it's overkill. But, I have seen people break 60 shafts with 33s.
The JK 44s (in stock form) aren't much of an upgrade over the stock axles in any wrangler, and by the time you upgrade them to where they will hold up, you would be better off (time and money) just doing the 60 swap.

Understand that this is just my opinion.

That is pretty much what we are thinking. why spend all that money on these axles when it would be cheaper to just get better axles. We are hitting harder and harder trails everytime we go out and he is tired of being the one to break. Honestly he is leaning towards making it a trailer queen and odds are at that point it will get bigger tires too.
 
I was reading about shaving the 14 bolt and turning down the ring gear doesn't seem like that bad of a job so maybe that's the way to go. As far as the Dana 44 it would be a temporary thing. Believe me we know its not a cheap hobby just kinda tight right now and ejs isn't that far away so we are looking for a back up plan.
 
kawzx10 said:
I was reading about shaving the 14 bolt and turning down the ring gear doesn't seem like that bad of a job so maybe that's the way to go. As far as the Dana 44 it would be a temporary thing. Believe me we know its not a cheap hobby just kinda tight right now and ejs isn't that far away so we are looking for a back up plan.
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I have wheeled our 14B on 40s for the last year on quite a few trails. I still haven't even taken the lip of the 14B. It does drag a little bit sometimes, but when it does hit enough to actually hang up, an inch or two more wouldn't have made a difference. Unless you're planning on competing, I wouldn't even consider shaving it down to the ring gear.
 
you might look into a dana 70u rear axle. they have a super nice and smooth round bottom, and come with 35 spline shafts in the HD version...i'm not sure if the u and HD are one and the same though...maybe someone can clarify that? and they can be had for about the same price as a 14 bolt. search for project Swollen goat on here. he put in a front 60 and rear 70. might be a good one to reference.

i researched the 5.3 and 5.2 swaps too. i decided on 5.3 for a few reasons. better power to $$$ ratio. if you aren't lucky like 97wrangler and come across a wrecked durango or cherokee for the build, it will cost at least the same for the motor and trans. 5.3's are also VERY well documented builds. the aftermarket support is there. harnesses can be had for a reasonable cost, and the computer can be tuned to make great power, also on regular unleaded fuel. this is just my opinion from my research though.
 
rockchucker said:
i researched the 5.3 and 5.2 swaps too. i decided on 5.3 for a few reasons. better power to $$$ ratio. if you aren't lucky like 97wrangler and come across a wrecked durango or cherokee for the build, it will cost at least the same for the motor and trans. 5.3's are also VERY well documented builds. the aftermarket support is there. harnesses can be had for a reasonable cost, and the computer can be tuned to make great power, also on regular unleaded fuel. this is just my opinion from my research though.
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I would have to agree with you on that, I was very lucky. From my research before doing the swap it just seemed like the 5.2 had fewer things I was going to have to replace, being it was my first swap it seemed easier for me to successfully swap in a 5.2, it is all how you perceive it.
 
My dad does have a 94ish ram that he is looking to replace with something else. He could probably part it out and put the motor in his Jeep. It is pretty tired though so it would need a rebuild. I don't know how much different it would be but my dads is a Yi. I would think it would be easier as in less wiring and such.
 
My YJ has full width 60s with the original 4banger and AX5. I've had no trouble with this combo except a sincere lack of power and a max on road speed of 60 mph or so with 5.38 gears and super heavy creepy crawlers on steel beadlocks. I think 60s are an excellent idea if rockcrawling is in your future. Cheaper in the long run to not break than break, fix, replace, break, fix, replace.

If an engine swap is in the future, then go with 60s now. With the economy down i noticed Ford 60s are more and more affordable. Up to 1991 they had kingpins and high pinion. If you swap the dana 44 and upgrade later you will pay much more in the long run, especially to build the dana 44 to handle hard trails.

I don't see a problem with dana 60s on 35 inch tires if a guy is breaking his 44 a lot. But really, who runs 33s on tons unless they are wheeling their tow rig?

A 4banger can break stuff though, so you never know. My pal shawn spun the tubes on his 14bolt with a 4banger auto heh heh sorry pal
 
rondo said:
If an engine swap is in the future, then go with 60s now. With the economy down i noticed Ford 60s are more and more affordable. Up to 1991 they had kingpins and high pinion. If you swap the dana 44 and upgrade later you will pay much more in the long run, especially to build the dana 44 to handle hard trails.
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In the past year I have seen a few front ford d-60's at tear-a-part, that would be less than $200.00 if you get that lucky, only one of them was a king pin the others were ball joint like mine. (If I hadn't already narrowed my ball joint I would have grabbed the king pin one)

He makes a good point, a few years ago a complete 60 was going for at least $1200.00, now you can usually snag them for about $900.00 or less. Sometimes they will sit on the classifieds here for weeks before selling. It is hard to say if in a year or two what will happen with the price, I think they will go up again. A 91 is 20 years old, 20 year old trucks are going to be harder and harder to come by. Look at the price of a 78-79 ford front axle that has the longer short side axle tube. You won't find one in a yard and when you find them for sale they are expensive.



Nathan
 
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