ihave been saving up to start a frame swap and build up my truck with ifs but id much rather have a real truck with soild axles
i have just come across a 1990 yj jeep wrangler from a co-worker for a pitance. i wanna put the dana 30 SOA up front under my 2wd truck then get the rear lift to match. ive read blogs on cardomain about if you use the stock 4wd stear box with grand cherokee stearing arms on oposite sides it works great with sway bar mods or removal. i know half of you are about to swarm me on how crappy a dana 30 is. but its exactly the same as the 8.25
is this possible? or am i dreamin?
also has anyone ever put a 4wd tranny in a 2wd dakota and custom welded brackets to hold it and t-case?

i would think if i solved the trans mounting issue and successfully put the axle in i could muster a starter 4wd.

 

Its not a bad idea... I've thought about it before. The good thing about the 2wd frame is that it already has the coil buckets if you go with a 4 link up front. It should be super easy to come up with a transmission bracket. It can go in the same place as your current one, but just needs the 4x4 tranny's stud configuration.

Anything is possible with enough time and money, just make sure you have the fabrication abilities before you get in too deep to turn around, cause paying someone else to fabricate everything will cost a fortune.

 

Ive easily got 15+ hours in research and playing with steel mocking things up and take it from me, it would be much simpler to start with a 4x4 dakota. I realize your cutting half of it off anyway, but theres SOOOOO much fabrication involved. You may disagree, and its your truck so do what you will.

Ill have at least 10 hours or so in building just my front axle from scratch. Granted, Im using coils and probably a 4 link(maybe, depends how much its gonna cost me in the end). But thats a hell of a lot of welding/bracketry/measuring/fabricating.

The truck isnt my daily driver(yet) so I dont have to worry about time. But I dont have a garage and snow is just around the corner so I do have a limit.

If you do swap the body on to a different frame build everything with the body off. Should make doing all the fab work much easier.

And I have no intention of telling you how crappy the dana 30 is. I only have 1 question. Is it strong enough to make it worthwhile doing all the mods you have to do to make it fit, and is it strong enough to hold up to 2" more tire than you "want" to run(I always go bigger in the end )

 

a lot of people like the first gen bronco sup with the radius arms and a dana 44 theirs 2 people in the faq2 who have done this but defently would not use the Dana 30 way too small i started to do this bought the axles 44and 9 with stalk 74 bronco radius arms but then monie got tight

 

a pre-77 bronco swap would be so much better!!$$
but i can get this jeep with a plow for like 500bucks
i figure i get the jeep use till like jan. to move snow at my house
then sell it for more when a snowstorm strikes

if not i was thinking of leaf springs like from a toyota or something
with the 30. make it stear and be road worthy and keep it 2wd until i get all the loose ends on a way to skip a frame swap but have 4wd

 

The Chry 8.25 is way better than the D30. The D30 is not crappy if properly setup and taken care of. You can see the D35 which is slightly better then the D30 is way smaller than the 8.25. The 8.25 is compatible to the D44. http://xj.no-ip.org/axle.html The D35 is comparable to the Chry 7.25 which is what the 4wd front axle is. That is what replaced them in the 2nd gen. So your basically putting in slightly less than what came stock. So like stated above go with a D44. So your upgrading, not downgrading. Yes I know you have 2wd too.

 

The problem with the D30 is the gears like to shear off, the "good" D30s (which a 90 YJ D30 is NOT, Low pinion, small joints, CAD, Leaf sprung) use D44 sized u-joints but the gears are just too fragile for more than 33s, probably less than that with a heavy and/or V8 powered Dakota. The advantage of a coil sprung D30 (which a YJ D30 is not) is that it already has link mounts, that's about it. Not to mention it's probably too narrow for a Dakota. A D44 is good for about 35s-36s, after that, get a D60.


Personally, I'd use a 3 link with panhard bar for the front suspension.

 

Honestly i would step back and look at what you want to use it for and how big you want it. I have thought about using a pre 85 toyota axles cause those are just nasty! lol but a stock d30 or d35 i would totally avoid (unless you like fixing more then wheelin) like it was said even a d44 is good to 36s before you start breakin stuff. But thats if you plan on wheeling pretty good. If your just trail riding it will hold up with regular maintence but i will promise you when you get stuck big and trying to dig out it will break. I have done a few and drove a few trucks with toyota axles and i dont know how but being so tiny they are strong as hell. Got a buddy with a sami and it has stock open yota axles and everything is stock except lower gears in the t case and it has held up to diggin with 44s on it. I mean i had that thing with the tires half down in the mud and it kept slinging. Also with a toyota axle you have alot of options down the road to upgrade. BUT measure 10 times before you do anything. Also brackets for the tranny and t case arent that hard to do with the right tools just MEASURE and make sure you keep angles good at full droop and full compression