High Horsepower Front Axle Swap Ideas

I was wondering the same thing. The pinion is a weird thing to break without there being other underlying issues.

 

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I didn't have the rear drive shaft in it when this happened I don't know if that would make a significant difference. It had just been flat towed 2000 miles by me after checking fluids and basics. I had it running well for 12 hours before this happened with about 4-6 lengths of my short gravel driveway. I'm pretty sure the gear ratios were the same front and back as it was used frequently in the 1980s by my Dad with the 350 sbc otherwise same setup. I was accelerating to go forward again when all I heard was a 'ping' sound then the jeep wouldn't move. Rear drive shaft is back in and it moves fine with that; at least so far.

 

I haven't taken the differential cover off yet to fully inspect the carnage but there is what I think would be part of the pinion or carrier support poking through the cast iron housing upper portion. The ping i heard was a piece of the housing being punched out. It was lying on the ground near the spot where cylindrical metal peice is sticking out of the housing just about 3/4 of an inch.

 

Yeah....you were routing ALL the power through that front axle. Not too surprised that it broke.

 

We really need several pics of this carnage, you know, for science or something..

 

I'm not sure when I take the differential cover off but when I do I'll post that also.

 

The cross shaft and cross shaft pin.... The case looks wallowed out with some corrosion in the area where the cross shaft is inserted. To me that indicates a long term issue. Is there a cross shaft pin? Was it ever installed? Do you think this could have been improper assembly? There looks to be no other carnage as in ring gear or pinion failure..

I'm not convinced this is HP related.

 

Probably wore through the roll pin that holds the pinion shaft in place and let the shaft walk out. I've seen it before many times. Normally from lots of hard use. We used to machine Dana 44 cases and install a hardened threaded retaining pin from a Ford to eliminate this when we installed locking diffs that replaced the side gears and pinion gears (Aussie Locker, etc.).

 

agree, not solely related to HP. However it would have happened sooner or later. As I understand it sat for years without being driven and then just the front axle was under power. I think if you rebuild it and drive with some caution it may last for many years. Or swap in something that can handle the HP. You can get up to a shortened D60 front that will look stock.

 

Can we see a better view of this:


Is that the cross shaft sticking through the axle?

 

The first picture of my previous post has the inside view of that shaft that is sticking through the housing.

 

I'm leaning towards a dana 60 front replacement even with the reduced ground clearance. If I did at some point go to 37s what width range would work best? I've seen lots of info online for later models which have a wider body and frame stock.

 

Rockwell axle build time

 

Okay, I went back a looked at the other picture again., that's a spectacular failure.
I can't help with the Dana 60 recommendation, though others may chime in with advice. Good luck in whatever you choose to do.