Axle spline count and gearing questions

I'm sure this is an old topic but new to me, so here goes; Sometime in the near future I'm going to go to lower gearing and a locker in the rear end, and I was wondering if there is an easy way to determine the spline count on my rear and front axle? My Jeep is a 1973 CJ5 w/ D44 rear and D33 front. Do I need to know the spline count to order gears, or is that just for the carrier or locker? Is there an opinion on the best gear company out there? Thanks, Doc

 

Mistake! I meant Dana 30 front axle.

 

rear spline is 30

front is 27


yukon gears are well reguarded, but I have no experience.

Jsut be sure you know where the carrier breaks are. You probably have 3.73 gears now, if you want to go lower (numerically higher like 4.10's or 5.32's) you will need a new carrier for the dana 44, or you will need whats called a "thick" ring and pinion set that is made to put lower gears on the 3.73 case.


The front is ready to go for lower gears. THe d30 3.73 carrier will accept all the way to 5.32 gears.


Be sure to check what ratio you jeep actually has as there were rare ones with factory 4.27's. If you ahve those, there is not much benefit in regearing.

 

Thanks Doc,

My diffs are 3.73's, I forgot to put that in. I figure to change front and rear to 4.56's and add a Detroit locker in the rear, it's going to cost about 1200.00.

 

that sounds about right. Yukon is a good company. I have put about 3500 very abusive miles on my gear sets from them with no problems. This Jeep is used primarily off-road on harder trails.

When you order the detroit you will need to know the spline count and the gear ratio you want to install on it as stated above.