Almost Alloy kit for Dana 30 from Iron Rock

Almost Alloy kit

Almost Alloy kit for Dana 30 from Iron Rock

The weak link in my XJ has been the front axle U joints I have broken at least three of them. Every time it looks like the cap comes loose and hits the ball joint. Every time it takes the ears off the end of the shaft. I even lost a very expensive ARB shaft this way.

I have looked into the various ways to retain the caps better. There are full circle clips, or the caps can be welded in place. But none of these solutions add any strength to the ears. The ears seem to be the weak point to me. I am guessing the ear flexes and allows the cap to spin causing the clip to come off.

 

The Almost Alloy kit is a set of tabs that weld on over the ears reinforcing the area and trapping the cap in place. I like the extra strength the plates give to the ears.

I was very unsure about welding them over the caps. I am sure I will never be able to get them off if I need to replace the U joints. So I put in fresh U joints just to be sure. I packed in some extra grease to try to compensate for the grease that would be forced out by the heat of welding. I am not sure that helped at all, but it made me feel better.

I did several practice welds on some scrap that was about the same thickness as the plates to get the heat just right on my MIG. I then cleaned the ears really well with a flap disk and used some brake cleaner to make sure all the grease was gone in the weld area.

I centered the hole in the plate over the center of the U joint cap and welded both sides of the plates. It was not as difficult as I expected to weld to the cast ears.

I then ground down the excess weld bead as there is not a lot of extra room around where the yoke sits in the axle housing. There is plenty of room for the plates, but not for any excess weld bead.

Once the caps were welded, I cleaned up the assembly and put a light coat of paint on it. I then pulled my old axle shafts and replaced them with the armor-plated ones. I will keep the old shafts as spares. But hopefully, with the new protection, I won’t need them.

 

See ironrockoffroad.com for more info.