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Dana 30 Knuckle Question - Difference between 81 and 82-85?

hefavitzen

Scrambler Junkie
BENEFACTOR
Gold Member
Lifetime Member
City
Rock Hill
State
SC
Hey guys, I have a set of "new" wide track axles I am rebuilding for my 81 Scrambler. These are from an 84 CJ and have 1 piece shafts but have the same 2.72 ratio as my current narrow track axles.

The rear is overall in really good shape, just needed some paint and I am going to move my disk brakes to the new axles.

BUT, the front axle looks like, after I wire wheeled the dirt off of it, that it may have been sitting in a puddle for some time. The seals held and the internals are pristine, but the outside is pretty corroded together.

I had to battle the castle nuts off and had to work a bit to get the knuckles off. Now that they are off, I have soaked them in Evaporust and in PB Blaster after that and I just cannot seem to get the ball joints out. Also, the star head bolts that hold the caliper hangers on are also frozen solid.

My question is - can I just move my knuckles from my 81 axles to the 84 axles? Are there differences in the knuckles?

I have tried to look up part numbers, but I can't find a reference so far. They seem to not be made or sold by anyone any longer.

Any ideas?????
 

Dave The Sparky

Rebuilding my CJ8 very,very slowly...
Member
City
Halifax
State
UK
81 calipers, caliper mounts and the brake hoses are completely different they changed over to the sliding pin design in 82 probably when the wide track came along.
They do use the same knuckles though so you can swap complete sets of parts around and fit later parts to earlier CJs so its possible yours have been upgraded if you are lucky.

I use a press to get the ball joints out, it can take lots of pressure to shift them yet for some reason new ones just glide straight in with very little force?.
If you can get the ball joints out then i would leave the wretched star headed bolts as they may need some heat to shift those pesky things.
The earlier brakes used Hex heads why they ever changed them i really dont know.......
 

hefavitzen

Scrambler Junkie
BENEFACTOR
Gold Member
Lifetime Member
City
Rock Hill
State
SC
81 calipers, caliper mounts and the brake hoses are completely different they changed over to the sliding pin design in 82 probably when the wide track came along.
They do use the same knuckles though so you can swap complete sets of parts around and fit later parts to earlier CJs so its possible yours have been upgraded if you are lucky.

I use a press to get the ball joints out, it can take lots of pressure to shift them yet for some reason new ones just glide straight in with very little force?.
If you can get the ball joints out then i would leave the wretched star headed bolts as they may need some heat to shift those pesky things.
The earlier brakes used Hex heads why they ever changed them i really dont know.......

Thanks Dave! I will probably focus on getting these clean and painted and ready for swap and then let them sit until fall. Once I realized all I was going to swap around I figure my Jeep will be out of commission for a few weeks at least. I'm just getting to drive it for the season so I'm going to drag my feet a bit and make sure these are clean as a whistle.

I'll take pictures when I'm doing the swap in case someone is interested.
 
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