OpenTrackRacer

Tagged a rock a few weeks ago hard and fractured my stock Rubicon right axle tube in the usual location. This is the first trouble I've had in eight years of hard core off-roading but it was big trouble indeed! I'm looking into replacement axle housings but I have a quandary... all the heavy duty replacement housings are 3" or larger in diameter. I have an AEV DualSport lift which has a number of brackets to relocate the shock buckets, trackbar mounting location, steering stabilizer and swaybar link mounts. Those are all designed for a 2.5" axle tube and none will fit on these aftermarket axle housings without serious modification and welding.

It seems like this would be a common issue but I'm not finding a ton of answers. Has anyone else dealt with this? I'm starting to think I may be better off taking my chances on a new Mopar D44 with the J8 tubes since I went this long on the original housing without any problems.

Thanks!

JKBud

If I'm understanding you correctly, the only thing that would matter would be the track bar location on the new axle. Depending on how high your lift is you can order the new housing with track bar brackets in the stock or raised location. Everything else coils, shocks, steering stabilizer etc. will drop right in since they are to JK spec just with beefier tubes and brackets. Pick a flavor you like such as dynatrac or teraflex and give them a call they'll walk you through it to get the right housing. Just make sure you get the empty housing thats meant for a rubicon locker and you can transfer all the guts over to save some coin.

OpenTrackRacer

You'd think so but I've talked to both Dynatrac and Teraflex and they didn't have any good answers. A replacement trackbar doesn't solve the whole problem because the mounting location makes a big difference. The AEV trackbar relocation bracket also has the anchor point for the steering stabilizer as part of their high steer kit. Even the axle housings they sell for lifted applications have the swaybar mounts, trackbar mount and shock buckets in the factory locations.

JKBud

I'm surprised they couldn't answer, you have any pics of your old setup? I have a rough idea of what you're saying but I'm not familiar with aev lifts so its hard to picture whats going on exactly.

resharp001

I've not looked at detail prices, but I think what you're comparing is ~$1200 Mopar D44 with J8 tubes and ~$2300 PR44 or similar aftermarket. Ugh. Also presume you're out of pocket on this cost and insurance is not involved. Man that's a tough call. I wouldn't be so concerned about the bracketry and such. There are people out there running high steer kits on PR44s, so you would just be looking at using a different bracket and selling the AEV one. I think the bigger question is regarding the price difference of the axle housings. I think I'd lean towards an aftermarket housing given your wheelin'. If you ever sell the jeep you could sell/swap those axles for a factory set + cash.

OpenTrackRacer

I was able to work with Dynatrac to solve this. They supply axles to AEV so that made things easier. Just ordered an axle housing with stock control arm mounting locations (since I have the AEV geometry correction brackets) which will have AEV's trackbar relocation bracket and swaybar relocation brackets welded on.

Thanks for all the feedback!