G2 uses the D44 housing from the Rubicons and throws in a ton of extras: Chromoly axle shafts, the gear set of your choice, lockers of your choice, spicer u joints, spicer ball joints, and of course their famous HD aluminum diff covers. These axles come as a direct swap for the d30/d35 that was already under the Jeep. The only requirement, is that you need to keep both sets of brakes, and the outer knuckles from the d30. And with a 5 year warranty, this was a no brainer.
Ryan opted for ARB air lockers front and rear, 5.13 gears, and also upgraded the rear axle shaft to a 33 spline shaft.
Night 1 was the tear down of the old D35. Disconnect the driveshaft, unbolt all 4 control arms, unbolt the drum brake backing plates, disconnect the lines, and swap the new D44 in it's place...
Everything went smooth with this side, and the Jeep was on it's own weight in no time.
Night 2 Ryan started the tear down of the front D30. First step was to knock off the outer knuckles...
At the end of night 2, the front was completely out, and it was time to say goodbye to the old D30...
Over the next several days, a few steps needed to be completed before the Jeep could stand on all fours again. The front driveshaft needed to be shortened due to the extended pinion length the D44 has compared to the D30. The outer knuckles and pitman needed to be reemed out for the new 1 ton tie rod ends that were part of the new 1 ton steering setup bought from Frank Z at http://www.seriousoffroadproducts.com/. A steering stabilizer mount also needed to be fabricated on the new drag link as it did not come with one.
After one full week of sitting in the garage, some control arm tweaking to adjust the pinions, the Jeep pulled out with a new, stronger set of legs...
A 500 mile break in period is required before the new ARBs can be used, so since no offroading was in Ryan's near future, he made one more modification to the new setup. How about some green accents?
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