Birth of Phoenix

I decided to go junkyard axles because I could get more for my money in the end. The majority of the axles that people choose for this are Superduty axles or SD front with a newer GM 14 Bolt (AAM 10.5).

When it comes to SD axles you get a HP Dana 60 front and Sterling 10.5 Rear. 8x170mm bolt pattern. They are found in 99-04 F250/350 trucks. But be careful, many of these trucks came with a Dana 50 front which is smaller. Google it and look how to identify each. 99-04 are also leaf sprung so less casting to cut and cheaper wheel bearings for the front. They also have 30 spline outer stub shafts for the front.

05 and up axles are coil sprung so there’s plenty more casting to cut for the truss but adapt better for ABS and have 35 Spline outers.

Rear axle remains the same. 35 spline, disc brakes, and slightly offset to passenger side.

The reason why some people go with the GM 14 bolt is that the diff is centered and the 8x6.5 bolt pattern which means more wheel options. Centered diff means no interference with the JK tank. A newer 14 bolt will give you disc brakes and the width you are looking for. You will need to drill new holes in your front hub assembly to get the same bolt pattern or buy new front hubs. The 14 also hangs low limiting ground clearance. You can shave it but it’s more work and money.

I looked for several months at axles and the problem I ran into was most SD axles were Dana 50s when people said they were 60s and a newer AAM 10.5 was hard to find. I came across an 03 F350 with a complete set of axles for $800. This was easy and convenient. I didn’t need to find another truck for the rear or worry about all the casting. I was willing to tackle the tank issue. I’ll explain later if the Sterling was the right choice or not.
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Goal of the build was to build it without breaking the bank. This would have been a great time for coil overs and long arms but the budget didn’t support it. That can all come at a later time. I did my research and I budgeted for about 10-12k. That includes axles, tires, beadlocks, steering, suspension and misc. I also planned for 2 months. This was actually a terrible time to do this swap because the work schedule was rough. Another goal was to sell as much as I could for parts I couldn’t transfer over.

I was having a discussion about the swap with a buddy and he knew a guy that was willing to buy my axles, wheels and tires all at once so I jumped on it. About 2 hours of labor and $6500 later it was all gone.
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Awesome! Cant wait to see it finished up. Bubba at Exodus Jeeps knows a thing or to about the SD front and Sterling rear. Thats the combo I have but Bubba did some customization to them. If you have any questions hit him up. Good luck and keep us updated the best you can. 🤘
 
Picked up the axles and it was time to disassemble. Minimal casting needs to be removed on the driver side. It was actually easier than I thought. I used a angle grinder and the sparks change when you get through the cast and reach the axle tube. IMG_4752.jpg
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Tear down was easy. Rear gave me troubles. If you didn’t know like I found out, the rear driver side spindle nut is reverse threaded. I’m guessing the previous owner didn’t know either because it was pretty tore up from a screwdriver. Either way I ended up making it completely useless and had to cut the hub off. Expensive lesson learned.
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The massive size of the Sterling.
Here’s a size comparison of D44, D60, and Sterling 10.5 carriers.
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Once the axles were broke down, Klungy and I set to work welding on the trusses from Artec. It took two of us because we had to heat the casting up to 400F as recommended when welding. It takes a long time to heat everything up evenly to get it close to the right temperature. Once completed, we wrapped the axles in a blanket the allow them to cool evenly.
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I would say this is one of the more nerve racking and difficult parts.


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At this point I dropped off the axles to get rebuilt. 5.38s, ARBs and rebuild kit. Total cost for axles, trusses, parts and 1350 yokes to match my driveshafts and labor was right at 5k. Expenses don’t stop there. IMG_4924.jpg
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To back it up a little, I mocked up the brackets to dial in the suspension and check for interference. The track bar made contact with the truss which just required a little trimming and here’s where I ran into the first issues with the tank. IMG_4830.jpg
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When flexing the the suspension the yoke actually moved under the tank. So this is where the battle started.


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More on the tank later. Decided to go with some 40” Nittos. First they were unavailable so I ordered a set of Toyos which went on a 5 week back order. At that point I was about to order a set of STT Pros when I got a lead on some Nittos so I scooped them up. Also picked up Machete beadlocks. IMG_4840.JPG
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So when it comes to ABS sensors there’s only a couple options. You only need 1 of 4 for your speedo to work. My goal was to have no dash lights. I believe the newer JKs have more issues with no ABS sensors.

For the rear, Artec makes a tone ring that you can install on the rear hubs. The hub need to be machined the accept the ring. Also the sensor mount requires some grinding on the backing plate.
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The problem with this setup is that the rear e brake spring interfere with the tone ring. I couldn’t come up with a solution so I just removed them for now.
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There’s a couple options up front. You can buy new wheel bearings ready to go with the 8x170mm bolt pattern that will plug into the Jeep. But you’re going to pay for it. Artec has a set for the new 05 and up axles which are about $330 each. Currie has the same setup that will work with the 99-04 but come in around $400 each. They are only bored for the 35 spline outers. 99-04 have 30 spline outers. So you would need to upgrade outer stub shafts and hubs to work with the bearings from Artec and Currie.

Other option is to get a tone ring from Artec and install in your current wheel bearing. There’s really no instructions or literature about the installation. I bought the ring because it was a much cheaper alternative. Klungy and I decided to blow apart the old ones to figure out how to do it. It broke in the process but we figured it out. I bought new bearings for $200 each. Split the new one bit had issues going back together. There’s many layers to everything inside and it wouldn’t go back together and it broke. I didn’t want to chance breaking another one and waste more money so I bought the hubs from Currie and upgraded my shafts to the stronger 35 spline. IMG_4874.jpg
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Setting up the front axle and suspension required a little creativeness. The front lower RK links won’t flex outward enough to bolt up. So RK addresses this with their 1 ton swap lower links. They are massive and are adjustable on the Jeep.
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As you can see from the picture above, the axle is pushed forward. The issue with this is the shock is at an angle I don’t like and the front diff will make contact with the track bar mount on the frame. Now I tried to adjust the upper links to bring the axle back but it wasn’t enough. I determined that the truss was welded a little too far back. Can’t really fix that so I chopped an inch out of my uppers for plenty of adjustment. Now the axle is where I want it.
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For steering I converted it to a double sheer setup using DOM and heims from Ruff Stuff and high steer knuckles from Weaver Fabrication. I’m happy with the setup. Only issue I had was that the tie rod barely touched the track bar mount on the axle. You could just make some bends the tie rod and call it a day but I decided to clearance the mount and box it.
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Also had to trim a little of the fender to make room.
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Haven’t really discussed the suspension yet but I didn’t want to stretch my budget too much so I didn’t change much. I upgraded from 3.5” RK springs to 4.5” RK springs. I swapped out the front lowers for the 1 ton arms like mentioned before. Also all eight arms needed to be adjusted to set the axles correctly. Drivelines also needed to be shortened. Adams would do it for $70 a shaft but that obviously doesn’t include shipping. I found a local shop that did it for the same price. Kept the same shocks. 10” stroke. I do need to fine tune the bump stops. 8BD408DF-C6EC-49F3-A1FB-D953B9181440.jpg


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Something I didn’t like was how low the rear shock mounts were. As you can see, my shocks are extended a great amount.
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So I took a note from EVO and moved the shock mount up a couple of inches, chopped off the extra and made a skid plate for them.
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Now it’s time to talk about the tank. I knew the risk going into this project using the Sterling rear axle. I wanted to see for myself if it would work or not. Some of the things I read about the swap was that you can just beat in the corner, swap in a 2 door tank, or let it self clearance. This is all fake news. You could possibly stretch the wheelbase but I wasn’t willing to comp cut my 4 door. 2 door maybe. I removed the tank and tried to beat the corner in. Made progress but not nearly enough room. IMG_4932.jpg
Next I tried to heat the tank and smash the corner in. The poly is extremely thick and does not like to move. One guy on a forum was semi successful with this but he did not recommend it. The tank started to delaminate and he didn’t feel safe with it like that. The rear of the 2 door tank and 4 door are exactly the same. Only shorter up front.

So that left me with a couple options. Fuel cell in rear, GenRight tank or TJ tank swap. IMG_5028.jpg


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I didn’t want the fuel cell because I needed the space. The GenRight tank costs like $2200 or something like that so I went with the TJ tank option. I did some research and if you use the 2005-2006 tank then you can hook up all the emissions and have no CEL. Also it’s a 19 gal tank and you use the JK pump. Looked easy enough and I talked to a guy on IG who did it so I went for it.
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Fill neck points right towards the fuel door. Hardest part is modifying the JK fill neck.
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JK vs TJ fill neck
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Cut and weld.


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I’ll make a beefier skid plate later. The TJ tank is deeper than the JK tank so the fuel pump needs to be extended. I did this with the GenRight kit.
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The gas gauge is a little off but it’s doable.
The rest of the lines are easy to adapt and hook up. Autozone has everything I needed to hook it all up. IMG_5135.jpg
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