Your differential is one of those parts that's a big investment, and you wanna protect your
carrier, your ring gear, and all of your bearings from any rocks or damage that they might see
on the trail.
This Poison Spyder Differential Cover that I have here is a good investment to protect
your internals of your 1997 to 2018 Dana 44 from any peel backs or hits on the trail.
This is also gonna give you a signature badass look to the backside of your diff.
Installing this will be familiar if you've ever changed your diff's fluid and will be
two out of three wrenches on the difficulty meter.
I would like to mention that you will need the correct amount of gear oil for your differential,
so make sure that you check your owner's manual for your specs.
This cover is a big step up in construction from the original factory differential cover.
It's made of ductile nodular iron instead of the stamped factory carbon steel, and it
will do a lot better of a job at taking any hits, as well as taking high stress and very
torquey situations.
Especially great for when you're crawling.
This will have a semi-gloss powder coat on it that will protect your exterior of the
cover and prevent it from any rust or corrosion.
But, this cover is definitely paintable, and it's very common to give it a custom touch
to match your existing color scheme.
You can check out some of our customer pictures for some cool color examples.
The cover is very thick, and it measures about 7/16 to about a 1/2 inch thick, and varies
around the cover because of the ramp design.
The ramp design, as well as the recessed holes in the cover for the bolts, will make sure
that when your diff comes in contact with a rock, it will just slide right off, preventing
any hang-ups on the trail.
This will come with all the hardware needed to install it, including the differential
bolts, and unlike bolts that protrude from the stock differential cover, these are hidden.
The design also makes it peel-resistant which is very important if you're crawling.
If you skid your differential on a rock, you can actually do a pretty good job at peeling
the differential cover back, releasing all of the fluid from the differential, making
a very messy trail cleanup, and it's flat-out just not good for the environment.
What I really like about this is the fact that the fill hole is at the stock fluid level
height.
This will take all of the guess work out of filling up the differential.
This will be right in the middle of the road with price for a differential cover, and I
actually think it's pretty fair at right around a $100.
The higher price options like the ARB Differential Cover are gonna come with some extra features,
like magnets on the drain plug, as well as on the dipstick, and a bit of a different
design to allow breezing, as well as protection.
There will also be other higher price covers that have different materials and other different
designs.
With those, you're paying for the extra features, which is well worth it if that's what you're
looking for.
The other less expensive products that we offer are gonna be made out of less heavy-duty
material, like forged steel that doesn't exceed in the toughness of this cover, as well as
replacements to your factory cover that don't provide the ideal protection that you might
be looking for.
Overall, if you don't need all the bells and whistles, but still want some good insurance
for your differential, Poison Spyder is the way to go.
Install is at two out of three wrenches on this one guys, and I would like to mention
that along with the standard hand tools, you will also require a sufficient amount of differential
oil to completely refill the housing.
Overall, it should only take you about two hours to get this thing bolted up.
First, you have to park the Jeep on a flat surface so that oil drains properly.
So, put an oil pan under, and remove the drain plug.
Then, you can loosen the cover plate bolts, and gently pry the cover away, draining all
of the fluid from the differential, and remove the cover completely.
Then, you can scrape off the old gasket and the silicone, and clean the housing and the
surface with some brake cleaner.
After that process is done, you can lay the silicone on the new gasket and install the
new diff cover with the new gasket, and screw in the bolts using a star-like pattern, and
torque them to factory specs.
Then, you can fill up the diff to the correct level, and install the drain plug with Teflon
tape.
I would like to mention that the fill hole should not be considered the full line.
In some cases, filling to the fill hole will result in an overfull situation and may result
in blowing fluid out to the breather.
I would recommend checking your owner's manual to determine the correct fluid amount.
So, if you're looking to some solid protection to your Dana 44, Poison Spyder has you covered.
This is Merideth with XT, and you can find this and everything else Wrangler, right here
at extremeterrain.com.