Dana 44 Thoughts

UNSTUCK

UNSTUCK

But stuck more often.
I'm going to put a Dana 44 on the front of my tj. The end goal is to run 37's for mostly DDing and to and from snakes and what not. It will have coilovers and a Genright or Ruffstuff long arm kit. 4.88 gears and a zip locker.

I found a complete fsb dana 44 with cromo shafts, everything else is stock for $50

I have a semi complete f250 dana 44, missing shafts and hubs.

Then I'm thinking about a waggy dana 44 front and rear as well.

I want high steer to go with it as well. I have a 8.8 in the rear that needs to be rebuild/swapped out. Maybe a fsb 9 inch? I don't care about wheel bolt pattern at this point as I need new wheels/tires. I will be doing all the fab work on these. Will the fsb width at 65ish inches be to hard to cover for street driving?

Which one should I build?
 
Where is the D60 option???? Just kidding I would build the F250 axle I am assuming the other axle has the Wedges for the radius arms??? Chromo shafts for a D44 are cheap I wouldnt let that persuade your decision.
 
I just sold the dana 60 so I could get the coil overs. And anyways, as I understand it a dana 44 is stronger then a 60! :D A 60 wont be needed at this stage of this build, maybe never needed.
It looks like the short side of the f250 is 9/32 inch shorter then the short side of the FSB. So I can cut down that little bit and should be okay for that swap. Yes, the FSB axle does have the cast in wedges, that I don't really want to mess with, so it looks like I'll go the f250 route and then use the knuckles out from the FSB. This gives me 5 on 5.5. I can then keep the 8.8 and put on wheel spacers to make the 5.5.
Any reason I'd want to dump the 8.8 for either a rear 44 or 9 inch?
 
I like 8.8s for jeep swaps. I would run it. I guess i do since an 8.8 is in the back of my TJ
 
You could use the one with the cast-in wedges, and just do a radius arm setup. That'd make things easy on that end of things.
 
I swapped the 44 & 9" from an FSB into my Cherokee with not too much fab work involved! :) I used the Ford radius arms & repositioned the spring pads on top of the radius arms. And built new brackets for the radius arm pivots & strengthened the unibody up front.:D
The rear was a bolt in with some slotted centering holes! :cool: If the front is the same on a TJ then that is a pretty easy swap! :greg:

If there isn't a big difference in strength with the rear, stay with the 8.8 & use spacer/adapters, That will save the cost of regearing & traction devices, as well as suspension brackets & drive line mods!:ugh:

Just my $.02 worth!:handlebars:
 
Got a Cleaned up Bronco Full size 44 with no brackets. Have several D60 Unit bearing axles being offered with any bolt pattern.

IMAG0250-1.jpg
 
I'm pretty set on cutting down the f250 44 housing now and running it with the 8.8. I can get adapters for it that are 1.25 inches wide. So that would make my total width 62 inches wide on the 8.8. I will leave the short side alone on the 44 and cut down the long side to make 62 inches as well. I have a guy that can respline the cromo shaft and also a standard shaft for a spare. I've heard that resplining is not as strong as the original rolled splines. Any thoughts on that?
 
Why cut it down? How wide is it currently? A couple months ago we finished putting a full width 60 under the front of my dad's TJ. We didn't cut it down, and with the H2 wheels, it really doesn't poke the tires out super wide. His rear axle is about 63 inches wide, so it is different, but the average joe would never notice, and I think it looks pretty cool.

As to resplining, there are a couple reasons I could think of that would make it weaker. First, I think (not positive) that an axle is heat treated after the splines are rolled/cut. By cutting new splines, this is cutting through the outer layer of the harder heat treated metal. Second, cut splines are not as strong as rolled ones because material is being removed. When splines are rolled, the axle is compressed making it denser in the spline area. Again, this is what I have concluded as I have thought about splines. I don't know if that is why rolled splines are stronger or not, but it makes sense to me. Hope this helps or gets your wheels turning.
 
There are not a lot of options for wheels with large back space in the 5 and 6 lug category like there are with 8 lug. So that would push my front axle track width out even further then your dads. Anywhere other then Utah and that would be fine. So cutting it down it is. I did see that Walker Evens wheels can come with as much as 5 inches of back space. So that may be an option if I find 62 inches to be to wide.
I would think that for spline strength it would depend on how deep the heat treat went. If it was deep enough down to cover the height of the new spline it would be just as strong.
 
The biggest difference in the strength is that a shaft with cut splines is generally the same diameter its whole length, so the smallest part is right at the splines. A better-designed shaft is a bit larger at the spline, then narrower the whole length of it so the whole thing can twist and absorb shock, rather than concentrating all the twisting at the splines and breaking like the cut shaft will. The whole shaft needs to be equal to, or slightly smaller than, the minor diameter of the spline--not possible with a shaft that can be shortened and re-splined.
 
That sounds right, but the stock shafts on the FSB are smaller at the splines then it tapers down for an inch or so then comes back up the highest diameter for the sealing surface and stays that way the rest of the way out.
 
Nobody said stock shafts are always made the "right" way. ;) That's why you can frequently shorten and re-spline a stock shaft.
 
I understand that. I guess what I'm getting at is a resplined set of cromos is still better then a set of stock shafts? I got them so cheap I may as well use them and spend that money elsewhere.
 
I bet you could get the right inner chromo shaft for that axle for less than it cost to have that one resplined unless you have the hook up on resplining
 
9" is cheaper and easier to regear than a 8.8 and it's not c-clipped. that's reason enough for me to run a 9 over an 8.8.

They do make deeper backspaced 5.5 wheels. ex. curvy body 90's f150's. you may have to bore out the center to fit the hubs but it's do-able.
 
C-clips are a bit of a pain, but I believe the 8.8 has the same size shaft as a 9 inch. I also have disc brakes, so I'm not worried about losing a wheel if I did brake a shaft.

I do have the hook ups on resplining and I haven't found long shaft to fit my needs, so it will have to be cut.
 
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