Front D44 on XJ

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tnxjjeeper

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Chattanooga,Tennessee
I found a good deal on an old Dana 44 driver drop front axle. It is off an old Ford, but I don't know what kind. I don't know anything about it other than it is a 44 and a driver drop. Has anyone else put one of these on their XJ's. What did you have to do to make it work. I am going to try and get a 44 rear to go with it. This will just be a project axle so I have a little while to work on it.
 
I haven't gotten a good look at it yet. It looked about as wide as my XJ axles, but that is a rough guess. Would it be possible to weld on the control arm mounts and coil buckets? Like I said, it will be a project. I am hoping to put a 44 on the rear as well as the front during the summer and lift my Jeep some more, so I have a while to fool with it.
 
well if this means anything to ya, I used to run an early bronco axle on my xj, jthere are a ton of options, and if you are a diy'er, anything is possible.

if it turns out you have an EB axle, talk to farmermatt.
 
For the rear you have a ton of options. Basically anything that had leaf springs and is centered is easy to cut and remount the perches. Waggy 44, EB 9" are about the right width. If the front is full width then there are the widetrack cherokee's that I think had a rear 44, or an AMC 20, or the matching ford 9" or d60s. I'm sure someone will correct me if I mis-spoke :D
 
tnxjjeeper said:
I haven't gotten a good look at it yet. It looked about as wide as my XJ axles, but that is a rough guess. Would it be possible to weld on the control arm mounts and coil buckets? Like I said, it will be a project. I am hoping to put a 44 on the rear as well as the front during the summer and lift my Jeep some more, so I have a while to fool with it.
Click to expand...

You can do everything from welding on Rubicon Express TJ brackets for a stock suspension to a totally custom setup. I'd recommend asking a lot of questions, and doing a lot of searches (keyword: "longarm" will bring up most of what you need to know :D ) and then building from scratch.

Hopefully you have a high pinion 44 without the cast mounts. Perfect platform for an XJ front end...you can do everything from full width to stock width.

Anyway, there are plenty of us with 44's under the front, and the high pinion Ford is the prize if you can get one.

Nay
 
i'm doing a 78 Ford HP D44 for the front of my XJ right now. I've done a ton of research so if you want to converse, I can give you more info. Around here a 78 Ford HP D44 goes for around $250 complete hub to hub. The 77 is preferable due to a difference in the castings but if you are going to leave it full width, either works fine. I did all my research and I'm going to run the Ford radius arms. It looks like a much simpler setup and cheaper as well.

If you haven't figured it out yet, the axle is the cheap part :bawl:
 
33s will do just fine on the D30, 35s can be made to work pretty well too, especially if you're not on dry rock. If you know 35s is the biggest you'll ever go, then stick with the D30. For me, I knew I wanted 35s, but I saw the possibility of going with 37s in the future so I went ahead and did the D44 now, and it has been a TON of work.

this may get a little blasphemous, but I have had major second thoughts about going to 35s. 33s and lockers will take you just about anywhere, and the step to 35s seems to be a very large one in time and money.
 
The cost of building a D44 is ultimately barely more than the cost of building your D30. In the end, you are going to replace the differential (locker), gears (4.56 or below), axle shafts (alloy) and steering/trackbar of either axle. Why do all this work to a D30, spend the same money except the initial $250-$400 for the axle, to end up with a...D30?

The answer would, of course, be the clearance advantage of a D30 in return for various weaknesses. Given that most of the people here with 44's first built a D30 to the hilt and then gave up on it, your money is on building the 44 the first time vs. a probability of doing it twice. You should use flat top high clearance steering knuckles (Chevy) and custom build it from scratch.

Nay
 
I don't know much about building an axle. I just know that 44's are good axles and I can get one for cheap so I thought I would ask. If I make the jump to 35's I was going to swap out the 81/4 in the rear for a 44, so I figured I could do the front and rear at the same time. As for tire size, I was just considering the jump to 35's over the summer, but if i was to run across something bigger and it was do able I thought that I might as well try and get the 44's on for later, just in case.
 
You'll ultimately need to learn about axles if you intend to run 35" tires and use it on trails that require those tires. Do some research on axles...look at specs and load ratings...ask questions here. We can't tell you that you need a D44 without knowing what you'll use it for, and you don't seem to know what you are going to use it for yet. Maybe the cart is in front of the horse at this point?

Just keep in mind that if a car company were to release a vehicle with 35" tires from the factory, it would have a Dana 60 (or equivalent) front. The D30 can handle 35's offroad with some degree of care, but it tends to suffer terribly from a lot of onroad use. I didn't do a 44 because I had problems with my D30 offroad...it was the onroad that it couldn't handle (constant ball joint failure) because I put on a lot of miles even with the bigger tires.

Nay
 
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