HP D-44 with a twist.

[commandtoad]

as most of you know, a D-30 won't live long with a stroker, so a D-44 was in my future. to start off with i run 33x10.50 swamper's in the front with 33x13.50's in the rear on a 4.5 in lift. since i run a skinny tire i did not want lock outs. since i already had a 79' ford bronco front, this left me looking at dodge junk for the outers. to make a long story short, i ended up using 4 axles to make one and it goes like this. ford center, chevy long side, dodge short side with 75' full time power waggon outers, all cut to use rubicon inner axles. the reason i went with the dodge outers was several reasons.
1. 5 on 4.5 bolt pattern
2. 35 spline stub, yes they are huge, with a 297 yoke, to match the inners
3. the steering uses the same tie rod ends, only they are on top, raising the linkages about 2 in.
4. the bearings have grease fittings
5. the breaks are bigger.
the draw back. i have heard bad things about the bearing design, but for my application, it seemed to be fine.

a side note. there are different tube dia's on the dodge as well as fords. make sure you measure before you cut up a perfectly good axle.

the first time i took it out i broke a inner axle. to be fair, they were out of stock on the como's so i had to run stock till they got some in. i hope that cures the breakage issue or a weeks worth of work will be down the tubes, and i would hate to have to shove the stock motor back in to keep from breaking stuff :roll:


here's a link to the pics, and yes you have to reg to see them...
http://atomiccityfourwheelers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1122

 

[shortxjdoug]

you know i sat down and thought out that whole axle one day and designed it in on paper but the all that work and money just scared me off of it.... glad to hear someone built what i happened to be dreaming about

 

[commandtoad]

there were a few times during the build, when problems arose, that it almost scared me off as well, but it all came out in the wash. i would not recommend this for anyone unless they just happen to have a bunch of junk laying around and a buddy that is a machinist to turn the tubes. the only thing i didn't have was gears, inner axles and the brackets and it still cost $1000. although i could have saved about $325 on brackets, by cutting off the D-30 buckets, buying the $50 lower brackets and fabing the upper posts. at the same time, the bracket kit i got was super heavy duty, fit perfect and was worth the extra money.
another thing to is that if i ever did decide to go with a bigger tire, i can swap over the ford knuckles and run lock outs.
overall it turned out well.