Let's build the Ultimate Dana 44 front axle.

[TC]

This topic comes up often in various forms. I'd like to see one good thread that could be used for a quality tech article or possibly a sticky; one that any other 4X4 site would gladly refer to.

Let's try to keep this ON TOPIC and prevent muddying it up with unrelated questions or opinions, like why not build a D-60, 9inch etc.

One main priority would be to make it as "Bolt in" as possible. In other words, keep it set up for the original style suspension and track bar mounts. This axle should be able to be pulled from one XJ (or TJ, ZJ etc., for that matter) and moved under another with as little work as possible.

For those who have done it... what would you do the same; what would you do differently?

Some of the items that should be covered:
Housing; whats the best donor vehicle and why? High Pinion or Low Pinion? We know that the HP is stronger but can it be made to fit in an XJ with 6"-7" of lift? Keep in mind we're using the 4-link bracketry. I'm thinking the LP is strong enough for most applications since a 44 front is most likely going to be used with 35 to 37 inch max tire sizes. Larger tire guys will probably be considering the 60.
Housing dimensions; What width, how much to cut and which side? Dimensions that allow the use of available stock length shafts would be very desirable.
Lockers; this should be kept to a minimum for the sake of this article since it's a matter of personal preference, plus the fact that there are many more types coming on the market now and time will tell which will be reliable.
Axles; Seems like Warn has the best rep so far but if you feel differently please chime in. Axle joints are another item that will be a matter of personal preference. 760's, CTM's, OX, etc. all have their place.
Inner C's; If you're going to build it from scratch you might as well do it right. Cutting and rotating them should be done now. Anyone who has their Castor to Pinion angle specs per lift height would be handy. Priority should be given to castor of course.
Knuckles, Brakes, hubs etc.; which do you prefer, and why?
Steering; This could be an article all by itself but let's at least touch on the basics with the emphasis on a street driven rig. Leave the Hydro set-ups for another thread.

With the amount of talent around here we should be able to come up with a great D-44 build-up. Let the fun begin. TC

 

[XJJPR]

Let's try to keep this ON TOPIC and prevent muddying it up with unrelated questions or opinions, like why not build a D-60, 9inch etc.

TC

Ok then can we talk about why you should just stay with the d30?



hinkley

 

[TC]

I know, I know Mark, it works for you but some of us want the cool 44 cover. Now can we get ON TOPIC? TC

 

[Safari Ary]

The ultimate 44.....

I started with a Tera 50 housing(basically a fancy HP44) that I got off the forsale board. The only thing special about it is the pumpkin itself. Anyway, if I were going to build the "ultimate 44" this would be my recipe:

Tera 50 w/ 3" .500 wall tubes(like mine)
Crane D60 kingpin inner Cs and and knuckles
35spline ARB
Superior 35-spline shafts in and out
Warn lockouts
CTMs

The bracketry will be the same for any front axle. Buy your brackets from RE or make them(or mix and match which is what I'm doing), either way it's not that big a deal to do the bracketry.

I know you said you didn't want D60 tech in here, but hey, you said the ultimate 44, and I believe an axle is defined by its differential, not its knuckles Seriously though, in that setup, I think the R&P is the weakest link. And yes, what I described is possible thanks to the wonderful aftermarket.

 

[BrettM]

not the ultimate, but possibly the Ultimate Budget D44 is what I did:

'80 Waggy LP D44 - $90
Chevy hubs and lockouts - $0 (friend)
Cut and turn knuckles - $5 (cutting/grinding wheels)
Used Spicer 4.88s and carrier - $75
flat-top knuckle, milled, drilled and tapped with ball-joints - $100
Parts Mike steering arm and hardware - $110
Lockright - $100
760x joints tack welded in - $40

Total; just over $500 into an axle that should be very reliable on 35s

this is setup with leaf springs, so no cost for brackets

 

[BrettM]

there's also a good D44 thread going on over on the Jeep section of the Pirate board, much discussion of 33 and 35 spline ARBs, D60 outers, etc.

 

[mattk]

If I had it to do over again, Terra 50 housing, 300M D60 shafts, outers and CTMs. Shafts and housing can be made custom length to keep pinion at same position as stock so it can be run with 4" of lift or maybe even less. My HP 44 (Ford) runs stock pinion position with 5" lift and rarely the pinion U-joint hits the exhaust pipe.
mattk

 

[Goatman]

This topic comes up often in various forms. I'd like to see one good thread that could be used for a quality tech article or possibly a sticky; one that any other 4X4 site would gladly refer to.

Let's try to keep this ON TOPIC and prevent muddying it up with unrelated questions or opinions, like why not build a D-60, 9inch etc.

One main priority would be to make it as "Bolt in" as possible. In other words, keep it set up for the original style suspension and track bar mounts. This axle should be able to be pulled from one XJ (or TJ, ZJ etc., for that matter) and moved under another with as little work as possible.

Well, I don't see much point in making it bolt in if you're going through the work of building a D44. One of the big benefits of a D44 is the hy-steer arms on a flat top knuckle, which means you'll also have to raise the track bar mount on top of the axle tube, and move the sway bar links up. Since you're welding on all new bracketry, might as well move the axle end control arm mounts up a little higher for better angles. Also, the spring perches can be raised a few inches to build in a little lift, meaning fewer spacers, and you might as well reposition the shock mounts upward a little for more droop and outward a little to clear the frame with the extra droop.

So, to me your parameters for building the ultimate D44 are too limited. Might as well do what Mark said and stick with the D30.

Here's my sort of ultimate D44. I tried to go with the 33 spline axles and D60 outers, but the lockers were not available by themselves, custom knuckles weren't available then, and Currie said the cut down and resplined D60 axles to 30 spline were not holding up even in Toyota's. So, I went with Warn axles and CTM's. I decided to use off the shelf Warn axles for an '80-'84 Wagoneer, and cut the housing down to that size, which gave me a WMS to WMS about 3/4"-1" wider than the stock XJ. I like the Ford high pinion housings. The D30's (except the unlucky real late model guys) are high pinion, and I see no point in spending time and money and going backwards to a low pinion. The issue isn't the r & p strength, it's the driveline and yoke clearance, both from rocks and from potential binding due to severe droop. All of my bracketry is custom. I didn't see the point of building a new axle and leaving everything in the stock location. All of the control arm and track bar mounts, either bushings or johnny joints, are 2 5/8". It's not difficult to get 3" boxed tubing 3/16" wall, which gives an ID of 2 5/8", and use that to make all of your brackets and mounts. Since I'm always thinking about clearance, I also shaved and plated the bottom of the diff. Here's a couple of pics:

 

[TC]

Richard, what you've done is an excellent example of what I was hoping to see. It's not that far from being "bolt in" (Hope you didn't think I was looking for "bolt ON" type mods), in other words once the front end is completed it can be swapped from one rig to another without major chassis mods. The rasied bracketry on the housing should still work on someones lifted XJ when they decide it's time to move up to the 44. Most folks build their rigs in stages and the change to a 44 usually comes after the lift and suspension mods.
The only concern I was wondering about with the HP was clearance problems without going to excessive lifts. How much lift are you running and did you need to limit up travel any? The HP 30 R&P may be close in strength to a LP 44, but the upsides are the stronger housing and knuckle/ball joints plus axle options (locking hubs). This is why the Rubi fronts aren't really much to get excited about. A cut and turned LP 44 like MAD built is a good Budget front anyone could copy. By rotating the pinion up the clearance at the yoke is improved a good bit as well as the driveshaft angle.
Although it's likely out of the range for most of us, how much are the Tera 50's new?
Maybe instead of "Ulitmate" (which is subjective) I should have asked for "Recipes for a D-44 front".

 

[CRASH]

There is no reason to go through the trouble of building a front 44, and using a low pinion housing. Everything about a high pinion housing is better.

CRASH

 

[Goatman]

I have to ditto what CRASH said. With the parts that are available for a D30, I'd stick with it before I went to a low pinion D44. The cost of the D44 build up is the same whether you do low or high pinion, so do the extra work and spend a couple of bucks more and get the high pinion. There are no clearance issues that I can see with the HP. I have about 7.5" of lift, my bumpstops are raised about 3.5" and I stuff it to the bumpstops. I realize that Waggy D44's are fairly easy to get, but the HP is important. I'm not into getting a D44 (or anything else) because it's cool, only because it will work better, and high pinion works better than low pinion.

What mad maxj built is pretty good on a budget, and he has the hy-steer and bigger brakes, but out here we break Spicer axles like tooth picks so I'd still rather have a D30 with chomo axles than a D44 with Spicer axles. Just like the high pinion, I don't think it's worth building a front D44 and not going to chomo axles. Now, in mad maxj's case, the Spicer axles hold up much better on a leaf spring front end than they do on a link front end....but that's a whole 'nuther discussion.

 

[4ward]

There is no reason to go through the trouble of building a front 44, and using a low pinion housing. Everything about a high pinion housing is better.

CRASH

Except that HP housings are getting a little more pricey and a little bit harder to come by. Also, you don't have to cut down the waggy 44's. This is nice for the folks that don't have the ability or courage to do this sort of work. Tim, I just got done building a waggy 44 for my buddy David. We cut and turned the knuckles to 5* castor, built in appx 1.75" of lift with the buckets and I'm doing the goatman copycat 3 link on it. It's sitting out in the shop if ya wanna come by and check it out.


Our meeting is tonight at 7 and we're doing a cookout so come out and grub. We'll probably get a few folks stuck and broke out back tooarty:

 

[Goatman]

Except that HP housings are getting a little more pricey and a little bit harder to come by. Also, you don't have to cut down the waggy 44's. This is nice for the folks that don't have the ability or courage to do this sort of work. Tim, I just got done building a waggy 44 for my buddy David. We cut and turned the knuckles to 5* castor, built in appx 1.75" of lift with the buckets and I'm doing the goatman copycat 3 link on it. It's sitting out in the shop if ya wanna come by and check it out.

I agree with your points about a waggy 44.......but this is a thread about the "ultimate D44".

BTW, if I remember correctly, I set my pinion angle at 10* and my castor at 5*.

 

[BrettM]

In defense of my LP D44: It was cheap and available, 1.5 years ago I found a 77 F150 D44 at Pick N Pull and got it for about $100, then I turned around and sold it for $550. There's no way I was gonna pay anything close to that for a HP. And with the pinion rotated up, I was surprised to see just how high the yoke is now. Yes, the HP is better, and I'm still keeping my eyes open to find a bare housing for cheap.

the main reason I actually did the D44, is that I knew I needed to upgrade the D35, and I think the Toyota axle is the best thing going for 37" and smaller tires, so I needed something up front to match the 6 lug. This was a good excuse to upgrade housing strength, brakes, hubs, steering, etc at the same time. I had NO money invested in the D30 at the time, so no reason to build that at all; 3.55 gears, 260x joints, no locker.

Yes, I will probably break a few shafts at Rubicon and Fordyce, and I will carry spares, but I'm 19 (almost 20!) and that's just the game I have to play for now. I'll just see how it goes and keep throwing money in the piggy-bank for Warns.

 

[Dazz]

D44 HP = Over rated!
Have any of you ever brake a LP D44? No...

 

[BrettM]

D44 HP = Over rated!
Have any of you ever brake a LP D44? No...

as mentioned above, it isn't as much strength issue as a clearance issue. but i think people would be surprise how high the yoke is on my LP D44 that I cut and turned the knuckles on.

For any guys out there with a HP D44, measure the distance from ground to bottom of the diff, then the distance from ground to lowest part of the yoke, then subtract to see how high the yoke is above the bottom of the axle. I'll do the same on mine, and we'll see how close mine is getting to HP yoke clearance

 

[TC]

Sean, one of these day's I'll make it over. As far as the HP being over rated, I wouldn't have put it that way.If you can find/afford one it's definately worth shooting for. I'm sure someone here may have seen one fail but I've gotta admit that all the broken R&P's that I've personally seen broken were the result of something else breaking first or improper installation. Mad, you make a number of good points, there is a place for the LP in some cases. Like I said, I shouldn't have used the word Ultimate, to restricting. TC

 

[Jeff 98XJ WI]

I measure 9.5" from the bottom of the pumpkin to the ground. 16" from the bottom of the pinion seal area to the ground. This makes for 6.5" of dimension change with my HP D44 sitting on worn out 33x10.5 AT's. I don't know the pinion angle, but it is pretty much in line with the driveshaft looking from the side. The Jeep has about 7" of measured lift. Anyone that would like to gain some HP 44 into an XJ inf. is free to look at my article on http://www.madxj.com. THE main reason I built my D44 was to get locking hubs so I could unlock them and have some semblance of smooth highway driving! I was NOT about to pay WARN prices for their conversion when I could get the same thing in stock parts and also get all the other advantages of the 44. One thing that did bother me is that even though I spent great care to rotate the pinion and get some caster, I still have vibes with the front hubs locked. I theorize that the vibes are coming from the fact that my pinion is shifted to the drivers side somewhere around 1.25" compared to stock. I'm using an early FSJ short axle shaft combined with a late FSJ long axle shaft with Chevy flat top knuckles and FSJ outers. When lying under the jeep, one can see that the driveshaft runs angled out from the transfer case. However, I just unlock the hubs and motor on smoothly. I ran this axle at 5-6" of lift with no clearance issues. In fact, since the pinion is shifted, there is less chance for the driveshaft to hit the header...which is a Borla unit on my rig. I have also gotten death wobble with this system. I don't know why, but a steering stabilizer helps quite a bit. Oh yeah, I built a jig that aligned with the control arm mounts on a D30 and then lowered the axle tube location in the jig by 2" which has the effect of locating the mounts 2" higher on the D44. Jeff

 

[CRASH]

I run the same shafts/offset as you Jeff, and don't have vibes all the way up to 55 in 4 wd. Hell, I ran halfway across Nevada at 80 mph to Moab with the transfer case locked accidently in 4 wd (linkage issues) and only had mild vibes.

My caster is set at 6 degrees and the pinion is 13 degrees from horizontal. This is about perfect for 7" of lift and the T-case moved up near the floor.

CRASH

 

[jeepxjga]

i broke a LP d44 this past new years on lower 2 at tellico. granted i did a 3 ft wheelstand with the drivers side tire and came down spinning, but it let go right where the shaft necks down before the splines. i built mine on as much of a budget as i could, being a broke college student a couple of years ago.

ps - that was after 5-6 GOOD trips to tellico, aka hammering it on all the harder stuff there.