My 44/9" full width cherokee build

[Gravesdiggerxj]

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif](Dial up: shoot your computer)

So I got tired of being careful with the throttle and worrying about my weaker stock axles and all the crap I've broken so far.... that, and I popped my spider gears over the weekend of the 4th of August.

So here comes the axle swaps :headbanger: . I bought the whole underhalf of a Ford 76' F-150 custom on the 5th.

I spent most of last week cleaning up the rear axle and old wheels that I'm going to run on the street.. 32" Kelly Safaris. (35" mtr's offroad)

This'll be kinda slow because I'm getting Hitched the 21st of September :guitar:so all the $$$$ is going to that

I'll keep a running Tally of what stuff costs
Brake drums $28.50x2= $57
Brake lines and u-joints $20
Stainless braided brake line extension $fiftey-free$ (thanks Brad)
Brake shoes (Raysbestos 5year) $12
Wheels Cylinders (Rays) $12x2 = $24
Moper leaf spring perches (six states) $10
Paint and Primer $50+
Brake Fluid $4.99
Gear lube $12 (you need to change yours anyways)
Grinding wheels, flapper discs, welding wire (whatever)
Spidertrax wheel adapters (#WHS-004 for the front for now) $82

total $253


(sorry about the crappy pics... I killed the digi so I get to use the phone)

Monday-Friday

halfway

primered

the wheels
before

bare metal

after

Saturday

grabbed some of Spidertrax anodized wheel adapters for the front to fix the width and convert from 5x4.5" to 5x5.5" lug pattern
#WHS-004

looks funny on little wheels in front

Ran up to my bud's shop in Bountiful to start


Brakes (thanks Brad)

End of Saturday




:wave1: [/FONT]

 

[Gravesdiggerxj]

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Sunday

Ran up to Sill's in Layton for breakfast if you get a chance get a sweet roll. $3. Bigger than my whole plate...sheetcake sized

Fabbed some shock mounts

And yanked the Axle atriot:

Primed and painted with new third member

More later...... :wave1:[/FONT]

 

[Gravesdiggerxj]

Updated pictures with the axle under the Jeep!
I ran her up to 85mph down the point of the mountain and no problems. It tracks perfectly straight.

Looks almost factory.

I reused the factory brakeline "T" and it worked perfectly.
You can see that we placed the Shock mounts just below the centerline of the axle tube to keep them off the rocks. (ignore the crusty shocks... salt corrosion sucks, they're only a year old)

I'm also loving my smooth street tires. They are so much better for daily driving and my wheelin' tires will last longer too.

 

[BRIANHO13]

the lift blocks are a bad idea.

 

[barillms]

Lift blocks are FINE. As long as they're steel and no higher than 3".
Tack weld them in place to the leaf perch on the axle.

You may experience some axle wrap, other than that... they are fine unless you are some kind of extreme rock crawler. Most people aren't rock crawlers.

 

[ahm]

Nice work, How much wider is it compared to stock?

 

[uncc civilengineer]

Lift blocks are FINE. As long as they're steel and no higher than 3".
Tack weld them in place to the leaf perch on the axle.

I agree... lift blocks are fine on trucks, etc. that are crusing around the mall.. otherwise get rid of them and make up the lift w/ springs/shackles (if economically possible) they're just not safe.

Another option: Buy/Make some U-bolt eliminators that are nice and wide...

You may experience some axle wrap, other than that... they are fine unless you are some kind of extreme rock crawler. Most people aren't rock crawlers.

The axle wrap is what's going to leave you sitting on the trail with a rear axle flush with your transfer case after the lift block has fallen out...

 

[RyanM]

Great work on the axle swap, but man, those leaf springs are very 'tired'
You'll be fine mall crawling.

 

[BRIANHO13]

I agree... lift blocks are fine on trucks, etc. that are crusing around the mall.. otherwise get rid of them and make up the lift w/ springs/shackles (if economically possible) they're just not safe.

Another option: Buy/Make some U-bolt eliminators that are nice and wide...





The axle wrap is what's going to leave you sitting on the trail with a rear axle flush with your transfer case after the lift block has fallen out...

Or the axle wrap can eat ujoints, like mine did until I added a traction bar and I only have a 1" block.

But like said above you should be fine at the mall.

 

[Gravesdiggerxj]

New shocks today! Rancho RS9116 adjustables, approx 13" compressed 24" extended. Take off's (3 mo's old and free) from some kid who needed a bigger lift :roflmao:

Nice work, How much wider is it compared to stock?

Thanks, I'd guess 2in wider than stock per side 66" WMS to WMS, but my rims on my street tires have 5.5" of backspacing and the tires are 1" narrower, so it's hard to tell.

Great work on the axle swap, but man, those leaf springs are very 'tired'
You'll be fine mall crawling.

Thanks. Ya my springs are hashed! :laugh: I toasted those springs (4.5") with axle wrap (35" mtr's) before the 2" blocks (they're steel btw). I picked up a toyota leaf pack and hopefully this weekend I'll build a pack that will last more than a year.... and get rid of those blocks....:anon:\


BRIANHO13: do you have any pics of your traction bar?

Also forgot to add.... thanks to XJ_Ranger, baseballneal86 and Fatwreck (Brian) for the inspiration and answering my questions.

 

[RyanM]

Does your EBrake work?

 

[Gravesdiggerxj]

Does your EBrake work?

Yes perfectly. I was able to adapt the stock cables. They are identical to Ford's in everyway except for length

 

[xcm]

::looks around::
wheres the posts about the 44?

 

[Gravesdiggerxj]

::looks around::
wheres the posts about the 44?

:huh:This is a build thread... read the first post, it's in production.
:laugh2:

Don't worry.... progress pics soon

 

[fuzzydog]

lookin good! hope you keep this thread goin with the rest of the build. I considered a full width 9" and d44 when I started my build but went with an explorer 8.8 - you are making me regret my decision

 

[Gravesdiggerxj]

I actually was going to go with WJ steering and an 8.8 but I thought that was lacking... I actually bought a WJ axle and an 8.8 and built the 8.8 with spacers and disc brakes and everything... but it wasn't in the cards... I actually have both axles for sale so if anyone is interested... check out the for sale section... they are already cleaned and painted... pretty much ready to bolt in...

 

[Gravesdiggerxj]

Here are my spacers, hoodvents and almost ready to bolt in Ford 8.8 I have for sale.

http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?p=243608354#post243608354

http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?p=243608360#post243608360

http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?p=243608382#post243608382

Started cutting off brackets for the dana 44 yesterday what a pain...

 

[Gravesdiggerxj]

Got my new shocks installed. I'll have to play around with the settings on them.

Also I started building my new transfer case/ cat skid. 3/16" My friend cut the pieces to size for me at his shop with a brake.

I also got started on my hitch I'm going to sink into my bumper probably Friday

They are just tacked together so far.



I found that because the pinion is slightly shorter and slightly offset I needed to "clearance" my muffler... a 10 pound sledge worked great!
Also because of the shorter offset pinion I needed a longer driveshaft... it's been fine on the street... I wanted to wheel again... so I grabbed a longer center section from the junkyard. the old one was 28" my new one is 30.5" so it's perfect! $31
So new u-joints and I threw it in... and painted it red for some reason??

Painting it seemed like a good idea at the time... I guess it's better than rust. but who cares about color: it works great.

Also check out the pinion angle (I only measured about 30 times to get that right)

 

[DanMan2k06]

Also forgot to add.... thanks to XJ_Ranger, baseballneal86 and Fatwreck (Brian) for the inspiration and answering my questions.

Hehehe thats funny I was about say dude my brother did this exact same thing!!

Except since the swap he has blown out the pinion gear, and filled the axle tubes with a mixture of mud and gear lube, we like to call it terragrease.

 

[91XJ35s]

Very nice i maybe doin the exact same thing to mine same axles to. Did u run into anything that i may want to know? How is the front swap goin? Keep me informed i be doin mine be4 long. hope to get the axles this friday they are 78's.