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retubing an axle

got the new axle tubes turned and pressed in for the high pinion dana 44.

turning the od of the tubes down about .04" to match the factory tube diameters so i wouldnt have to bore the housing or inner c's
7402180354_0d75a435c8_c.jpg



boring out the id of the tubes for the axle tube seals
7403849048_82bcc9c884_c.jpg



i froze the tubes in the freezer for about an hour, and heated the housing in the oven to 250f. the tubes were really easy to tap in with a mallet. since they went in so easily, i'd be pretty suprised if they were crooked at all, but i will still check.
7403846120_d767a2330a_c.jpg



i picked up some nickel rod, so i just gotta burn them in and install the inner c's and various brackets. hopefully get this sucker up to John tomorrow for gear install.
 
thanks guys. it's not as purdy as the one cracker posted, but i think it will get the job done. i was sweating the tube install, but i cant believe how easy it was. i even turned the tubes about .0005" bigger than the stock tubes.
 
so what you're saying is now you're going to start re-tubing axles on the side for us socalers right :eyes:
 
so i ran into an isssue.... the ford inner c's had a bigger id than the housing. i should have cut the c's off first and checked, i just assumed they'd be the same. it was like .005" or so bigger, so the c's fit on the tubes a little loose. i didnt like that, so i cut the c's off a chevy lp d44 i had kicking around. the tubes on the chevy are almost 1/4" smaller, so i had to bore those out. to do that, i left a little bit of the tube sticking out of the c's so i had something to hold onto in the lathe. then i carefullly measured how deep i could bore it before it broke through the weld. i didn't want to go that far because i needed the c to stay attached to the tube until i was done boring it out. this worked pretty good, and when i was done boring it, i just cut the little bit of weld that was still holding it to the tube and kissed it on the belt sander.
7410100754_45dd0fecf4_c.jpg


7410101046_0276519a89_c.jpg
 
got everything welded up except for the butt weld for the inner c's which i'm going to have someone else do that has a much bigger welder. i dont feel comfortable doing it with mine. i'll also gusset the inner c's. it'll be all done tomorrow and dropped off for gear install. I'm pretty happy with how it came out aside from a few ugly welds since im new at stick welding. they're strong though. all the brackets were mig welded. it's set up for a 3 link with coilovers.

to recap, it's a 79 full size bronco high pinion dana 44 housing which i retubed. It has dana 30 inner c's (i know i'll catch crap for that). the inner c's were sleeved with 3/8" wall 2.5" DOM, which was stepped down to 2.25" to fit inside the 3" axle tubes. it was rosette welded, and it will be butt welded and gusseted. I will be running wj knuckles for now, until i find some 94+ dodge dana 44 knuckles which will bolt up to the inner c's. the dodge knuckles use a unit bearing, and i can install a chevy unit bearing which is a 33 spline and can be drilled out to 5x4.5. I can also mount the later dodge brakes on there which are pretty legit, although i'd need to step up to 17" wheels.
i have chromoly shafts and a grizzly locker for it waiting to go in.
i just didnt want to deal with the weak 19 spline shafts and locking hubs that come on the dana 44.
7434753952_7ce82898c8_c.jpg
 
Vanimal said:
? i've heard of a lot more broken hubs and stubs on these than broken 33 spline stubs.
Click to expand...

You clearly have figured everything out.

Carry on. LOL
 
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