Throwing a 44 in the rear coil conversion thoughts?

So one of my XJs has been sitting for a couple months. It currently has a 4.5 Rusty's lift sitting on the stock axles. I have a rear 44 sitting around in an old Jeepster Commando which will be getting a front d60 and a rear d70 this summer. Anyway now that i have another DD XJ Ive decided to throw the 44 in my 1988. Since it will be out and Im not in any rush i was thinking about doing a rear coil conversion. Any body got any thoughts on this? Advantages or disadvantages?

There's not a whole lot of write-ups on these. But I like the look of RK's coil over. However I'm thinking of not doing the coil over to save the money maybe upgrading at a later time.

Anny thoughts would be great.

Here's a pic from a while ago:

Well... First of all... Is the 44 stock to the Jeepster? If so, you will have the early version that only has 19 spline axles... And it's narrower than what you would need for the XJ... Not a good swap in my eyes...

If I had a Commando with a D60/D70 I wouldn't bother with the time and effort to link the rear of the XJ. But, if you're up for it, linked rear does work better than leaf springs in the rear.

Goatman said:

If I had a Commando with a D60/D70 I wouldn't bother with the time and effort to link the rear of the XJ. But, if you're up for it, linked rear does work better than leaf springs in the rear.

Click to expand...

I think that should say "a properly designed and built linked rear will work better than leafs." I've seen some linked suspensions that were worse than using leaf springs.

Having said that, I've been debating the same thing. I'd love to build a 4 link rear but for a full bodied cherokee I'm not sure its worth it. I haven't seen a good 4 link in a cherokee that doesn't extend in the the interior and I'm not convinced a it will make a lot of difference over a good leaf spring set up.

If you search in advanced fab, there should be pretty good debate over links vs. leafs from a couple years ago.

Well the Commando is not officially mine to play with yet or make decisions for, ill have to wait many years to inherit it. And I believe it is the factory axle from the 69 Commando. Why is it bad to have a 19 spline? I'm new to the axle tech and gearing area.

As for the 4 link. Ive played around with the idea and that's it. The only reason Im considering it now is because I will have the axle out and in the open, and the fact that in the end the flex will be unreal.

XJLover12 said:

Well the Commando is not officially mine to play with yet or make decisions for, ill have to wait many years to inherit it. And I believe it is the factory axle from the 69 Commando. Why is it bad to have a 19 spline? I'm new to the axle tech and gearing area.

As for the 4 link. Ive played around with the idea and that's it. The only reason Im considering it now is because I will have the axle out and in the open, and the fact that in the end the flex will be unreal.

Click to expand...

If the flex is unreal the stability could be crap and so could performance. Having the axle out is about 2% of the work required to link the rear end.......insignificant, and certainly no motivation of itself. Better have a much better reason that that.

Hmm well then ill keep thinking about it. It was just a thought that id considered. Now Im reguessing the d44 since idahoeagle said it was a bad swap with a 19 spline. gonna do some research on that now too