Dana 44 and 9 Inch

I have a Dana 44 and 9 inch from a 79ish f150, same exact axles that come in the early broncos aswell
The 44 has Cast sections on both sides where i assume thier fatory arms connected, i was planning on doing new axle tubes to eliminate, in my opinion, a weak spot. Recently i heard about axle tube inserts or sleeves, has any one delt with these before, where is a good place to purchase the correct length?

Thanks

I think what you are hearing about is for the JK wrangler front Dana 44. For your axle, you will need to retube. You really can't sleeve a portion of the axle if it doesn't exist.

OK i was doing some googleing and found this
http://ok4wd.com/rock-slide-engineering-axle-housing-sleeve-kit-for-dana-30-44.html?___store=okauto

Guess id have to call and ask about them, doesnt say specifically JK but other things i see lead me to assume your correct with it being jk only

Yep, that is for the Jeep front axles, and there are quite a few companies that make them for the JK axles since they have fairly weak tubes.

The thing is most of the older Ford D44s are 1/2" wall tubing, which wouldn't need the sleeves. The problem with the '79 axle is that the tubes are a lot thinner, and inside that cast section, there is no axle tube. You are therefore stuck with either running the stock ford radius arms, and require you to run it full with, or if you don't want to run the radius arm, or want to narrow the axle, it would need to be retubed.

I would suggest starting with a '77 or older HP44 and build that one. I have a '77 axle under my Jeep right now.

couldnt i purchase new tubes that are 1/2" and retube with these? that was my original plan, i have yet to tear apart these axles, i got both of them for $100, couldnt pass the deal up.

just wish they made an E locker for the 9 inch

Yep, you can retube the 44 with 1/2" wall tubes. I was just saying that that was pretty much your only option if you plan on narrowing them, since those sleeves wouldn't work for that axle.

It will take a lot of effort to retube that thing though, and will most likely need to be taken to a machine shop so they can press the old tubes out, get tubes to fit (may have to machine the tubes, or if you can find the correct dimension tube I can imagine it won't be too cheap), and then press them in for you. If you can weld, you could probably get away with plug welding the axle in, then I would suggest running fillet welds around the tubes where they enter the housing, then weld on the inner C's.

Yeah i plan on retubing but not narrowing them and running them full width
i can torch and cut these axle tubes to remove them, ill figure a way to press them out, then i would have to get the ends machined to fit in the housing then plug weld, and do what you said about welding the end of the housing. i've been thinking about running dana 60 outers depending on prices