86 Wagoneer Dana 44 front, good swap??

I have an oppurtunity to get one, but I am still working on researching the ideal front axle for me. Would this axle be good for the swap, it is driver side drop.
Thanks for any input, sweet board here too,

I've got that axle in the ZJ, no problems with it, it's about the right width, it is LP though, that's about the only downside...and make sure the one you get is NON disco.

an 86 is non-disco, Im building one right now

XJ-JJ said:

I have an oppurtunity to get one, but I am still working on researching the ideal front axle for me. Would this axle be good for the swap, it is driver side drop.
Thanks for any input, sweet board here too,

Click to expand...

Wagoneer, as in XJ, or GRAND Wagoneer, as in FSJ?

Here is a link to the one I am looking at, he just calls it a Waggy, http://www.michiganjeepers.com/foru.../view/collapsed/sb/5/o/all/fpart/1#Post609153

thanks!

Yup, that is a Grand Wagoneer.

JnJ said:

Yup, that is a Grand Wagoneer.

Click to expand...

Yeah, Grand Wagoneer.

Which means that it's set up for leaf springs. To use it in an XJ you will need to fabricate spring pads and control arm mounts. The toughest one will be the driver's side upper, which mounts to the differential housing. The diff housing is either cast or nodular iron, and difficult to weld to. Clayton's Offroad has done a few of these axles for people in Clayton's club and he's gearing up to offer a kit, but I don't think he has released it yet.

The other issue is that it uses 6-bolt rims and the XJ uses 5-bolt rims.

And lastly, as already noted, it's low pinion.

Don't recall if the rear is a center diff, if it is, you could use both and not have a lug pattern issue. RE does have a kit for the axle brackets with a part the spans the pumkin, but it would need a little modification to fit over the 44 pumkin. As far as being a low pinion, ya high pinion may be better, but plenty of folks are running low pinion fronts with no worries.

i have an '80 waggy d44 front and it's great. most of the issues have already been addressed, I converted my truck to leaf springs and just SOAd the axle. the low pinion doesn't really matter because you're going to want to turn the knuckles which takes a just a couple hours with a grinder and welder, the pinion on mine is now way up out of the way.