Front Grand Wagoneer Dana 44...Need help

Sort of a noob question but I'm learning tons very fast and loving it. I have a front Danaa 44 off an 85 Grand Wagoneer. Driver side drop, 6 on 5 1/2 lug pattern. Also have a rear Dana 44 off an 87 Wagoneer. Center drop, 5 on 5 1/2 lug pattern. Both have been de-rusted using electrolysis, primed with POR 15 and painted with truck bed liner. I will be gearing both to 4:56 with ARB lockers front and rear.

My rig is a 96 XJ, 4" lift, ARB winch bumper, Oly air tank rear bumper, skids all the way and a bunch of other mods. My primary concern is changing the lug pattern. I am leaning towards changing the rear to a 6 on 5 1/2 and going with new wheels. No matter what I do I'll have to get rid of the old 5 on 4 1/2 lugged wheels anyway so wheels aren't an issue. I also want to know who else has done it and what they did. I can get custom shafts made but if I can do it cheaper I'd prefer making a junk yard run. I don't want to do the Dana 44 with Dana 30 knuckle swap. Next year I'll be bumping it up to 5.5" using the RE long Arm Kit and slapping 35's on it.

My secondary concern is that someone told me that Grand Wagoneer Dana 44's ONLY came with leaf springs and my axle will only work if I get rid of the coils and go with leafs. True or false? How do I tell if this axle is set up for leafs or coils? If I need to grind stuff off and weld on new parts what are they and how practical is it to do? What are the alternatives?

Thanks.

Kenji
:skull1:

It should be really obvious. If it has leaf pads it will have the same perches as the rear or close to it. If it has coil perches it will look similar to the D30.
You could ether make the coil perches or buy them one spot to get them is
(crawltech.com). good luck....

The front is easy if you want 5 on 5.5 - Chevy 1/2 ton spindles, ford bronco or 1/2 ton pu hubs and rotors. The Chevy spindles will bolt to the Jeep knuckles, and the ford hubs use the same bearings as the chevy spindles and they have the 5 on 5.5 pattern. You can reuse the Jeep calipers on the ford rotors.
The rear I'm not sure what you mean..... is it a XJ waggy rear? you said 5 on 5.5 in your post but those are 5 on 4.5 and a GW rear would be 6 lug. :confused1 Can't help you on that.
Mike B.

what year spindles???? assgas: