high or low pinion on d44

is this true, i was surfing on the net and found a page about a d44 saying that the low pinion is better for the rear than the high one, is this true i was planing to put a high pinion d44 ford tia for your help

its true, it has to do with the way the gears are cut. one side of the gear teeth are stronger than the oher side (reverse cut or std). in rear applications you want the std cut gears (low pinion) because the pinion is rotationg forward 95% of the time... in front applications you want reverse cut gears (high pinion)

the high pinion will always be better in terms of clearance and driveshaft angle however, so i guess it depends on what you want more strength or clearance...

ReJ hifh o lov pi`on on 24

i rtil want t&use the two d44 hp, do you all think with 33 i will be all rigth

herreraxto said:

i still want to use the two d44 hp, do you all think with 33 i will be all rigth

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You should be o.k., especially with the 30 spline shafts and 8.5" ring gear the dana 44 comes with. A hp dana 44 is said to have the strength of a dana 35's ring gear though, but I've seen buildup using them. I think more of the hardcore crowd does however, go with a hp dana 60 if they want a hp in the rear for a better driveshaft angle like in the short wheelbase yj, tj, cj applications. With a xj, you have a longer wheelbase and therefore a longer driveshaft so a reg dana 44, dana 60, or ford 9" or ford 8.8 work good.

Where are you going to find a rear HPd44?

basalt51 said:

Where are you going to find a rear HPd44?

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Aftermarket custom or ford hp dana 44 front retubed with just inner axles, no outers and u-joints.

while the point has been made, I think there needs to be some clarification. while the gears are cut to make one side of the tooth stronger at the cost of weekening the otherside. there is a reason beyond that. the drive side of the ring gear becomes nearly perpendicular to the pinion shaft at the point of contact. esentially the pinion is pushing the ring gear around. this puts a great amount of stress on the large inner pinion bearing.
the back side or coast side of the teeth on the ring gear are tapered to give strength to the drive side. nearly a 45º angle to the pinion. then the pinion is pulling the ring gear back. but that 45º angle is cause for a great amount of deflection, enough to damage the gears in high torque situations.
basically, a low pinion D30 front is marginally strong. in forward direction, but stornger in reverse. A high pinion D30 front is the same in gear strength as a low pinion D44 front in forward. but a low pinion D44 front is stronger in reverse. a high pinion D44 front is the same strength as a low pinion D60 front in forward and so on.
so in the rear, a high pinion D44 would only be about as strong as a D35 gear, while axle strngth is obviously greater, you still have a weaker gear.
Thats why the high piinion 9 from currie is not recomended in the rear for HP over a certain #...

Rawbrown said:

while the point has been made, I think there needs to be some clarification. while the gears are cut to make one side of the tooth stronger at the cost of weekening the otherside. there is a reason beyond that. the drive side of the ring gear becomes nearly perpendicular to the pinion shaft at the point of contact. esentially the pinion is pushing the ring gear around. this puts a great amount of stress on the large inner pinion bearing.
the back side or coast side of the teeth on the ring gear are tapered to give strength to the drive side. nearly a 45º angle to the pinion. then the pinion is pulling the ring gear back. but that 45º angle is cause for a great amount of deflection, enough to damage the gears in high torque situations.
basically, a low pinion D30 front is marginally strong. in forward direction, but stornger in reverse. A high pinion D30 front is the same in gear strength as a low pinion D44 front in forward. but a low pinion D44 front is stronger in reverse. a high pinion D44 front is the same strength as a low pinion D60 front in forward and so on.
so in the rear, a high pinion D44 would only be about as strong as a D35 gear, while axle strngth is obviously greater, you still have a weaker gear.
Thats why the high piinion 9 from currie is not recomended in the rear for HP over a certain #...

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much better explanation than what i gave

Im actually debating if it is even going to be worth it to ditch my HPD30 front. I want to go bigger and get manual hubs, bigger knuckles and more steering options. At minimum I would need a D44HP but that has the same size shafts as my D30 and marginally stronger balljoints on the knuckles. so i would be looking for a kingpinned 35 ? splined D60... mabey when i win the lottory.... i might just polish the turd and get some alloy shafts and carry spare hubs/shafts

just run a std 44/9"/60/8.8, etc. out back and put a glider skid on the bottom of it and be done with it. with only 33's i doubt you will be lifted high enough to require a HP for driveshaft angles which could not be handled via a SYE

LouisianaZJ said:

At minimum I would need a D44HP but that has the same size shafts as my D30 and marginally stronger balljoints on the knuckles. so i would be looking for a kingpinned 35 ? splined D60... mabey when i win the lottory.... i might just polish the turd and get some alloy shafts and carry spare hubs/shafts

just run a std 44/9"/60/8.8, etc. out back and put a glider skid on the bottom of it and be done with it. with only 33's i doubt you will be lifted high enough to require a HP for driveshaft angles which could not be handled via a SYE

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The modern dana 44 has 30 spline shafts while the dana 30 has 27, the u-joints in the 95'+ dana 30 are dana 44 sized 297/760. Don't get carried away. A reg dana 44/9"/8.8 can easily handle 33" tires. It's when you go over 35's that you should really think about adding some heavy duty axles like a dana 60 or modified ford 9."

well thats the thing, i want to be able to run a 37" locked w/o constanly breaking stuff. i think if i decide to only go 35" the 30 front should be OK.

I run 35's on my Xj, a 9" rear and HP30 up front.........No problems with axles or u-joints breaking.
I'll be going to 37's so I'm going full width
a 35 spline HP44 for the front and a 9" for the rear

so many different factors.
37" tires on a HP D30... got gears? 4.88's ain't good enough in my book for that big a tire. and with only a 60" track width? you should be thinking full size axles.
a HP D44 can give you 5.38 gears. and a LP D44 can give you 5.89. a D60 to me is just a lot of weight.
My ideal setup would be D44's front and rear. custom width with 33 spline Detroit lockers, Custom length 4340 CrMo shafts for the front and custom length 1541h shafts for the rear. get that track width out to around 68" and run 37-40" meats.

I think you need to figure out what you're planning to do first and since we don't really know your driving style or what kind of wheelin you do we can't really tell you what will be strong enough.

If you're truly going 37s some day, set on HP, and you want to be on the safe side for the rear you'll need something bigger than a HP 9" so most likely you're looking at a d60. For the front a d44 or larger can work. Again it really just depends on driving style and type. Safe side would be a HPd44 or larger. I'm one that doesn't see the reasoning behind putting alot of money into a d30. Do it once, do it right.

If you're going to shell out money on a custom axle I think a rear HP44 is a waste unless you have a super light buggy or something. Theres absolutely nothing wrong with a LP rear axle, probably 90% of people run them, and the are stronger than a similar HP axle. I'ld rather break a rear axle than the ring gear. I'm running a low pinion 9" and worn out 33s and I get by just fine. Last couple times out I was getting hung up more often than I'ld like, but the pinion wasn't the problem and I'm still getting used to the wheelbase so I'ld attribute it to driver error not the clearance.

Figure out what you're ultimate goal is and build for that. If you can do it for cheap and you have alot of spare time build whatever you want. If you're going to shell out alot of money and only have time to do it once, then don't skimp. That said I think d60s are overkill for most people. I would be perfecetly comfortable with 37s on my setup, but I know how I drive (and I've never had 37s so what the hell do I know :dunno: ).

Anyways, my $0.02.