Stock D30 bracketry for D44 swap?

Alright, I'm working on a wagoneer D44 swap for my rig, and I have a spare non-disconnect D30 housing laying around, I'm thinking about cutting the brackets off of this (all except the driver's side UCA mount, since it's cast), and using them for brackets on my waggy D44. I figure since the D44 has thicker tubes than the D30, the bit of material that gets obliterated by the torch shouldn't matter, and I'll probably have to grind a little material out to make them fit perfect anyway. I'll probably beef them up a little while I'm at it, just for good measure.

Has anyone else done this? I can't see any reason why it wouldn't work, yet most times when I see a front axle swap either the person has custom-made their own coil buckets and link mounts and such, or they're using the RE kit (which is so totally unrealistic on my budget that I'm not even thinking about it).

Any reason why this wouldn't work? Obviously I'll have to make my own UCA mount on the driver's side, I'll just copy the RE bracket kit with a piece over the diff and then use some square stock for the mount, but the rest should just work, right?

Of course it will work........why wouldn't it?

If you're going to trash the D30 housing any, just cut a little into the tube to keep the entire bracket intact, then grind to fit.

Using the stock coil buckets would be ok, but the factory control arm mounts are stamped out 1/8" steel and are very prone to bending/deformation. I wouldnt waste my time cutting the brackets off. You could probably sell the hp30 non-disco for ~ $100 and use the money towards buying the RE kit or materials to build your own and be much better off.
just my .02

If you are going to keep the OEM 4 link setup, I wouldn't discount the forged passenger UCA mount. They are quite a bit stronger than a non-disco housing UCA mount.

I've retrofitted several non-disco housings with discarded disco UCA mounts. Just cut it off with a cutting wheel above the axle centerline and torch out any remaining plug welds. Might be a little short for a 44, if you use an axle bridge, though.

Of the three front 44's I have built, all have used the OEM spring buckets surgically removed from donor axles. All other mounts are better made with 3"x3"x.188" box, JJ's fit into it perfectly.

CRASH

Hmm... that's something to think about CRASH. The stock axle in my rig is a disconnect. I could get some 3"x3" .188" square tube like you said, make my LCA mounts from that, cut the coil buckets and the pass. side UCA mount off the disco housing as well, make my own driver's side UCA mount, and save the disco housing to sell to someone locally.

Maybe a thought, Currie sells new LCA mounts for $40 a pair. Might save you some work and it's not alot of $$$$$

91 Jeep Project said:

Maybe a thought, Currie sells new LCA mounts for $40 a pair. Might save you some work and it's not alot of $$$$$

Click to expand...

Just make your own. I did last week out of 3/16 3x6 box. The interior is 2 5/8" which is perfect for LCA joints. Its super easy to cut them out of the edge of steel.