What would you do? RE: axle swap

I am in the process of trying to find a waggy front dana 44 for the front end, and I am considering swapping out the rear for a waggy 44. My XJ currently has the dana 30 and a rear dana 44 with 4.11 gears and a rear limited slip. I am considering selling the stock axles to offset costs, and getting both axles from waggy or trying to find a rear dana 44 out of a trooper w/ disk brakes. I am not sure if any one would be interested im my stock axles or what they would be worth for the set, but it would be cheaper for someone who just wants 4.11 gears and a rear dana 44. The pluses for swapping out both axles is not having to deal with changing bolt patterns on one of the axles.

Why not get spacer/adaptors for the rear axle to get the 6 lug pattern?

That is one option that I am weighing. I am also considering using the super 44 kit from Superior axle w/33 spline axles, and ordering 6X5.5 bolt pattern.

That would work. And then get the trooper brakes which I assume are 6 lug as well. If I recall right I think the Trooper 44 is actually narrower then the stock 44, so not sure if that will help your decision or not.

The trooper stuff is 58.5" wide. XJ stuff is 59.5" wide, IIRC.


You can get a trooper 12B instead of a D44. It's stronger, comes with disk brakes, and 4.56 gears and a LSD most of the time. It has a few quirks though. (Have fun taking it apart the first time!)


You should be able to sell your XJ D44 for some absurd price. And a trooper II 12B can be picked up for very little. Or a trooper/rodeo D44 for that matter. As a warning, the isuzu brake calipers like to seize if they sit too long! Try to get one fresh into the junkyard.

im wanting to do the same swap... so what year of trooper would i need to look for???