Front D44 hubs

OK, I got my new axles from the yard the other day and have them in the driveway getting them torn down. Im halfway through the 70 and a little ways through the 44. Its from a 78 F250 so its the leaf sprung 8 lug 44. I have the calipers off and the lockouts off but Im having trouble getting the hubs apart. Alot of the guts are still in there and I have no idea how to get it apart. Im so used to working on the 30 so the 44 is a change for me. It seems like the rotor wont come off because the hub is keeping it on..TIA

Did you take the spaner nuts off the spindle?
http://77cj.littlekeylime.com/flatop_knucles.html This link might help.

Spanner nuts must still be on. Its just hard to get my hands down in there to work. Ill go out for another round at it today. Thanks!

woody431 said:

OK, I got my new axles from the yard the other day and have them in the driveway getting them torn down. Im halfway through the 70 and a little ways through the 44. Its from a 78 F250 so its the leaf sprung 8 lug 44. I have the calipers off and the lockouts off but Im having trouble getting the hubs apart. Alot of the guts are still in there and I have no idea how to get it apart. Im so used to working on the 30 so the 44 is a change for me. It seems like the rotor wont come off because the hub is keeping it on..TIA

Click to expand...

I have a front d44 from a 78 F250 also.
Remove the hub lockout dial or whatever it's called.
Next there is a round metal ring just inside the hub housing. It sits in a grove around the inside surface of the housing very near the end in front of the retainer and nut. It's hard to see and hard to get out. First clean all the grease out with some brake cleaner.
There is a gap in the ring, find it. I actually used a very small flat screwdriver and a dental pick. Starting at the gap I slid the dental pick under the ring while hoding the other end still with the screwdriver. Then I slid the pic around the inner surface of the housing until enough of the ring was far enough out to grab it and pull it out. The hub gears will slide straight out after this ring is out. I'm not talking about the smaller snap ring in the center, and of course you have to remove the nut.

Check out the ford d44 exploded view here:
https://autozone.ro/az/cds/en_us/0900823d/80/0a/8b/5b/0900823d800a8b5b.jsp

click on the diagram to enlarge
top right cornner: lock ring 378392-s

if this isn't whats holding you up..... please ignore everything above