rubicon 44 housing

i know this has been talked about a few times, but this is a little different. called my local dealer today and asked for a price on a bare housing. he said that they could'nt look it up that way. so he came back with two part numbers. one was a 2002 wrangler with a cost of 892.22, and one was for a 2002 wrangler w/ tru-loc diff option for 485.00. he said a serial number would tell which one was a rubicon. i checked on jeeps www site and they do call the front diff a tru-loc. so i guess the 485.00 is a dana 44 housing. know, will this housing bolt into a xj, plus ai know it has dana 35 knuckles on it, but why could'nt you cut them off and put dana 44 knuckles on it ? i though that was a good price for a bare housing ?

scot

xjjunkie said:

plus i know it has dana 35 knuckles on it, but why could'nt you cut them off and put dana 44 knuckles on it ? i though that was a good price for a bare housing ?

scot

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I think you mean D30 knuckles.
Yes it will bolt into the XJ but keep in mind that the Rubi 44 front is low pinion.

low pinion being all that bad ?

You would probly find a D44 complete, for a few hundred bills. Then the price of putting the spring perches on and track bar wouldn't cost as much as the Rubi bare houseing. From what I understand, the rubi 44, besides the 30 nuckles, has 30 carrier and gears. You would need to purchase a 44 carrier, gears, do the nuckles, 44 axle shafts, and then a locker. For all that truble, have Currie build you a 9" front end.

A high pinion D30 is stronger than a low pinion D44 in the front end.
...but a high pinion 44 is a much different story.
I don't know why Jeep decided on a D44LP for the front of the Rubi when they already had high pinion D44's in production in South America. ...and why the never brought them here.

TO JEEPZZ ---Whare did you buy that spoiler????

I am very interested in one....
TIA

JEEPZZ said:

A high pinion D30 is stronger than a low pinion D44 in the front end.
...but a high pinion 44 is a much different story.
I don't know why Jeep decided on a D44LP for the front of the Rubi when they already had high pinion D44's in production in South America. ...and why the never brought them here.

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Well this has been debated heavily. Because of the HP30 running on the drive side of the ring gear, it is said to be stronger. The D44 has a bigger, thicker gear and pinion, so I don't know if this hold water. D44's from F150s have .5" axle tubes relieving stress on axle flex. Knuckles, TRE's and hubs are all significantly beafier than D30. Inner and outer shafts are bigger, but both the D30 and D44 use the 297/760 spicer u joints. So a D30 is not stronger than a low pinion D44. The only thing is the the D30 drives a stronger profile on the ring gear. The D44 in the LP variety might have a slightly steeper driveline angle at pull drivers side droop causing ujoint bind. This is not a problem with stock lenght arms, and even with long arms/radius arms you can control drop thru limit straps.

SeanP

JEEPZZ said:

A high pinion D30 is stronger than a low pinion D44 in the front end.
...but a high pinion 44 is a much different story.
I don't know why Jeep decided on a D44LP for the front of the Rubi when they already had high pinion D44's in production in South America. ...and why the never brought them here.

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why did they do this anyway?

KarmirXJ said:

why did they do this anyway?

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Just to tease the hell out of us 'mericans. I would love to hook up with someone in the scrapyards in Brazil and get 50 of these HP XJ 44's. I figure if they are the right width and have XJ 4 link bracketry in place already, they wil be worth about $800 a piece.

SeanP

Sean, I understand your point about the Ford (and other) front D44's but what's your opinion on the Rubi 44 vs the hp D30?
I'm not positive but aren't the Rubi tubes the same as the D30 as also are the knuckles, TRE and hubs (unitbearing thingys ).

98XJ, my rear spoiler is from a European Orvis Edition XJ. They were made by ASD out of Germany for the '01 Orvis Jeep.

One benefit of the rubi 44 over the D30 is the D30 will have moer housing flex.