I want a dana 44 front axle - what's the BEST combination of parts to look for?

dma251 · Nov 7, 2007

I have been reading (and learning) a lot since I found this site many months ago, but I am always hesitant to post a question for fear of the dreaded "WHAT - ARE YOU STUPID?!?!?! USE THE SEARCH FEATURE!!!!!" reply.

I have spend hours searching and learning about 44 swaps into the xj. I have found tons of great info, but I'm hoping someone can give me a roadmap to get exactly what I need on my Jeep.

I want to use the oem location upper and lower control arms. I have 4.5" lift and 33" tires, and don't plan on going any higher. I want the highest steering I can reasonably find - I seem to be bashing my steering rod into a pretzel lately. I'd also like to run the stock XJ wheel boltpattern - as I have a nice set of Jeep Ravine wheels that work really well for me and have the offset I like.

I wheel it hard in the tight trails of Washington state, which includes a lot of rocks, roots, mud, and trees. I am trying to keep the height down, and the center of gravity low, but still have a healthy amount of articulation. I'm pretty happy with the way it's set up right now except for the strength of the front axle.

CanMan · Nov 7, 2007

Well, to start off, id read over this thread.

http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=52219&highlight=dana+44+tech

Like said, do a HP44 housing. To keep it narrower, have Mike narrow it to waggy width. Run Chevy or aftermarket flat top knuckles. Also, use chevy caliper brackets, calipers, and spindle. Use a Ford rotor and Warn Premium Ford hubs, and Ford stub shafts. Get a Detroit locker, Yukon gears, Yukon waggy shafts, and Yukon Superjoints, CTM's, Jantz, or Longfield joints. Id personally use the Claytons bracket kit.

You will not be able to keep the stock bolt pattern with wheel adapters, the hub is too large for the smaller 5x4.5" bolt pattern.

One way to run a hi steer setup on a D30 is to get the DEOR kit. www.downeastoffroad.com.

You can piece it together by getting a WJ pass kunckle, brakes, unit bearing, caliper, ect... Then source out a RHD(right hand drive) WJ drivers knuckle(which is like the pass side LHD one), and get all the right brake parts. You will have to run wheel adapters, as it is 5x5" bolt pattern.

Another alternative is to get the Teraflex knuckle, and run OTK steering.

IXNAYXJ · Nov 7, 2007

Hmmmm. Sounds familiar.

Honestly, if you're just running 33's, there's no need to spend the money on what CanMan described. There are plenty of ways to beef up your steering and axle without going to that extent. Of course, this comes from a guy who is running that same set-up on 34's, so....

-----Matt-----

uncc civilengineer · Nov 7, 2007

IXNAYXJ said:
Hmmmm. Sounds familiar.

Honestly, if you're just running 33's, there's no need to spend the money on what CanMan described. There are plenty of ways to beef up your steering and axle without going to that extent. Of course, this comes from a guy who is running that same set-up on 34's, so....

-----Matt-----

Agreed... 100%.. there's no reason (IMO) to spend the money to switch from D30 to D44 when only running 33's. I dont know your fab skills but it gets to be a lot of work and can get fairly expensive.

You said your main concern is the strength of your front axle.. well I have a few questions:

1. Have you broken it?
2. What year D30 (760x joints?)
3. Is it locked?

Options I would consider:

1. Pick up a full set of spare "stock" shafts.. it takes 15-30 mins. to swap D30 shafts.
2. Pick up a set of Chromoly shafts
3. Truss the D30 http://www.tntcustoms.com/webv5/truss_d30.asp
4. Build your own steering setup or buy something beefier than the stock pencil.

Another question:

What rear axle are you running?

Do whatever you want I just don't see the need.

JeepFreak21 · Nov 7, 2007

My first questions,
What width axles would you like to run? Stock?
What lug pattern are you trying to achieve? Are you swapping the rear too?
Billy

dma251 · Nov 7, 2007

uncc civilengineer said:
Agreed... 100%.. there's no reason (IMO) to spend the money to switch from D30 to D44 when only running 33's. I dont know your fab skills but it gets to be a lot of work and can get fairly expensive.

You said your main concern is the strength of your front axle.. well I have a few questions:

1. Have you broken it?
2. What year D30 (760x joints?)
3. Is it locked?

Well, I haven't broken it yet, but I am not really confident in it. Maybe you guys are right - I could just go the route of building it up a bit. The Jeep is a 1990,

Sorry about the lack of a signiture, I couldn't get it setup for some reason. I have an email in with the webmaster to allow me to.

I have already swapped in an XJ dana 44 in the rear with spool and 4.88 gears. The front has a Aussie Locker and 4.88 gears. Otherwise it is the stock axles/joints in front.

My fab skills are fair. I have a shop with welder/plasma cutter/etc. I'm no pro, but I can do alot of fab work myself.

I have no opposition to full width axles, except I've already gone to the trouble of finding and building up a stock XJ dana 44, and even then I had to use a set of Spidertrax 1" Spacers on the rear to get the width I wanted. Right now the rear is set just where I want.

By the way - I should have mentioned this before - THIS IS A TRAIL ONLY RIG. I trailer it to the trails, and I drive it fairly hard out there.

Thanks for the help - if you guys think that I can get by with just building up my Dana 30 front then I'll try that first. I just didn't want to dump a bunch more money into it if there was a better way. My main concern is the strength and getting the steering higher.

I want a dana 44 front axle - what's the BEST combination of parts to look for?

dma251

NAXJA Forum User

CanMan

NAXJA Forum User

IXNAYXJ

NAXJA Forum User

uncc civilengineer

NAXJA Forum User

JeepFreak21

NAXJA Forum User

dma251

NAXJA Forum User

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