14 bolt swap questions

been thinking more and more about swapping axles instead of regearing my 8.25/d30 setup

have options of c&c or srw ff rears, the wms on the cc is about 63" the srw is 67"

I'm thinking the cc is closer to the stock width, but am looking for advice on what front might be a good match. If I'm much more likely to find fronts in the 67" range, maybe I should go SRW. How much variance with WMS can I have from front to back?


Searched but didn't find much info on using 14 bolts, found lots of ford 9/hp44 builds...

Single rear wheel an hummer rims

no really srw 1/2 ton 150 front 70's. TNT Beef it up, chromos.

srw's are way easier to find here.

c and c with a narrowed front, custom shafts is what i'd do

Im doing a SRW axle with DRW/C&C hubs. 4" BS wheels. Shave it if you want ground clearence.

Also doing a narrowed 60 front. IronJock center section, Solid outers. Yukon sells D60 inner blanks. Ill run Alloy USA outers. Thats what Im going to do, as well as their SuperJoints. (I can get a good deal on all the front parts).

Gotta wonder...

For the tire size that warrants running a 14-bolt, if you're keeping it that narrow, what are you going to do about the inner fenderwells (front and rear)?

Cut?

CanMan said:

Cut?

Click to expand...

Already cut and at 5" or so on 33s, about 4" bs on the wheels.

The cc is like 3" wider than stock xj, srw wider still. About half of my tire is outside the wheelwell right now, so I can't see how I'd have problems by going wider.

To be honest, I don't think I'll ever run tires big enough to warrant 14 bolt strength, but I can get one geared for cheap. If I can build up some stouter axles for the same price or cheaper than gearing the axles I have now... Well, you see where this is going.

Instead of shortening a front, I think I'd look at wheel spacers or something on a 1/2 or 3/4 ton axle, the main point here is cheap. I'm not threatening my stock axles as is.

Thats what is so good about the 14 bolt! Cheap and easy to find! A stock 14 bolt is going to be stronger than most axles after you spend $3000 on them......A C&C 14 shouldn't be too hard to find and about $100 should be the price, everything interchanges with the SRW 14 bolt except the hubs and 63" is a nice width for an XJ......

Gravel Maker said:

Thats what is so good about the 14 bolt! Cheap and easy to find! A stock 14 bolt is going to be stronger than most axles after you spend $3000 on them......A C&C 14 shouldn't be too hard to find and about $100 should be the price, everything interchanges with the SRW 14 bolt except the hubs and 63" is a nice width for an XJ......

Click to expand...

Yeah, we'll see.

My main concern is finding a front to match. I don't really need the strength (yet?), so a narrowed 60 or something like that would be a big pain. Much more likely to look into a 44 up front or just go fill width F and R.

This is why I'm wondering if I should get a SRW rear to open up my options in front. I've kind of set a limit of $700 in my head to get this project rolling, so this makes shortened shafts, aftermarket center section, etc out of my price range, and honestly big time overkill for my application.

As a rule of thumb, how much variation can there be in WMS from front-back? I know people use wheelspacers to bring the 8.8s back to width, but using spacers in the front seems like it'd be really hard on the bearings...