87 XJ D44 build w/ 96 Ford 8.8 Discs : Complete

Well after lots of frustration the rear axle build is complete on XJ D44 out of a 87 with Ford 8.8 disc brakes. A great improvment over the crapy D35 I've had back there.
Here is how she began after being pulled out the J/Y:

New bearings, seals, longer wheel studs (Rear ZJ ones for Disc brakes), and Rubicon plates drilled to fit.

Here she is before assembly:

After a fresh coat of paint:

Fully assembled in the garage:

Old D35 Comming out:

No more leaking rear:

New D44 bolted in under the rig:

For the E-brake I went with the loop and clamp method:

Original Drive shaft was 33 1/8" long, it need to be 32" so here it is after a trip to the shop:

Looks like a good amount of slip yoke travel to me at ride hieght and no vibs at all:

Here she is sitting out back:

I can now tell a big diffrence in stoping power going down the road and I no longer have a leaking rear end. Still need to do a little fine tuning on the jeep like installing a ZJ porportioning valve for the disc brake setup. Heading out to Uwharrie this weekend so hopefully this thing will prove it's worth.
Big thanks goes out to Steve and the guys over at TarHeel 4WD and Tim over at Unviersal Driveshafts for doing all the hard work.
Also to everyone else how help and provided advice along the way.

great job! how much lift are you sitting at?

Thanks, the lift is sitting around a 4.5". It looks tall in the 8th pic becuase I hadn't removed the front jack stands yet.

what year xj? i have 4.5-5" but its a 2000...serious vibes. im doing the sye tonight/tomorrow morning.

94, If your asking about why yours vibs and my don't it would be for 2 reasons. One you have a diffrent style output shaft on your T-case that is more prone to vibs at 4" lift hieghts and up. Also I'm running a 1" TC drop along with a driveshaft that is cut specifically for the setup I'm running so I have no vibs at all.

Good luck with the SYE conversion, you shouldn't have any vib problems after you get it installed. One day when I have the money I may go that route but for now the setup is working great.

thanks for the info...yea on my 01 i had bad vibes at 3.5-4", sye cures all!

Which rotors did you use?

Moved. Nice jod. What are the clamps for? I cannot tell in that picture where they are attached.

Graham ehh... I lived off Thompson Mill for a while. Probly seen your rig around. Mine always used to hang at I Holt Hardware.

ZacSquatch said:

Graham ehh... I lived off Thompson Mill for a while. Probly seen your rig around. Mine always used to hang at I Holt Hardware.

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Maybe, I've been on the Charlotte end of things for while and just got back from school. I work down at the Walgreens in Graham. If you see my rig in the parking lot feel free to not be a stranger. I'll be the idot staying around in the front acting like he's working

Ghost said:

Moved. Nice jod. What are the clamps for? I cannot tell in that picture where they are attached.

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There for the e-brake cable. Took the stock cables and pulled them around the hook on the explorer backing plates. Clamped them down so they made a tight loop to it so when the cable is pulled it pulls the hook back. They've held up great so far and the cables haven't tried to loosen up around the hook so I think it was worth the $2 for some clamps.

Chip Clip said:

Which rotors did you use?

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I used the J/Y rotors and calipers off the 96 explorer cuase they where in decent shape. My buddy has a lathe so we bored them out on it and turned them at his shop so they look nice and new like