78 Ford f-250 HP d44 axle swap question

If this has been asked before.. i didnt find it from search.. i'm new.. just joined ..blame beezil he told me to do it cause pirate isnt cool enough .

Here goes.

I am in the process of putting a HP d44 into the front of my rig.. Have all the measurements where my brackets need to go.. got a screaming deal on RE brackets for it so i'm using them. My problem is on this axle the punkin has the drivers side leaf spring perch cast into it. This is right where i need to mount my coil bucket and also tie in the brace over the top of the pumpkin for my UCA.. my thought was to cut the brace that goes over the top of the pumpkin and weld that to the coil bucket bracket and reinforce and brace from there. But i am unsure as to how strong this will really be. For those of you that have done this swap what did you do? maybe give me some inspiration... also as far as welding to the casting.. if you did it.. how did you do it? mig, tig , stick? TIA

just for grins, do you have any pics of this particular area for the folks doing some web-wrenchin?

wanna see exactly how you can get those re brackets to fit nicely in that area, so you don't have to re-invent the bracket.

i'll snap pics when i get home tonight. I have them mocked up on the axle right now and it is a ton easier to explain with the visual.

another thing to think about.

if you are having trouble being confident about welding to cast steel, take a smaller pc. of scrap metal, and weld it to the cast part, as you would your bracket.

let it cool, and beat the living piss out of it to see if you can break your weld.....

if you are a half-way decent welder, you won't break it, you'll end up having to grind the pc off....

might be a good excerise fer ya, or it could be a royal waste of time, either way, like i said on pirates, it really isn't a problem to MIG to cast steel, plenty on this forum have done it, although you can't tell by the lack of responses so far!

hope that helps at least.

Im doing this same swap right now but I want to shorten the axle by 4.75" on the passenger side then pick up some Moser shafts. This will move the pumpkin over far enough to miss the spring perch and match the width of my D70 in the rear which was out of a 80 F-350 dually.
This brings up my next question should I change out the Procomp locking hubs the D44hp already has. The drivers side hub fuse actually stripped the splines on the outer shaft which is why I want to replace with Moser shafts. The area that contacts the axle shaft looks really narrow no wonder it cut through the splines. Is there a thicker hub fuse or better hub assembly. All I know is I'll be pissed if it happens to an expensive shaft.

RER78 said:

Im doing this same swap right now but I want to shorten the axle by 4.75" on the passenger side then pick up some Moser shafts. This will move the pumpkin over far enough to miss the spring perch and match the width of my D70 in the rear which was out of a 80 F-350 dually.
This brings up my next question should I change out the Procomp locking hubs the D44hp already has. The drivers side hub fuse actually stripped the splines on the outer shaft which is why I want to replace with Moser shafts. The area that contacts the axle shaft looks really narrow no wonder it cut through the splines. Is there a thicker hub fuse or better hub assembly. All I know is I'll be pissed if it happens to an expensive shaft.

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dont get warn premium hubs get the regular ones.. run alloys and ctms.. then the hub will be your fuse and you'll bust an $ 80 hub.. not an axpensive shaft.

First you go over to pirate & bitch about the BOD of & how you won't come over here until somebody overthrows the leadership & now you come crawling over here to get advise? :nono: :doh: Welcome to newbie. :moon:

As to your question I'd just trim up the RE mount & weld it to the perch. When welding to cast I use high nickle rod & stick weld it, but others have had good luck with pre & post heating & miging while other looneys just weld it cold. That part of the axle is so stout & you'll have a good 4" weld across it that I doubt you'll have any problems no matter how you weld it.

Matt

FarmerMatt said:

First you go over to pirate & bitch about the BOD of & how you won't come over here until somebody overthrows the leadership & now you come crawling over here to get advise? :nono: :doh: Welcome to newbie. :moon:

As to your question I'd just trim up the RE mount & weld it to the perch. When welding to cast I use high nickle rod & stick weld it, but others have had good luck with pre & post heating & miging while other looneys just weld it cold. That part of the axle is so stout & you'll have a good 4" weld across it that I doubt you'll have any problems no matter how you weld it.

Matt

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I didnt go over to pirate to bitch.. i stated my opinion from what i saw here and there over here. After beezil's comments i decided to take his advice and come over here and ask the question to you folks. doesnt seem like you're all that bad... could be that the guy i saw having the flame wars over here with you folks is just a pud.. my apologies .

As for the welding advice i appreciate it.. i'll be sure to post the pics beezil asked for and post the finished product after i get done with it on sunday.

Just giving you a hard time, but you had to have expected it :laugh3: . Beezil & JnJ are the only puds I know of rounds these parts. Please do post pics of how it comes out.

Matt

Haggard: I'm currently working on doing the same swap as you. I have spoken to a few different people about getting the brackets on their good with the least amount of work. I have debated the RE brackets, custom brackets and reusing the stock brackets (gotta love currie).

Currie's has given me the least amount of confidence out of anyone I spoke to. For a company that is supposed to be the best at custom axle solutions and what not, they did not instill much trust in me after the few 20min phone calls i've had with them about it. They pretty much said they dont want to touch the axle but, for enough money they'd do anything. I assume they were just trying to sell me on a prebuilt full drop in axle, but they knew thats not what I wanted.

I am going to either see if I can bribe FullsizeXJ or Vintagespeed into helping me sort out the bracket issues. I know Vintage is running the same axle as we both have. You may want to see if you can PM him and get some info from him. IIRC he did custom brackets of his own design, and welded them up. He kept the alxe full width as well from what i remember, which is what I plan on doing.


Beez: <reminder> Did you get those pictures uploaded?? </reminder>

-Scott

Yea i am leaving it full width.. the rear 60 is in. currie did a decent job retubing my roomates d44 housing and the RE brackets fit on that smaller pumpkin perfectly. the issue is that stupid cast in spring perch on ours. i'm going to figure it out one way or another because i am not paying the 400 bucks he paid to have his axle retubed. I'll take pictures of the RE brackets mocked up on the housing before and after i alter them to work.

sintax said:

Beez: <reminder> Did you get those pictures uploaded?? </reminder>

-Scott

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I needed reminding!

PM's away.

Haggard said:

Yea i am leaving it full width.. the rear 60 is in. currie did a decent job retubing my roomates d44 housing and the RE brackets fit on that smaller pumpkin perfectly. the issue is that stupid cast in spring perch on ours. i'm going to figure it out one way or another because i am not paying the 400 bucks he paid to have his axle retubed. I'll take pictures of the RE brackets mocked up on the housing before and after i alter them to work.

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Exactly man, I am not about to have that axle retubed. I am going to keep mine full width as well. Get to work on your axle, i want to see how it ends up.


Beez: I love how you ran the 3 link front, I only have an issue with the streetability of this kind of setup. Even though my XJ is a trail only rig, i dont have a trailer for it and have to drive it to the trail. Maybe someday :cheers:

BTW: thanks for the pics.

my rig is pretty darn streetable.

I sure as hell could never even come CLOSE to "daily driver", but I tooled up and down us 191 with the best of them in Moab.....

Beezil said:

but I tooled up and down us 191 with the best of them in Moab.....

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Jes said:

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I was talking about the mountain bikers.......okay?

Haha... wasn't expecting that! :laugh2:

Jes

well i got the axle half in this weekend. I was stupid and welded the coil buckets on in thier stock locations so now i either need to shorten my long arms or cut the buckets off and reweld the buckets again.. pics will follow soon.

Haggard said:

well i got the axle half in this weekend. I was stupid and welded the coil buckets on in thier stock locations so now i either need to shorten my long arms or cut the buckets off and reweld the buckets again.. pics will follow soon.

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Hey, sorry to dredge up an ancient thread but...

How did it turn out? Did you end up shortening the short side or the long side? Neither?

If the long side, does the diff end up interfering with anything in the center of the Jeep (engine pan?)?

Got some pics?

r@m