Dana 44's

Okay I have read the sticky's in the info forum and have looked into this quite a bit. I have also looked on Madxj's page and looked at what he did with his system. what i am wondering is if i would get the hi pinion 3rd member from a ford axle and swap it into the place of of the 3rd member in a front waggy axle. but keep the measurements the same as the stock waggy (madxj's website said the 3rd member would get pushed a little more to the driverside if this would create and stress on the u-joints, t-case, or axle. i know it shouldn't create any vibes for the fact of running a set of manual hubs on the axles. and then is there any significant difference between the cherokee 44 and the waggy 44, structuraly i mean. i know the waggy 44 would be ofset a bit wich bothers me as i am wondering if that would create driveline vibes at highway speed. i am just wondering if the housing of one is stronger than the other.

thanks in advance,

justin :eyes:

It would be easier to just take a high pinion Ford axle, (3rd members are the removable portion of a toyota or 9" axle), and narrow it to waggy width.

It would take tons of time and money to remove the tubes from both the center sections, then have them pressed into the other center sections, make sure they are straight,, and then have them welded in.

It is easier to just take the high pinion ford D44, cut off the inner c's, cut of a small section of the axle tubes on both sides (here, you can narrow it to the waggy width, and run waggy axle shafts, or narrow it to a custom width to remove the offset of the pinion. Chromo shafts are only $50 more to have custom cut). Then you just weld the inner C's back on, and you not only will have a correct pinion angle, but correct caster if you measured properly. I did this on my axle, and its working great.

Plus, most of the Ford axles, (with the exceptions of the '88-'89 axles that had the hollow cast wedges rather than weld on wedges), you will have 1/2" thick axle tubes, vs. thinner tubes found in FSJ axles.

Honestly, a lot of people run the waggy 44's, and don't have a problem with the slight bit of offset. It won't create a ton of stress on the u-joint.

I run a HP44 narrowed to waggy width. Works great, haven't had a problem.

Not to mention I can run stock shafts, and if I blow one it's only a trip to the JY for a spare.

I run about 5" of uptravel at about 6" of lift and no clearance issues.