anthrax323
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- San Antonio, TX
Hey guys,
Looks like an XJ D44 is for sale near me at a very fair price, so now I've gotta ask... Is it worth scrapping my 29-spline 8.25" I bought for a bench build in favor of the Dana 44? My plans include the following:
The only statistics I can even find in terms of strength differences between the two is that the Dana 44 is about 4% stronger than the 29-spline 8.25" (then again, this was also a "word-of-mouth" number I found in a forum post).
Let me know what you guys would think would be more worthwhile in the long run. I'd love to get rid of the C-clips, which makes me want the 44 a shade more.
Looks like an XJ D44 is for sale near me at a very fair price, so now I've gotta ask... Is it worth scrapping my 29-spline 8.25" I bought for a bench build in favor of the Dana 44? My plans include the following:
- Disc brake swap - I was planning on doing a KJ disc swap onto the 8.25", as the only custom fabrication would be related to the brake hard lines if I don't have a complete donor KJ axle to work with. Would there be more/cheaper/better disc brake options with the Dana 44? My gut says yes, but I could very easily be wrong.
- Detroit TrueTrac - The cheapest TrueTrac I can find for a 8.25" is $580, whereas I can find one for the Dana 44 for $440 or so. This cost saving alone would almost make up for the purchase price of the Dana 44.
- 4.10 gears - I have no plans to go any lower, however, we all know that could change. From my understanding, the 8.25" cannot accommodate gear ratios of lower than 4.56, and can be trickier to set up properly than the Dana 44 with lower gears (that is, the 8.25" is more likely to have gear whine). Is this the case?
The only statistics I can even find in terms of strength differences between the two is that the Dana 44 is about 4% stronger than the 29-spline 8.25" (then again, this was also a "word-of-mouth" number I found in a forum post).
Let me know what you guys would think would be more worthwhile in the long run. I'd love to get rid of the C-clips, which makes me want the 44 a shade more.
user to reply about a D44 he's currently selling, but I also found a D44 down in Marion, SC, that the guy is willing to sell me for $100. This is just the housing, brakes, and axle shafts - no carrier or gears. A caveat to this is the fact that he replaced the stock spring perches and shock mounts in order to fit it in a YJ (spring under axle)... So it'd take some custom fabrication. Might end up being a good chance to weld the perches on at the correct angle to eliminate the need for shims, and install some shock mount brackets that don't hang down quite so low.