D44 leaf spring front axle - unknown origin

I've been searching/researching front D44 options. I'm considering buying a set of D44 axles that are currently under a friend's YJ. The front axle is where my questions are, though.

He bought the Jeep with these axles in it, so the origin of them is unknown. Hopefully the pictures below will give someone an idea of what it came from:







There's paint-marker writing on the diff cover that says "FORD 3/4". I don't know if that's right or not, but it sounds like it may have been from a 3/4-ton Ford truck. It has a 5x5.5" wheel bolt pattern and it's been narrowed already to approximately stock YJ/XJ axle width. Both the front and rear axles have 4.11 gears in them, so it would be a nice improvement from my 3.55's. The front axle has disc brakes and appears to be originally out of a leaf spring application.

The cast-in leaf spring mount on the driver's side is probably my biggest hangup here. How big of a deal is it to work around this? I've read where some guys cut off a portion of the casting to eliminate the cast-in leaf spring mount. Is it a fairly straightforward task with a cutoff wheel, and how do I know how much of the casting I can remove safely to still provide good support to the axle tube? FYI, if I can make it work, I'd like to use the Ballistic Fab brackets (http://www.ballisticfabrication.com/XJ--TJ-Jeep-combo-bracket-upgrade-kit_p_1542.html).

Looking at the cover side, right-hand tube. Find a Bill of Materials number - should be a six-digit number with a one- or two-digit suffix, basic number starting with "60" or "61."

This will let you narrow it down to one or two models, inside of a short bracket of years, and the suffix will tell you the original gearing and options. You can run the BoM number through the Dana expert site, or I can run it for you if you don't have any luck (I have most BoM listings around here somewhere...)

Those are some serious looking booger welds on that axle. :shocked:

Store bought spring perches and arm mounts might have to be hacked to work. The diff seems a touch close to the driver's side knuckle. I would get out your tape and see what the difference is. Look at where the yoke will be coming up and make sure it will clear your exhaust.

If you try to buy an off the shelf stiffener, it will also have to be modified for the new profile.

5-90 said:

Looking at the cover side, right-hand tube. Find a Bill of Materials number - should be a six-digit number with a one- or two-digit suffix, basic number starting with "60" or "61."

This will let you narrow it down to one or two models, inside of a short bracket of years, and the suffix will tell you the original gearing and options. You can run the BoM number through the Dana expert site, or I can run it for you if you don't have any luck (I have most BoM listings around here somewhere...)

Click to expand...

Thanks for the recommendation, I'll try to get that number and check it out.

old_man said:

Those are some serious looking booger welds on that axle. :shocked:

Store bought spring perches and arm mounts might have to be hacked to work. The diff seems a touch close to the driver's side knuckle. I would get out your tape and see what the difference is. Look at where the yoke will be coming up and make sure it will clear your exhaust.

If you try to buy an off the shelf stiffener, it will also have to be modified for the new profile.

Click to expand...

I know what you mean about the welds, the same thing caught my eye. There's approximately 4" of tube between the driver's side leaf spring perch and the booger welds.

By the way, I'm running a Rock Krawler 3-link. The bad news is, the single upper link is on the driver's side. If it was the passenger's side, it'd be a no-brainer.

Assuming it's a HP44, I'd say it's a 78-79 F250 HP44. I had one under my previous XJ. Assuming those are stock axle shafts, I'd bet they narrowed it to NT waggy widht (about 61.5" wms-wms).

Don't remove too much of that casting, as you'll affect the integrity of the diff. I bought my F250 HP44 off of a friend who had Clayton narrow it. Seems instead of modifying his brackets to fit the diff, he modifys the diff to fit his brackets. BAD IDEA. Granted, I got 6 feet of air when this happened.

You can see how the diff just separated. When I was stripping the axle, the tube was pretty much ready to fall out. The little piece of metal that was the plug weld was all that was holding the tube from popping out.



What caused it:




Basically, if you want to remove a lot of that casting, be prepared to truss it. No one makes a slap-on truss for an F250 HP44. You'll be stuck making your own. If I were you, I'd make your own coil buckets and form them to fit over the leaf spring pad.

As MM said, late '70s F250 is the source of the axle housing, and it's likely they just added F150 knuckles/brakes.

If you pick up a '77-older F150 HP44 you can cut the radius arm mounts off and weld your own; the '78-9 F150/Bronco 44 fronts have cast-in radius arm mounts.

Thanks for the feedback so far. The axle is not a high pinion, so that seems to rule out a couple of the suggested sources mentioned so far. I'll see about trying to find the BOM number on it.

MoparManiac -- do you have an idea of how much width Clayton removed from the casting? I'd like to know how far the tube reaches into the casting to have an idea of how much material can be removed safely. I want it to be reasonably strong, but I probably won't be catching any air in it. I'll save that task for the Yamaha.

MoparManiac said:

Assuming it's a HP44, I'd say it's a 78-79 F250 HP44. I had one under my previous XJ. Assuming those are stock axle shafts, I'd bet they narrowed it to NT waggy widht (about 61.5" wms-wms).

Don't remove too much of that casting, as you'll affect the integrity of the diff. I bought my F250 HP44 off of a friend who had Clayton narrow it. Seems instead of modifying his brackets to fit the diff, he modifys the diff to fit his brackets. BAD IDEA. Granted, I got 6 feet of air when this happened.

You can see how the diff just separated. When I was stripping the axle, the tube was pretty much ready to fall out. The little piece of metal that was the plug weld was all that was holding the tube from popping out.

Basically, if you want to remove a lot of that casting, be prepared to truss it. No one makes a slap-on truss for an F250 HP44. You'll be stuck making your own. If I were you, I'd make your own coil buckets and form them to fit over the leaf spring pad.

Click to expand...

Why do you need to remove any casting at all?

Build the coil mount on top of it.

It could also be a77.5-79.5 F150 extended cab 44. it would have factory leaf spring perches and the 5x5.5 bolt pattern. I run an F250 housing but i have a spare in my garage that is the 5x5.5 F150 version.

I believe TNT does make a truss to bolt this 44 into an XJ at its stock width.

MoparManiac said:

Why do you need to remove any casting at all?

Build the coil mount on top of it.

Click to expand...

I don't have a tremendous amount of time to devote to the Jeep right now (too many projects), and the Ballistic Fab brackets seem like they could save me a fair amount of time versus fabricating my own brackets (if I can make them work). That's my main motivation for wanting to possibly remove some of the casting.

kst8engineer said:

I don't have a tremendous amount of time to devote to the Jeep right now (too many projects), and the Ballistic Fab brackets seem like they could save me a fair amount of time versus fabricating my own brackets (if I can make them work). That's my main motivation for wanting to possibly remove some of the casting.

Click to expand...

clearance the ballistic brackets to fit over the casting?