Front Dana 44 Build Questions

I am looking at building a Dana 44 HP front axle. I picked up D44 front axle from a 1970 Ford F-100. Yeah, the one with the HP pumpkin and 1/2" tubes. After cutting off the inner-c's and looking at the thickness of the axle, it seems the tube is a little thicker than 1/2". I am going to build this axle with '06 Rubicon 30 spline shafts. I slid the new shafts into the D44 tubes, they fit, but there is not much room. I am looking at approximately 1/8 of an inch or less clearance.

Is this enough?

Has anyone made a similar build?

Looks like I have some reading to do.

I will post some pictures soon.

KJ

How did this come out?

why are you using shafts that have stubs for lame D30 parts?

XJLI said:

why are you using shafts that have stubs for lame D30 parts?

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Um, probably because they will be the same as the D44 inners. And they center the pumpkin more toward the passenger than Wagoneer shafts. Any they are more plentiful than Wagoneer shafts. Just my guess at least.



OP, if the axle is straight, and you use a boring bar to verify, then there shouldn't be any problem with the low clearance.

To the OP,
Don't do it.

I'm in the process of gathering parts to replace my WJ knuckles that I grafted onto my Ford HP D44.

It works well enough and the 12" brakes worked flawlessly, but.....

I'm still replacing ball joints and hubs as a result of running 35's with 3.25" backspacing.

Please learn from my experience and skip the D30 outers. You'll be miles ahead in the long run.

Sounds more like he is going to run rubicon 44 inners. Not put 30 outers on a 44, which is not even possible without boring out a set of 30 inner c's.

I have a sleeved hp30 with 30 spline shafts. I don't have much clearance at all between the shafts and the inside of the tube. Might get some mud packed tight in there but don't expect any problems. Axle is not yet under jeep tho.

Correct, I had a pair of D30 outers turned on a lathe in order to install them on my d44. I cut about 5-6 inches worth of tube from a donor D30 and the machine shop simply stuck the tubes in his lathe and bored the inner C. I then cut through wat was left of the weld and installed the C's on my D44.