Full width D44 question - how did you do it

I'm going to put a Ford HP Dana44 under the front of my XJ. I don't plan to narrow it. The axle I have has the radius mounts that don't have the tube all the way through it.

My question has to do with adding the coil buckets and arm mounts. How have some of you guys done it. It appears that from my initial measurements that if I keep the coil buckets centered under where the original XJ coils were, that the buckets will be half on the axle tube and half on the casting. Is that how you guys mounted yours? Did you weld to the cast? Any problems. Did you fab your own brackets and buckets or did you find a good (cheap) setup somewhere?

I am an experienced fabricator and an engineer by trade, but would rather learn from someone elses mistakes instead of my own.

I used F150 buckets mounted to some box tubing that I welded to the cast section and tube like you're describing. If my computer was still alive I'd throw up a picture for you. I used a rod called super missile. It's a specialty rod that runs $30/lb In hindsight, I'm thinking I could've gotten away with just using some 7018.

Sean

OneTonXJ said:

I used a rod called super missile.
Sean

Click to expand...

:shocked:

you stay away from me with that thang.



I weld to *cast steel* with es70-6 MIG....

hardly what ANYONE would recommend, but it works for me.

I will probably end up MIG'n it. You know what they say, if you put enough boogers on it, surely it will hold :doh:

Did you guys fab your own mounts for the suspension or did you adapt something? I'm working 60 hours a week and as much as I like to do it all myself, sometimes buying a little of someone elses time makes sense. It seems like I've seen some generic brackets for the uppers listed somewhere.

Otherwise I was just going to get some 3" channel and hack it on my bandsaw and bend it to form an arch over the pumpkin for the drives side and form to the axle tube. On the passengers side I was going to get some .25" thick box and form it to the axle and cut the relief at the to for the arm mount.

More questions.....It would be nice if I could take some of the metal off of the rearmost tips of the radius arm mounting surface. This would allow me to move my mount for my arms a touch closer to the axles centerline. Anybody know how much metal there is at that point? In other words, when they made the casting, is it mostly solid?

I keep going back and forth on the radius arms vs the long arm setup. While it would be easy to get the radius arms, the spacing between the coil mounting buckets seems too far apart without some serious modifications. How do people overcome this when running radius arms on full width axles? Isn't the angle it would place the springs in, a bit much?

Sounds like I'm going to owe some of you guys a couple of six packs for all the info

I believe most people use the stock coil buckets and just flip them so they are inboarded. I have some built radius arms w/ chromoly rod ends (37" C to C) if you don't want to build your own. I don't need them for anything so I'd let them go for cheap.

CJS

if your axle housing is from a later model ford..78 or newer(I think). the radius arm mounts are cast into the tube, if earlier you can cut them off, sounds like you got a later one.It's not very thick at the casting, I used the same axle and bought RE bracket kit, with a little grinding and shaping they fit. Then preheated the cast with a torch and then welded with nickel rod to the cast, now let me make this clear...I'm no pro welder or metallurgist...but it's stuck for a couple of years through some pretty hardcore wheeling(10" lift @38's). The bracket kit is sorta pricey, but I'm an RE dealer so it was cheap to me, but it is worth the cash. If I had to do it over again I would have scrapped the 78 housing, gotten an earlier one, and wacked the mounts off. It just looks a lot cleaner when its assembled and is much easier to weld.

Look for some of my posts from last week. I have the same dilema, 78 HP D44 w/ cast radius arm mounts. My best friend is a welder for a living and said he could fab up a bridge to mount my coils. He said welding to the cast and tubes isn't a big deal for him. I plan on 8" RE coils and Clayton LAs.

CJS said:

I believe most people use the stock coil buckets and just flip them so they are inboarded.
CJS

Click to expand...

This will get it close, but the buckets are still about 1 inch too far apart. It will work but the springs will bow out at the bottom to make it up.

I flipped the coil buckets and then made these hany-dandy wedges to keep the coils from bowing out:

Lower wedges:


Upper wedges:


Side shot without wedges:


Side shot with wedges:



Here they are fully extended:

You can see that the bumpstop tower doesn't quite line up. I plan to simply cut and weld them at an angle to follow the coils. I've got bigger fish to fry, so until I can get around to that I unscewed the bumpstops to prevent the rubbing on the coils. Those are 3" lift coils by the way.

And compressed:

Notice that the bumpstop doesn't get anywhere near the axle. That's the "beauty" of the stupid Ford radius with some stupid poly bushings. Hey, at least I don't need a swaybar.

More detailed info is at my photo site: http://www.picturetrail.com/petermontie about halfway down the MJ/TJ/Bronco synthesis folder.
Jeep on!
--Pete

You guys talked me into it. I picked up a set of radius arms and buckets today at my local yard for $60. Seems a bit pricey but what the heck.

Here goes the twenty questions bit........by the way I will write this up and do the picture thing so others don't have to bug you guys.

I need new rubber bushings. I hear there are different caster angle bushings. What did you guys go with? Did any of you rotate the knuckles to restore caster?

Oh, and by the way, where is the cheapest place to get the bushings? ........sorry I found them at Autozone for $5 each for the stock bushings.

I'm trying to do this on a budget for now. I hope to keep the stock knuckles and flip the tie rod to the top and do a modified version of the stock XJ steering setup. The pitman arm will connect directly to the passenger tire while the tierod will connect to the pitman arm pretty close to the wheel. Any pluses or minuses? I could stack heim joints on the passenger side but that looks weak and I hate heims on a dailydriver. I'm going to try to run some rims that are spaced inwards a bit more, but the knuckle mounting looks like it will interfere with the tire. Anybody know approximately what backspacing can be run with the stock ford knuckles?

I started with stock (0 caster) rubber "C" bushings. I than switched to poly 2 degree after raising the mounts up at the cross member. This worked well for awhile until I notice the bushings sitting funny last fall. The poly's split in half right down the middle. I threw my old rubber ones back in & really can't notice the caster change. I do have some caster built into the lengthened arms. I sit at about 8" of lift & the rig tracks straighter than my 2002 chevy work truck.

Matt

I gather that most of you canned the sway bar, it that correct? Any issues?