qucik and easy 8.8 or D44

early d44 or 8.8 with disc\

the D44 would run approx $500 after build up
or
8.8 for $275 and the kit to fab it in

D44 would be the easiest as long as it's from an XJ to an XJ. For my MJ I had to relocate the perches and shock mounts regardless of which one I used.

The D44 is a direct swap. As it turns out a good percentage of the D44's sold were in your area. Your salvage yards should be fairly ripe.

If you know how to weld, get the 8.8.

8.8 pros-
31 spline shafts
disk brakes
huge axle tubes
8.8" ring gear (go figure...)
Less expensive.
Stronger

cons-
c-clips
axle tubes need to be welded to the pumpkin (easy to do)
5/8" narrower on each side (no big deal)

D44 pros-
direct bolt in
(im not sure about the axle tubes-ring gear sizes etc so if anyone could fill thsoe in that would be great, but im sure the 8.8's are bigger.)
no c-clip axles

Cons-
more expensive
drum brakes
weaker 30 spline shafts-still way stronger than a 27 spline d30 or chrys. 8.25


The way i look at it is, if you want to do the swap right you need to cut off the perches and reweld them so your pinion is pointing directly at your driveshaft, this way you can use huge antiwrap perches to help with axle wrap, and not use shims. So why not just go w/ the 8.8?

everyone and their mom runs an 8.8

and everyone and their dog runs a 44

Vegas - if seen some of your threads - do something different -
run a Toy 8 out back or a Ford 9"
both can be found with the same 5 on 4.5 as the "cure all to everyone's problems" 8.8 and both are non-clip
the toy 8 has the best clearance of most any rear end out there... and toy guys run 37's on stock shafts easy...

that and the gears from the factory ran something like 4.11-4.56 stock, so you may not need to re-gear it...

toy 8" 5 on 4.5 achieved by running a tacoma rear end from a taco with a v6 that was 2wd.
Ford 9" 5 on 4.5 in some older cars, or custom shafts (which ford 9 custom shafts are the ceapest because everyone in the drag race/NASSCAR/hot rod world runs the Ford 9")

just something to think about