need someone who knows a d44 axle...

i've come across brakes from 2002 tj with 40k miles a. every thing in working order.
comlpete with backing plates. shoes, cylinders & e-brake cables...

does anyone know if anything from the tj would work on my d44 from a 87xj?

i need all that stuff

the tj has a D44 also!

anyone?

Mods - please move this to Modified Tech.

I think there is a problem with the backing plate from the TJ, although I can't recall the details at this point. I know I was looking at the same swap after putting my 87 XJ D44 in, and for the life of me right now I can't recall what the stopping point was...

Jim
96XJ www.yuccaman.com

thanks.... i will continue to look into this...

if anyone else knows anything let me know..

also, are there any parts i could use? brakes/drums?

you're going to have to do some re-drilling. the bolt pattern on the axle flange for the XJ44 and the TJ44 is different.

You can make it work, but it's not direct bolt-on.

asside from drilling the backing plate bolts to match the flange on your d44 the difference in the thickness of the backing plate/vs. the thickness of the backing plates of the old drums causes the bearing retainer not to seat completely on the bearing-
you can either chose to get TJ bearing retainers from a dealer/parts store or have a machine shop make some metal bushings to put between the axle bearing and the bearing retainers as the axle is assembled.

i chose the tj retainers, you'll have to redrill those to match the XJ d44 flange. which IS a PITA bc the holes are overlapping- which caused the drill bit to bite and jump around,-

it'd be best to either
A) have a full service machine shop at your disposal
B) clamp the retainers into a vice/ and drill them using a drill press
C) fill in the holes w/ weld/ smooth them out & then redrill them
~or all of the above..

their was a web-site i found that a guy did the conversion using TJ brakes and made/or had made some of the bushings to take up the space (the difference in the thicknesses of the backing plates) it was a pretty good write up..
not to hard of a project i rate it a 6.5 on the 1-10 difficulty scale.. and thats including all mostly done in the back-yard fabrication shop..

If you're getting a great deal on the parts, do it. If not, there are other options that are a little bit easier. The process to get the TJ 44 discs on an XJ 44 woudl pretty much be the same as putting ZJ discs on there.


The way I did it was a little bit easier. I used crown vic backing plates, because the bolt pattern on them lines up with the XJ44s flange bolt pattern perfectly. Only modification I made to the actual backing plates was I had to open up the center hole maybe 1/16-1/8" radius wise. I did it with a black and decker cheapo dremel (which actually works pretty well) in about 10 minutes per side.

The only hard part about doing the crown vic is re-drilling the rubicon retainer plates. They have the correct offset in them, so no spacers involved. You could use stock XJ backing plates and have a spacer machined.....but you'd have to pull the bearings off to install that part anyways, and the rubicon backing plates are cheap, so you can buy a few extras to do some trial and error with the drilling.

Sorry, but poor advice.
for starters, why in the hell do you want smaller brakes? the 87XJ D44 has large 10X2.5" drums. the '02 TJ has 9" drums... they suck. Why do you think the 8.25 rear drums are so crappy.
secondly, get your TJ's straight. Disc brakes that came on the Rubicon a year later shared the same bolt pattern as the TJ drum brake backing plates, but it does have a step due the the additional thickness of the disc brake caliper brackets.
save your money.
go down to NAPA. buy yourself some new shoes, spring kits, adjuster kits and some $10 wheel cylinders. you don't even need to have the drums cut. You can rebuild your large drum brakes for less than $100

Rawbrown said:

Sorry, but poor advice.
for starters, why in the hell do you want smaller brakes? the 87XJ D44 has large 10X2.5" drums. the '02 TJ has 9" drums... they suck. Why do you think the 8.25 rear drums are so crappy.
secondly, get your TJ's straight. Disc brakes that came on the Rubicon a year later shared the same bolt pattern as the TJ drum brake backing plates, but it does have a step due the the additional thickness of the disc brake caliper brackets.
save your money.
go down to NAPA. buy yourself some new shoes, spring kits, adjuster kits and some $10 wheel cylinders. you don't even need to have the drums cut. You can rebuild your large drum brakes for less than $100

Click to expand...

You're all outa whack dude. He's asking about how to put discs on an XJ44. I don't see how drums come into play??

How did I not get TJs straight? I told him that if he used the crown vic backing plates like I did (which you don't have to redrill) you can use the rubicon backing plates (after redrilling them).

Then lets start with...
'02 TJ's didn't come with discs, even with the D44. I'm pretty sure.
his language if fucked up then cuz discs don't use "shoes", backing plates, and cylinders. They use pads, standoffs and calipers.
no where does he mention discs. Your ass-uming. I may have a screw loose but I aint outta wack... just wacked out.

oh shit. you're right, my bad! I just assumed that he was trying to put rubi discs on an XJ44...doh.

Now I see what you were saying Ryan....stupid to switch to TJ drums from XJ drums.

But, discs>>>>drums

i was just hoping to be able to use the drums and backing plates.... the shoes and other hardware is pretty cheap...

but for the cost of shipping i could get all that stuff?

if the backing plates require that kinda work to make fit it's not wroth my time

Do you not have the XJ44 drums? They're better than the TJ drums. And yeah, you'd have to redrill the TJ backing plates to fit the XJ. Not sure how much the stock XJ backing plates are for the 44....but they're probably cheap, considering the backing plates for a Rubicon TJ are 3 bux each, and they're more complicated than the XJ ones.

3 bucks...wow

see i went to that currie web site and for an 11" brake kit which has 2 of everything (backingplate, shoes, cylinders, and spring kits) all assembled it was 350 bucks

i need to research some parts prices again

anyone know where to get a good deal on d44 brake stuff

Doh! I meant the retainer plates. I can't keep my plates straight today!!

I got new drums,shoes and hardware from Checker!