Any difference between 80-84 & 84+ Waggy front 44's?

I've been calling the local pick-n-pulls and found a Waggy 44 front from an 87 or 88 that i can pick up at a decent price but most of what I've read points to pulling one from an 80-84 model. Are there any downsides to the late 80's Waggy axles?

It's going to be paired with an 8.8 in the rear so I also want to make sure that the width is comparable to the 80-84 44's.

the period you want is actually 80-89, but the 83-84's have a center section vac disconnect on the driver's side. This can be bypassed using 80-82/85-89 shafts, but I am not sure if there is a seal issue or not -- I'd just avoid those two years.

Pairing it with an 8.8, I am sure you are aware that you will have a 5 on 4.5 in back and a 6 on 5.5 pattern in front, something you will have to deal with.

Depending on your lift, rotating the c's might be advisable. I run a 87 waggy front on about 5 inches of lift, with 4.5 degrees of caster -- my pinion angle is OK, but I wouldn't want it any lower. Also, you may have some of the cast steel to deal with in adding bracketry, particularly on the drivers side. I carefully removed the portion of the cast spring pad that was in my way, others have welded to the cast using nickel rod and pre-post heat.

thanks for the quick response. I have a solution to match up the lug patterns, i was just concerned that in most of the writeups ive read, nothing was ever mentioned about the late 80's 44 fronts.

The gent on the phone assured me it was from an 87 or 88 so that should eliminate the vac disc issue.

Do you know of any links that talk about or have pics illustrating the cast steel removal on the drivers side?

I'm running about 6" of lift at the moment and will probably go up another half an inch when the new axles are finally under the rig so Im sure that turning the knuckles is in order.

I don't know of any links off hand, but what you will be dealing with is (1) the driver's side shaft is extremely short alreay in a FSJ 44 (i.e. the diff is mounted far further towards the wheel than say with an EB 44); (2) the stock leaf spring mount is actually cast into the center section, leaving just a couple inches of exposed axle tube on the driver's side. If you are planning on a "standard" RE-style stock jeep bracket kit, you will likely need to remove some material for both your driver's side lower control arm mount, the spring bucket, and for the diff bridge for the upper arm mount. I did an atypical radius arm bracket (home brewed) so pics of my junk probably wouldn't be too enlightening...

youve got a good year without the vac. disconnect. im running this same set up (waggy front, ford 8.8 rear) for me instead of converting the front to 5X5.5 which required probably 150-200 bucks worth of parts, and still needing an adapter for the rear. adaptitusa makes a wheel adapter to go from 5X4.5 to 6X5.5 which is what i went with. saved me from having to mix match parts up front, and was cheaper