Dana 44 brakes vs ChryCo8.25 brakes

I searched, and this may be the first time anyone has asked this, but I've got an XJ Dana 44 rear end I'm swapping in, probably tomorrow afternoon, in place of my Chrysler 8.25 in my 96xj. The 44 is missing all of the brake components aside from the wheel cylinders and drums (hardware, springs, shoes are missing) and the drums might not have a ton of life left on them. My current CC 8.25 rearend has pretty good brakes on it still and I'm almost wondering if the 8.25 brake components are interchangeable to the point where I can just use the 8.25 rear brakes instead of the 44 stuff. It's in good condition and I'm pretty low on $ - if i can use my brakes on the 44 that'd be good for now. Anybody got any idea? If not I'll find out as i start pulling shit apart.

They are larger drums and shoes. I've read that they cannot be simply switched. Something about what they attach to. Since you have both complete axles there may be some way to swith backing plates, but I dunno. You probably just want to rebuild the 44's brakes, as they are bigger.

That's about it really. The D44 has 10X2.5" brakes, the 8.25 9X2.5" brakes. If it was my rig, I'd wait until I had gathered all the hardware to swap it over right. Wagner makes brake hardware kits. Don't forget to obtain the transfer bar between the shoes.
All should be available at your local autoparts store or available next day in most locations.

-Ron

granted it's the same thing that everyone else said, but I am in the process of doing the same thing and I worked all day yesterday trying to figure out if it would work and it didn't. your better off building the whole axle on the ground and then puting it in as a complete axle. do bother wasting time trying to get it to work. the only thing you will get out of it is a head ache.

The 8.25 also came with 10" brakes. But they seem to be thinner than the 9" brakes?

Although the 8.25's 10" drums look VERY similar to D44 drums...

D44 = 10x2.5"
the other axles' 10" is 10x1.75"