Tell me what you think of this, just an idea, maybe more.....

So I just got back from making a road trip to PA to pick up a Mopar Rubicon JK D44 front axle for my buddy thats in Kuwait right now. It's known that the weakness of the JK/XJ/TJ front D44s is still the inner C's and knuckles(compared to the old "true" D44s). And it got me thinking about ways to fix this problem. The Idea is to try not to down grade on any level(axle shafts[inner and outer], tubes, U-joints, inner C's and knuckles)

My first thought was "true" D44 outers, but then you loose the advantage of having 32 spline outer shafts, and the larger U-joint that JKs have. So my next thought was to D60 kingpins.

*JK HP44 center differential(I'm currently searching for a JK axle that is FUBAR, from a hard roll or front impact, trashed axle shafts, tubes, what ever the more the better so long as the dif housing is fine)
*35 spline JK44 ARB(yes they make them: http://www.quadratec.com/products/52400_150.htm)
*3" DOM axle tubes (I'm thinking 1/2" wall but need to figure out the dia of a 35 spline axle shaft)
*66.5" WMS2WMS
*King pin inner C's and knuckles of your choice(Solid Axle or Reid Racing)
*Superior Axle 35 spline D60 axle shafts and CTM u-joints

One of the offroad mags, I'm thinking JP, did an article a few months back about beefing up the Jk front axles. Think they took it to Burnsville offroad. Just checked their site but couldn't find anything about it on there. They had gusset kits for the knuckles and a piece of tubing that was basically press fit into the axle tube. Might be able to find more with a Google search.

Yeah, I know about the kit, but then you still have to deal with the hubs, ball joints, and I've yet to find a company that makes chromo shafts that use the larger u-joint. That and you are still limited to 30 spline inner/32 spline outer shafts, still no super 44 kit for the front, or CTMs.

it would be cool as hell there is no doubt about that

but a whole lot of work

i think if you really wanted to do something like that it would be more worth your time to build one of those ford 9" fronts

or just keep it simple a ford dana 44 for 37" and smaller tires
or a dana sixty for anything bigger than 37"

I thought about a 9", but then I'd HAVE to get a Hi9 3rd member, and after market housing, and even then I'd probably still want to go 60 kingpins.

The major draw towards a JK44 is it's new and there are a lot of them, so that means there will be a lot of them getting wrecked, and hopefully, if I can find one wrecked to my liking, cheap too. Have you ever seen a Ford HP Kingpin 60 in a Pull a part?

So far, I'm up to about $5,200 plus brakes, locking hubs, mounting brackets, and little odds and ends. I think $7,000 worst case scenario by several hundred I hope, but thats also using some top notch stuff(CTMs, Reid Racing, DOM tube, TNT Customs truss with all the brackets)

I think Bobby Long (Longfield axles) makes a birf for the JK D-44. I have a set for the D-30.

They are plenty strong but pricey.

http://rcvperformance.com/store/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=38