The Black Pearl

Looking back, I would like to get one more on each side. I thought I’d only have enough material for two on each side but I might have enough for another.


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Nates2000XJ said:

Looking back, I would like to get one more on each side. I thought I’d only have enough material for two on each side but I might have enough for another.


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I know i am heavy handed on my rockers so im shooting for four a side. But not everyone drives as bad as i do. Haha.

How far up into the body do you plan on cutting for the 2x6?


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Nates2000XJ said:

How far up into the body do you plan on cutting for the 2x6?


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I was hoping to do boat-sides up to the bottom hinge but I’ll probably go up to the sill like you did. How much did you trim off the door?

Right on. IIRC about 1.5”. Basically up to where the door sheet metal widens up. The silver dots was the cut line. Any higher and the gap created after cutting the pinch seam between the two sheet metal pieces would get pretty close to the weatherstripping seal surface. My doors were also left on for the 2x6 replacement.




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Thats what i was thinking. Mine is a 2door so a much larger hole to seal up. Did you seal the bottoms up after you cut them? I also have a second set of doors to make half doors with.

Nice, I did not seal the doors. I’ll get a photo of that soon. Thankfully they don’t rattle. Hopefully I didn’t just jinx myself lol


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Live update: got the rear in the backyard and the top rack of the stand isn’t quite tall enough for both housings to fit. Busted out the plasma and death wheel to get the 9” nakey nakey




As for the stand, I’ll have to chop it and make the top rack higher. Oh well


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take some square tube and flat plate and build a small stand for the lower axle mount vs raising the upper mount.

I think I see what you mean Casey. In the mean time, the wedges are off 44. Still got some grinding to do






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Progress on axles have been slow. I got ball joints, front and rear rotors, front wheel bearings and seals, diff cover, 9” truss, u bolt eliminators, drain/fill bungs, some inner c gussets, and rear caliper brackets...all of which are in the mail.

In the mean time, a package arrived from ruffstuff full of tire carrier swing out parts so I’ve been working on that for the past three days or so.

I picked up 13’ of 3/16” wall 2x3 rectangle tube from a local-ish metal supply. I’ve been wanting to hit sims in San Jose but they’re closed to the public with the covid-19 scare.

My bumper doesn’t leave much room to support a spindle so I added some plate and will need some bracing behind the bumper. Here’s what I did.

















After welding on the latch, with gussets, I decided I didn’t like its location. It hangs out and is liable to get smashed on the trail leaving my bumper vulnerable. Called it a day at that point in preparation for the battle of getting that off.



Couldn’t get int there with a cut off wheel so the plasma cutter was the only option. It got ugly and will require further grinding. I cut the lower rectangle tube and mounted the latch right below the driver tail light.




Here’s how it turned out. Still need to add something to mount a wheel. I went with an angled mount where the wheel will be roughly parallel to the rear glass. This way the tire doesn’t hang as low and I get some visibility out of the rear view mirror.

Looks good man. Im going to be redoin my hinge and latch on my carrier with my new chassis. Good to see some ideas on a diy application.

Thanks, if you plan on offsetting the tire I’d recommend placing the spindle on the side of the tire do the weight of the tire isn’t putting such a large torque on the spindle (perpendicular the the axis about which the spindle rotates).

Worked a half day today so I attempted to remove an old spindle bearing. Ended up getting a dremel out and carefully cut through the race. My punches broke the edges of the race clean off. There’s got to be an easier way than this surely.






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Nates2000XJ said:

Thanks, if you plan on offsetting the tire I’d recommend placing the spindle on the side of the tire do the weight of the tire isn’t putting such a large torque on the spindle (perpendicular the the axis about which the spindle rotates).

Worked a half day today so I attempted to remove an old spindle bearing. Ended up getting a dremel out and carefully cut through the race. My punches broke the edges of the race clean off. There’s got to be an easier way than this surely.

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That doesn’t look like too much fun. I’m about to do the same and I’m not looking forward to it either.


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Got lots of parts in the mail today. I got around to packing the wheel bearings + races and installing the seals. These will sit for a little while so I taped them shut to prevent to protect the bearings/grease.





Front diff cover came as well so I clear coated that. The rear rotors I ordered don’t fit over the 31 spl axles for the 9” so when 35 spl axles show up, I’ll recheck and machine if need be

Rear calipers are new units from ‘73-‘89 3/4 ton 4x4 Chevy truck/suburban. My 74 Chevy K20 has the same ones and they fit the ruffstuff weld on brackets ever so snugly. Once I get 35 spl axles and new bearings, I’ll be much more comfortable welding the brake brackets on. Rotors are fronts off an ‘89 full size bronco.

9” truss came as well, it’s got a decent gap right at the center section that I’m not loving. I’ll be putting u bolt eliminators on first and trimming the truss to fit (basically right before the rear gets swapped under the Jeep).


Going to pull the trigger on the front truss soon as well. I’m looking at TNT and New Venture Motorsports. I have experience with the TNT product but I think the new venture has a few more features... Machined coil correction plates and double shear shock mounting that also give the bottom eye of the shock some protection.

New venture


TNT (w/ 87matchief)


The NV truss comes in a tad loess expensive than the TNT as well.


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What're you doing for knuckles/steering? The trac bar mount looks pretty low on that NV truss, not sure what it looks like on the tnt truss. Just make sure whatever you go with on steering matches where you can put your trac bar. Id say one of the advantages of going d44 is that you can get your drag link pretty flat with some of the histeer setups, youll want to get your trac bar to match that to help with bumpsteer.
If youre gonna do hydro assit one day you could even think about planning a good mounting place for a ram. Also, what front link setup are you gonna run?

I’m looking into reids with histeer arms. This weekend I’m helping 87matcheif fit Reids and hi steer arms with a tre set up on his waggy 44. I do have a tapped and drilled XJ steering box for hydro assist so mounting a ram is something I’m thinking about as well. Either truss can be fitted with an adjustable track bar bracket to compensate for steering geometry so if I stick with heims, I think packaging steering should be a bit easier than tres.

Good feedback anxjous, steering geometry was something I kind of hadn’t mapped out after being so accustomed to the D30 set up. For the swap I’m going to keep my Clayton radius arm set up and will decide if 3 linking front is worth it.


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Having gone through this on a few d44 jeeps recently Id highly recommend making sure youve got everything planned out before buying/fabing/welding a bunch of stuff.

Another note that I just thought of, I was a blindsided by the fact that the d44 pinion is ~2inches longer than the d30. For the front I wish I had pushed the axle those 2 inches forward so I could reuse the front driveshaft (and get better approach angle/more wheelbase). New driveshafts are expensive... For the rear, youll have to measure, but if you can use a stock front shaft thats ideal.

I hear ya on pinion length. I'm planning upgrading to 1350 driveshafts with this swap which means the shafts I had made when the jeep got lifted will need serious work. It pains me to redo something that spendy but I think bigger u-joints seems like par for the course when stepping up to a larger axle and tire size.

From what I've been reading once the drag link gets located the track bar follows. Having a hi-steer set up should also help get me a track bar and drag link of equal length and angle at ride height (or at least as close as possible). Good points on the stretch though, I'll do some more reading.

Keep up the good work... gonna be nice!