OK, time for an update... I've had my Super 44 kit sitting in my garage for way too long now. My machine shop took about three weeks to get the shafts done this go around. Apparently they were busy with their regular customer's jobs. Good news is I managed to save a bunch of money this time. All I brought in were my new shafts and the new set of tone rings. No pressing on or off of bearings or rings. Just a clear cut machining job. The job was completed for their 1 hour minimum shop charge of $80. Here's some before pics:
A Superior 33 spline Dana 44 shaft from the Super 44 kit
OEM ABS tone rings from a Dana 35 (Thanks Blazair)
The machinist told me the Superior shafts were a pleasure to work on compared to the OEM shafts. He said the center was much easier to locate and he especially liked that the entire surface of the shaft was already machined true unlike the cast surface of the OEM radius. Here's some after pics:
Superior beef with a side of ABS
A little closer up
I had the machinist use the bearing seat for the reference point this time. I figured it was an easy to measure from spot, could be used with bearings on or off, and is a fixed reference point that will be the same for all XJ Dana 44 axle shafts. I asked him to machine the tone ring seat 1.7" from the bearing seat, and to turn it until there was a clean surface that was at least .52" wide for the tone ring to press onto. He removed slightly more material than I expected (.055" vs .030") but it still worked out just fine. Here's the all important close-up with the dimensions laid out:
The final diameter ended up being 1.895" and that cleaned up the radius all the way from the tone ring seat to the beginning of the seal surface. The tone ring of course gets bored out to a slightly smaller diameter for an interference fit.
The tricky part of working with these shafts is that you just don't have much room to work with. It's hard to see in the above pics, but there is actually a small lip where the oil seal surface (1.875") meets the tone ring mounting surface (1.895"), and there has to be. If they were exactly the same size, you'd probably mar the sealing surface while pressing on the tone rings. If the oil seal surface was larger, you couldn't press the tone rings on at all as they wouldn't be able to fit over the sealing surface. The margin of error here is only about .040" so make sure your machinist knows what they are doing before they get started.
So how do my new measurements line up? I wish I knew... :tears: During what little free time I'm afforded with a 10 month old boy crawling around the house, I've been working my ass off trying to finish landscaping my backyard before the rainy season begins. This has left me with no time to install my new gears and lockers. Since I upgraded to 33 spline shafts, I can't even test fit them in the stock Dana 44 carrier. I'll post up as soon as any more progress is made.