Dana 44 rear brakes

I’m building a Dana 44 for my TJ and I had almost everything together, until I got to trying to bolt on the rear brakes. I had bought the axle from a guy with a TJ and it had no brakes and a weird 4 link setup that I cut off.

So now I am realizing that I have a XJ Dana 44. What is the easiest way to get brakes on this axle, I have drum brakes off a Dana 35 is that something I can just redrill the backing plates and put it together or is there some other option, I can’t find backing plates anywhere online

Thanks for the help!

I do not think you can adapt D35 backing plates. And yes, D44 backing plates are pretty much unobtanium. Your best bet is to find someone who has converted to disc and still has their old drum components.

However, you need to also confirm that your axle is indeed set up for drum and not disc. There is a retaining plate on the axle which gets installed one way for drum and the opposite way for disc. In order to change it you have to change the bearings. Make sure you know what you are working with so that at the very least you know what you are going to have to do in order to achieve your goals.

It also depends on the size of the brakes, on my D44 I wanted the big brake package.

Now would be a good time to do a disc brake swap, if that is what you’re wanting. I got mine off a 1996 ZJ. Took the backing plate, calipers, e brake lines, and the ZJ prop valve. You will need to open the inside of the backing plate to fit the Dana 44 bearings but it’s pretty easy. Also you need a TJ disc brake retaining plate for bearing pre load, and this you will need to re drill to the Dana 44 bolt pattern.
Pretty simple swap though. Good luck!
https://eastcoastgearsupply.com/i-23993653-jeep-tj-dana-44-disc-brake-bearing-retainer.html


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Thanks, I’m going to look into the zj disk brake swap, But for now I’m going to try to redrill the Dana 35 backing plates since I have that now, 2 of the holes are close and I can redrill the other 2. What way would the bearing retainer go with going with drum brakes? I’m going to get the drum brake bearings and seal

See this thread: https://wranglertjforum.com/threads/which-dana-44-axle-bearing-retainer-plate-to-use.30188/

Anak said:

See this thread: https://wranglertjforum.com/threads/which-dana-44-axle-bearing-retainer-plate-to-use.30188/

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Thank you!

Teraflex makes a rear disc kit. I installed on my TJ44, in my XJ