jk rubicon 44 axles,do or don't,whats invovled

so my first question is do or don't?
currently my set up is;rear-factory d44, trussed ,4.56, cromos, arb locker, drum brakes.
my front; high pinion d30, 4.56, arb locker.
the big upgrade i want in the strength of the front axle, and the general brake upgrade. i plan on going up to 35s then 37s. lots of uphill climbs up hear in the northwest,plenty of skinny pedal.
the jk axles are 4.11 and have the elockers and are complete, even got the 5 rims and tires. they are also 5'' wider than stock
so what are the hurdles of swapping over?
truss the front with a kit,or no kit?. perches out back. whats the details on the driveline?or the yoke on the axles? just run some basic switches for the e lockers, how are the factory e lockers in general?the brakes, e brake cables or prop valve replacement?
thanks in advance

I've searched threads without much success regarding this. The general info is out there but the specifics are missing. I feel the extra width and brake upgraded is worth it. Plus a front hp 44 trussed should hold 37s on light xj without much sweat I would think

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If I'm not mistaken the JK44 is a low pinion. However, they do run larger u joints than the D30/44s of years gone by. Most JKU guys seem to get away with 37" tires in stock JK44 axles, so I'd say truss it and call it a day. Rear should just need perches. I'm not sure on what you'd need to do as far as Yokes, because I think they run CV style shafts.

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The jk 44 front is high pinion. Another upgraded part from the the Rubi 44 days.

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JK D44’s are high pinion front, low pinion rear. They run a larger gear/bearing set than the D44’s of old. They also run a larger u-joint in the knuckles. The knuckles are pretty much the same as WJ knuckles, including the brake setup. Rear brakes are disc with an internal drum style parking brake. From the factory they ran drive flanges with CV joints for driveshafts. You’ll need to get yokes for whatever size u-joint you plan on running, 1310 is stock XJ.

The factory electric lockers work really well and you can wire them up to basic switches just fine.

37’s shouldn’t be a problem as long as you truss them. I ran 37’s on my JKUR with stock shafts and 5.38 gears. I did truss both axles and I had sleeved my front.

thanks all, they are huge compared to our xj axles, the rear is a tank. i cant find anything on swapping out the cv yoke to our 1310, is there an adapter or do they just remove it, im sure the spline is different

whats needed for brakes? front bearing hub? something i can grab from the wrecking yard? will wj stuff work or is it jk specific?

Jonb8 has a thred on this from this year. Maybe pm him for info. If you find answers to these questions please fill in this thred for those of us that would like this swap as well.

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Will the O.P. have to adjust the c's for proper caster?

I can't say for sure it's something you will need to consider, just that I've seen it done to achieve proper handling on some builds.

As for your yokes you could downgrade the 44s to 1310, or upgrade the tc yokes to 1350s, though you would need new drive shafts for these.
Advanced adapters make a direct swap 1310 yoke replacement with the same spline count, I'm sure there are a handful of manufacturers though.

Looking forward to what else your research turns up, x2 on posting results here.

i found that adams drive shaft make the right adapters. im not sure if ill need new drivelines until they are in there? im sure the lengths are different but not sure yet. there are few companies that make truss/xj adapters but at about a 400$ premium. so i think ill buy some new buckets and tracbar mount and measure it out,weld. and considering today we went out to the mountains for some snow wheeling and to get our christmas tree and two minutes in, my front air locker sprung a leak in the pumpkin. id like to try out the elocker lol

I have an XJ with this swap already done from a 2010 JK Rubi. I didn't do the swap myself but I can try to help with any info you need. They kept the 1350 yokes front and rear. The rear was converted to leafs.

I've done the swap on a 2door. Worked out real nice on 4.5 front coils iron rock 3.5 leafs u bolt eliminators and TNT front truss with there long arm kit. Hit me up if u have any questions.

I did the swap with the TNT truss and their mounts. I feel the track bar is too short with the axle mount. I turned the C's for good caster. I found a $25 housing to try again with the track bar and spring mounts. The plan is to center mount the springs over the axle and run the track bar in front of the spring to match the length of the drag link. I like the break upgrade but even with the ZJ spring in the proportional valve the rear can lock up before the front.

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for the price of the axles and changing stuff around wouldnt it be better to just go tons? little less ground clearance but you would end up with so much more head room for strength upgrades if you choose to in the future.

Mach2nh said:

for the price of the axles and changing stuff around wouldnt it be better to just go tons? little less ground clearance but you would end up with so much more head room for strength upgrades if you choose to in the future.

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The O.P. may have paid attention to this thread: https://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1151346

JK axles are pretty darn pricey. As much as I like them I just don't see them being worth the extra price of admission vs the OG Ford HP D44/9inch combo or just going tons (although I'm also against tons on an XJ, I just think there are way better platforms to use). The JK D44's are definitely stronger than the OG D44's, but they still aren't 1 ton axles. Even with our slightly lighter XJ's and slightly less powerful 4.0L engines you're still realistically limited to 37's with these axles. Now, if you're fine with staying at 37's then you do get a lighter axle with better ground clearance than you do with 1 ton axles. Its just ridiculous how much people want for them compared to 1 ton axles. I paid $1000 combined for my Ford Kingpin D60/Sterling 10.25 combo. The Ford D44/9Inch combo I bought two or three years ago cost me $400. That's a lot less money than JK axles are running. JK axles still aren't bolt in so its not like there is a cost advantage there. No matter what you're doing new control arm mounts, new coil buckets, new shock mounts, leaf spring perches, and custom steering. That's why for me I'm just sticking with my polished Dana Turdy/8.25 combo and 35's. If I ever have a r/p issue with the D30 I'll just drop the coin on a TJ/LJ Rubicon front axle or a custom that still keeps all of my other stuff. I'm building a totally different platform for the 1 tons and big tires and leaving the XJ as is. An overbuilt mild wheeler that is capable of being used as an underbuilt crawler from time to time.

As for getting more info on doing the swap if that's the direction you want to go (it IS a good upgrade, just not worth the cost for me) you can look at TJ threads on other forums. Its the exact same process to put a JK front axle under a TJ/LS as it is to put one under an XJ. I just helped a guy do a JK D30 swap into his XJ. No need to turn the C's or anything like that. Just buy the full swap/truss kit from Artec and follow their instruction to weld it on. Axle basically bolts in at that point. He did have to measure for a custom trac-bar, but I think its about the same length as the typical OTK Trac-bar setup. He was running the trac-bar to the stock location previously. For steering he just used the Ruff Stuff 1ton steering kit.

As to the cost of JK axles, give it a few years. As accidents, rust and general wear and tear add up on those rigs I expect the supply of used axles will start to catch up with demand.

Oh definitely. I remember when a Ford HP D44 was pretty darned expensive. That’s why I used a Waggy D44 instead on that rig. Of course the money I saved on the Waggy LP D44 csms Ford HP D44 was a wash after converting it to 5 lug to be able to match my already built 8.8 rear.

im still on the fence, the first thing i did when i built my xj was to source out my axles and build them up, these jk 44s just fell in my lap, 4.11s, elockers, complete minus brakes for a 1000$, plus 5 factory wheels/tires and all the stock suspension, i could not pass them up. i really feel my xj needs attention elsewhere, my plan this spring was to build a roll cage(for my kiddos)and upgrade my steering. but the swap seems straight forward and i like the bigger brakes and more beef.

crazymaci said:

im still on the fence, the first thing i did when i built my xj was to source out my axles and build them up, these jk 44s just fell in my lap, 4.11s, elockers, complete minus brakes for a 1000$, plus 5 factory wheels/tires and all the stock suspension, i could not pass them up. i really feel my xj needs attention elsewhere, my plan this spring was to build a roll cage(for my kiddos)and upgrade my steering. but the swap seems straight forward and i like the bigger brakes and more beef.

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For $1k I'd go with a set of JK 44's all day long.

A selectable locker for a D30 will run you 60% or more of that alone.