D44 in the Grand

[Grandman]

Iv decided to put a 44 up front . so far iv been given a 44 out of a chevy and one out of a Dodge . The dodge has not arrived but i think it will have the 5 on 4.5 wheel pattern the old dodges used and i need for my wheels .

Dodge is a P side drop i need Drivers side drop . Any one see a reason i can not cut the long side down to become the short side , retube the passenger side with a long tube ?

Dodge or chevy will be low pinion but i dont have angle issues any way , not worried about driving on the back side of the gears , they lasted well in the trucks .

Unless it is a 4:10 gear which i doubt ill regear both ends to 4:56

You experts throw your thoughts on here will ya .

Also who can respline the shafts that need shortened ? shop up here cant do it .

[Cooter]

Make it Waggy width- no need to have the shafts shortened, and no problems with having to have another shaft custom made if you break one. Upgraded shafts are cheaper, too.

I swapped HP D44 from drivers to passenger side drop for the yellow CJ6, and did it the same way, including the waggy shafts.

Moser will respline the shafts for like $50 each, but you can get Waggy shafts for that price.

[Grandman]

Somthing ill need to look into , i dont know what the wagoneer width is . Im in the " educating " my self stage at the moment .

I know when im done i dont want a width that is way out of wack with the orginal track width of the grand .

Maybe i should be putting the word out for a waggoneer 44 ! J10 the same ?

Swap the dodge kunckles on it for wheel pattern ?

[Cooter]

Yeah, that would be much cheaper and easier.

Waggy front is about the same as YJ/TJ/MJ/XJ/ZJ. J10 will be wider, somewhere around 65, IIRC.

Dodge knuckles will work, just make sure you get one from a '70s 1/2 ton or Ramchager/Trailduster.

[Grandman]

Ya it will be a winter project , going to move the front out 2" and do a long arm build on it while im doing it .

I got a little time to scrap up parts and exucate my self be for the real work begins .

I can do all the work other then making shafts for it .

[PavementPounder]

Originally Posted by Grandman

Somthing ill need to look into , i dont know what the wagoneer width is . Im in the " educating " my self stage at the moment .

I know when im done i dont want a width that is way out of wack with the orginal track width of the grand .

Maybe i should be putting the word out for a waggoneer 44 ! J10 the same ?

Swap the dodge kunckles on it for wheel pattern ?

I'm going to have a 78 F-250 HPD44 housing (driver drop) and knuckles and uninstalled coil pad brackets. I'll sell those it to you without the knuckles if you want to swap the Dodge stuff on. Its just the housing, so you can adjust the tubes to whatever stock shaft spec you want, such as the 1980-up Waggie shaft. Finance it with the pass-drop parts sales and get the most strength and the right drop for the least $ and effort compared to all the musical tube work.

[Grandman]

Pm me a price on the housing . I may be interested . The F250 housing had a thicker wall tube to i think .

Lot of guys up this way owe me favors , i put the word out i want front 44 stuff so ill wait a bit and see what all shows up .

F 250 housing shortened to waggy length , dodge outers with the correct bolt patteren and lock outs ,,,,, sounds like a possible combo . I think all the front 44 housings will swap spindles from dodge chevy and ford .

[PavementPounder]

Originally Posted by Grandman

Pm me a price on the housing . I may be interested . The F250 housing had a thicker wall tube to i think .

Lot of guys up this way owe me favors , i put the word out i want front 44 stuff so ill wait a bit and see what all shows up .

F 250 housing shortened to waggy length , dodge outers with the correct bolt patteren and lock outs ,,,,, sounds like a possible combo . I think all the front 44 housings will swap spindles from dodge chevy and ford .

You are correct - its has the big 3" diameter 1/2" thick tubes. Sounds like a good recipie aside from flat-tops. I don't know anything about the Dodge stuff.

[Haggar]

Originally Posted by Grandman

Pm me a price on the housing . I may be interested . The F250 housing had a thicker wall tube to i think .
.

Yeah, after Murph's incident in canada this year, thick axle tubes might be a good thing.....

[PavementPounder]

Sweet draglink. :tonka:

[Icebreaker88]

Marv I might have a line on a 44 out of an Early Bronco cheap . Would be the same axle that Stan is running in his YJ
I might be interested in some of your old parts:tonka:

[Monkeyevil]

The dodge outers in 5 on 4.5 are unit bearings. You would need the outers shafts (if they are even 297x... they could be 260x), knuckles, caliper brackets, calipers, unit bearings and rotors... then you would still have unit bearings with no lockouts, and the chance for highsteer is slim because it's like the rarest flat top ever that no one has any clue about anyway.

Your best bet is to run Jeep or Chevy 6 lug outers. For simplicity and availability. I don't know if they make a 5 on 4.5 to 6 lug wheel spacers or not... but you can either go custom shafts or something else in the rear.

I guess you could always go ford outers, and run 5 on 4.5 to 5 on 5.5 wheel adapters... I know those exist.

[Cooter]

The Dodge outers are 297X- I really should check the Dodge axle I have layin' in the garage, and see what it has. I am only going to use the housing anyway.

[95geo]

i'd take PP up on his housing then run for flat top knuckles with 5 on 5.5 bp and have it redrilled to 5 on 4.5 (provided the hole in the rim will fit over the hub) and youll have a good axle with common parts and hubs....... if you swap wheels then just put in a 9" rear that matches width and youll be all set

[Cooter]

I don't think that would work. Even if you opened up the ceter register on the wheel to clear the hub, there wouldn't be enough metal left to give any strength to the wheel between the hub and the lugs. This is the reason why the Warn hub kit for the 5 on 4 1/2" Jeeps uses the weenie Exploder style lockouts.

Here is a 5 on 5 1/2" BP wheel for comparison- it is the Ford and Dodge style with the smaller center register, not the Jeep/International/'Zuk style. There just isn't enough meat there-



G-man- is there any reason you need to stay 5 on 4 1/2? I would be easier and cheaper in the long run to just upgrade to the bigger bolt pattern, unless you have a certain wheel you just have to run because you like it.

[Grandman]

I dont want to have 2 wheel patterens front to rear , I installed a Ford 8.8 in the rear and dont want to change that , The wheels i have are nothing special , stell wheels but the center would easily fit over the 44 hubs .

Redrilling the hub on the front is posible if there is enough room on them to redrill hub and rotor . Maybe redrill the steel wheel instead ? drill the spare allso so it fits either axel . They use to make a lot of after market ( fit all ) wheels . OEM made spares that way in the past also , they had one wheel with 8 or 10 holes in it to put into diferent models i recall .

I dont like spacers , there not the safest thing around . I did think of 1 spacer to carry so a spare could be put on one axle , or put on the other axel with spacer . That way 1 spare will fit either .


Looking for suggestions , digging up parts and then ill make a decision .

[Cooter]

Wouldn't be hard to change the 8.8 to 5 on 5 1/2"

[PavementPounder]

Originally Posted by Cooter

Wouldn't be hard to change the 8.8 to 5 on 5 1/2"

I agree. I know he said he doesn't like spacers, which is too bad because I have a set of 5x4.5 to 5x5.5 adapter spacers I could set him up with, but changing the rear pattern may be the simpler way to go.

[Monkeyevil]

Not enough room to fit a 4 on 4.5 bolt pattern along with a d44 lockout.

[Chiefwoohaw]

If I'm not in Chicago I would like to offer my help on this project. I think your only an hour north or me. It would be fun to lend a hand and pick your brain on your vast ZJ knowledge. I don't really have much to offer knowledge wise on this project but I will work hard to make up for it.