dana 44's under a 92wrangler?

dove'd85 · May 30, 2008

so my buddy has stock axles under his basiclly stock 92 wrangler, and after our trip to moses and four broken ring gear bolts he found him self being towed home. needless to say we had a really good trip the weather was failry nice, more accidents then i would have like to have seen though...

so i was telling him that 44's are the way to go for him. what is it going to take to put a set of Dana 44's under it? also what will it cost for a set of dana 44's? i am sure that they are not much more then toyota's? i told him he could probably pick up a set of geared and probably locked 44's for around $1200? are they relatively easy to find and will he have to narrow the 44 or will a mid width axle fit just right under his jeep? :redneck:

pokey · May 30, 2008

cant remember what years but the ones out of a later model cherokee will work and are only about an inch wider than stock. they came with a 44 front and a 20 rear which if you weld the tubes and put in a set of flanged axles is a good setup for a mild rig. they are a 6 lug wheel though so there another cost. If interested i have a 44 front axle from an early bronco with 4:10s and a tracloc with chevy axles (bigger and large ujoint) freshly set up and never ran. for $500.00

crash2 · May 30, 2008

I have done waggy axle swaps in YJ's james---not a big deal and a tad wider as pokey stated...

WHITE TRASH1 · May 30, 2008

Later driver drop waggy 44's will bolt in directly. The driveshaft, shock mounts, brake lines, and even teh sway bar mounts are the same.... The on ly thing needed to do is use the waggy u-bolts and shorten the waggy drag link. You'll need to use a waggy 2" drop pitman arm too or drill the correct taper in teh stock yj pitman arm.

dove'd85 · May 30, 2008

right on guys thanks for the reply's what year waggy's do i need to look for? i had three complete at one point in time. thats to bad i parted them all out.

james

WHITE TRASH1 · May 30, 2008

I wanna say 79 and later without the disconnect are the ones to find. The earlier ones had a passenger drop that won't work unless you are changing the t-case at the same time. WHich is something to think about, if you are thinking about a 300 you may aswell not toss money at a flip kit and put a passenger drop axle in there to start with.

JOOP · May 30, 2008

dove'd85 said:
right on guys thanks for the reply's what year waggy's do i need to look for? i had three complete at one point in time. thats to bad i parted them all out.

james

Look for an early 80's.

Spanaway Mudder · May 30, 2008

could use a xj pitman arm under it...they drop down lower then stock Yj's

JOOP · May 30, 2008

Spanaway Mudder said:
could use a xj pitman arm under it...they drop down lower then stock Yj's

with a driverside drop 44 your going to want to use a stock YJ pitman arm. not enough clearance for a drop.

dove'd85 · May 30, 2008

WHITE TRASH said:
I wanna say 79 and later without the disconnect are the ones to find. The earlier ones had a passenger drop that won't work unless you are changing the t-case at the same time. WHich is something to think about, if you are thinking about a 300 you may aswell not toss money at a flip kit and put a passenger drop axle in there to start with.

this is for a buddies rig not mine. he doesn't have the shop space or the know how. i am just looking for a set of 44's that will basiclly bolt under his jeep with little to no mods? you say 79 and later? if i am not mistakin his jeep is already passanger side drop? i could be mistakin though?

WHITE TRASH1 · May 30, 2008

Pre 78 (again I'm still not 100% sure of year) were passenger front diff and later years were driver which would be correct for his application.

Unless he's changed drasticly its a driver front diff under that rig. :;

Pat · May 30, 2008

I have a 79 Wagoneer front and 84 Grand Wagoneer rear in my YJ. They are the same width as stock or mabey 1/2" narrower. $250 each from a junkyard, minimal fab work, then gears, bearings, brakes, hoses, steering etc had about 2-3 grand into the project but it could be done cheaper.

JOOP · May 30, 2008

dove'd85 said:
this is for a buddies rig not mine. he doesn't have the shop space or the know how. i am just looking for a set of 44's that will basiclly bolt under his jeep with little to no mods? you say 79 and later? if i am not mistakin his jeep is already passanger side drop? i could be mistakin though?

its not really a direct bolt in. You have to do quite a bit of mods. for example. shorten drive shaft, because the pinion on a 44 sticks out further. Modify the front leaf perches. drill out the pitman arm to fit the 44 steering linkage.

Not an easy, 1 day event. I'm sure you coudl booty fab it real quick if you wanted but it'll break.

WHITE TRASH1 · May 30, 2008

JOOP said:
its not really a direct bolt in. You have to do quite a bit of mods. for example. shorten drive shaft, because the pinion on a 44 sticks out further. Modify the front leaf perches. drill out the pitman arm to fit the 44 steering linkage.

Not an easy, 1 day event. I'm sure you coudl booty fab it real quick if you wanted but it'll break.

I helped a buddy do the swap and it was a true bolt in deal... He used 7" skyjacker yota rear springs spring under and it worked fawking flawlessly... the pitman arm was the only thing that needed any attention other than the drag link length...

Pat · May 30, 2008

The Wagoneer leaf spring perches are 1" wider than a YJ. If you bolt it in without modifying the perches your springs will be crooked. Also the shock mounts are slightly different mine were cut off and new ones welded on. You probably could use original shock mounts on the axle but it will be slightly different location than stock.

dove'd85 · May 31, 2008

JOOP said:
its not really a direct bolt in. You have to do quite a bit of mods. for example. shorten drive shaft, because the pinion on a 44 sticks out further. Modify the front leaf perches. drill out the pitman arm to fit the 44 steering linkage.

Not an easy, 1 day event. I'm sure you coudl booty fab it real quick if you wanted but it'll break.

i am not looking to booty fab anything, i am just lookin for information about swapping 44's into a wrangler:flipoff: those are all very minor things that need to be done. does anyone no what gears came in the older waggy 44's? is there a better place i can read up on 44's? links anyone?

Lamar · May 31, 2008

Dear dove'd85;
One caveat when using a D44 out back. The pinion angle becomes severe if the rig is lifted very high because it's a low pinion setup. This may become an issue if you run tires 35" or taller, however there are two possible ways around this situation.
Option #1 Use a high pinioned D44, which is a bad option. The high pinion D44 is very weak.
Option #2 Use a shaved high pinion D60 which is a good option. This is what I did.
Your friend;
LAMAR

Pat · May 31, 2008

Here is a link to one of the sites I researched-

http://77cj.littlekeylime.com/web_rs44.html

there are other sites out there also if you search.

The gear ratios my 2 axles came with 2.72 and 3.13 gears, neither of which was an option for my rig so I went with 4.88 in both.

As for the pinion angle I pointed the rear 5 degrees higher than stock which turned out to be too much so it is now shimmed down 2 degrees and works perfect with a 4" lift. The front I didn't mess with caster/pinion angle and it is fine so long as I don't go highway speed with hubs locked- I am just now nearing the end of my first u-joint and its been several years.

bobracing · Jun 12, 2008

74ish-77 waggy
FR: pass. side drop, small bearing easy change over to 5 x 5.5, flat top knuckles
RR: offset rear, quadra-trac.

78-79 waggy
FR: pass. side drop, big bearing
RR: offset rear, quadra-trac.

80-up
FR: driver side drop, believe early '80s had the vac disconnect
RR: centered, early ones were AMC20, later D44

74ish-79 Cherokee, widetracs are earier to find but there are a few NTs
FR: pass side drop
RR: might have a centered D44