Rebuilding front dana 44.

[Sierra Drifter]

Build thread, axle swaps Dana HP D44/60, high steer, rubicon tcase, long arms, and other junk.
This thread was originally about rebuilding my Ford Dana 44, however, it has evolved into a
full blown build thread including swaping axles, and a few additional items.

These are the items I hope to cover in this write-up.

1. Dana 44 axle rebuild - done
2. Axle bracket installation -done
3. JKS Adjustable Coil Over Spacers - done
4. Rubicon Express track bar frame mount brace - done
5. Custom high-steer - done
6. Dana 60 rear axle - done
7. Installing conversion u-joints in my drive shafts - done.
8. Converting drum brakes to disc brakes on the D60 rear - done
9. TnT Ylink long arm upgrade - done
10. TnT frame stiffners - done
11. NV241OR 4:1 t-case install - done
12. TMR frame stiffeners -done
13. Sound deadening - in progress
14. New paint job -
15. Do-it-yourself hydroboost brakes -
16. Hydro assist steering -
17. Full cage -


My XJ is a 2001 sport that I bought bone stock in 2003 with 36K miles on it.
At the start of this build up it sits on 35 inch Nitto Teragraplers (AT's), and a RE 5.5 inch short-arm
lift that I installed in 2004. It has stock D30/Chry 8.25 axles with 4.56 gears and ARB's front and rear.

My goal is to run 37 inch tires without breaking axle parts, and to maintain good street manners and reliability.
I'm installing chromoly shafts front and rear, super u-joints, Warn premium locking hubs, 5.13 gears, and 1 ton high-steer.

I paid $300 for the high pinion D44 front, and I paid $100 for the D60 rear.
The high pinion front D44 is from a 78 Ford F250 and came with 5 lug and 8 lug outers.
The D60 rear is a full floater from 79 F250. I am going to run 8 lug and full width.
I like the added stability of a full width axle.


Rebuilding the front Dana 44:

Picture of Dana 44 as I got it. I stripped it down to the bare housing, had it bead blasted and then I painted it with rustoleum primer.
original-d44-3.jpg
Then I painted it with semi-gloss black rustoleum premium pant.

Parts list:
Moser 4340 chromoly inner and outer axle shafts
Yukon Super U-joints
ARB Air Locker
Yukon 5.13 Ring and pinion set
Master install kit
Flat-top steering knuckles
Ball joints
Warn Premium Locking Hubs
Wheel bearings, races, spindle bearings, slingers, and seals

Since I don't have a press, bearing puller, set-up bearings, dial indicator, or a clue
I elected to have a shop install the ARB locker and 5.13 gears.

Picture of all the parts in the D44 from the inner shafts to the locking hubs.
d44-outers6.jpg

1. Install slinger on outer stub shaft.
The slinger is basically a large metal washer that holds a rubber seal and a plastic thrust washer in place. The rubber seal keeps
contaminants from entering from the back side of the steering knuckle. Be sure to install the slinger all the way on the shaft.
I used a hammer and a flat piece of metal, working around in a circle.
If you don't get it all the way on, you won't be able to install the last snap ring on
the end of the shaft and you will have to disassemble everything and do it all
again. Ask me how I know.

1-slinger.jpg

2. Install axle shaft Ujoints, seal and the thrust washer.
The ujoints I used are Yukon SuperJoints. They install a little differently than normal OEM joints. I followed Yukon's directions and
used a socket and a hammer to tap the caps into the shaft ears, Yukon does not recommend using a press.
You have to place the snap rings on the cross before you put the cross in the ears of the shaft.
The picture on the right shows ujoints installed, and rubber seal placed on slinger.
The Yukon joints do not have needle bearings and are greasable and come with their own grease gun and anti-seize grease.

ujoints-install.jpg

The slinger can be purchased here: http://broncograveyard.com/bronco/i-22052_oem_d44_axle_shaft_slinger__outer.htm
The seal is here: http://broncograveyard.com/bronco/i-32087_dana_spicer_spindle_bearing_repair_kit.htm
Ujoint here: http://broncograveyard.com/bronco/i-22057_yukon_dana_44_super_joint__each.htm


3. Install ball joints into steering knuckles.
I used a hand press to install the ball joints. This press is available on e-bay for $50 and works well.
Pressing in the ball joints is pretty straight forward just make sure they are all the way in and the bottom
ball joint must have a snap ring installed. You must do the bottom ball joint first, the long screw shaft part
of the press has to pass throught the upper ball joint hole in the knuckle when you press in the bottom ball joint.

4-ball-joint.jpg

To be continued.....

[Sierra Drifter]

4. Install steering knuckle on axle housing.
The steering knuckle with ball joints installs onto the axle housing from underneath. The top castle nut is torqued to 90lbs and a cotter pin is installed. I couldn't find any torque specs for the lower ball joint nut, so I torqued it to 90lbs also.

5-knuckle.jpg

5. Install axle shaft and caliper bracket.
Insert axle shaft through the knuckle and into the housing. I put some light oil on the shaft. Be sure to support the shaft as you slide it through the internal axle seal so it isn't damaged. Next slide the caliper braket onto the knuckle, it only fits one way.

6-bracket-shaft.jpg

6. Next insert the needle bearing and the bearing seal into the back of the spindle. It is very difficult to remove the original bearing. I had to destory it to get it out. This bearing is small and it is dificult to see it in the picture. I installed it by tapping it in with a socket. The small black rubber seal is installed on top of the bearing.

7-spindle-back.jpg

7. Next install the spindle onto the steering knuckle. Ford knuckles have 5 stud bolts, Chevy's have 6. The holes are not symetrical and the spindle will only go on one way. Torque the five nuts to 40 ft/lbs. I used blue Locktite threadlocker on these.

8-spindle.jpg
FYI: I took the rotors to Kragen Autoparts and paid 9$ each to have them turned.

8. Next install the inner and outer wheel bearing races into the hub/rotor assembly. You can tap out the old races from the back with hammer and long screwdriver. I used the old races to tap in the new ones.
Picture shows inner wheel bearing race installed.

8-2-bearing-race.jpg

To be continued...

[FrankZ]

Nice! What's the WMS-WMS measurement?

[liquidforceb069]

1/2 ton chevy disc brakes???

[Sierra Drifter]

9. Install the inner wheel bearing and hub seal. Examine the race and bearing for any nicks, burs or irregularities. Any problem with the race or bearing surfaces will result in a bearing failure in the near future. Pack the bearing with high temp disk brake wheel bearing grease. Use rubber gloves and work the grease into the bearing. The picture shows the inner wheel bearing packed with grease and placed in the bearing race.

8-3-bearing.jpg


10. Next install the hub seal by tapping it in, be careful not to bend the metal ring in the seal. I used a flat piece of metal and a hammer and tapped around the seal a couple times untill it was installed all the way against the hub rim. This seal will hold in the inner wheel bearing from falling out while working on the front of the hub.

8-4-hub-seal.jpg

11. Now slide the hub/rotor assembly onto the spindle. You will have to work the hub around a bit to get it to go all the way onto the spindle. You might need to whack it a couple times with a rubber mallet. Next pack the outer wheel bearing with grease and slide it into the front of the hub over the spindle. Push the bearing on as far as you can. Next put the axle nut on the end of the spindle. This nut has a small pin protruding out of one side. This pin must be facing out. Thread the nut onto the spindle, use an axle nut socket to torgue the axle nut to 50ft/lbs, while spinning the rotor. Spin the rotor around a few more times then check the torque again and set it to 50lbs, then back off on the nut 1/4 turn, then torque to 20 ft/lb.

9-hub-front.jpg

12. Next slide the lock washer onto the spindle. The lock washer has an tab on the inner edge that must line up with a slot in the spindle. At the same time the pin on the axle nut must line up with one of the holes in the lock washer. If it doesn't fit, try turning the lock washer over. Lastly, install the lock nut onto the spindle and tighten it onto the lock washer, torque the lock nut to 60lbs.

13. Install the lockouts. I used Warn Premium locking hubs. They include the locking mechanism, two snap rings, the selctor knob, and 6 small hex bolts.

lockouts.JPG

Install the locking mechanism by sliding it into the hub, then install the 2 snap rings. The small snap ring goes onto the end of the stub shaft. The large snap ring installs into a groove located on the inside surface of the hub, near the outside edge. Next install the selector knob with the six small hex bolts.

Completed outer assembly.

10-complete.jpg

To be continued....

[Sierra Drifter]

Originally Posted by FrankZ

Nice! What's the WMS-WMS measurement?

This axle is 66" wms to wms with 5 lug outers (Bronco), or 68" with 8 lug outers (F250). I'm running 8 lug, full width.

Wider is Better!

[Sierra Drifter]

Originally Posted by liquidforceb069

1/2 ton chevy disc brakes???

A lot people use the Chevy 1/2 ton brakes because they are smaller and will clear 15 inch wheels. But to do that you have to run Chevy knuckles, spindles, caliper brackets, rotors and calipers.

I am running 17 inch wheels so that was not a concern for me. I am running the large Ford dual piston 3/4 ton calipers and rotors. I am running 37" inch tires, and I want really good brakes. My stock brakes with 35's really sucked.

[Sierra Drifter]

Adding Axle Brackets.

I purchased the Rubicon Express TJ/XJ front axle bracket kit.
A lot of places sell RE stuff, this is one of them: http://www.jeepinoutfitters.com/scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=376
Part number RE9968, this kit sells for $400, I was fortnuate to find it for $320, but even that seems like a lot for a small box of brackets.
re-braket-kit1.jpg

The good thing about this kit is that it is complete with all brackets for coils, control arms, sway bar, track bar, and steering stabilizer. Also, it is all 3/16 inch steel and much stronger than the OEM brackets that were on my stock D30.
The not so good thing about this kit is it comes with absolutely no documentation or install instructions. Also, it appears they made this kit to fit the axle diameter of a Dana 30, so if you use this kit on anything larger you will need to do some grinding for larger axle tubes.

For anyone planning to swap in a HP D44 I would take a serious look at the kit from TnT Customs. It includes a full truss and their system makes locating the brackets very easy, price is $390.
Unfortunately for me, this kit was not available when I bought the RE kit.

tnt_d44truss.jpg

You can see TnT's kit here also: http://www.jeepinoutfitters.com/scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=792

Ok, so now that I had my new axle brackets, I needed to remove the stock brackets. My donor axle was originally setup for leaf springs so I had to remove two leaf spring mounts and a steering stabilizer mount. I used an angle grinder with a cut-off wheel to cut the brackets off just above the surface of the axle tube and then I used grinding wheel to grind off the remaining weld.

Two leaf spring perches to be removed:
1-axle-before3.jpg

The stock steering stabilizer mount:
1-axle-before2.jpg

The passenger side leaf spring nount and the steering stabilizer mount were fairly easy to remove, however the drivers side leaf spring mount is part of the center section casting and a little more involved.

2-bracket-removed0.jpg

Some people advise avoiding this axle because of this issue, but removeing this leaf spring mount is not difficult, and after removing it there is still more tube in the center section than on the passenger side.

Continued....

[Sierra Drifter]

I saw pictures of Wil Badgers build using this same axle, so I had a pretty good idea of how much of the casting I needed to cut off.
So once again I just used my angle grinder with a cut-off wheel. I marked the cut-off wheel with a bright red sharpie at the depth that I needed to cut. This way while I was cutting I could see the red ring on the cut off wheel and this allowed me to avoid cutting too deep and hitting the axle tube.

First 2 cuts: Once I had it this far it was easy to cut all the way around and then beat it with a BFH and knock it off.
2-bracket-removed3.jpg

2-bracket-removed4.jpg

Test fitting the new Coil spring bracket.
3-re-bracket-1.jpg

So now the old brackets were all gone, the cutting and grinding was complete.


Here's a mock-up with most of the new brackets just sitting on the axle.
4-bracket-install1.jpg

At this point I put the new brackets aside, and moved on to rebuilding the axle outers, which was covered in the first part of this thread.

Continued....

[Sierra Drifter]

The original brackets are gone, the ARB and R&P are in, and I'm working on the steering knuckles, all the while I'm trying to figure out how I'm going weld on the brackets correctly.

There are two main considerations to take into account when figuring out where to locate the axle brackets, pinion angle and caster setting. Unfortunately, these two settings are in direct opposition to each other on a lifted Cherokee. By that I mean if you rotate the axle so that the pinion is pointing at the transfer case you will have destroyed the caster setting. Likewise if you set the caster setting correctly, then the pinion will not be pointing at the t-case, it will be low.

The only way I know to correct this situation is to remove the axle ends or "C's" rotate them appropriately and then press and weld them back to the axle tubes. I considered doing this but I didn't feel it was the worth the cost and trouble. My stock low pinion Dana 30 had not had the axle ends rotated and it worked fine for me despite running 6 inches of lift. Also, I don't drive in 4 wheel high above 25 mph. Furthermore, the Dana 44 has manual locking hubs so while they are unlocked nothing in the axle is turning, neither is the drive shaft, so there should be no issue with driveline vibes caused by a less than perfect pinion angle. Lastly, the 78 F250 is a fairly high vehicle in stock form, as such the high pinion D44 is only a few degrees low.

So in this case, of the two settings caster is more important. The effects of an incorrect caster setting include really bad front end wandering at freeway speed, a loss of return to center in the steering, possible wobble and/or shimmy, and uneven tire wear.

I looked for a write-up somewhere as to how to install the brackets and ensure a proper caster setting. I couldn't find one. So, this is what I came up with.

I purchased a straight 3/4-inch wooden dowel, I think it was 30 inches long, cost a couple bucks. I placed this dowel through the ball joint holes on one end of the axle. I then used an angle finder on the dowel and rotated the axle to the correct caster setting. Stock spec for caster is 4-7 degrees positive caster. So I set it to 5 degrees like so:

4-bracket-install2 copy.jpg

Obviously I would not be able to use this method to check caster once I had installed the passenger side steering knuckle, so I needed another point of reference. So after rotating the axle to the correct caster, I then move the angle finder to the flat vertical surface on the driver side steering knuckle. I made sure the knuckle was pointing straight ahead. The angle finder was at 88 degrees.

4-bracket-install3.jpg

Now I can finish assembling the passenger side outers. I can check caster at the knuckle any time.

Now I had the caster issue figured out, next I needed to duplicate all the bracket measurements from my stock Dana 30. I got lucky here, and I was able to use a stock D30 that came out of a late model TJ, as far as I know the axle is identical to the XJ axle.
So I located and marked the center of each axle. I then went to work with a tape measure, angle finder and a protractor. I measured from the center mark to the stock brackets then transfered those measurements to the D44. I then laid-out the new brackets. I had to grind a little on most of the brackets to enlarge the circular cuts so that the brackets would sit all the way down on the D44 axle tubes.

In this picture you can see that the bracket does not sit all the way down on the axle tube. I had to grind a little on the corners to make it fit right.

3-re-bracket-5.jpg

Some good advice from TnT Custom's web site: "We strongly recommend that, if modifications are necessary, our customers measure three times, have a friend measure twice, agree on what's to be done before it's done, and finally making the mod only after sleeping on it for no less than 8 hours."

Finally I am ready to weld.

4-bracket-install4.jpg

"A man's got to know his limitations." Dirty Harry

I bought a mig welder last year, and I have been practicing on scrap, I've gotten pretty good and occasionally I can actually get two pieces of metal to stick together . If this were a rack, or a bumper, or rock rails I would probably attempt the welding myself. But I'm not ready to trust my life to my welding skills on axle control arms brackets. So I had a shop do the welding.

I wish my welds looked this good.
6-weld-1.jpg

Continued.....

[xrayjeeper83]

What brackets are you using?

Andrew

[Sierra Drifter]

Here's a couple pictures of the brackets welded in place.

6-weld-3.jpg

6-weld-4.jpg

Painted
7-painted-1.jpg

I used the ball joint press to press the rubber bushings into the upper control arm brackets.

[liquidforceb069]

Originally Posted by Sierra Drifter

A lot people use the Chevy 1/2 ton brakes because they are smaller and will clear 15 inch wheels. But to do that you have to run Chevy knuckles, spindles, caliper brackets, rotors and calipers.

I am running 17 inch wheels so that was not a concern for me. I am running the large Ford dual piston 3/4 ton calipers and rotors. I am running 37" inch tires, and I want really good brakes. My stock brakes with 35's really sucked.

i see are thoughs pretty decent?? i have a high pinion D44 thats im gonna start work on. i just got my 4.88 gears and OX lockers and stuff in the other day. im only gonna run 35's for now.. but maybe in a couple years 37's...

[Sierra Drifter]

Originally Posted by liquidforceb069

i see are thoughs pretty decent?? i have a high pinion D44 thats im gonna start work on. i just got my 4.88 gears and OX lockers and stuff in the other day. im only gonna run 35's for now.. but maybe in a couple years 37's...

I figured if the Ford stock brakes will stop a loaded 3/4 ton pickup, they should stop my little XJ even with the Auto and 4 to 1 low t-case. But mainly I'm running them because when I bought the axle it came with all the Ford brake parts so I didn't have to buy anything except pads.

[Sierra Drifter]

Out with the old junk.

d30-remove-1.jpg

Quite a contrast.

d44-inst-2.jpg

In with the new.

d44-inst-1.jpg

To be continued.....