I recently acquired an 80 cj7. 360/t5/dana 300. I want to build a wheeler. Not real worried about street legal as I have a trailer. My question is regarding what axle to use. I am thinking full width. I have a 76 k20 donor truck that has hd44 8 lug and a 14 bolt. 86 f350 hp60 and sterling 4.11 gears. And I have a hp44 and 9 inch 4.11 that have been trussed already. I want to be able to run my 38tsls on recenterd h1s. I also have some 40 inch Toyo mts. I guess my question is do I run the chevy axles and swap in a chevy 60 down the road when I can afford it? Or do I flip the 300 and use the ford axle. My plan is to use xj leafs in the rear and I have some ome Dakar to springs for the front. I have a mig and a plasma cutter. Just kinda new to fabrication as I have only built a couple bumpers. I would like to hear some feedback. Thanks

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You will probably need to outbound your front spring mounts to make room for the diff, and buy/fab some spring plates. Not real difficult of a job if you know how to weld. I have never flipped the T-case before, always kept things on the passenger side.

Ya. I have looked at some spring mount kits for outboard mounts. I think I can come up with something similar. Was wanting to use the high pinion axle but can't afford to get it retubed. I suppose if my foot isn't too heavy a d44 will live a little while if left open.

I have ran dana 44's locked with 37's and 400 plus HP without an issue. Only thing I have broken is driveshafts. Now is I was spinning and had a hard hook up, who knows.

The real question I have is why aren't you building that Chevy along with the jeep? Up here in canada those beauty's look like swiss cheese

Trust me the white chevy is rough. I already have a fairly clean square body as my plow truck.

Well then. I'd use the Chevy for a doner then.

Skip the 44 and go with the tons. Flipping a 300 isnt hard, I know a couple of guys running them.
I built us a set of 44s, dumped a ton of money into them, and ended up going tons 3 years later.

I plan on dana 60 front and gm 14 bolt for the rear.

I would think about replacing the T-5 with something heavier while you're at it.

I agree with dumping the T-5 also. Grab a T-18 and then get the clocking ring/adapter for the 300 and flip it to run the drivers drop front Ford 60. Until you replace the 4.11's in the axles, you will need the granny low 1st in the T-18. As Skiz said, I can agree/attest to, skip the 44 and go to the 60 front. You will be popping axle shafts/ujoints at inopportune times if you wheel hard. Of course you will also want to put 35 spline outers in the 60 as you will pop those before too long.

That particular 44 has external lockouts and is weaker than those with internal lockouts. The latter is not going to last long with 40s, let alone the one you have.

There's a big market out there for that Ford D60. Lots of OBS (old body style) F250 owners are looking to swap in place of their TTB axles, let alone Jeep owners who already have drivers drop tcases looking to swap one in. Sell it and buy a GM D60 and forget about the need to clock the tcase. You'll probably have money left over as the Ford D60s usually have a higher price tag than their GM cousins.

The bracketry for the Ford D60 drivers side ubolts and the track bar are holy grail pieces for the previously mentioned F250 swappers as they are required to bolt the D60 into an F250. You have some hard to find parts there.