My front is ~83" outside of tire to outside of tire. It barely squeezes between the side rails of my 84" width trailer on the 37's.

I run a set of 39x13.50x17 sticky Krawlers and a set of 37x12.50x17 sticky Krawlers. Both sets of tires are ran on Walker Evans 17x8.5 beadlocks w/5" BS.

The WMS-WMS on the front is 69.25".

The rear axle is a bit narrower at 67" WMS-WMS.

The extra width adds a HUGE amount of stability, and with all that heavy beef down low, the CG is way better & the tires stay planted in most circumstances.

 

Hard to tell by this pic - but the D60 front hubs are ~2" inside the tire walls.

The FF14B rear hubs are ~3 1/2" inside the tire walls.

Notice how much wider the Jeep axle is vs my Hellcat. :laugh:

 

Hard to tell by this pic - but the D60 front hubs are ~2" inside the tire walls. The FF14B rear hubs are ~3 1/2" inside the tire walls. Notice how much wider the Jeep axle is vs my Hellcat. :laugh:

Great looking white YJ!

Stock wheelbase or are you stretched at all?

 

It's ~95" IIRC.

The Jeep is ready to go under the knife & I will fab an upper triangulated 4 link & ~10" rear stretch.

 

I have the 77 HP D44 and a HP ford 9" out of a 85 bronco. They look good and work well to keep the jeep from the side to side pulling in the ruts on the highway.
One thought on the 79 D44. the ford castings on the 79's and some 78's can't be removed from the tubes. 77 and older is the best way to go because you can remove the castings with a grinder.
My TW is about 79" front and 78" for the back on 35" KM2's.

 

You have a HP 9 in the rear? I wasn't aware that Broncos ever came with a HP 9. Or did you go with a Currie or Tru Hi 9 3rd member?

How did you get a TW of 79"? Did you narrow the Dana 44? running?

Good tip on the axles for anyone reading - I've got a 79 F250 Dana 44 setup for leaf springs, so it's easy to weld and modify. I'm just putting on outers (knuckle out) from an F150. I'm not using the F250 outers for a couple of reasons:
1) With the F250 outers the wms to wms width increases to 67", so I would likely want to narrow it.
2) The F250 outers are 8 lug, and then I would have to do a Dana 60 in the rear. I feel like a Dana 60 would be too large for my needs at this point.
3) I can use my existing 15" tires with the F150 outers.
The big downside to the F150 outers is that I lose the flat top F250 knuckles for crossover steering, and I also lose the massive F250 brakes.

In a few years, I may swap back to the F250 parts.

Here's the axle:

 

Keep us posted , I thought about doing this but I like my jeep where it's at currently ( same setup as you ) with 2.5 springs 1"body and hoodline fenders with no rear flares . I locked and put chromos in the 30 and packed the 8.8 lsd tight and it's been doing everything I want to do but if I was to swap ,the axlesyour choosing would be my choice as well

 

Mines around 84-85. Guys I ride with range from about the same as mine, up to about 94".

 

Sorry Stan I guess I could have explained the 9" a little better but my six year old was asking me about something at the same time.
I do have the tru hi9 in mine and the housing is from an 85. I went with an ARB and 35 spline Currie axles. As for the track width on the front I didn't do anything to the axle but do a high steering set up which Chevrolet knuckles. I can check again but when I put the tape on it last night I'm sure it said 79" outside rubber to outside rubber. I think I will check again when I get home but my Jeep did fit on a Uhaul car trailer when I moved.

 

I like your idea of the ford 8.8 out back to match the f250 D44. That would work great. I did get the tape on the Jeep again and I have it at 79" wide. However I wouldn't fault anyone for calling it 80" with sidewall flex. I went with the 44/9" to keep the weight down in a Jeep used for a daily driver most of the summer.
If you do go with the 5 on 5 1/2 it's quite easy to get the flat tops for high steering set up from old Chevy pickups in the junkyard.
In the photo I'm posting the blue level is 78" wide. I hope this is some help.

 

This is the other photo I've been trying to upload but I can't get it to from my Iphone or the edit button on my other post.

 

I'd double check spline counts on the F150 8.8, seems like they were different than the explorers, but I could be wrong on that.

I don't know exact weights, but it didn't seem like my rear 60 was that much heavier than the 8.8 I pulled, but again could be wrong. Nothing is cheap up here, but I can pick up rear 60's all day for half of what 8.8's go for because most guys are using the 8.8 then jumping to 14 bolts.

 

Stan, what did you pay for the D44? I've been looking on craigslist lately for a front one. I'm looking to get new wheels and tires and I want to plan ahead for a bolt pattern of a larger front axle. I found one for $650 on craigslist but I think that's high.

 

Stan, what did you pay for the D44? I've been looking on craigslist lately for a front one. I'm looking to get new wheels and tires and I want to plan ahead for a bolt pattern of a larger front axle. I found one for $650 on craigslist but I think that's high.

That's right what I paid for a 79 F250 high pinion. I thought it was high too, but it's not as high when you compare it to any new axle. And mine came with 4.10 gears, which matches my rear, so that added some value for me.

I bought another F150 Dana 44 just for the outers, but it was cheap. Much cheaper than piecing together parts.

 

I'll just leave this over here...

Wouldn't try to park it downtown but props for being able to go more than 10 feet without breaking sh*t. And outer left rear just waiting on tax return.

 

It's in Florida...figures.

 

I'm running 76 hp 44 and 85 9" with 17x10 4.75 back space Toyo 35-12.5-17s Flares are MCE 6". Pic was during install so obviously not finished.

 

What Locking Hub is everyone using with their F150 Dana 44s?

I've got two pairs of old used hubs - a set from Ford (red plastic actuator) that look very beefy inside. (this is a web picture - not my parts)

And another set that looks like they're from Warn (but not marked Warn) with a black plastic actuator. (this is a web picture - not my parts)

Any thoughts on my existing locking hubs? They look all functional, but o-rings are old, plastic looks aged, etc.

I value reliability, so I was considering a new pair - Warn Std, Warn Premium, Superwinch, Mile Marker, etc. I don't want to be the guy holding up 10 Jeeps while I swap out a broken hub :smile2:

And, yes, I'll carry hub spares when off-road.:highfive:

 

What Locking Hub is everyone using with their F150 Dana 44s?

I've got two pairs of old used hubs - a set from Ford (red plastic actuator) that look very beefy inside. (this is a web picture - not my parts)

And another set that looks like they're from Warn (but not marked Warn) with a black plastic actuator. (this is a web picture - not my parts)

Any thoughts on my existing locking hubs? They look all functional, but o-rings are old, plastic looks aged, etc.

I value reliability, so I was considering a new pair - Warn Std, Warn Premium, Superwinch, Mile Marker, etc. I don't want to be the guy holding up 10 Jeeps while I swap out a broken hub :smile2:

And, yes, I'll carry hub spares when off-road.:highfive:

I ran warn premiums in my 76 Dana 44 and it worked but I kept on popping them getting stupid on 35s.
For example get it bound up and dump the skinny pedal and within 15 seconds I'd hear the distinctive crack and pop

 

Standard Warns. I rather replace a hub fuse on the trail than just about any other part. Uh well since I can't see how I would break a distributor rotor. The difference between the standard and premium is only the knob as far as I can tell.

 

I'm making some progress...brackets getting removed and housing getting ready for paint.
(I'm just painting everything for now, and I'll grind the paint where needed for perches and shock mounts)

All the outer stuff (knuckles, spindles, hubs, etc) is ready - new bearings and seals and cleaned and/or painted, so it will come together very quickly after painting. I saved some money and purchased a Lock Right lunchbox locker - I think it'll work fine with the locking hubs. I would rather have another ARB in the front, but funds aren't unlimited. I did spring for a set of Ten Factory chromoly shafts.

Also, I picked up a cheap F150 8.8 for the rear:


I'll swap my existing ARB/gears from my Explorer 8.8 into the new axle, which should be easy. And I'm hoping that the large drum brakes will give me a better E-brake. Those little Explorer drum brakes don't hold very well.
Edit: to answer an earlier question - the F150 8.8s are 31 spline, so no problem there.

 

If you swap in an 86 E-350 master cylinder it will help dramatically with the braking. Does nothing for parking brake of course.

 

More progress...new ball joints and knuckles installed. Ball joints were no fun, but finally got them installed with an extra set of hands.

Next up are the axle seals and pinion seal, and lunchbox locker install. I ordered a diff cover from Barnett Performance, and hopefully that will be here soon. http://barnettperformance.net/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=3&products_id=956

I also started looking into steering - it looks like I will have to ream out the knuckles and pitman arm to accept Chevy TREs.

 

I also started looking into steering - it looks like I will have to ream out the knuckles and pitman arm to accept Chevy TREs.

Double check on that before you start reaming. I didn't use 150 knuckles like you, but the 250 knuckles were already tapered correctly, I however grabbed the pitman TRE and test fitted (which is way deeper) and started reaming to fit before I realized I had the wrong part in hand. Had to use the Ruff Stuff tapered fittings on that side. (That's what I used on my D30 with no issue though if you don't wanna spend the money on a reamer)

 

opCorn: Along for the ride!

 

Welcome aboard! :cheers2:

No new pictures this week, as my hands were too dirty. But I was busy this week:

I removed the carrier and disassembled everything. I found some metal chunks and lots of metal flakes. The carrier also didn't have the right preload on the bearings - the carrier would move side to side about .020". However, the gears and bearings look good - there's no obvious damage. Who knows what happened, but it looks like some poor repairs were made in the past - poor cleaning and improper gear setup.

In any case, I'm going to do a full gear setup with new 4.88 gears, and all new bearings, of course. And I have a line on a used Detroit locker for a good price, which I will probably use instead of a lunchbox locker in the original carrier.

I also cleaned 37 years of gunk and grime out of the tubes. Yuck...

I have all the parts and should have the gear setup done up this weekend.:highfive:

 

Here's the biggest piece of metal:




It doesn't appear to have come from the existing gears or bearings:

 

More weirdness, as I dissect this axle...why would someone slather blue RTV all over the yoke and splines? Leaking oil up through the splines? Is that a common issue with Dana 44s?

 

More weirdness, as I dissect this axle...why would someone slather blue RTV all over the yoke and splines? Leaking oil up through the splines? Is that a common issue with Dana 44s?

Ive got dana 60s and remember my original yokes did have some sort of sealant on the ends of the splines, under the nuts. But, shortly after I set my axles up and buttoned them all up, I read somewhere that a coating of rtv on the splines was needed to seal them up. I missed that step and wasn't taking the pinion nuts off for rtv. I was thinking the pinion nut and washer torqued with a all I had with a 3 foot cheater bar should do enough sealing. I would have to say it wouldn't hurt to put on some rtv, BEFORE assembly.

Funny, the more I type the more I'm realizing I probably need to do this forgotten step. For what it's worth, I have zero leaks.

 

That may be it. I've never seen it and when I replaced the yoke on mine, I didn't come across anything recommending RTV. BTW, if you should ever need to replace that yoke, Bronco Graveyard has a "Trail Repair Kit" with the yoke, washer, nut, pinion seal, u-joint and strap kit for about $90 which is considerably cheaper than buying those things individually.

 

Slow progress over the weekend. Received the new Motive 4.88 gears and Motive Install Kit with Timken bearings. The 4.88s with my 35s should be awesome. My existing 4.10s work okay, but I'm looking forward to the lower gears. And they will allow me to move to 37s in the future.


Getting the old bearings removed from the Detroit was a big PITA. My new OTC puller didn't work at all- it ended up slipping off and damaged the tips. It was returned for a refund. I ended up (carefully) using a cutting wheel in a Dremel tool and then cracking the race with a cold chisel.

Ring Gear installed on Detroit:


No pictures, but I also made a pair of Setup Carrier bearings and a setup Pinion race.

The master install kit didn't come with the large oil slinger (Dana 30764), so I bought one. It should be here today, then things should move along faster.