'84 D44 Vacuum disconnect Conversion

[Jake_S]

I have a questoin for all of the knowledgable Jeepers, will the manual conversion for the small Jeep front axle, or even a Dodge, work on the '83-'84GWag vacuum disconnect front axle?
Also, does any know, or done, the big brake upgrade for the D44? It's supposed to work on the Chevy D44, but I believe it'll work on ours since it has the same bolt pattern and caliper design.
Jake_S

[joe]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Jake_S:
I have a questoin for all of the knowledgable Jeepers, will the manual conversion for the small Jeep front axle, or even a Dodge, <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
I don't know anything about Dodges but little Jeeps never ran a D44 front axle and you can't mix D44/D30 parts. The 83/84's were the only years to use the vac diso axle but even those years with the 208 x-case equipped FSJ's ran the conventional one piece axle. Just swap out your two piece and coupler/slider for a one piece shaft from an 80 up Wag or GW.

[scotty]

noooo,dont swap it out. if you leave it in there you can disconnect it in 4wd,and have,in a sense "2wd lowrange". or,if a front locker is planned in the future,you can disconnect it to make steering easier.getting in and out to lock/unlock hubs gets old. i would love to find a dodge axle with a pass side diff and disconnect to swap into mine.

i know i have seen the "posi lock" for our fsjs somewhere.ill try and find it,wherever i saw it...

dontgive up,tho,the disconnect is cool :cool: IMO

[Jake_S]

Joe, I know that the little jeeps never used 44's up front, but the manual disconnect might be modified to work on a 44 front end, at least that's my theory.
Scotty, I really do't want to get rid of the disconnect, but I don't want the vacuum either. If you can find where you saw the manual disconnect I would love to know where I could get it.
Jake_S

[Bob Barry]

I don't think it would be easy to adapt the Baby-Jeep manual lockout to the D44 lockout; the baby-Jeeps have the mechanism on the long-side of the axle housing, while the D44 has the coupler adjacent to the carrier, actually as part of the pumpkin, on the short side of the axle housing.

[scotty]

here is a link for the dodge version at 4wheel parts wholesalers:
http://www.4wheelparts.com:80/product2.asp?imseqn=1862&occlass=4X4POSI%2DLOK&cat=DRI

the dodge also uses a 44,so it should work.you might want to call and talk to a tech guy,or try at www.drivetraindirect.com (http://www.drivetraindirect.com) they are super nice and very knowledgeable.

ill keep lookin for whever i swaw tha actually advertised for full size jeeps...

[Jake_S]

Thanks for the tech info Bob. I thought the baby Jeeps had the disconnect on the same side.
Scotty, thanks for the leads. I'll call 4Wheel and see if they know if it'll work.
Jake_S