Dana 44's???

[coolguyinjeep]

Good morning everyone. I have a question tah I am sure many people here know. I was wondering what spline my dana 44's are? They are on a 74 cherokee that was stock with a 401, th400, and q-trac. If I need to replace them should I get new axles like upgrade to dana 60's or just replace teh axle itself and use my old housing?
Thanks,
Mike

[FSJeeper]

You have 30 spline axles in the 44's.

If you are going to run 38's and plan on serious off-roading, you would be money ahead to upgrade to a Dana 60 front, and a big full floater rearend like a Dana 60, 70 or 14 bolt.

Some would disagree, but there are a lot of broken Dana 44's out there to back me up.

[coolguyinjeep]

Originally posted by FSJeeper:
You have 30 spline axles in the 44's.

If you are going to run 38's and plan on serious off-roading, you would be money ahead to upgrade to a Dana 60 front, and a big full floater rearend like a Dana 60, 70 or 14 bolt.

Some would disagree, but there are a lot of broken Dana 44's out there to back me up.Hi. I was wondering what year your wagoneer was and if you had any pics of it. You cam email me at coolguyinjeep@hotmail.com
Thanks,
Mike

[scotty]

ive wheeled my rig with 38s for a long time,first with an auto and amc 20 rear(various NP cases then a d300),then with a t18 and 44 in the rear.

i got away with 38s and the 1/2 ton rear end for a long time by running a 6 cyl,an auto,and basically babying it.

in the short time that i have had the t18 in it,and my driving has become alittle more "agressive" ;) i have broken 2 sets of rear 44 spider gears,an axleshaft,and completely ruined the housing by squishing the tubes so that the pinion was pointing up and causing me to snap rear u joints like crazy.

i got tired of breaking my rear 44,so i swapped in a gm full floating corp 14 bolt. im still not having alot of trouble with the front,so ill keep a 44 up front until it becomes a prollem like the rear. at that time ive got a dana 70 for the front smile.gif todate,my only real prollem with the front has been a broken wheeljoint,and that was with it welded. ive since swapped in a true trac limited slip,so well see if i like it any better or worse(i loved the welded front) and how long it holds up.

it just depends on how you use it,and what youre willing to do,and how your fabricating abilities are.

if you plan on running big tires and think you will be abusing it,ill agree with the fsjeeper and say dont spend a bunch of $$ upgrading a 44. you could run it till it breaks,but a 60,70 or 14 bolt rear is a better way to spend hard earned $$ IMO. it would really suck to spend a grand on high strength shafts,gears,and a detroit full case locker to find out that you keep bending axletubes or breaking pinions.

my $.02 on that anyway smile.gif

[River Beast]

I run 38's with 4.89 gears and Detroits in my 44's

I do plan on upgrading....soon... ;)

Pics on my site ...link in my sig

[derf]

I've see three separate occasions where a K5 Blazer with a swapped in D60 in the front with about 38" tires broke a front axle. In each case, the engine is a stock throttle body 350 with a 700R4 automatic tranny behind it.

If a full size Blazer can snap D60 shafts with big tires and a mild V8, imagine what an SJ can do with a D44 and big tires...

[Rockwagon]

I would say if you are going yo run 38"s upgrade if you can. I ran one season with 36's and stock axles (locked of course) I broke an axle almost every outing. I am real happy with my d-60 and 14 bolt. Even these aren't indestructable. I broke a 60 stub this year and as a club we have broke 4 60 stubs and 1 14 bolt shaft 2 14bolt detriots and 1 14bolt ring and pinion. The last one was do to total and complete lack of maintance and plian abuse