Make a Waggie rear 44 full float?

[Dan Stewart]

I have waggie axles on my CJ. When i had the stock axles i had the Warn FF kit on therear 44. And now i know how to do your own homebrew instead of a WARN kit, BUT the CJ rear axle had a 6 bolt pattern on the rear axle flange. With the waggie 44 being a 4 bolt flange there isnt a spindle that will bolt on very easy. I am wondering if anyone here has home brewed a full float for a waggie rear 44? I did find a palce that sells spindles that you can press into the tubes and can do it this way but i wanted something i can bolt onto the rear flange. Just throwing this out there to see if anyone has done this.

[rustywagoneers_com]

well, this is a 9 inch, but the plan would be nearly the same.

http://www.bc4x4.com/tech/2002/ff9/

this one, they cut the ends off the housing, and made new machined ends to weld in and take the normal front 44 type spindle.

you could probably get plates made to go from the FSJ 4-bolt flange to the front 6-bolt. but the new ends would be stronger...

have fun

peace
Dave

[Dan Stewart]

I likey Is there a source for just a the 6 hole flanges, besides custom? I would probably prefer the flange to slide over the housing, i dont have access to make the pucks to fit in the housing But very cool. That is the exact way i would like to do it with the waggie spinldles and calieprs. That way you have the exact same brakes and rotors and bearings so dont need to have multiple differnt spares

[rustywagoneers_com]

they would have to be custom... BUT... if you do the flange with a 'spigot' type mount that would be a medium press fit into the D44 bearing bore... and then bolt (studs) back through the backing plate flange... i think it would easily be as strong as the welded setup they did... basically that is the same type of mounting as the D44 spindles, it 'spigots' into the knuckle (or flange for the rear floater)

if you were still concerned about strength, you could make a thick flange to weld to the back of the original D44 backing plate flange, make it 2 pieces and weld it all to the tube, to spread the bending load back into the tube further.

peace
Dave

[Dan Stewart]

I guess what i am looking for is the "spigot " style. I would like for it to bolt on to the existing flange. I am curious if i could redril a spindle to the 4 bolts and it be strong enough? I guess i could also add two more holes to the flange and make it a touch stronger. Are spindles cast or machined?