Rear Dana 44 / NP208 Swap

[Jeepjohnny]

I decided to finally start a thread on my upcoming rear dana 44 and np208 swap. I?ve been accumulating parts for these swaps slowly but I?m getting close to the actual installs (once I receive a few more parts). I wanted to see what ya?ll thought.

The rear D44 Swap is pretty straight forward?. I found a rear 44 out of an 88 (I think) GW at my local pick ur junk. It has the Trac-loc unit. My plan is to swap the trac-loc carrier up front, while loading up the open carrier from the front with a powertrax no-slip lunch box into the rear. At the same time I?ll be loading in new 3.73 gearing and upgrading the front hubs to warn locking hubs. Which will make for a cheep-o locked up front and rear.

Which brings me to the 208.. the 208 will be here by 5-2 and will be installed hopefully by the weekend after. I picked up a rear drive line from a Cherokee with a 208 from J&W. this is going to the shop to be cleaned up, painted and re-balanced on this coming Monday.

I plan on keeping the vacuum lines to the front disco axle also.

So what do you guys think?

(and yes I?ll try to take plenty of pics!!)

So far all that?s done is the rear 44 is painted. There?s a pic of that here: Differential Paint

[wickedwagon767]

swap in a non-disco 44 front and go 4.10's instead of 3.73's

[Jeepjohnny]

swap in a non-disco 44 front and go 4.10's instead of 3.73's

I think the front disco axle will work just fine. But I do eventually want to go 4.10s with 35" tires and an SOA / shackle flip.

[J10Mike]

If you are eventually going to 4.10s, you might as well do the job once.
Otherwise, good plan you have there.

[Jeepjohnny]

If you are eventually going to 4.10s, you might as well do the job once.
Otherwise, good plan you have there.

thanks, I thought about this also, but I still wanted good highway performance for now but Next year when I go for the SOA and the 35" tires I'll go for the 4.10s or even 4.56s.

[Jeepjohnny]

Not to mention that 3.73 was the numerically highest I could go without buying new carriers. And the entire reason for buying the D44 was because it had the Trac-loc already in it.

[unclethumbtack]

You can go higher without a new carrier if you use a thick gear.

[Jeepjohnny]

whoooo hooooo,

Just got my powertrax unit! and the T-case will be here tomorrow!

I guess I'm gonna be busy this weekend. I'll post up some pics of the 208 swap soon....

[Jeepjohnny]

T-case update

Got the 208 in. Extra thank goes out to Jodymc

here's the before pic



Here's the newly cleaned / painted version.



removal of the 229 will begin Sat morning.

[J10Mike]

Wow...You got the floor shifter with the 208? Good score.
What did you use to clean the 208?

[Jeepjohnny]

What did you use to clean the 208?

Good ole denatured alcohol. that stuff cuts grease really good.. and doesn't smell anywhere close as bad as degreaser.

[Jeepjohnny]

ok that was so not as easy as I thought it would be. So far all I have accomplished is removing the 229...

I got the drivelines removed first. Then I went to working on the disassembling the linkages (this was not as easy as one would think) It made it harder also that I was being extra careful with them in case I sell them, specially with the vacuum harness.
I also removed the seats and the front carpet to make installing the floor shifter easier. The actual 229 mounting bolts were relatively simple (except the two on the top)

I snaped some pictures but I'm going to try to figure out how to post them as thumbnails...

[hardbody1]

I didnt know they had floor shifters for 208s. How easy is it to swap from a flag style shifter?

Kyle

[J10Mike]

Very easy...As along as you have all the right parts. The floor shifters were standard on the manual tranny FSJs 80 and later.
Besides the TFI upgrade, this was the other "Easy upgrade".

[Jeepjohnny]

installing the 208 floor shifter does look like it will be easy... the linkage is simplistic when compared to the 229s linkages.