Axles..

[Wagoneer-ing]

So I originally was going to go D60 front and rear, but that was before I realized I love my Waggy too much and wanted to make it a DD. Sooo now I have gravitated to just running D44 front and rear. The only reason I'm wanting a D44 rear is because I could get one relatively cheap that has disc brakes on it already. I was just curious what kind of modifications this might need. Do I need another master cylinder? More hard lines? I'm about to replace all my brakes and figured I may do it all in one go. Also..for some reason my Waggy/s axles are set at 2.73 and it has never been a crawler and as far as I know has never had any modifications. Did they set the axles at that ratio from factory? I'm hoping to find a D44 with 4.10 gears so I won't have to swap gears in my AMC 20 while also getting disc brakes.

[Bjtgtr]

2.73's are stock gears. That is what my 89 had in it. Although 89's had D44's front and rear from the factory.

For your master cylinder get yourself a unit for a late 90's GM 1ton van ( I think I used one for a 99 if memory serves me correctly ) that came standard with 4 wheel disc brakes.

The rear axle I would suggest to look for is early 90's Isuzu Rodeo. They came with D44's, rear disc w/ ebrake, and are 4.10 gear ratios. Some even had LSD's. When I swapped the 1 tons onto my waggy I gave my dad my front D44 to use under 62 Willys wagon and we used the rear D44 out of a 93 Isuzu Rodeo. The WMS measurement was with an inch or so of what the rear D44 out of my 89 waggy was.

I found all the info about the Isuzu over on pirate 4x4 in the Isuzu section last year when we were doing the swap. I picked up the rear at one of our local scrapyards called Crazy Rays and paid a total of $110 for it. When I get a chance today I'll post a picture of the donor vehicle and the rear

My $0.02

[Wagoneer-ing]

Your $0.02 is appreciated! An Izuzu rodeo axle is what I was going to get actually!

[Carnuck]

4.10s are great for tall tires and/or no freeway driving unless you have an overdrive.

[CutterN55]

4.10s are great for tall tires and/or no freeway driving unless you have an overdrive.

Carnuck-
That's a pretty generalized statement. While I understand what you are saying and agree with you... in cases of most DD 3spd FSJ's with 33's (maybe 35's) and down tire sizes that holds true, but not in all situations.

I think it's more about the gear combos (including trans and t-case) and tire size.

I ran 36's with a 1:1 4th gear with 4.10's all day long on the highway. It was sweet. But I also had deep enough gears in 2nd and 3rd to make up for the tall differential gear to tire size combination for the low end power.

that being said, what holds true for a wag with a shallow geared three speed, 33's (a common size) and 4.10's is not going to be the same for a different trans combo and tire size.

I've seen a lot of gear/tire combo questions coming up lately. Maybe some of the new guys haven't seen this, but it's an awesome tool.

http://www.grimmjeeper.com/gears.html