Great time to upgrade???

So I took my Jeep in to get it aligned, the drivers side hub is tilted out quite a bit (castor?) which might be normal but I wanted it checked. Well of course when they started looking into it they let me know the bill was going to approach $800. The brakes need replacing plus there might be a bad bearing plus a few other odds and ends. Obviously I didn't have the work done because with that much money I would rather add disc brakes to my open knuckle Dana 30.

Doing some searching on ebay, I found a set of 5.38:1 Dana 44 high pinion r&p gears. I had often thought of going with a Dana 44 but if I was going to do something like that I would want the high pinion model and didn't think gears for that model were made.

I know there aren't any passenger side high pinion Dana 44 fronts out there in the bone yard so I would have to do it myself or have one built. I read a few articles on the subject and found a few guys who did the work themselves. I don't think I have the time or skill to do work of that level. I haven't found any local shops which will do this axle cutting work either. I would have to have one built up from scratch.

More than likely I will just do the disc brake conversion on my Dana 30 and leave it at that but there is the option (and great timing) to do a Dana 44 HP up front. That would be slick.

What are your thoughts on this? Any ideas on building my own axle?

Thanks.

 

Stick with the 30 and disc's

 

I'd have simply said your only concern is alignment. I'm taking care of the brakes and bearings. There trying to sell you stuff.