'59 Rear Axle Upgrades

I'm doing some upgrades to my rear axle in my '59 CJ5. I'm planing on do a full floating rear axle swap, using the tec artical thats on here. I have all the parts but the shafts, I need to get a price on the yet.
The question I have is, I have a trac-loc diff from a scout D44. Will it fit in my D44 in my '59? I'm planing on getting my new shafts made with 30 spline insted of 19.

Thanks Tom

 

Don't waste your money on a Traclok. No offense, but I'm sure others will back me up on this. Save your money for a Lock Right or Powerlock, you'll get much better performance. But, I could be wrong.

 

:iagree:

Trac locs are marginal at best. Powerlock would be much better and stronger.
To give an example, a while back I was at a friends shop helping sort old parts, good, bad, etc. He had roughly 30-40 trac locks (used) he had taken from differentials. We had to scrap 3/4 of them due to cracked cases, worn cases where the shaft goes through, etc. That's 75% that were bad. I'd rather wait and put in something worth while if I were going to all that work.....
That's just me though. Nickmil

 

I know the trac-locs are a poor mans posi, but I got this one free with axle I took the gears out of. I would like to put a power-loc in, but money is tight right now.I do have an open carrier for that gear set I could put in for now.But I would have to go though it again when and if I get a power-loc. I'm planing on useing the jeep as a daily driver. It wount see much offroading.I have my Commando for that.
Thanks for your input anyway.

Tom

 

then go ahead and use it
the good thing with the full float set-up....
you only have to pull the axles out a little ways to remove the carrier
if and when the time occurs
it's your Jeep

 

To answer your question since you are obviously bent on using the trac lock, yes it will fit in your off set Dana 44 housing. You have to match the case to the gear ratio you plan on running though. Dana 44 cases fit 2.54 to 3.73 gears and another case to fit 3.92 down to 5.89 gears. The flange where the ring gear bolts is in a different location on the two different cases to accommodate the different pinion diameters. Nickmil

 

I don't understand. If you're only going to drive it on the street and not off-road, why bother? I've got my '56 rear axle opened up right now for cleaning and inspection, and there's no way I want to mess with that stuff inside the differential. I don't understand how it works anyway, and it looks like a HUGE amount of grief to me.

Just replacing the bearings at the wheel ends of the axles behind the brake backing plates is going to be enough pain for me. Those bearings apparently were never greased, and they feel like it. I just want to get it cleaned, painted and ready to use, with the 11" brakes on it.

 

I have a 67 cj5. The axle bearings on it are behind the shims and bearing retainer ring. I have been told that earlier D44 axle had a grease zirq fitted in the axle housing just outside of the brake backing plate. It would be great to be able to grease the rear axle bearings that way, just a couple of pulls on a grease gun. The way it is you have to pull the rear axle and everything up to the shims to get to the bearing. If I were to pull my raer axle apart I would look into the grease fitting idea. If I planned on mudding and fording and all the messy fun stuff I know I would do it.
Just thought as long as you had it apart you might look into it, if you don't already have it.

 

Those old 44's with the wheel bearing grease fitting also had a vent hole up on top of the housing in the area of the grease fitting. I always thought that would be a likely entry point for water and other bad stuff.

 

You just plumb a flexible line up high in the wheel well with the vent valve at the top. enough flex to not interfere with the articulation.

 

I have those. It's a spring loaded pop-up valve. The grease lifts the valve up when full. I would think the grease inside would keep the water out.

 

Did the military axles have those spring-loaded pop-up valves? My '56 D44 just has little holes. Maybe yours were added on? We used to use those valves in the oilfield on large bearing housings. 1/8" pipe thread I think.

 

No clue. Just neat to have them on my axle.

 

That's interesting to me, I'd like to know if the axle tube is thick enough to drill and tap for 1/8" NPT.

 

It is.
I welded up the holes in my daughter's rear axle when I FF'd it to keep debris out and to keep it from seeping oil. I then used a heavy diff cover and drilled and tapped it for a vent. Will be in my write up. I did this because I didn't want to have a hose on either end or run additional hoses to the center and up. Makes for a cleaner set up. If you are still running tapered axles and have the grease zerks I'd drill and tap them to 1/8" NPT and put in the vents. It's real common for those holes to get plugged and then have no venting at all. I suspect that's why many of these old axles leak from every seal . Nickmil

 

Interesting. Thanks Nick! I'm working on my axle now (slowly).

 

The little vent holes at the outer end of the axle housing only vent the bearing when grease is pumped in. You see on the older housings that have the grease fittings there are two seals on the axles, one on each side of the bearing to keep the grease in the bearing area. The diff should have a vent of it's own, most of the time it's on the cover.
Furthermore, on the older D44 rears that have the grease fittings, they allso have a seventh hole in the backing plate, shim pack and axle housing, on the very bottom that when lined up properly will drain any excess grease that gets past the outer felt seal keeping it from the brake shoes.
This is a large drain hole, that when kept clear works well, but is not the greatest of things when submerged.
Doug

 

My experience is the same as Doug's. I just finished a complete R&R on my rear diff. Somebody had hooked the diff cover on a rock and all the fluid drained out. The jeep was driven in 4x4 for who knows how long? There was not a tooth left on the ring gear!

First thing I need was remove complete housing from the jeep and strip it down. (Mark the bearing caps so they stay in the appropriate place) I scrubbed with Castrol superclean and then pressure washed inside and out. Air dried and then sprayed down with WD40.

I decided to go with the Lock-Right in the stock diff case. I put new Yukon 5.38 gears in and all new bearings. I replaced axle bearings (which were COMPLETELY hosed) and inner and outer seals. The spring loaded vents on the tops of my tubes worked fine. I pumped full of grease until it came out the top.

I straightened out the stock diff cover which also has a spring loaded vent in it and put it back on. But it would never seal up! Even with a new gasket and sealer, it still leaked from where it had been tweaked. My solution was to drill and tap a Blazer front diff cover for the stock vent. I did not put a splash guard on the inside like the original one has however. The front covers are at LEAST 3 times thicker than the rears since they expect them to be bashed into things. No leaks now. One caveat, the fill plug is higher than the stock rear. If you fill to the height, the axle tubes will have a TON of 90w in them. I eyeballed fluid level to be same as stock.

I build diffs on the side, so this is not my first. Even taking advantage of pricing deals and having all the tools, I've got nearly $700 in the overhaul.

Now I have to re-do the front. I have a donor 27 for the spicer style shafts since my originals are hosed. That I can tell without even disassembly... That's going to cost almost as much without buying a ring and pinion!

 

True. The two holes on the outer ends by the bearings are vents for the bearings. There is one more hole on most of the tapered axle housings in the top of the tube, I wanna say the long side but can't remember for sure that is not tapped and does not have a vent cap on it. That is the vent for the axle housing. It's a fairly small hole and also gets plugged up causing the seals to leak or it allows contaminants into the axle. Except for military versions I've not seen a Jeep CJ tapered rear housing with the vent in the cover or on the pumpkin. Always a first time though! That's why I converted mine over to the vent in the cover and welded up the existing holes so there would be no contamination. With the FF kit there was no reason to keep these holes to grease the axle bearings. Sorry for any confusion this may have caused. Nickmil