axle housing rusted thru

well i tore into the 1970 tonight and discovered the axel housing is rusted thru! and a litttle oil seeping thru,man this one has seen some salt or it was made out of poor steel, now i didnt have enough time or daylight to really get down and dirty with it this evening,my question is did they make a D44 with C clips to hold the axels in like modern day rears do,#2 will the internal parts fit into a older setup,i have a good rear in the garage but it has 5.38s in it and i want the 4.27s, the rear with the 4.27s in it has no nut to hold the hub on which leads me to believe that it has the C clip design. thanx in advance

 

Re: axel housing rusted thru

No C clip design that I know of. At least not a jeep one

 

Re: axel housing rusted thru

ok then i see some more digging around on this one in the near future,and some pictures

 

Re: axel housing rusted thru

where did it rust thru ?
got a picture ?
if this axle housing is a flanged 44, I'd try and save it

 

No nut means one piece axles, but Dana used the bolt on retainer like the BOP 10 bolts, and Ford 9". The gears will work in the older housing, but the axles will not. THe one piece axles will be 30 spline versus 19 on the older rear. Depending on tube diameter, you might be able to have the ends of the 70 model put on the earlier housing by a chassis shop.

 

Okay, first things first. Is it a flanged 30 spline axel or and early 19 spline axle with big nut on the end. Next where is it leaking and could a patch be welded over the area. If it is a 30 spline axle I would just clean it up, weld a patch over the defective area and be done. I guess a photo would help us help you.

 

ok if this is the case,why not change the spidergears and just use the older axels= cheaper route,have also considered sandblasting the "infected" area and building back up with the ole sears arc welder grinding back down smooth and going over it with a tiger disc,never even know it was done,but here is the deal i am a stickler when it comes down to drive terrain,I DONT WANT ANY FUTURE PROBLEMS e.g. stuff breaking,oil leaking out all over my paint,in other words i only want to do it once,and have no worries driving it on a 2500 mile run"prob never happen" but you all get the drift

 

Some of this is assumptions on my part from talking with differential supply places about axle upgrades on 10 and 19 spline rears. I have all the tools needed to R&R diffs and have done over 30 and since I was in mine I really wanted to strengthen it. But it was going to cost me. If it breaks again, I'm going to build my own Dana 60 off-set semi floater which won't cost any more than a built 44 was going to run. I elected to put a 10 spline lockright in mine, a new set of 5.38's, all new bearings and seals. It also required a new yoke since new ring and pinions are NOT 10 spline. (I think the new one is 26?) But back to yours:

The tube diameter is larger on the 30 spline housing and they have a different housing end because the use a roller bearing for the axle instead of a tapered bearing with separate race that has pre-load adjusted by shims. You cannot retrofit either way because of the axle bearing differences.

The 30 spline is significantly stronger than the 19 which is moderately stronger than the 10 but just in axle strength not housing where the 30 beats both. If I was going to spend money somewhere, it would be on getting the 30 spline housing repaired rather than a rebuild of the 19 which would require maintaining pinion depth from housing to housing which would require either paying someone or buying some tools.