Front Axle Question, Mental Exercise Mostly...

So I have a ton of possibly dumb ideas running through my head but I am not sure I'm running down this route just yet.

Would it be possible to take a Chevy dana 44 front axle and cut it down to fit a scout 2 right side axle on one side and an early bronco right side axle on the other to come up with a front dana 44 approximately 55" wide with Chevy Truck disc brakes?

 

Why not adjust the Chevy tubes and shafts to 55 inches? Maybe can't be done because the Early's all have passenger side drops. Everything you mentioned is driver's side drops.

 

Mostly thinking about using factory sized axles to get away from ordering custom ones.

Part of the mental exercise was to see if there was a problem mixing and matching the various parts like can a passenger side axle be used on a driver's side? Or are the bearing surfaces different sizes and such.

 

my 87 chevy is a pass side drop scouts are pass side drop, ford is the odd one out on the drivers side.

 

Scout II ? Scout 800 and 880 yes, the II? Thought they were driver's side.

 

Why not find a 78 Wagoneer or Cherokee. Dana 44 with disc brakes and passenger side drop. Then you would just be trimming the tubes and shafts. You will probably have to trim tubes and shafts no matter what you go with.

 

Or maybe the Bronco II or the small s10 blazer. Would either of them fit?

 

nope . ford driver drop . S10 driver drop . both IFS

 

Your original questions answer is yes. Before anyone was resplining axles, it was very common to mix and match axle tubes to fit stock axle shafts. The axle shaft doesn't know what side it originally came out of. Easy to knock the c off the end of the axle and shorten the tube to match your shaft. The disc brakes fit on almost any 6 bolt spindle.

 

What Daryl says above. I have done just as you and he describe, using "factory" axle shafts to custom make my own width. The obvious is to make sure the spline count and diameter are the same, and keeping the whole housing perfectly straight and true when you narrow it.
-Donny

 

Thanks guys.