Front dana 44

Hi guy's, i've got an idea but my knowlegde is limited. I read or heard somewear that the shaft of a dana 30 are the same size and same spline as a dana 44.

Here's i wanna do. I have in my possession a dana 44 front from a chevy k15 with 3.73 gear ratio. I would like to use the dana 44 axle housing, cut the tube to meet the lenght of a wide trac cj dana 30 axle, use the knukkle from my dana 30 and put it under my jeep. This way i will be able to use wide trac shaft.
I would like to know if it's something that's possible to do?

 

If your gonna use CJ Dana 30 shafts, why not just use a wide track Dana 30? You can get axle shafts with the larger u-joints. While the D44 is stronger, you can build a nice Dana 30. Given the light weight nature of ECJ5's a Dana 44 isn't really necessary if your gonna run 35" to less of a tire. IMHO. While not actually an answer to your question, it's food for thought.

I'm running D44's front and rear cuz I got them as a matched set.

 

big difference between dana 30 and 44 is the size of the gear carrier...little more strong...and this weed end i just destroy my front dana 30....i get more for my money if i put a dana 44 that is a little bit stronger than the 30...

 

FWIW, the dana 30 and 44 do not have the same size axle shafts or the same spline count for that matter.

 

Jeep front Dana 30's use a smaller diameter shaft with 27 splines (necked down) and Spicer 260x U-joints. Jeep Dana 44's use a 30 spline inner shaft with the Spicer 297x/760x U-joint (larger). If you're going to narrow down a front Dana 44 go one more step and have the shafts built or shortened and re-splined as they will be much stronger than the 30 shafts. Also, the 30 shafts are getting much harder to find in good shape plus will limit your options on traction aiding devices (lockers, limited slips, etc.). Even with an open CASE 27 spline side gears for a 44 are getting hard to come by as they were basically used in a limited run in the rear of Jeepster Commando's. In the '59 CJ-5 I have a Dana 44 front I built 20 years ago using 30 tubes, rear 44 carrier, and 30 shafts and 30 outers. I had Powertrax custom broach a 27 spline lock rite (expensive). I did this because other than the Lock rite I had everything on hand and was breaking 25 side and pinion gears. I gained a larger ring and pinion, diff case, and the locker. The rest are no stronger than a 30 which is what you will end up with. I have Warn inner and outer shafts to go in when the stock units fail. So far haven't needed them but I'm very aware of the strength issues and am gentle on the front end.

Having said all that, I have a 44 housing built (larger tubes, less likely to bend) waiting to go in when the '6 is done.
Just go 44 shafts and don't look back.

 

ok guy i read a lot what you said.
I've been offered a inter scout 2 dana for free. Couple of person in my town told me i can cut the long side tube to get to the lenght of a dana 30 but cannot tell me if its a narrow or a wide trac axle doing this. Another thing that they told me, i use a axle shaft from a ford bronco to put in the cut tube.
I'm gonna use my cj knukkle, the scout outer shaft. I also want to change the pignon angle.

From this i've got a complete radius arm system with coil spring from a 1978 bronco that i want to put under my cj.

What do you think about that%


What do you think about that.

 

You can upgrade D44 axle shafts that have the small u-joints to either aftermarket ones, or get Ford F250 D44 shafts cut to length. The F305 ones are not necked down like most of the 1/2 ton variants.

 

Ok little update on my project, yesterday i just bring back home a front and a rear dana 44 from a inter scout II. I also buy 2 week ago a complete front coil suspension from a ford bronco 1978.

My plan is to use both axle from the scout and the suspension from the bronco and put everything under the jeep.
For my rear in going to do a soa so i can get 35". The scout axle are 6 inc wider than narrow track so i will get extra stability on the road.

From there any comments on my projects? pro con ?

 

I have a friend that's using Scout II axles and he really likes them. They are really wide though. I run some pretty narrow trails here, so I wouldn't want them myself.

 

Being narrow ins't bad at all i give you this point, but a dana 44 scout would have almost the same lenght as a yj/tj.

 

Better add some positive caster to both inner "C" 's if you plan on driving it on the street...

 

Yes i'm planning to cut the weld on the knukkle and give a 20 degree so i will have a bettre angle for the driving shaft and i'm plannig to get a 6-7 degree of caster

 

Well now i got all information i was missing.
CJ Narrow track are around 53 inch wms
Dana 44 scout: 58.5 inc wms

So after some research i think i found the goodway to do it.
I will need to cut 5 inch on the long side tube to have the same wms as the dana 30.
Now there is the easiest mod...take a ford broncos (71-77) long side inner axle about 27.94 inch lenght and replace the stock scout long side inner axle that have a 32.91 inch lenght so 4.97 inch différence.
I will keep my dana 30 knukkle so i will be able to use cj stock rod for my direction
I prefer to use the jeep dana 30 knukkle because i have a lot of spare part pi lock-out and outer shaft (same part number dana 30 and dana 44 scout)


Now i will have to know what is the best caster to give to my knukkle ???

For those who want to know the cost of my project here it'is in canadian dollars

internationnal scout dana 44 Axle (front and rear): 100$
new gear and rebuit: 200$
Ford Broncos axle shaft: 100$
Total 400$

Rebuiting my existing dana 30 will cost me 300$ and i already change two time gear and carrier so i hope putting and extra 100$ i will have peace for some time :0

 

THat's my biggest concern....i know to use stock scout axle with the stock spring mount you have to outboard the spring outside the frame about 2-2.5 inch each side but i don't know the exact mesure...so outboarding the spring or cutting the axle my way should be almost the same...(outboard is 4 or 5 inch wilder than stock and i want to cut 5 inch from one side).

So i need to know if i'm right and if i will me able to use stock spring mount on pass side...???

 

Ok i found new info over the internet.

A scout dana 44 have a distance of 32 inch center pad to center pad, a jeep cj have 27.5 a différence of 4.5 inch so 2.25 larger on each side. I want the pass side spring pad align with the leaf i need to cut 4.5 inch on driver side. But for what i want to do i need to cut 5 inc so it will be 1/4 inc outboarded each side...any idea anyway i can make everething fit?

In the front i have a 2" widn't leaf but the hangers and shakkle have been fab for 3" widnt (i use 1/4" spacer at the moment). What about using both 1/4" spacer to outboard the leaf to fit the cut dana 44?

 

Better check the U-joint size on that Early Bronco 44 shaft. Stock they were the same as a CJ 30, 260x. You'd be better off shortening the Scout shaft for the larger U-joint.....

 

Hum you got a point here...i never thought about the u-joint size

but for my defense this way i will have more spare parts and i already have the broncos shaft. The weak point about the scout axle is they use a 27 spline outer shaft. For this moment i'll go this way (i got all the outer shaft in double) when i will have more money i will cut the stock scout axle shaft. Here having and axle cut and respline is around 400$ and i wont have any spare at this price, now i have two of every axle shaft i need for the project