Dana 44's - Continued
Here you can see how a 4 inch drop pitman arm compares to the stock arm. You will need a pitman
arm puller to get the old arm off. I tried to use a gear puller, and other stuff to no avail.
Then I broke down and bought a pitman arm puller, and it came off easy.
Here's a funny picture. Here the Dana 44 front axle is installed, and the back has not been touched.
Now with both axles installed. Notice it bearly fits in the garage now. I have about 2" of
clearance with the tires aired up.
Now from the front. No steering linkage, shocks, or brakes yet.
This is a pic of the front knukcles that are on the Scout axles. The steering arm is considerably
longer then what is on the jeep. If I would have kept this long steering arm, I would have added
a ton to my steering radius, but more importantly, I would have had to move the steering gearbox
forward because the draglink would have hit the pitman arm. With the Dana 30 knuckles, there is about an inch
of clearance between them.
This picture show the Dana 44 U-joint on the left and the Dana 30 on the right.
The front Dana 44 axle I got is from a 1978 Scout. This year (among others) has the large U-joint.
Some vehicles have a smaller u-joint. I believe the early Broncos have small U-joints. I'm
unsure that is in a Wagoneer's 44.
Just havin' fun!
Conclusion and Observations
I did not get this 100 percent right. Here are things I learned!
Rear Axle
I have a some vibration at 50-60mph. It's enought that I
would have to address it if my Jeep was my daily driver. The reason for this is the angle
of the rear pinion. Here is a tid-bit that I didn't know at the time I did my axle. You
should try to get the operating angle of both U-joints on an driveshaft to be the same.
I think I got anxious to finish the job, and never set the Jeep on the ground to measure the
angles of the U-joints. You need to take the axle and attach it to the springs, and put
the weight of the vehicle on the springs, then measure the angle. I think I just guessed.
Front Axle
I had to shim my front axle 5° to get the proper angles. The reason mine didn't work
out is because of the differences between my old spring and my new ones. My old springs placed
the spring perch level to the ground, my new springs don't. They point up about 5°. The
difference here is because my old springs were arched springs from a lift
kit, and my new springs are stock YJ replacements which are much flatter.
Lift & Flex
I think I gained about 5½" of lift with this setup. It clears 33" tires perfectly, with only
slight rubbing. I LOVE the width of these axles. It looks good and feels good. The width
also eliminated mytires rubbing on my springs, even though I moved my spring out a little.
Axle wrap is a problem. I will be adding an anti-wrap device of some kind because I can get wheel hope going
on steep climbs. I have already tweaked my springs from axle wrap. I think I can ramp about
780 with 32 pounds of air in the tires.
I think it will get better as the spings loosen up, but I'll need
different shocks then too, because mine are extending to near their limits.
Well that's about it. I've have had this together now a couple years (as of 3/24/2002) and
have had no problems other then mentioned above.
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Email: mike@mikesjeep.com
