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Scout II axle, upside down and backwards?


prerunner

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I've had this weird idea lately about taking a Scout II Dana 44 steer axle (yeah, I know. Right hand pumpkin...) mounting it upside down and backwards to make a leaf sprung SAS. Break the welds to the spindles, flip the spindles and index camber before rewelding. Change the ring and pinion to reverse rotation. Weld the vent closed, redrill on the new top. Just backyard rocket science.
The Scout II axle is 58 1/2" wms to wms and are still cheap while early Bronco axles are rare. Scout axles have disc brakes and are a 5 on 5 1/2" bolt pattern. The only downside I can see is the Dana 30 outers. The pumpkin would be further left than a Ford Dana 44.
Can I flip an axle and turn it into a reverse rotation from standard?
:icon_confused:
 
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snoranger

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4.0B2

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IMO it's to much work to be worth it even if it would work.
With d30 outers, you might as well use a d30.

Or just find a ford HP d44.
 

Sasquatch_Ryda

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Still wouldn't work....you cannot make a low pinion housing a high pinion by just swapping reverse cut gears.....


Just No.
 

prerunner

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That sucks. :bawling:

On a related topic, does anyone wanna buy a Dana 44 out of a Scout?
 

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You could cut the tubes off and weld them on the opposite sides. I have a friend that did this for a fjCruiser. Not a scout 44. But it's doable. ALOT OF WORK AND NOT WORTH IT TO ME. you need jigs and stuff to make sure you get the axle back straight.

They took a rubi44 and swapped it around for the FJ. Turned out to be a nice setup.
Personally I'd find a ford HP d44
 

prerunner

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I had two votes no so I did some research and found a great article on axle swapping. http://77cj.littlekeylime.com/Dana44_2.htm Its aimed at Jeep guys but the information is almost entirely about Ford Dana 44's. Well, Sasquatch_Ryda and snoranger were absolutely correct but didn't give specific reasons why it wouldn't work. This explained it.
Under "General Misconceptions" at the bottom of the page: "2: "If I would take a Chevy (passenger-side drop) flip it to a drivers-side drop and rotate the knuckles 180 degrees, That would make it Hi-pinion and reverse cut correct?"
Wrong, the Dana 44 Reverse Spiral has a special designed housing to keep the pinion bearings lubed. You can not flip an axle to make it a Reverse Spiral, not mention the fact the flipped axle would run backwards.
3: "Can I use reverse cut gears in a regular housing?"
NO! You can not interchange gears between a regular and reverse spiral housing. You can however interchange the carrier
So the answer was an unequivocal NO. It would not work.
But, it did point me towards the F150 extended cab axle from 1976 to 1979 and similar F250 housing, same era for my SAS swap.
Thanks guys for your input. :)
 

snoranger

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Well, Sasquatch_Ryda and snoranger were absolutely correct but didn't give specific reasons why it wouldn't work.
You didnt ask for reasons, you asked if it would work. Either one of us could have told you why not. :D
 

prerunner

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You didnt ask for reasons, you asked if it would work. Either one of us could have told you why not. :D
True. But learning that it wouldn't work made me want to know why it wouldn't work. Learning that it would run backwards and not lubricate the pinion seal was a part of the learning process. Now, if asked, the answer is no and here's why.
I would have dropped it entirely except for the swap info on the link I included. I wanted to share that. :icon_cheers:
 

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