dana 44 full width question

[mtipton]

okay well I've searched but have found nothing that fully answers my question.
so i can get my hands on a 1978 dana 44 from a f-150 with coils radius arms and the works. I was curious as how do you get the coils to line up with the axle and the bucket seeing as how the fullwidth will be a wider axle than my dana 35

 

[Maverick]

You have to space the coil buckets out from the frame with that axle. If you had an earlier axle (77 and down) without the cast wedges, you could move the wedges further in on the axle.

 

[mtipton]

Okay that makes sense, how much wider is the Dana 44 than the Dana 35 I have now

 

[Maverick]

Right around 6" IIRC.

 

[ThatGuy]

I used the JD coil buckets that have 3/4" offset built into them and moved the lower coil retainers in 3/4". I let the coil take up the rest.

 

[mtipton]

thats something ill have to look into, but seeing as the axle is from a 78 i wont be able to move the lower retainer correct? seeing as it is a cast piece

 

[ThatGuy]

The coil retainer bolts onto the cap/radius arm. I just drilled new holes in 3/4" and bolted it on. You could go 1" but I wouldn't go more than that because of the stress. My axle is a '78 also, the only cast part is the actual wedges.

 

[mtipton]

thanks for the help, are you using the coil spring retainers from JD also?

 

[ThatGuy]

Yes, but you can use the factory ones. I've just had too many coils come undone and decided to use the Duff ones instead.

 

[mtipton]

cool thanks for the help, another question is what did you do about the trac bar for the steering

 

[ThatGuy]

what did you do about the trac bar for the steering

Ah, that's the $64,000 question........

I have a prototype JD bolt-on track-bar bracket. Not ready to be released to the public yet, but it's coming. I've beat on it and am hoping to prove myself in a rock crawl competition on Friday of this week.

Here's the thread----http://www.therangerstation.com/forums/showthread.php?t=79240

 

[mtipton]

sick explorer, from what i understand is JD releasing a SAS kit? somewhat similar to the one you are currently using?

 

[ThatGuy]

This is true. The actual "kit" isn't available yet but you can buy all the parts except for the track bar mount and the shock hoops. Tony Raine (a member here) just purchased everything and installed it on his B2 and has some pics in his build thread. I was the guinea pig for the kit and am still testing it for them.

 

[mtipton]

Do you have a link to his build thread? I'm curious to see what he used for the trac bar

 

[Tony Raine]

link is in my sig!

mine is definitely a "work in progress". I'm sure I'll make a few more mistakes before its all done, haha.


oh yeah, if my math is correct....

if you started with an RBV axle with 15x10 rims with 4" backspacing and 12.5" wide tires, and swapped in a fullwidth 44 with the same tires, but on 15x8 rims with 4" BS....

you will have tires that only stick out about 2" more than your previous setup (on each side).