I am building my YJ and as I gather parts I found some really nice stuff out, so I thought Id share.

14 bolt from cab and chassis dually 62in. wms to wms
stock yj 60.5 in. wms to wms

14 bolt (same as above) spring perches 40in. center to center
stock yj rear spring perches 40in. center to center

d44 chevy front axle 69in. wms to wms narrow dr. tube 3.5in and stock 80-84 waggy long side fits, shorten pass. side 3.9in. and stock 73-79 waggy front short side or scout d44 front short side fits for a total of 61.6 front axle width.
stock yj 60in. wms to wms and chevy spring perches center to center 31.5in. stock and YJ front spring perches 31.5in. stock.

Talk about making it easy to run 8lug stuff. The nice thing about the 14bolt is it still uses the same length axleshaft as the single wheel very common one as well as brakes and so on. The only difference is the housing and the bearing hub for the dually is longer.Just thought Id let you Yj builders know.

My brain hurts.........especially about the Front Axle. Thanks for the gouge though!

:beer:

Originally posted by wheelinjp
d44 chevy front axle 69in. wms to wms narrow dr. tube 3.5in


This must be a 3/4 ton Dana 44. I have a 1/2 ton Chevy 44 and the axle tube diameter is 2.75 inches, same as a Jeep 44.

Don't forget that 14 bolt weighs ~550 LBS. I put one in my K5 and had to sew my nuts back into my scrotum afterwords :eek . You can swap the spindle and and hub with a 3/4 ton version to shorten it up and do a disk brake swap will save you a bunch of weight. There is a couple of guys selling disk brake brackets cheap for the 14 bolts on coloradok5.com, look for misfit.. Good luck!

The cab and chasis 14 bolt is actually 63" wms/wms.
It is easy to swap to discs.
Detroits only cost $300 for them.
They are very tough.

Why go through all of that hassle of swapping axle tubes on a Chevy D44?
Just by a late model Grand Wagoneer. They have a 60 1/2" wms/wms, and a driver side drop. Just swap 8 lug hubs and rotors on it.

What year cab and chassis is the 63" wms to wms? Disks will bring it down to a feather weight 450 LBS :D .

For a front a 77.5-79 Ford 3/4 ton RC44 is Driverside drop with the spring pads at 31.5 and has flat top knuckles.

Originally posted by H8monday

Why go through all of that hassle of swapping axle tubes on a Chevy D44?
Just by a late model Grand Wagoneer. They have a 60 1/2" wms/wms, and a driver side drop. Just swap 8 lug hubs and rotors on it.

and by switching it to 8 lug you will widen it a little making a perfect match for the 14 bolt rear :cool:

Originally posted by cmegoup



This must be a 3/4 ton Dana 44. I have a 1/2 ton Chevy 44 and the axle tube diameter is 2.75 inches, same as a Jeep 44.

That was shorten the tube not the tube diameter.The chevy tube is 2.75 for the heavy wall housing or 3.in for the standard.

Originally posted by NE-RokToy


and by switching it to 8 lug you will widen it a little making a perfect match for the 14 bolt rear :cool:

I am running a th350/d20 or d300 with a pass drop but you are right then I just get a wide track waggy front pass. drop and put chevy 8lug outers and presto I have a 62in. wide d44 and all that is left is the machining for the spring perch. I wonder if the pinion is set at a diff. angle with the spring under though? I have a waggy housing out back Ill have to check. I can always rotate the knuckles.

Damn it again two people in the same house on the board is annoying. The last two posts were ME AGAIN Wheelinjp.

Yah, I was wondering when you were gonna stop shaking your money makers:D

I dunno about the rest of the YJ crowd but my donor YJ frame's front spring spacing was not 31.5" I think it was closer to 30.5" ?? I don't remember exactly. I know I had to outboard the springs a tad to fit the 31.5" spacing on my Waggy front 44 (which is stock 32" spacing, I made it 31.5" for a future GM swap). The Ford front 44's are practically a bolt-on but I don't know what their spring spacing is. Plus GM fronts are passenger's side drop and YJ's are setup for driver's side drop like the Ford has. The newer Waggy axles with driver's side drop are a real nice choice for YJ's IMO, but if you're after the full-width stuff without changng the t-case then go Ford front all the way. 44 or 60 it's gonna be a high pinion and as stated you don't have to move the springs. Keith Strong, Kevin Massey, and I think Loppy have Ford fronts in their YJ's??


Edit:
Sorry Dean, I missed your reply. You positive about that Ford spring spacing? I thought Dodge stuff is 32", Chevy is 31.5", and Ford is around 30.75" range but I'm going from memory so I could be wrong about these numbers.

I will make a note to check it but I think so. I could be going on what I have heard and not on what it realy is so I will check it out this weekend.

I think 31.5 might be correct Dave. The front roll around axle in the yj is a ford d44 and the spring pads line up. I will still measure.

Originally posted by wheelinjps_gal


I am running a th350/d20 or d300 with a pass drop but you are right then I just get a wide track waggy front pass. drop and put chevy 8lug outers and presto I have a 62in. wide d44 and all that is left is the machining for the spring perch. I wonder if the pinion is set at a diff. angle with the spring under though? I have a waggy housing out back Ill have to check. I can always rotate the knuckles.

There is no wide track wagoneer. The so-called wide track axles were Cherokee Chiefs and J-trucks. They are around 65" wide in the 6-lug variety and 67" wide in the 8-lug. '74 + Wagoneers are 60.5" wide, add 8-lug outers to get 62.5". '79 and earlier are passenger pig, '80 and newer are driver's pig.

Wagoneer housing has about 6 degrees of caster with the pinion at 0 degrees.

"14 bolt from cab and chassis dually 62in. wms to wms
stock yj 60.5 in. wms to wms

14 bolt (same as above) spring perches 40in. center to center
stock yj rear spring perches 40in. center to center"

What year GM trucks used this setup? Are they spring over or spring under?

Thanks.

"For a front a 77.5-79 Ford 3/4 ton RC44 is Driverside drop with the spring pads at 31.5 and has flat top knuckles."

How wide is this WMS to WMS? Also is it SOA or SUA?

Thanks.

Hello Newbie:flipoff2:

Ok since thats out of the way, the cab and chassis 14bolt is acctually 63in. wms to wms. It is a spring over as is the ford. As far as the year I would say 74 to 87 to be safe. Mine is from an 84.I am not positive on the spring perch distance on the ford stuff and I acctually came up with 31in on my yj but I could be wrong. For a stock t-case set up on the yj yes the high pinion 73 to 79 ford 3/4ton with flat tops and discs would be a great axle. I measured my roller axle(d448lug drum brake closed knuckle ford used to move the project around)and it is 69in wms to wms.

FWIW, I measured my YJ frame this weekend at 30.75" up front. :beer:

Originally posted by wheelinjp
Hello Newbie:flipoff2:

Ok since thats out of the way, the cab and chassis 14bolt is acctually 63in. wms to wms. It is a spring over as is the ford. As far as the year I would say 74 to 87 to be safe. Mine is from an 84.

OK, I didn't realize the D44 was that wide and closed knuckle/drum brake, so that is out. I think I saw a 14 bolt that looked like it was what you were talking about. I believe my tape measure and I are going to go and check it out this weekend.

I would probably just go with a waggy D44 with 8 lug outers so I would have a matching pattern..

Thanks.