There are some people that seem to know this sort of stuff, so I thought I'd through out this brain teaser.

Some years ago I bought a Dana 44 and 14 bolt FF from an aquantice of mine, and swung them under my '84 K20. They were (supposedly) sourced from the same vehicle, I think he told me '74 3/4ton. But I remember having trouble trying to order parts for the axles, so I am thinking he had the year wrong.

To the point, I have a dana 44 front with the large spicer 6 bolt hubs, and the tie rod is made up of a short right hand side and a long ass left hand side. Does this limit the axle to any specific year? :confused:

Thanks in advance.

73-76 is where they used the external hubs.
I have an LMC catalog in front of me and it says that there are 3 designs for the tie rod.
1st design 73-76 had offset tie rod ends.
2nd design 76-80 had straight tie rod ends.
81-87 has 2 short tie rods and an adjusting tube.
AFAIK up till 76 was the 1st design spindles and hubs.
and 77 started the 2nd design, with internal hubs and different sized spindles and bearings.

Here is some info on D44's that Wes gave out on CK5 awile ago.

1. Backing plates are ALL diffferent. Both 1/2 and 3/4 ton for both designs are NOT the same thing. 3/4 tons are larger diameter than the 1/2 tons. There are currently 6 different types of backing plates. The 1/2 ton has the 73-76, 77-80, and 81-91. 3/4 ton is the same years, but only bigger around.

2. Bearing hub and rotors are different. There are 4 types. 73-76 use a smaller wheel bearing on both the 1/2 and 3/4 ton. The 1/2 ton bearing hub is an internal drive. 3/4 tons were available in both the internal and external drives. 77 and newer bearing hubs are the same size wheel bearing. 1/2 and 3/4 tons are all internal drives. The differences in the rotor diameter is the fact that the 3/4 tons are larger around than the 1/2 tons. This is why the backing plates are larger around than the 1/2 tons. If you use a 1/2 ton backing plate on a 3/4 ton rotor, the caliper will NOT even align up with the bolts. If the 1/2 ton rotor is used with the 3/4 ton backing plates, the caliper will NOT have enough pad contact with the rotor.

3. Spindles. 73-76 are one type only. They are "first design" small bearings. 1/2 and 3/4 ton spindles are interchangable. 77-91 spindles are "second design" and all interchangable between 1/2 and 3/4 tons. You cannot use a first design spindle with a second design bearing hub & rotor. The hub will wobble in place. If the second design spindle is used with a first design bearing hub, the hub will not even go on at all.

Thanks powermad, sounds like I have a 'first design' set-up.

BTW, anyone know if the Detroit Electrac will ever be out? I heard they were developing it for D44 and D60s, but some time ago.

Yep, you have the first generation design. I am running the same setup on one of my jeeps. The only thing I don't like about that design is the cost of the big spicer locking hubs. Ford also used the same hub, rotor, and lockout for a number of years.