Ok, I don't have a Chevy, but I'm repalcing my narrowed D44 front end (out of a blazer) with a full-width one. My question is regarding the strength of the axle shafts. If any of you have driven on the rocks, are they prone to breakage? Should I go ahead and pay the $$ now for alloys or will the stock shafts hold up for me? I'll be running a locker in the front w/ 37 SSR's and probably 38 SX's this summer. When I swap a V8 in, I plan on upgrading the shafts, but that won't be for a little while. I'd like to keep costs down for now, as much as possible. Thanx

The weak link is the 5-297 joints. Look at General 4x4 for plenty of info on the slightly stronger 5-760 & CTM joints.

Right-o on that. To give you an idea of how strong it is compared to how weak people like to say that they are, here is an example of what it took to break one in my case:

I was stuck in a hole up to my hood in a hard-flowing river once, nothing but mud all the way up to my fenders in a 1997 4Runner one time. My budy in his blazer with a 10-bolt front (same shaft as as a d44) came out to pull me out but we didn't have a winch handy at the time. He was on shore pulling me against the current because there was no other place he could pull from. After about 20 minutes of not moving my truck an inch we decided to start snatching it. He has a 350 that is BUILT. We're talking over 500 hp and a similar torque and he was backing up about 10 yards and then just dropping the hell out of his clutch. He was getting it so hard that I thought his frame was going to bend! (It might have.) After about 40 minutes of hard snatching like that with the locker in the front and 4wd engaged, he finally managed to pull me out of the hole I was in, but only to FINALLY break a front u-joint, which took both the inner and outer shafts with it. BTW, he was running 36" TSL Radials.

J. J.

Thanks guys. I was already planning on getting the bigger ujoints form Jess. I think that you have to run alloys for the ctm's and they're $$$$$. I've pretty much decided on running an ARB in the front, hoping that it'll reduce some breakage, since it'll only be locked when I need it.

Well im going to say it really depends on what vehicle you are using it in.I broke one of everything on my d-44 on my 3/4 ton chevy truck.Im running a 383 stroker and 38's and welded the front and guess what the only thing that never broke was the u-joints!The axle shafts broke the carrier broke and the ring gear broke.I wouldnt recommend a dana 44 to my worst enemy for the rocks.And I wouldnt really use one on jeep or toyota if 36's or bigger and a locker are in your plans.Just my .02

ditto, I wouldn't use a 44 in the rocks without beefing up the shafts and UJ's unless you are running 33" tires and no lockers