Scored on a complete 78 f250 Dana 44 yesterday. My question is... When I cut the inner C's off to set the castor to 6-7* (for my TJ), then weld them back on. Will I still be able to use the stock axle shafts or have to go with custom shafts??? Thanks

*Newbie getting into flame suit*

Turning the knuckles has nothing to do with changing the length of the axle shafts.

Stock shafts should still fit.

OK...thanks

...cut the inner C's off ... then weld them back on...

How exactly do you plan on doing this? Do you plan to butt weld it together or cut then press out the piece and press the C back on. Butt welding will allow you to keep the axle shaft but will be weaker.

I'd grind the old weld off the C then turn w/ a hammer to the correct caster. It's a little more work but the axle will stay the same length and you won't have a weak weld that can break (or be misaligned)

Unless you're just gung-ho about cutting the C's off...why even bother.

I put one of those HP44's ('78 F250) in my TJ & didn't even fawk with it. Of course mine is not a daily driver, but here's my reasoning.

I know factory sets the castor @ 6-7 degrees, but I've talked to some axle builders that say 4-6 degrees works well on TJ's.

So I just set the spring perches & every other bracket on the axle level, while maintaing 4 Degrees of caster & then just installed the axle with the spring perches sitting level.

As far as worrying about the driveshaft angles, who cares....it's a High Pinion & now it's only spinning when the hubs are locked in (In the dirt going under 10 mph)

If you really care about everything being "perfect" you'd want to get new inner shafts anyways b/c IIRC the pinion will be a little offset to one side with the fullwidth HP44, therefore you'd need to cut one of the sides down a bit.

thanks for the tip TJKen.....it's mainly my toy now, with very little to none DD. Don't plan on cutting it down either. I can live with going 4*