84 Waggy 44 (drivers side diff)


Im lookn at ether cuttn the tube with a 4" pipe cutter or grind the welds arround the knuckles smack em back to the pinion angle i want, and weld em back with some high nickle rod.

How hard is it to grind the welds arround the knuckle? how deep is the penitration?

whactha all think?

Done it? any tricks? tips? helpful hints?

thanx yall!

i am pretty sure sillyneck has done this. mine are rotated but i got teh housng that way. :D

Drew

I've never had much luck just grinding the welds out and getting them to turn. (it's a very tight fit) I end up cutting a small kerf thru the sub-knuckle with a cut-off wheel or sawzall, so that they can spread a little. Then just vee out the kerf with a grinder and weld it back together when you weld them to the tube. If you grind them back to a square corner there is about a 1/16" of penetration. I just use a mig. to weld them back on, they are steel.

i have done a few and imo the best way is to grind the weld. it'll piss you off because those welds have really good penetration. you have to grind pretty deep into the tube and the knuckle. just grind until you can see the crack that forms a circle around the tube/knuckle. what the crack is is nothing more than showing you that the knuckle and tube are separated and the weld is gone. once you can see the crack all the way around get the BFH! i used caps for a reason. you need a big sledge hammer and i mean the big two handed jobbers. that is how i have done it. if you are setting the caster on a d44 then what i have done is remove the outer knuckle and slide a small wooden dowl through the holes where the ball joints go. the i hold a floating angle finder to that to tell me what the caster angle is. i have always set them to 8 degrees and had very good results. anyway hope this helps. :D

If you know what the caster is now you can determine the amount you need to rotate it by measuring the circumference of the tube and divide it by 360, that gives you the mesurement per degree, so if you want to add say 4 degrees just tap it around and measure between the cut you made in the sub-knuckle and the kerf you left in the tube (when you cut thru the sub-knuckle too far) ;) until you come up with the distance of 4 x whatever equals 1 deg.
I tried the BFH method and the torch w/ BFH method, and I started thinking how stupid I'd feel if I broke the pig hitting the knuck as hard as I can with a 10lb. maul.

they won't break. heck i had one side of a d44 one time that i thougt would never turn!!! i had the crack all the way around and everything. why it was suck a pita i hve no idea but i beat the $hit out of it. those knuckles are some pretty stout sheite. i never used a torch though. just a grinder and a BFH. :D

Just a little cut and you can use a 1 lb. hammer to gently tap it into perfect position.
I'm too old for that bfh crap anymore.

:D :D :D its all good... U do what you can then drink a :beer: :usa:

Originally posted by dirtrod
Just a little cut and you can use a 1 lb. hammer to gently tap it into perfect position.
I'm too old for that bfh crap anymore.

When a buddy of mine did his and another guys D44, he ground the weld out then BFH'd the yokes straight off the tube. Then reinstalled them at the proper angle. Seemed to be way easier than just trying to get the yoke to spin on the tube.

How long did this take a side? shold i prepare my self for a whole days PITA work?

It'll take a day to do both sides, if you want to do it right. Time to disassemble, grinding, setting angles, prepping, welding, re-assembly.

I took the grinder to the weld, you have to take off _alot_ of weld... Then get the biggest effing hammer you can find, I used a splitting maul... Then beat the hell out of it.

-J

Originally posted by SMART ASS
How long did this take a side? shold i prepare my self for a whole days PITA work?

it'll take you quite a WHILE, pick up a thin 1/8" disk for your angle grinder, don't put it on until you've used a 1/4" disk to cut all the weld down that you can. then switch to the 1/8" disk and cut into the face of the knuckle and the tube itself. those are the best welds i've personally tried to undo. fwiw ...it's been my experience that getting the knuckle off the tube is easier than getting it to rotate.

- jack

READ THIS (http://www.off-road.com/~jweed/twistaxl.htm)

I tried grinding and it was taking forever. After nearly giving up on the project I used a cutoff wheel on a grinder and cut as close to the knuckle as I could. Deep enough so I knew I was at least down to the tube all around (use a light and look in the groove you made and compare to the tube on the other side of the weld, it's easy). Once it was grooved all the way around the axle and deep enough all the way around I knocked the knuckle off the tube. Tried to rotate it and it just wasn't happening. It was much easier just to hit them straight off the tube. Once the knuckle was off I went back and ground the remaining weld and patched up any places where I ground too deep. In the meantime the knuckles were in the oven at 400 degrees. I installed the axle minus the knuckles and position the pinion where I wanted it, then tacked the perches. Brought out the knuckles and they slid right on with some light tapping with a hammer to position them. Gotta be quick because once the tube starts to heat up they're a tight fit again and this happens fast. Set to desired caster and move to the other side and repeat. Once they've cooled and they're where you want them weld them up. First side took me half a day trying to grind thru the weld, but once I broke out the cutoff wheel (1/8" grinding disc or whatever it is) it was off in about 15-20 minutes. Other side was off in about 15-20 minutes then too now that I knew how to do it :D Good luck!

Originally posted by SMART ASS
How long did this take a side? shold i prepare my self for a whole days PITA work?

On the last one I did it took me about 45 minutes to grind, take the knuckles off put back on and tack in place... I welded it up on another day...took maybe 30 minutes... So all in all it took about and hour and half....its easy. :D

Originally posted by morpheus


it'll take you quite a WHILE, pick up a thin 1/8" disk for your angle grinder, don't put it on until you've used a 1/4" disk to cut all the weld down that you can. then switch to the 1/8" disk and cut into the face of the knuckle and the tube itself. those are the best welds i've personally tried to undo. fwiw ...it's been my experience that getting the knuckle off the tube is easier than getting it to rotate.

- jack

LOL, you must have been having alot of :beer: :beer: breaks... I cut and turned a D44 in an hour and a half....

I'm glad I saw this post. I'm going to need to do the same thing. I had thought of just cutting off the knuckles, sacrafice an inch or two on each side, have a machinist mill it out and reweld on. I guess if you have a wider than need housing it would be fine but I guess not everyone has that.

What I have found is to get a fullsize f-250 DANA 44 HP axle and cut the knuckles off with a chop saw or sawzall and I made a jig to put in my lathe and I turn down the weld with a cutting tool and "pop" the knuckle off the tube with a wack of a hammer....WORKS KILLER...Then you can take the necessary lenths off the tube to match the "Wagoner" width then you get the right WMS to WMS and get a spring over HP to boot......:p :D :beer:

yeah I'll stick it in my lathe, oh wait a min, I wish.

Fuk, i just started on the pass side, man what a bug PITA!!!

Hammered for about a 1/2 hr on the SOB, ground the piss outa the weld joint and housing and knuckle... Im about to say fukit, go buy a 4" round pipe cutter, slice the tubing, but some 3" ID tubing to sleve over the origional housing for more security when all is put back together... Whatcha think???

I rotated mine 12 degrees. Grind into the knuckle and not so much the tube until you can see the crack all of the way around. I also found it easier to hammer the knuckle out and then pound it around, tapping it back in when I got close and then making the final adjsutments. It took me about 4 hours to do mine. You don't have to use nickel rod. It is not necessary a mig will work just fine, preheat the knuckle a bit for added penetration.

Originally posted by SMART ASS
How long did this take a side? shold i prepare my self for a whole days PITA work?


To get the first knuckle off it took me about two hours. The second knuckle took me about thirty minutes. It isn't that hard to do and you will learn quickley what to do and what not to do.

Originally posted by liveaxle

It isn't that hard to do and you will learn quickley what to do and what not to do.

Any tips?

Originally posted by SMART ASS


Any tips?

Cut more into the knuckle and less into the tube. the weld penetrates about 1/4" into what you THINK is the edge of the knuckle, just keep grinding. Bigger hammer.

-J

Originally posted by SMART ASS


Any tips?

i ground alot myself before begining to hammer, first i try to hit the knuckle off the tube, (not really off, just enough to see a crack starting all the way around) once you have a visible line/crack all the way around then try to rotate it with a big hammer.......
this is how much i ground,

Originally posted by 3/4tonYJ


i ground alot myself before begining to hammer, first i try to hit the knuckle off the tube, (not really off, just enough to see a crack starting all the way around) once you have a visible line/crack all the way around then try to rotate it with a big hammer.......
this is how much i ground,

ditto this is exactly how i did my 60. i used a makita 4" and tried to get all of my grinding into the face of the knuckle instead of down into the tube. just keep grinding. the first side took all day because i was going very slow trying to find the crack and the second side about 45 min total grinding. wd40 the outside of the knuckle/tube and you can see the crack easier inside the grind. i had my spring pads done at this point so i installed the housing under the truck with ubolts and used the weight of the truck to hold the housing firm on jackstands. hit the knuckle with a rosebud for a minute or 2, then beat the knuckle to the proper angle. the actual grinding is only about 5% of the whole job when you consider you have to r&r the housing and completely disassemble the knuckles etc...