Has anybody shaved a Dana 44? I'm running them front and rear and am looking for suggestions before I pull the grinder out. My main concern is not fawking with the cooling of the diff. It's not a trailer queen, so it sees some road miles.

i'd be interested if this is possible too...

why shave the 44? What size tires are you running? Honestly shaving a 44 is not as common as shaving bigger axles, since 44's normally have weaker housing setups than let's say a 14 bolt. No I am not talking tube diameter only here.

You can shave and plate pretty much anything, but consider shavingthe 44 ver ylightly not to compromise the overall structure.

Was running 35s, running tall 33s right now. Trying to get as much clearance as possible while keeping the rig short enough to fit in parking garage.

I've got a belly-up and am planning the next project -- raising the gas tank. After that, the diffs are the only thing getting beat on the rocks around here. I could fix that by going to 37" tires, but trying to avoid that on this rig.
Might just have to get the sawzall out and make room for them. :evil:

I really think youll need the sawzall instead.
I agree with Geberhard 110% on this one, there is hardly any meat on the bottom of that diff already, hell, i recently ADDED steel plating to the bottom of my 44 due to the amount of steel i already dragged off of it on the rocks.

CB

Have you ever seen the inside of a 44. There really isnt anything to be shaved. How much groung clearence do you feel your going to gain by shaving your 44.

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=365232

You might want to flat fender the front and rear to gain additional clearance and maybe look into installing longer shock mounts. I am running 33's now with a 4" lift on a YJ and I will be able to fit 35's and 37's no problem after I get all of the trimming done that I want. Just a suggestion.

Matt

i gained 1 inch clearance and a flat bottom on my 44 by shafing it.....has dan 30 clearance now :) send me an e mail for pics sk84x4@adelphia.net the hardest part is building another bolt hole for the bottom bolt you cut off and rebuilding the diff cover.......

Spinner -- thanks, email sent. Nice website, btw. :cool2:

I "shaved" some off the bottom of my 44's. I mostly did it to smooth out the bottom of the housing. If you get rid of the things that a rock can snag on then it will usually slide right over. You can do this without removing much meat too.

I can truthfully say that after running for 3 or 4 years on my cj-5 with 44s and 33s, 36s I was only hung up once on the rear diff, all I had todo was back up and move to the right about an inch.

With a 44, if your getting hung up on it, then I think you need to learn where your diff is and correct your driving style. Sure shaving it will help some but Why?

if it was a sixty or a 14 bolt then sure.

your not driving in big enough rocks :) if your 44 is not getting hung up with 36's.....

I "shaved" some off the bottom of my 44's. I mostly did it to smooth out the bottom of the housing. If you get rid of the things that a rock can snag on then it will usually slide right over. You can do this without removing much meat too.

I've done this already. I think I can probably do another 1/4" or so without just saying the hell with it and whacking the bottom of the diff off and welding a plate to it.

I'm dangerous with an angle grinder and a welder (newb at welding but I'm practicing alot :evil: ). So far, I've resisted temptation to hack up the body much as it's a DD and still fairly purty (I think rock-scars are purty).

Be careful on teh usage of "purty", thsi is PBB, hehe :)

I personally would not cut a 44 much, maybe some grinding, etc.

Good luck and keep us posted

gui

Be careful on teh usage of "purty", thsi is PBB, hehe :)

I personally would not cut a 44 much, maybe some grinding, etc.

Good luck and keep us posted

gui

It was intentional, but I suppose I should have added :rainbow: to it. . . hehe

I just fawkin' like jeeps and don't care how f-ed up the body is, OK? :flipoff2:

Will do, planning on pulling out the grinder this weekend. My trigger finger's itchy and if I don't cut the diffs I'm liable to mess up and hit the front fenders instead. :evil:

I believe Cody Wagoneer ran shaved on his comp cj5. Will ask Jason next time in at tricounty

haha, No I just know how to drive is all..

hahah I knew Steve woudl have a good comeback, lol :)

Hey, careful with that grinder :D http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v256/geberhard/1ouchfinger.jpg

I hear ya man. Be careful with the flapper discs too!

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f180/lewismd71/Finger.jpg

carefull with cut off wheels too, 6 stitches in my wrist...funny thing was it was a real clean cut, no blood, i think the heat cauterized it:)

definitely with the cut-off wheels. I cut right index finger and got a tendon. About 10 stitches (5 in finger, 5 in tendon) and it took about 3 months of therapy to get 90% movement back.

spinner - if you want, I can post the pics. Let me know and I'll send an e-mail to the send them to.

I don't remember how much space there is in a D44 to trim away but I shaved my 9". I've also thought about shaveing my F250 front D44. If I could gain an inch in the front I would do it. Will it weaken the housing I don't know, I haven't seen any posts saying theyve broken??

If you follow the link in Kwrangln's post, that is the axle I did it is about 4.2 inches from the axle centerline to the bottom of the housing.
http://members.cox.net/john.filbert/Mvc-017s.jpg

there is a lot of room to be shaved, you just have to trim up the ring gear a little and do some extensive cover modifications but it is a LOT of clearance.....dana 60 strength, dana 30 clearance

Well, I'm not ready to grind down my ring gears, so I settled for grinding down the bottom of the diff. Gained about 1/4" and have a smooth surface to glide over. I ground until I hit the bottom bolt holding the cover and guard on.

definitely with the cut-off wheels. I cut right index finger and got a tendon. About 10 stitches (5 in finger, 5 in tendon) and it took about 3 months of therapy to get 90% movement back.

spinner - if you want, I can post the pics. Let me know and I'll send an e-mail to the send them to.
sk84x4@adelphia, shoot me an e mail and ill send a couple pics yoour way :) thanks!

can anyone show me some pics of how you shaved your ring gear? I dont really know how you would go about it... Educate a noob

taken from NAXJA

http://www.naxja.org/forum/showpost.php?p=364457&postcount=28

Some stuff to cut off:
http://www.fototime.com/%7BE8EF2B0B-7FF5-4375-BEA5-00361E6019F7%7D/picture.JPG

...gained 3/8" after some cutoff wheel and Sawzall work...
http://www.fototime.com/%7B3D34ECA8-E000-4BFA-A250-6C74AE33FD53%7D/picture.JPG

Added some plate to fill the valley between the two ribs...
http://www.fototime.com/%7B04561F01-A329-4205-97E2-3797FA451A27%7D/picture.JPG

...made the bottom nice and flat.

can anyone show me some pics of how you shaved your ring gear? I dont really know how you would go about it... Educate a noob

This is the best pic I have of it

http://members.cox.net/john.filbert/Mvc-016s.jpg

It was accomplished by chucking the ring gear up into a lathe and then using an angle grinder on it as it turned. Do yourself a favor don't even try a carbide bit to turn the outside down, a ring gear is WAY to hard for that. Your really just trying to get the outside diameter down a bit without getting anywhere near where the teeth actually make contact.