Hey I have a line on a 77 dodge military dana 44, I am currently going through a rebuild and I am going full width SOA, I was just wondering if there is any significant differences between this dodge 44 and lets say a chevy, I already know that it is passenger side drop and that is what I want because I am putting in a 350 with a sm465 and 203 transfer . Any help would be appreciated thanks.

if it's a full time axle, YOU DON'T WANT IT!
they have the crappy unit bearings like yj/tj/xj's

if you want to convert to part-time just ditch everything from the Cs out, and swap on chevy stuff. use the dodge inner axles and the chevy stubs. if you want to keep 5 on 5.5" pattern, use ford 1/2 ton rotors, then you could just use a full width 9" for the rear.;)

don't know about yours but my 70's dodge 3/4 ton front 44 has 2 studs instead of a u bolt on the pass side perch and they have cause me some probs, One was i had to make a spring plate for it cause the pumpkin is right there and had to cut the plate to fit, not to hard but i had to do it twice because i made it from 1/2 inch plate then when i went to put my waggy springs on between the pack and the plate there wasn't enough room on the studs to fully screw on a nut so i had to make it from 1/4 plate. But now i have to put some shims in to bring the pinion up and that means the studs will be to short again because of the shim. So i plan on takeing the bottom leaf out of the waggy pack to thin the setup down a little.
Also the spring perch distance is wider than a chevy, i think it was 33 center pin to center pin where a chevy is 31. I had to outbard my springs 1 inch on eaach side to fit the axle {in a YJ}
I didn't remember to measure the shafts when i had them out so i don't know if warn make alloy shafts for it.
Dodge uses some wierd u-joints on the pinion yoke also so i had to get some conversion joint that was 1310 on the driveshaft and something else just a nanometer bigger on the yoke side. no biggie but still..
o think thats it.
i will be finding a chevy 44 when i do my frame swap

Originally posted by Sundowner
if it's a full time axle, YOU DON'T WANT IT!
they have the crappy unit bearings like yj/tj/xj's
Really, How many Dodge Dana 44 have you run?

I tore apart a 77 dodge FT axle just a while ago and I wouldn't want it for lack of parts flexibility, if nothing else

the only problem is nobody knows how to properly service the unit bearings. in a jeep the dodge axle would last a long time. its the full time drive that i see is the only problem with this axle. parts are everywhere from parts houses to wrecking yards. everyone gives these things away. if you ran an open diff and it wasn't a daily driver, i dont see the problem :beer: