I have a 77 chevy suburban 4x4 with eight lugs. I tring to fined out what axles it has. Are they dana 44 or what. I searched all over this page and could not fined anything. Can someone help!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Originally posted by edwardsteiger
I have a 77 chevy suburban 4x4 with eight lugs. I tring to fined out what axles it has. Are they dana 44 or what. I searched all over this page and could not fined anything. Can someone help!!!!!!!!!!!!! most likely a 44, thats a good front end:D

I'm pretty sure that truck could have come with either Dana 44 or Corporate 10 bolt (8.5" ring gear). Here is the best way to find out what you have.
http://coloradok5.com/axleguide.shtml

THANKS FOR THE HELP!!!!!

Originally posted by BadDog
I'm pretty sure that truck could have come with either Dana 44 or Corporate 10 bolt (8.5" ring gear). Here is the best way to find out what you have.
http://coloradok5.com/axleguide.shtml

1) I can't believe that you don't know which one it came with.

2) I can't believe this joker isn't getting flamed for asking this question!

This BBS is DEFINATELY no longer the BBS I joined.

J. J.

Originally posted by patooyee
1) I can't believe that you don't know which one it came with.
J. J.
So, perhaps you can enlighten me? I'm not sure which but, I beleive it was either 77 or 78 that was the transition year from 44s to 10s and either axle could be found in the front of the 1/2 tons. Not sure about the 3/4 tons but I'm guessing that's the same hit or miss situation, although maybe a different transition year. As for "knowing" what the specific transition year (or years) were, I've got better things to do that keep up with crap like that. If I'm right, and 77 was the transition year, then you can't answer the question any more than I can.

As for flaming, you and the others can handle that well enough. I've seen some pretty stupid GM questions (from my perspective) that were asked by well respected members here. Nobody (including me or you) flamed them for it. Generally those "stupid" newbie questions were posted by Toy or Jeep (or whatever) people who bought (or were buying) a GM tow rig and had no clue about what was what or how to tell what they had. Same sort of questions I would ask about Jeeps or Toys if I were to try one of those for my next project. So, flame away if that is what you want to do.

You tell him Bad Dog, no biscut for you.:p :usa: :beer: :beer: :beer:

the chev forum has not been the flame centre that General has, in my experience.

Still, it was one of those questions that can be found either by searching or in the Pirate Bible.

The transition year is 1978. I've seen both 10-bolts and d44's in the '78 axles. If it's a 1977 axle, it's a d44.

J. J.

No you're wrong, I lived throught the change and it was 76 1/2. For chevys. GMC's ran dana's through the end. And yes you find chevys with them after that time. When the chevy plant ran out of 10bs they'd use danas. Just like my K20 was supose to have a T400 but came with a T350.

Yeah, good luck on searching to find that answer, especially when you don't already have a pretty good idea what your looking for. There is not even a clear cut answer. After somem ore siniffing around it does appear that 10 bolts can be found in 77s (maybe even in 76 based on what was just posted) and 44 can and have been found factory installed in trucks up to around 80. So, there are a range of "transition years". You are right about the Pirate Bible, it might be in there, I didn't think about it and I don't know, right now I'm to tired and lazy to look from beating myself to death working out some problems on the rear part of my new buggy cage...

Honestly, I do wish the GM board were "hard core", but the sad truth is that you don't see much hard core stuff in here. Hell, you don’t see much of anything at all in here… The good stuff is on the general board. Seems like most of what we get in here are guys interested in info on their tow rigs, weekend camping haulers, or maybe people new to full sizes (hard to tell whether there new to 4x4 in general or not sometimes). Yeah, we could "flame" them out to "keep it pure" but, much like the Nazis, we wouldn't have much left in here if we did manage to "clean it out" to your standards. Like I said, flame away, bitch at me for answering, or do whatever you like. I’ll answer what I choose if I choose and you can do as you like. Honestly, one significant reason I answer questions like that in here is that Paul asked us all to do what we could to build up the GM forum…

Oh, and since your on flame Patrol Patooyee, you should probably check this (http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=65721) thread and a few others in general, they obviously need flaming too. Looks SeaBass44 needs you to enlighten him on when he should answer too...

Originally posted by BadDog
Oh, and since your on flame Patrol Patooyee, you should probably check this (http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=65721) thread and a few others in general, they obviously need flaming too. Looks SeaBass44 needs you to enlighten him on when he should answer too...

I was posting there but my computer crashed and I didn't feel like re-writing the post. :) Not on patrol, just call them when I see them.

I knew there were some cases of d44's earlier than 78 and 10 bolts before 78, but for the most part, 78 was the transition year. Everyone I've ever heard from has agreed on this.

J. J.

so the above list of respondants are not in your list of everyone.

the pirate bible is a joke, more misinformation then facts.
they didnt update it when I sent them the facts in regards to the sm465 gearing.
so when the easy stuff is kinda fuzzy for accuracy you dont want to go trusting it for the hard stuff.
if anyone can find me a 1.57 third geared 465 I am very interested in buying it.

I've owned several '73-'87 Chevy's, and wrenched on several more, for a while there, everyone I knew wheeled one, and everything I've seen points to a mid year '77 switch from the Dana 44 to the Corp 10-bolt. These trucks get switched around and rebuilt almost as much as flat fender Jeeps, so don't be surprised to see all sorts of discomboobilations.

I know of 1 case of an OE D44 in a '79 Jimmy. I've heard that GMC made the switch later than Chevy.

So why is this BB so much about flaming & not about helping people out?

I am trying to build a 4X4 & it's my first experience with 4WD's. I would like to learn how to build it so it can handle some of the stuff I see pics of on here, but I won't ask for help here because of people like patooyee always wanting to flame.

Don't get me wrong, I like this site & even get a chuckle out of some of the flames on Shit-Chat now & then. You can call me names & flame me but you're wasting your time. I'm not leaving & there's absolutely no way you're gonna hurt my feelings. I'll stay & lurk while I try to learn a little from the few replies that aren;t intended solely to flame someone.

I generally don't participate in the flaming but, there is (ostensibly) a reason for it. The majority desire is to keep this board "college level" wheeling info and above. There is no desire to appeal to (or support) "newbies" who don't have a clue about wheeling or wrenching on 4x4s. There are many other boards where that is acceptable, but not here. When newbies show up asking clueless questions, and they get flamed instead of helped, they generally find a more appropriate forum (for instance, CK5 for GMs, or ORC) to learn the basics. Later they can come back here if they choose, after they get a clue and some experience. You have no idea how bad those of us who have been wheeling for a long time, building our own rigs, and involved online hate hearing the same ignorant (note, I didn’t say stupid) questions over and over again. Those on this board are sick of it to the point they actively discourage it by flaming those who cross the line. Anyone is welcome (even encouraged) to lurk and read, but posting ignorant questions (especially those that can be easily answered by a search) will get you blown out of the water.

Only problem is, who decides what “passes muster” and what does not? When I think a question is foolish or clueless, I generally just avoid answering it. However, I also hang out at CK5 and my “knee jerk” reaction is to help, so I sometimes get semi-flamed for answering newbie questions when they should probably be asking them elsewhere. In this case, I answered something in the GM forum that I would never have answered in the General forum. As I said before, it was partially because there is no easy answer (“all 77s came with ???”) there unless you can identify the GM axles by sight, *AND* Paul asked us to do what we could to build the GM forum volume. Not being able to ID GM axles by sight does not indicate a newbie in my book, it could just be someone who never fooled with GMs before. Not long ago a (seemingly) upstanding member of the Toy crowd here bought a 4x4 GM tow rig and asked similar (and in a GM fanatics mind, ignorant) questions without reprisal.

So, if Patooyee’s elite group of GM experts (which apparently include "everyone" he knows) have ironed out the EXACT year of the transition when NO ONE else is sure, then good for him. :rolleyes: If he doesn’t like my answer, or even that I made one, then all I can say is :flipoff2:

OK. So we have established that there are a range of years and no simple answer. (Although I suspect that many of the suppossed "OEM" applications that are out of place are simply swapped in axles from previous owners who just needed a new front and didn't know / care about the difference.)

As for flaming, it has been debated A MILLION FRICKING TIMES ON THIS BOARD, WHICH IS WHY, IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHY IT HAPPENS, YOU SHOULD DO A SEARCH! If you don't like that it happens here, go somewhere else! I don't see what is so hard for people to understand about this concept!

And, on that note, I am going to leave this thread alone so as to stop wasting words on YET ANOTHER worthless flame debate.

J. J.

ANYWAY!

Back to the original question, my money is on a 10 bolt front, full floater 14 botl rear, both with 4.11:1 gears, or maybe 3.73, (I think they left the goofy 3.23:1's for the 2wd Suburbans) possibly a Gov-lok rear, but hope that it's open, a 350 V8, TH350, maybe a TH400, and a NP203 full time case, but probably converted to part-time with one of those mile marker kits. If you got lucky it may have a NP205, hell, I missed out on a 3/4 ton '78 'Burb with a 454, TH400, NP205, power everything, and a factory tach in the dash, so anything is possible

My front D44 is (was) out of a 77 Chevy Utility truck.

My 72 K5 came to me with a 10 bolt front end.

Good thing I knew what the cutoff date was for the switch otherwise I would have been lookin' quite the fool.......:rolleyes:

Although I believe in the "SEARCH" method, sometimes (although not in this instance) it's tough to decide what keyword to search for.

PS: I only flame for fun :flipoff2: so it's prety mild flaming.

I'm not into flaming, but this was an ignorant question.
If you ca'nt even identify a Dana 44 when you see it, you're on the wrong Board.
Even if there were a "correct" answer, it would be based on the assumption that it is the original axle. Without definately knowing that, the answer is pretty worthless on a 25 year old truck.
If a picture was included, we could have identified it & been done (except for the debate if it was original or not).

But what the hell, there's not much in the Chevy section anyway. It gives us something to talk about.