Folks

I have had a look at what is here for TJ Front D44 conversions and no-one seems to have come against the problem that I have.

I am currently putting a HD D44 (from an 78-79 F250) into the front of my 97 TJ. This diff housing appears to be identical to a std late model waggy diff housing (in terms of the centre pumpkin webbing size).

I am also putting a Tera 60 into the rear at the same time. I am building all of these axles from basic components myself.

Anyhow here is one of my problems and some of my findings as a diff building newbie.

First I yanked my stock D44 rear and D30 front and made this "Franken-Jig" as a starting point (sorry for the large image).

http://www.eese.bee.qut.edu.au/QUAV/Rod/cj2a/97_white_tj/Front44_files/DCP_4693.jpg

The front diff jig is on the top and the rear diff jig is on the bottom (just as a side not for anyone else - I made my jig sooooo good ;-) that I had to dismantle the rear diff partly to remove it from the jig)

When I ground off the old brackets from the F250 D44 and sat it on my jig, I worked out approx. where the WMS surfaces would be and centred them on the jig (wrt to the control arm mounts). Anyhow what I found was the the inner side of the lower control arm mount would need to be ground and welded to the cast spring perch in the diff centre......See "A" in the pic, which is the inner side of the PAX (in Australia) LCA mount.

http://www.eese.bee.qut.edu.au/QUAV/Rod/cj2a/97_white_tj/Front44_files/DCP_4757.JPG

Also the yoke centre has moved across and inch or so (See "B") - this should not be an issue, but the spring perch being in the way seems to be.

Has anyone else mounted a front Waggy D44 into a TJ and did the inner side of you LCA interfere with the cast spring perch???

Any advice on this much appreciated.

On another issue, I pulled the tubes out of my stock J20 D60 FF rear to discover this..

http://www.eese.bee.qut.edu.au/QUAV/Rod/cj2a/97_white_tj/Rear60_files/DCP_4762.JPG

The tube thickness is only 3/8" and there is a bloody great weld seam inside the tube. Also the tube is so out of round it is not funny... there is about 1/8" run-out on the machined section that goes into the centre pumpkin.

Anyhow any advice on the front diff would be great. Pics would be even greater again.

Regards

Rod

up until friday i had a waggy 44 up front. look'n at your pics im not 100% sure what your talking about, but basicly if your trying to weld the tj brackets exactly where they were on the stock 30 its not gonna be easy or gonna happen.

i ended up just pushing my brackets out to make it around the diff, for my setup it was only a couple inches so it didnt cause any problems.... it actually changed the geometry slightly :smokin:

all i can say though if you want the brackets there grab the grinder and the welder. im sure you have read about welding to cast.

good luck, i have some pics around here somewhere if it will help any.

Originally posted by Dust Puppy

good luck, i have some pics around here somewhere if it will help any. [/B]

Dust Puppy

I would love to see those pics you have...

Rod

Originally posted by rocket


Dust Puppy

I would love to see those pics you have...

Rod

Me also, since I am doing some research on the possibility of a waggy 44 front in a TJ

thanks

On the upper CA mount (drivers side here :) Most folks build a bracket that goes over the diff and welds to the tubes. Then weld your CA bracket to that.
I know one fella who drilled and tapped the top of the diff to run a bolt though the bracket going over the diff just to be sure it stayed put.

a friend of mine ran into this. he used a sawzall to cut a small portion of the centersecton off the tube, and welded the bracket straight to the tube. There was still more tube pressed into the housing on that side than there was on the other