I have a XJ Dana 44 with backing plates and drums, no brake parts though. Trying to figure out what year exactly this axle came from. The numbers on the axle tubes are : 11 11 6 3B 60534 H. Ant ideas?? Are there any differences from different years of XJ 44's???

Your bill of material number is off by one digit. I looked on the list on my site and the closest thing that matches it is 605342. Are you sure the H isn't actually a 2 in disguise? If so, here's the listing:

605342 JEEP 44 REAR 1987-87 1/2 XJ UTILITY

J. J.

Hey thanks, I bookmarked your page - good references.

the rear XJ 44's were only available for 2 or 3 yrs, and there weren't any brake hardware changes. They had the 10x2.5" drum brakes.

Hey Patooye I am glad I aint the only one who breaks thos damm plugs off.

Oh and if you put it in this way you might have 3 reverse speeds, and 1 forward heheh.
http://www.patooyee.com/photogallery/photo29268/DSC00639.JPG

Originally posted by Bonestripper
Hey Patooye I am glad I aint the only one who breaks thos damm plugs off.

Oh and if you put it in this way you might have 3 reverse speeds, and 1 forward heheh.

I assume you're talking about the sprak plugs. They guy who sold the engine to me broke those off when he pulled it out with a fork-lift. :) T

What makes you say that about the gears, though?

J. J.

What makes you say that about the gears, though?
It just looked like the axel was rolled to the Jeep backwards.
Facing the back the rig the ringgear should be on the left. In that pic it is on the right. If you flip an axle then forward will be reverse and visa versa.
I could be totally off though, and my well though out witty comment has been totally decimated by one or two things.
The first being if I am wrong then I am just a smart alek goober who knows nothing.
The second being this explanation is way too long to hold any humor content at all.
Either way I got another cheap post so I am cool.
At least no matter what I am a dork to many here, so I have that to fall back on.

LOL :D :D :D

this is even a cheaper post.......

Originally posted by Bonestripper

It just looked like the axel was rolled to the Jeep backwards.
Facing the back the rig the ringgear should be on the left. In that pic it is on the right. If you flip an axle then forward will be reverse and visa versa.
I could be totally off though, and my well though out witty comment has been totally decimated by one or two things.
The first being if I am wrong then I am just a smart alek goober who knows nothing.
The second being this explanation is way too long to hold any humor content at all.
Either way I got another cheap post so I am cool.
At least no matter what I am a dork to many here, so I have that to fall back on.

Negative. The ring gear, looking from the back, on a 14-bolt is on the passenger side. (Unless the rest of my 14-bolt is upside-down, including the pinion and bleeder valves.) It would be upside-down if it were on the driver's side. But just to inform you, if you DID run it upside-down, you would still have 3 forward and 1 back, you would just be running on the coast-side of the ring-gear. I've heard of people turning their backing-plates upside down to get the bleeder at the top again and running a 14-bolt upside-down to get a HP 14-bolt.

J. J.

I guess that episode of junkyard wars messed me up then.
Here is an excerpt I found about it. The words are not mine.

"Why don't you just flip the axle upside down, then you could raise the pinion and reduce your drive shaft angle."

Some folks even claim to have seen or spoken with someone who's done this. As a matter of fact, I even saw this suggestion in a hot rod magazine once, as a suggestion to get the drive shaft up out of the wind stream passing under the car.

No one has actually done this and made it work right. Period. Everyone that's claimed you could do this and has been pressed on the issue has either backed down, "sold the truck several years ago" or "heard about it from someone else".

You can't turn an axle upside down and get it to work.

Lots of folks claim it's because of oiling issues in the gears. While that may be a factor, there's still one big problem. If you turn a rear axle upside down, and put it back in the rear of the vehicle, the wheels will turn in the wrong direction. Period. There's no way around it; no different gear sets, no turning the ring gear around, nothing

I way could be wrong about the 14 bolt but this upside down thing I still need to investigate. So now I am confused again

I think I remember the episode that you are talking about. BUt not the details. I do remember that they had to run the drag strip in one gear, not able to shift. I can't remember why though. Does anyone else remember? I know that, if I turned my 14-bolt upside-down, I would still go forward when I wanted to.

J. J.

I think I remember the episode that you are talking about. BUt not the details. I do remember that they had to run the drag strip in one gear, not able to shift. I can't remember why though. Does anyone else remember? I know that, if I turned my 14-bolt upside-down, I would still go forward when I wanted to.

They lost all the forward gears so they could only run the thing in reverse. The guy who suggested flipping the axle was a spectator in the crowd. They ended up loosing after all that work since reverse on the tranny was too short to compete with the other guys' 6 spd.

Right Flipping an axel will make the reverse gear move it forward.
On JW the team lost the forward gears so instead of racing backwards they flipped the axle so reverse moved them forward.
That is what I mint by 3 reverse gears (With a 3 speed)
I am feeling less like a dork now.

Hey, I know a guy that did that, it was a clueless dork trying to do a cheap SOA and flipped his AMC 20 over, bragged about it now being high pinion and not having to weld the perches on. He probably got the idea off JU. I tried telling him it wouldn't work but he wouldn't listen, he even wanted to find a driver's diff front axle to flip for his front, but he sold the unfinished project to somebody else who still hasen't finished it but flipped the axle back over. What a tool, I wonder what contraption he's building now, it's been about 5 years since I saw him, hey, I think he still owes me money! Damn!