Scout dana 44 front into CJ?
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And you need to grind into the case a bit for the spring perch if you are going SOA
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I've got a widetrack Waggy housing, narrowed to Scout width, using Scout shafts in my YJ. (Just getting ready to remove it for a D60) It fits nice, works nice. There may be some slight casting differences between the Waggy & Scout housings, but width wise it's perfect. I'm running the Waggy steering knuckles. If I recall correctly, the Scout knuckles are really long on the steering arms.
Your other option it to whack 4 inches off the long side of a Waggy 44 and get one custom inner shaft. There would be no need to outboard your springs with this set up
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The narrow track waggy and the scout housing are essentially the same width.
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446 Posts
possibye try to cut the axle shaft to length and have the end machined/resplined??
I swapped in a scout 44 front and rear into my CJ7 8 years ago and have loved the added strength and track width. My ride has been more stable in the rocks going SOA with the Scout 44's (on 36's) than I had with my 2.5" lift and and narrow tracks on 33's.
I had to outboard my spring hangers. Used 2 pieces of 3/16" angle iron to sandwich the frame. This created a platform that stuck out from the frame and mount the hangers.
I will say, the tough part of using Scout 44 front in an SOA application is getting the castor right. I wanted between 5.5-7 degrees of castor. Scout 44's are set up with close to 0 degrees from the factory. Grinding and turing the inner C's in not impossible, just time consuming. I also used chevy outer knuckles and spindles and then ford hubs and rotors so I could maintain the 5x5.5 bolt pattern.
You may consider using a Chevy front 44 and cutting down the long side. I cut down a 60 front for my Scrambler and it was not as tough as I thought it was going to be. The chevy 44 front was made for SOA and castor will be very close to what you want without much fuss. Cutting down the long side should put the passenger side spring perch in just about the right spot so grinding a new perch might not be necessary.
I had to outboard my spring hangers. Used 2 pieces of 3/16" angle iron to sandwich the frame. This created a platform that stuck out from the frame and mount the hangers.
I will say, the tough part of using Scout 44 front in an SOA application is getting the castor right. I wanted between 5.5-7 degrees of castor. Scout 44's are set up with close to 0 degrees from the factory. Grinding and turing the inner C's in not impossible, just time consuming. I also used chevy outer knuckles and spindles and then ford hubs and rotors so I could maintain the 5x5.5 bolt pattern.
You may consider using a Chevy front 44 and cutting down the long side. I cut down a 60 front for my Scrambler and it was not as tough as I thought it was going to be. The chevy 44 front was made for SOA and castor will be very close to what you want without much fuss. Cutting down the long side should put the passenger side spring perch in just about the right spot so grinding a new perch might not be necessary.
I am too cheap to pay the $20/year on this site to be able to post pictures, so I created a photobucket account and here is a link to a pic I dug up of the rear spring hanger mount for the front axle.
http://i1262.photobucket.com/albums/ii604/huebie1/IMG_0374.jpg
You basically use two pieces of angle iron, a 3x3 piece that's about 6" long. This piece goes on the outside of the frame creating a ledge of 3" that sticks out from the frame. The problem with stopping here is it stresses the frame along the outside edge where you weld the angle iron to the frame. The other piece of angle iron is a 3x5 piece mounted to the inside of the frame. The 6" side sticks out underneath the bottom of the frameand directly underneath the 3x3 piece. This sandwiching effect strengthens the way the stresses are absorbed into the frame.
Does this clarify my statement earlier?
Thanks, I stole it from someone else's posts. I also gussetted angle iron with some triangular-shaped pieces at the edges. In seven years of pretty consistent and sometimes hard wheeling, there are no cracks in the frame or failure points from the outboarding. With the shackles in the front, I have managed to bend both front main leaves once. Other than that, I have loved the swap and spring over.
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My CJ5 has scout axles under it. I have no comoplaints as far as performance. The spring hangers are outboarded and huebie is right the castor is tricky. Whoever did mine did not get it right but for a trail rig it works.
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Scout 44 front sucks. It uses the weak external CJ D30 style hubs and goofy long armed knuckles and 8 bolt spindles. The tubes are thinner than the chev and wagoneer versions. The stubs are basically D30. I ran one in my CJ2a for a couple years and went through multiple sets of locking hubs and stub shafts then finally bent the housing. Wound up switching out to a Chev D44 that I narrowed with the standard Jeep/Ford outter mix to keep the 5 on 5.5
If you are looking at this as an upgrade to a CJ D30 - it really isn't except for a bigger ring gear
If you are looking at this as an upgrade to a CJ D30 - it really isn't except for a bigger ring gear
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