front 44 strength

S

stroke.n.smoke

Member
I have a 69 Scout 800 with d44 axles out of a 75ish sii. I know the rears have a problem with being bent, and I'm pretty sure mine is bent, I used a straight edge across the brake drums and measured down to the tubes, I think there is a good 3/8" sag in the rear end. It works fine, not too worried about it as I am going to upgrade to a d60 rear next spring. My question is, do the front diffs have the same problem? Or is it just the rears? I don't want to spend a bunch of money on gears and lockers for the front if it is weak.
 
What size tires do you run? Do much jumping/tires off the ground/etc?

I'd bet most rear d44's in Scout II's are bent a little. The 'newest' one is almost 30 years old.

I've never check a front to see if it is bent, and I've ran a ton of them with a lot of different tire combos. But I'm sure it could happen. I have seen d44's break - and/or crack at the differential housing and leak fluid. Most of the time you have a failure at the knuckle before you break/bend the housing - in the front that seems to be the structural weak link.

So answer the first 2 questions and we will have a better idea on what we are up against.
 
It's got 37 inch iroks. I don't intentionally jump it but it does see some rough use. Tires do come off the ground when crawliing over rough stuff. Thats about it. I have been thinking about it lately and I am not spending money on the rear, going with a d60, narrowed to the same width as the d44. Eventually I will go with a 60 in the front too I think... The more I think about it the more I answer my own question.

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Yep - with heavy 37" tires you are going to need to spend a lot of money to keep your d44 together. How often do you break u-joints. Axle shafts? Hubs? Ring and pinions sets?

With my 36" iroks - it only takes one crazy stunt, or one bad bind on the front end and I have u-joint parts everywhere. More recently with the better 760x joints (plus tack welding them into the shafts) I have been ripping the ears off the outer stub shaft before the joint fails. I already run drive flanges as I was breaking hubs all the time...

But if you wheel it long enough you will break everything in the d44. And if you get unlucky you will rip the knuckle off in a bad situation. The ball joints just are not designed for the stresses bigger tires put on them.

Build a d60 for the rear, do not make it too narrow as you will kick yourself later when you have to do a ton of work to make the front match

and start saving for/building a d60 for the front (expect to spend about $2000-$3000 on the front d60).
 
Mabye a guy should just buy a set of d60s from one of the many vendors??? Be alot less headache. The currie 9inchers are pretty sweet. Bolt it in and forget about it.
 
stroke.n.smoke said:
mabye a guy should just buy a set of d60s from one of the many vendors??? Be alot less headache. The currie 9inchers are pretty sweet. Bolt it in and forget about it.
Click to expand...

It will cost you a lot of money to buy something 'bolt in' for a Scout application. Everyone is set up to make Jeep axles and every time you switch something they call it 'custom' and tack on another few hundred dollars. And the currie 9" stuff is only 'warrantied' to 37" tires. :icon_cry:

I'd go slightly narrowed Dana 60's before 9" stuff. Or for even cheaper go fullwidth d60's :001_icon_idea: but then they look terrible and you can't drive it on the street.
 
Pretty much mirror what chris said. D44's are pretty tough for what they are, but your at the limit. Course if your not scattering parts... Then its your choice as to when to upgrade (lots of alloy parts available now as well).

Cheap and easy option: cab-n-chassis 14-bolt rear (63" wide) in the rear. Near bullet-proof in stock form. Then put 8-lug outers on your front 44 (that will make it 63" as well) and run her till your tired of through parts into the front. Then when its time to build a front 60, lop 0-6" off a chev 60 or 0-4" off a dodge 60 to match widths. You can also always add spacers in the rear if you want to widen it.
 
If 37's are gonna be your max. Up grade you're front 44 with cromo shafts and full snap rings on the ujoints, cromo shafts will already have the area machined down for this. Also swap on Chevy 8 lug outers, this will also net you a stronger stub shaft then the scoutii stubs. For you're rear you can go the 14 bolt route or you can get a Ford 60 from the 70's era, these were also 63" wide. Have the spindles board out on the 60 and run 35 spline shafts.
 
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