Topic: Dana 44 front axle comparison

[aw12345]

Right now I am doing some work on a dana 44 front axle and was amazed how skimpy the the stub shafts are.
Which leads to the point what's the big whoop about searching so hard and dropping a lot of coin on an axle that has skinny stub shafts, in my book more prone to breaking than the stock TJ stub shafts, then you have selectable hubs that explode, wheel bearings that need greasing if you forget the left front wheel will come of your Jeep somewhere in time. It's a lot harder and time consuming to change the front axle shafts if you break them on the trail. On top of that more bearings and parts to go wrong. In Comparison to a stock Rubicon axle it has only 3 advantages, a high pinion, which is nice and thicker axle tubes also you can run a highsteer. The latter you can fix on the Rubicon axle with a nice truss like the ones from TNT and a flip kit will help the steering. The other big advantage of the rubicon axle is it bolts right in and has a locker. Except for going bigger in gearing than 4.88 a dana 30 high pinion will make for the cheapest solution, truss it locker it stick some good axle shafts in it and enjoy the extra clearance of the small pumkin

Here are the fancy chromemolly dana 44 axles in comparison to stock dana 30 axles out of a TJ





On top of that a axle shaft in a DAna 30 or Rubicon Dana 44 can be changed in about 30 minutes or less with only a 36mm socket a wheel wrench and a 12 point 13 mm wrench try that on a fullfloating axle

[FourbangerYJ]

The 19 spline stubs are not the strongest. (In the pic it say's SPICER) That's not chromo. But they look the same either way.
The unit bearing does have alot of adavantages over the older design as far as ease of maintainance goes. The inners are 30 spline VS 27 but the D30 can be upgraded. All in all the D30 is a pretty strong unit, but the stock shafts don't seem to last long once a locker has been added.
Like you pointed out the need for deeper gears is it's biggest draw back.
There is a upgrade avail for the 19 spline stubs made by Solid Axle MFG. They have a 30 spline stub avail but it's $$$.

[aw12345]

Supposedly they are warn stubs, guess not since they do say spicer, the thing is though the spindle part where the hub runs on will not accept anything bigger than those spicer shafts so the 30 spline shafts would have to be the same diameter.
He broke the stub shaft on Sun Bonnet near the end of the trail.
I just put the 27 spline shafts next to it for comparison.
My point is why bother with one of these older axles for very little gain in strenght
For a TJ you need brackets, new rims locker a truss ets
A rubicon axle would need gears and a truss and you would have something just as good except for the high pinion

[FourbangerYJ]

(For some reason I was thinking D30 in my earlier post) The Rubicon D44 is a great way to go for a TJ/LJ. Just upgrade the shafts. The yokes stretch pretty easy on the stockers.
I think it's an old school VS. new school thing. The unit bearing stuff is way easier and cheaper to work on. If it wasn't for needing 5.38's I would have run the D30.

JV breaks alot of parts!

[jason 00 tj]

I run a rubicon 44 and all i can say is one of the best things i have done to my jeep.
I am by no means easy on my jeep and it sees alot of rock crawling and i have yet to do any damage
to my 44. The factory locker works flawless and being a direct boltin was a big plus.
The only thing i had to change was the yoke on my front driveshaft because the 44 use
a bigger u joint on the pinion.

[jcsanders79]

I have a TJ with a 44 in the rear that I stole out of my sisters TJ, $100.  I also have a Rubi D44 housing that I picked up also $100 + $75 shipping.  I already have axle shafts and now I'm saving up for either OX or ARB lockers.  For the money I don't think I could have done any better with another route.

[Bounty Hunter]

Call me old school, but I prefer the locking hubs, serviceable wheel bearings, highsteer, deep gears, high pinion, etc. that a true d44 offers.  And the unit hubs are not a cheaper option at $125+ each, especially as often as they go bad with larger tires.  Common sense, larger bearings spaced further apart are going to hold up to the increased leverage a lot better.

[drunkencityworker]

I have hp dana30 w disco taken out and locrite. 8.8lsd on 305/70s and i get thru everything rubis on 35s can no problem so far. cant wait for 4.88 since i am only 373 right now