The Dana 35 in my TJ is starting to wear out so I started to look into replacement options before it blows up.
I did some research on the forums and had decided a Ford 8.8 from an Explorer would be a good swap. I figured 8.8's are easy to find, cheapish to buy and have tons of aftermarket support. The downsides are the offset pinion, the narrower width, and the weaker c-clip design. After reading about 8.8's, I started to doubt the 8.8 swap and looked for other popular swaps.
The TJ Dana 44 would be have been ideal but they are harder to find and usually people want a ton of money for them especially if it's from a Rubicon.
While reading on a forum, someone mentioned that some 86 & 87 XJ's had Dana 44's. Awesome! They then said that the Dana 44 is considered rare, as the Dana 35 was another axle option those years. I decided to give my local junkyard a try and see what they had. I guess the Jeep gods were looking out for me that day because I found two XJ's with Dana 44's. My donor Jeep is an 87 XJ Wagoneer with 3.54 gears.
Anyway, I created this post to document my Dana 44 swap into my TJ. I've got all the parts for the disc brake swap ordered, I took the drums and drum backing plates off, and I've started removing all the grease and dirt.
My next steps will be a disc brake swap from a 96 ZJ, 5.13 gears, detroit locker, and an Artec truss. Any suggestions would be appreciated, this is my first axle swap.
I did some research on the forums and had decided a Ford 8.8 from an Explorer would be a good swap. I figured 8.8's are easy to find, cheapish to buy and have tons of aftermarket support. The downsides are the offset pinion, the narrower width, and the weaker c-clip design. After reading about 8.8's, I started to doubt the 8.8 swap and looked for other popular swaps.
The TJ Dana 44 would be have been ideal but they are harder to find and usually people want a ton of money for them especially if it's from a Rubicon.
While reading on a forum, someone mentioned that some 86 & 87 XJ's had Dana 44's. Awesome! They then said that the Dana 44 is considered rare, as the Dana 35 was another axle option those years. I decided to give my local junkyard a try and see what they had. I guess the Jeep gods were looking out for me that day because I found two XJ's with Dana 44's. My donor Jeep is an 87 XJ Wagoneer with 3.54 gears.
Anyway, I created this post to document my Dana 44 swap into my TJ. I've got all the parts for the disc brake swap ordered, I took the drums and drum backing plates off, and I've started removing all the grease and dirt.
My next steps will be a disc brake swap from a 96 ZJ, 5.13 gears, detroit locker, and an Artec truss. Any suggestions would be appreciated, this is my first axle swap.
