So i just figured out by the tag on my pig that I have 3.55 gears (i am sad cuz up until now i thought i had 3.73)

I am entertaining the idea of finding a 44 to swap for my 35. All of the 44s I have found have a 3.54 ratio. I understand that you need to match the front and rear ratios but for all of the research that I have done, it seems that you can't re-gear a 35 to 3.54 and cant re-gear a 44 to 3.55. Perhaps I haven't done enough hunting.

Are these a close enough match?

 

its close enough, often enough when these gears are manufactured they are off by .01 because of imperfections. So you will be ok with 3.54 in the d44

-Kyle

 

Yup, that and the relative sizes of the differentials. it's actually pretty common for the front and rear axles in Jeeps to be off by .01. 3.54/3.55, 3.72/3.73, 4.10/4.11, etc. 4.56s are 4.56 front and back, as are 4.88s. Not sure why those particular ratios turn out to match though.