Iant333

I went to look at a XJ D44 this afternoon, its in good shape and the guy wants 200 firm. Right now I have a aussie locked 29 spline 8.25 and my jeep is about to be on 33's with 4.88 gears (haven't bought gears for the rear end yet, thinking about Nitro's if I keep the 8.25).

I was just wondering if you guys think its worth the cost to upgrade, my 8.25 is already locked and has high quality alloy shafts. I beat on it a good bit bit I wouldn't say i'm reckless with my gas pedal usage, I just like the feeling of stuff being overbuilt. Im just wondering if you guys think the 8.25 enough rear end for me , or I should drop the money on a 44.

Iant333

bump

BigRed93xj

Personally I would keep what you got now. You've already beefed it up, so its probably as strong as a stock Dana 44. And since you already have a locker i think your good. I have a 27 spline 8.25 and looked around for a Dana 44 but there hard to find and expensive. I ended up with a 29 spline 8.25 for a hundred bucks. How you have yours built it exactly what I plan to do to mine. I say keep it, unless your doing extreme rock crawling you should be just fine.

DagBMX

with what you have, being on 33's, you should be more than sturdy enough. since you have it locked and with alloys, it's going to be 10x better than a stock configuration.

pretty much in agreement with BigRed93xj

Donnie_K

that 29 spline 8.25 is a pretty tough axle man.

smtippin

what can you pull the 8.25 out of (years)? Can you use a Grand Cherokee's rear axle (out of a V8)?

s

DagBMX

the 29-spline and 27-spline axles have the same tube diameter (3"), and can be swapped out. the 29-spline were started in '97, so you can pull them from any jeep from that year to the 2001. you do have to replace the carrier, or a locker with the carrier, that works on the 29-spline version. some dodge models have the same axle as well, so you could always find that out as well.

Iant333

Yeah considering I tried looking on youtube and online for stories of people having broken them and I couldn't even find any, I wasnt too worried about it, cant say that about a Dana 35. Well just wondering what people thought of them, thanks.

Donnie_K

grand cherokee's had coil springs in the back... you would have to weld on leaf spring perches and shock mounts, grind the old stuff off. but yes, 97 and ups were 29 spline.

jeep.kevin

I have a d35 locked with 33's. and for the most part im heavy on the pedal like u said and ive never ran into a problem?

BigRed93xj

more power to ya man... but there's a reason why they call it the Dana "turdy" five. However everyones experiences are different. you just may have a bulletproof Dana 35.

myredxj

$200 buy it and hold onto it. Thats a screaming deal. Hell the locker alone for the 44 is about 300. Here in the northwest 44's are always going for about$350-450. If it were close to me i would buy it.

Teal2doorXJ

yo ian, if you dont end up going for the d44 lmk cause i might upgrade to 35's on mine soon and am looking into info on axles and stuff (i made a post on ADKJ too)

93XJLI

you're lying.

or you offroad on dirt.

anyway, i ran a locked 27sp 8.25 on 33s pretty hard, and then sold it bc i got a great deal on a 44 when i regeared. my friend is still running the same axle on 33s and drives harder than i do and its still going strong.

29 sp 8.25s are pretty tough as well, 35/36s on alloys shafts would take a good amount of abuse.

jeep.kevin

I had a friend tell me once that my xj was made during the "dark times" of jeep when they were experimenting alot and apparently my d35 does not hace c-clips on it?