96Cherokee

Hey guys im starting work as a firefighter soon so Im gonna have some money to put into my jeep and I plan on going stright from stock to a RC 6.5' long arm lift and 35 or 36' tires. From what i understand mid 90's dodge ram 1500's have both front and rear Dana 44 axles. Has anyone swapped one of these into their XJ? anyone know how difficult it might be? I understand there will be some fab work and thats ok im pretty good with a welder. any ideas would be helpful thanks

xjmarc

Front will be a 44 but most likely with a CAD and unit bearings so not a great upgrade. Rear is a 9.25 and c-clip and also not so good. Those are both about maxed out with 35-36" tires. Also the 44 is low pinion like a waggy but the waggy can be had without the CAD.

96Cherokee

can you explain what CAD is?

96Cherokee

bump?

OverlandZJ

Central Axle Disconnect. Basically a two piece axleshaft.. that has a fork/collar assembly that slides over and attches the two haves together.. making it a solid shaft. These are vacuum actuated and tend to be problematic with leakage, also read about the fork breaking.

Heres a link with pics and exploded diagrams.

http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&s...=&oq=&gs_rfai=

96Cherokee

oh okay yea that is ussally fixed by people just putting a cable in tho? i might be mistaken i dont know very much about axles...i was just trying to think of possible donor vechiles when i realized those year dodges with soild axles so I decdied to google what they were...hm..would the D60 in the 2500 and 3500 models be the same way? since it would hold up even more then the d44 to the 35s and the mud

xjmarc

Front 60 doesn't have the CAD but still has unit bearings and a short driver side tube which makes fab a bit of a chore. If you can find them cheap it would be worth doing but I'd look into Ford 60s since they can be had with locking hubs and high pinion.

offroadnut36

Certain year waggies can be had without the CAD. The front 44 out of a 2nd gen 1500 has weird one of a kind knuckles too.

offroadnut36

x2 But be careful because the newer, I wanna say 97+, f250s and 35s have a d50 front and a sterling 10.25 rear. These axles aren't very desirable. The d50 is like a d60 only smaller and a lot harder to find parts for. The sterling 10.25, and 10.75 for the newer trucks, is hard to find parts for and very expensive when you find the parts.

firstime00XJ

Hmmm......starting work as a firefighter soon....ironically I had a US Forest Service ad with Smokey the Bear reading "Only YOU can prevent Forest Fires" under the thread window...Are you starting work as a wildland firefighter, or just starting in general? I've been in the fire service for 5 years now. Stay safe, and wish I could help with axle information, but I don't know much about them either.

96Cherokee

by wildland i assume you mean forest fires..and yes any fire between the manitobia border and the urbanized sothern ontario .. just waiting on the last my gear to come in and for my first call

firstime00XJ

Be safe out there! You guys can have that forest fire stuff, I'll take a structure. Keep us updated with your Jeep and how the forest fire season goes! Do you have Smokey the Bear in Canada?? LOL

Iant333

Sterling 10.25 rear was discontinued in the 90's, once they phased out the square Fords, they now use a Sterling 10.5 which is strong as a tank but it only comes in some goofy bolt pattern and the pumpkin is absolutely massive. Dana 50's are decent basically a beefed up HP44, but same deal on the one off bolt patterns and its hard to find them with real locking hubs, most of them are vacuum hubs with a manual override lock. Parts aren't that bad for them from what i've seen, my fathers 250 has the 10.5/D50 comba and stuff is about the same as every other 3/4 ton, and the D50 uses the same internals as the older TTB fords, only thing different at all are the axleshafts.