I putt 8 lug axles in my xj
 

Click pics to enlarge.[ATTACH]Attachment 9813[/ATTACH][ATTACH]Attachment 9815[/ATTACH]

It was a big *** job and required alot od different parts i started last tuesday and got it done today so it took me 7 days. I used a 14 bolt rear with a spool and a ford 44 front with a power lock. I built the long arm with dom tube and trail gear creeper joints. I put all chevy outers on it to keep the same width front and rear and machined and drilled and tapped my passenger side knuckle and used a sky high steer arm for cross over steering but plan on doing full high steer. I built a beefy crossmember and atatched the long arms to it. mpre pics to come.

Nice i like it.

Put a 60 in it up front. I do not know what you are planing to do with it as of rocks or mud (hoping rocks) and if that is so that 44 will hold up for sometime. Trust me just put a 60 in. My cousin had a 44 in his xj. Blow u-joints like it was its job. Same with the some of the CJs. I do not know what size tire that is but anything over 35 for a 44 is brake zone if you wheel it hard. Just my two cents.

looks really good man

Well i live in washington so i wheele in all teraines rocks mud sand etc. I have ran an 8 lug 44 in two cruisers and three jeeps all on 39.5s and had decent luck ive broke about 6 shafts but for 10 bucks at the wrecking yard i can get shafts for the 44s. Those are only 35s and i plan on putting either chromo shafts or uprgading to that new bobby long birfield kit. And i plan on going to a 36 12.5 tire so not going very big. A 44 holds up to a 36 pretty well.

thats a bad lookin rig man nice work..
i must have got the best set of stock xjaxles ever.. i have the 30 and 8.25 with lockers and 36 inch iroks..i beat the poor thing every weekend and ive only lost one shaft.. i was planning an 8.8 and 44 front but its so tuff i havent done it yet..

Yeah if you know what breaks on ur rig and what it takes to do it then dont do those things. If you get ur tires in a bind while their fully turned then dont romp on it. And if your going up a climb and it starts hoping real hard let off tell it stops and then get back on it. Its simple little things like that that keep you from snaping things. I also am a firm beleiver in priemptive maintnance if it has a zirk greese it if its a bolt tighten it change ur diff fluids regalurly and do all of these thing befor you take it out every time and you wouldnt beleive how much longer it will go without breaking stuff.

well, considering dana 44 uses a 5-297x u-joint, they are the same size joint as any later year cherokee with the dana 30, and older xj's with anti-lock brakes.

you can upgrade the joints to 5-760x to gain a little more strength. but going with chromo shafts and utm joints will get you up to about d60 strength.

but you want a weak link in there, u-joints are easier to pack along with you than shafts. that's if you're lucky enough not to take out the ears when the joint snaps.

i know a guy that ran 39.5 pit bulls on his chromo d44 tj rubi axles for a few years. and he wheels the tough trails. now he has d60 rock crusher/custom 609 axles on 35x9.5 boggers.

either way, he hasn't even had to replace a u-joint.

Im not saying that i dont want a 60 cause i do. But i am building a 48 willys and it has a 60 front and 14 bolt rear and all my high dallor items go into it. I built the cherokee to have a cheap wheeler that will keep me in the woods while i putt my willys together so i cant really spend a ton of money on both rigs. I am running 410 gears in the cherokee so if i do upgrade shafts ill still have a decent size ring and pinion.

Ok so the 14 bolt rear end prooved to be a little to heavy for my rear spring hangers and tore them apart. I am trying to decide wether to link the rear or build new hangers. My question is have any of you linked the back of an xj? and what different rear leef springs are you guys running i ran stock rears but toasted to many of them so i went to chevy 3/4 ton rears and they seem to work good but im still open to new ideas.

looks real good man!!

how do you like the trail gear joints?