Arrangements were made with a friend of mine in Michigan ( Mac from C & M Performance Machine ) to modify some hubs for me. We decided to use dual rear wheel hubs in order to keep the width in check. The single rear wheel hubs would have created several issues including an overly long brake bracket (for rear disc) and spring mounting issues (from very short tubes). The downside was the hub body would stick out a bit more than the SRW hub body.



With that figured out ... it was time to start working.


Cut the tubes off and we have the first surprise !








This sucker is 3/8 wall tubing ! Almost all rear D44s are 3/16 tubing (I've cut up my share and have paid attention). Big strength bonus there. Was wondering why it took so long to cut through the tubing with a chop saw.



Here are the ends cut off.







Grabbed the dead 14 bolt and cut the spindles off (with some extra tubing to be safe). Had a local shop (Albar Machine) remove the extra tube from the spindle. They also machined me a sleeve to attach the spindle to the housing. Because of the thick wall tubing, the spindle would not fit inside (like it does from the factory). I requested the input of several knowledgable friends who all had agreement that sleeving would be more than strong enough for this application. To put it in perspective .... semi floating bearing ends .... they are just butt welded to the end of axle tubes.



At any rate ...... here is the prepped spindle and the sleeve. The holes are both for locating the sleeve and for plug welding.






Cleaned the heck out of everything and made a mini-jig in order to keep everything tight. The spindle is a light press fit into the sleeve, however, cooling/retracting welds can do some crazy things.








This is 3 passes with the TIG --- holding the assembly together.











The sleeve was left ever-so-slightly large when it was machined. Although the housing was straight, the tube was not perfectly concentric. The holes were tapped for a 1/2 - 20 bolt. With the use of a centering bar (will show that later) I was able to turn/loosen the bolts as necessary in order to keep everything lined up as it should be. Then I would carefully weld the sleeve assembly to the tube.

 

Making my list & checking it twice ..... Oooops. Wrong time of the year for that ...



Rear truss is up next ! Designing was pretty simple. I used posterboard to make miniature mock-ups of the truss. The goal was to make 2 halves clamshell to each other & then weld into an assembly. If I recall, I think I had to try 4 or 5 times to get it right. But when the prototypes are only 2 inches in size --- it's not that much effort.



Start with a nice big sheet of 3/16 steel. Make sure it's big enough, of course.








Pay attention to where you cut if you have a plasma.








Here you can see the 2 pieces I am referring to. They have to be bent, still.







Someone sold me a brake that fits into a 20 ton press a long time ago. It's worth it's weight in gold.






Welded up and resting on the axle.







Two pictures showing the cut outs around the centersection itself.









I chose to make this truss have weld points even closer to the centerline of the axle tube. As I mentioned earlier in the thread, the closer to the centerline of the tube, the less welding warpage you will have. I cut the holes with a hole saw in a drill press. Nothing fancy ... just a bit of time.

 

A few posts ago, I mentioned about an alignment bar. It is nothing more than a piece of TGP (turned, ground, polished) steel and some aluminum pucks.


The pucks used inside the centersection are from my pinion depth indicator kit. They have a 1 inch bore ... so I decided to make use of them, rather than reinventing the wheel. Look closely at the last picture in the previous post ... you can see the aluminum chunks under the bearing caps.


Albar machine whipped the spindle pucks in super short order and I was on my way. Also, take note of the rear hubs. These are GM14 bolt hubs that have been machined down & redrilled to 5 x 5.5 bolt pattern. The rotors are standard issue F150 rotors with the ID machined slightly.











And two pictures of the housing assembly

 

Check it out !


All those posts squeezed in before Fantic coud say anything.



Now to brace myself for the onslaught.

 

wow that is simply amazing work, well not so simple, but you get the point!

nice job

 

Reading...

 

Beat Him!!!!!

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but all this beefing of axels, frame rails, cross members, and you plan on lowering the vehicle? I forget exactly where I read that, somewhere in your and fanatics 6, 5, 4 inch lift height debate I think.

 

This is one super sexy axle..

Very out of the box in your thinking on this one..

 

Very high quality! Attention to detail! What axle is that though. Dana 44?

 

The way I understand it.

It's a Chevy D44 with turned down 14 bolt outers..

 

That's what I was thinking. How come didnt want to use the dana 60?

 

I was just being a smart azz.


Got tired of Fantic's Antics and decided to try sarcasm with him.



Joe

 

Nick is partially correct. It's a Dana 44 (from an early 70s Ford F100 Pickup). But it does have the GM 14 bolt spindles on the ends.



I said earlier in one of my posts .... I already had a D44 ARB & the correct gears for my application. Was cheaper to build up the D44 then it was to regear a D60 and buy an ARB for it.



Stop looking at the pretty pictures and read the text.



*edit* It's all in post #120

 

Sorry, that what happen when there a lot of pretty pictures. :P