i got a pair of d44's off a waggy and the rear axle was simple enough but i was wondering if i could just cut the brackets off the old axle and weld them to the new one for the front axle

 

I would just buy new ones. I guess you could but you are way better off gettting new ones. But that is just what i would do.

 

Look at all the different companies offering brackets, and pick one. Yeas you can cut them off, but I would personally not cut nothing off the stock axle, till I mocked/tacked brackets on the d44.

 

T-n-t customs has one for dana 44 wag. Front at a good price.

 

i am putting waggy front and rear 44s in my xj as well i got the front done i did all my own brackets it was a little more time consuming then i thought but not that hard just went off of the old axle. i havent done the rear yet cause i been so buisy but i was wondering what size lift you had and if you did a sye or hack an tap and if the stock front axle worked for the rear length wise so i can get one from a junk yard and use it for a spare. i am running re 5.5 with re hack an tap

 

7 1/2 lift. No sye yet. No vib in rear at all. Just front when drive line is in. No front drive line it rides smooth down the road. Want to get dana 44's built when i get the money. So i have front locking hubs. W/arb & 4.56 or4.88 gears. Little at a time. Dana 30 in front ok for now. Dana 44 from a xj in rear for now. Broke 3 dana 35's. Dana 44 doing good for now.:d

 

When Andy (Ironman) and I did the D44 on my xj he built the brackets. When we did the D60 on it this past summer I bought it all from Ballistic Fab. For the money and time saved its worth it to buy them. and Ballistic has some really reasonable prices. Why go to D44 in the front?

 

Don't know realy why. Got out of same vehicle. At a good price. $200.00 for both.

 

Strength...

 

Strength over what? HP D30 uses the same U-joint. What size tire? Anything over 35" on a D44 is pushing it. If you run alloys then a 37" is possiable but not advisable.

 

with this i don't see y yall wouldn't build the dana 30 and dana 35 cause you can get all the stuff to do it chromo 30 splines (dana 44 but stronger) axles and detriot lockers, and a trusse that seem like a better deal to me then doing a dana 44 or dana 60 cause of the size of the diff you would have to get even bigger tires to have the same diff clearence that you had with the dana 30 and dana 35 just seems like a waste to me

 

Not thread jacking, but the d44 vs d60 thread has not been beat to death yet. D60 has a much higher buy in price, to me that is why a lot of ppl go with them. You can build a d44 out of the Jyard for the most part. Once you have saved coin for a d60 sell d44 to pay for upgrades.

AS for why build a d44 over a d30. Lets just say strength. Lock out hubs. I have seen many ppl run 35's on stock d44's, and a few ppl run 38's with no breakage. Granted he had Dutchman alloys and was only pushing a 4 banger, but he did beat on it.

 

The D44 vs the D30.

Sure the "stock" u-joints are the same, but with most alloy shafts you can get D60 size u-joints.

The ring and pinion on a HP D44 are night and day stronger. The LP D44 is about equal to the HP D30.

Axle tubes are thicker

Wheel bears are serviceable and the D44 can have there's replaced (both sides) for $40 vs the D30 for about $240

Plus you get manual lock outs, save on internal ware and tare.

And this is just the tip of the ice burg. Not sure who all has priced it out but you can build for about the same price as a D30..

 

Some of your info is flawed. The alloy joints for the D44 are not D60 sized but D60 strength. A built D44 will run you $2K to $3K I know I built one over the course of two years and broke 3 of the 6 times I went out on 36 IROK's. The bearings are $60 a side around here. Maybe $40 if you are lucky. That is $80 - $120 every time you have to replace them. If you play in mud it will happen more often then you think. I can get a D30 from a Pull a Part for $150 or less. The only advantage the D44 has is the manual lockouts period. The HP44 will have a stronger R & P but I have seen very few D30 R & P failures in the 6 or 7 years I have been wheeling xj's. The factory shapfts kneck down and the stubs are weak when you put them on anything bigger then a 35. Point is if you are going to a D44 becasue you ahve one maybe you should sit tight and see what you break before you jump in. Yes the D60 has a higher buy in but in reality when you are done with the D44 you know you are going t00 wnat to go up eventually and run bigger. So why not wait and not build 2 axles? Yeust food for thought. I'm all for a D44 rear with the D30. But going from a HP30 to a LP D44 seems to be going backwards IMHO.

 

Not all alloys have D60 u-joints, but you can get them that way.

I've seen about 12 D30's over the last year blow up in XJ's all running 33 or 35's and 1 axle split right in half. Broke the side off the pig.

The thing with the D30 vs. D44 is there is 2 sides.
Every person will find there reason for one or the other.

So there really is no right or wrong on this.

Parts very so much with each part of the country it's not funny either.