Hey guys, so I have a high pinion d44 out of a 75 f150. How much trouble is it gonna be to fit that under my xj. I've already got a long arm kit ordered so I'm not gonna use the ford radius arms. I'm guessing i'll have to cut them off somehow to make room for my control arm mounts. I found an axle truss with all the mounts at TNT that looks like it will work great. My question is should I just whack off everything on the axle and install the truss or just junk the axle for something a little easier to modify. I want a full width axle to match my rear 12 bolt. Any ideas?

 

Cant remember who but someone else on here is doing the same thing right now and has a build going. They used the radius arms I think but modified them. Hopefully that person will chime in why or why not the kept the radius arms.
I you havent already search the fab section for that build. It may help you with things you may have overlooked.

 

as long as the radius arm mounts are not cast onto the axle cut everything off and throw on the TNT truss that makes like a lot simpler then trying to make up a lot of the parts your self

 

I have a D44 out of a 78 Ford and it has the cast C's. If memory serves me, yours does not. If you look at yours closely you can tell if the Cs are cast or welded on. There are several of us running the cast C D44s and they do just fine. If I were starting over I would not have selected the cast C model, but I was more interested in the disc brakes at the time than the cast Cs and I am not going to change it. The ford radius arms work fine as long as you extend them to about 38 inches and put some good joints on the frame end ( I have ballistics, others run johnny, etc). Look up X1994J on here ( or he may be on NAXJA, I cant remember) He has a great build called 'project turquoise medallion' that shows how to extend the ford radius arms in good detail. I will help any way I can to answer any questions; just PM me or ask on here. Extending the ford arms is definitely the less expensive option if that is important to you.

 

sorry - sent twice!

 

Well I'm not at home right now so i can't look at it to see if the mounts are cast or not. If they are can I just buy the truss and trim the axle (or truss) to fit. I really want to use the new long arm kit I have coming in and I don't mind any fab work.

 

The truss won't work with the cast version but they only used them in 78 and 79 so you have the weld on type. Good luck with the build. One question, why a 12 bolt? Not exactly the strongest axle in the world and it's c-clipped. Unless you have a lot of coin in it I'd sell it and find a 9 inch. It will be the same width and lots stronger.

 

Well I had the 12 bolt laying around from a previous build and I've already got gears, locker, and stronger axles for it. And since its 6 lug, I already have wheels to fit it and it won't be a big deal to change over the d44 to match. Its really just a money thing. If it breaks later on I can always swap it out with something stronger pretty easily.

 

I am using a 73 f100 d44 in my build. How I got the Wedges off was to grind one side and BFH till they came off. I too am using the TNT truss, and it is a great truss. Order it with the correct upper and lower mounts, and you wil be good.

I too am using Waggy/chevy outers (my beadlocks are 6 bolt) so what I did for my 9" was order a set of 6 lug Dutchman shafts Yeah they were a lil coin.. but they wont break

Here is my build thread on another site

http://mpjai.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=9421