If you shaved that giant lip off the bottom of the housing, then I bet it would only hang down about 4 inches. I'll admit I could've been off by as much as an eighth of an inch, but I'm positive I'm not off by more than that.

At the end of the day, I think you're better served by making it a point to know where the diffs are rather than worrying about whether they'll clear or not, but that's just an opinion.

-Scuzz

 

Shaved 8.25.

 

Interesting. I'm real curious now why I'm finding such large discrepancies. I've got an 8.25 at my shop and I'll be there this afternoon. I'll get a measurement if I remember. Trust but verify haha.

I completely agree though. It really comes down to knowing your rig and knowing your limits.

 

Sorry, I miss typed. I meant 4 inches below the bottom of the axle tube.

 

I shaved my 8.25 and gained about .375 maybe .500 max clearance. Either way, half an inch would equate to one inch larger tires. Easy to do, too!

 

The world would be a better place if more of us lived by this statement.

 

I liked that until I noticed how thin the bottom was under the ring gear. What's that, maybe 1/8" left? One good drop on a rock and you're going to royally **** up the diff.

 

good point. an easy fix would be to weld a 1/4" strip right under the ring to reinforce that specific spot.

 

If I though that I needed a stronger rear axle than the Chy 8.25 I would skip the 8.8/D44 and go to a D60 as they all require modifications to get them to fit. That would be if I wanted to run 37" and up tires only.


Some people encourage others to use things that aren't needed for what they are doing or intend to use their XJ's for. I tend to overbuild at times but do listen to others that have more knowledge than I when it come's to strength and safety vs. cost of a project and nothing gained in the end.

 

One of the best parts about an 8.8 over an 8.25 though is cheap disk brakes. Not to mention the fact that they're in a million Ford and Mercury vehicles so parts are cheap and readily available.

Dana 60 on the other hand is a lot more work. You either need to match the width with a full size front requiring a lot more fab work than swapping in a near stock with rear like the 8.8 or you need to cut the axle tubes down and find new axle shafts which is a lot more expensive than swapping an 8.8.