Hello, I;m new here and just bought an XJ to test my skills. I was wondering what you guys usually use for axles to swap in. I've heard of the 8.8 swap for the rear, but I kind of want to go with something wider. I play to run 37's once I get the 5.5 inch long arm kit in. Any recommendations?

 

You can pick up a set of Super Duty axles for pretty cheap.

 

A late 70's F150 comes with a high pinion front Dana 44 and a rear 9". Good axles to build up if you aren't going to go bigger than 37.

Some 3/4 and most 1 ton pickups from Ford and Dodge are good donors depending on the year. Mixing and matching axles can work but there are a few gotchas depending on what you go with. i.e. some Ford trucks come with a Dana 50 in the front which you don't want. And Ford switched lug patterns to metric along the way so matching the front to the rear becomes important.

 

Why don't you want a Dana 50? There isn't as much aftermarket support as a Dana 60 but there is still plenty of aftermarket gears and lockers available for it, and it's strong enough to handle just about any tire size underneath an XJ.

 

Mostly lack of aftermarket support. That and it's not enough of an upgrade over a Dana 44 to seek one out. Given that 60's aren't hard to find, if you're going to go bigger than a 44 you may as well do it right and go straight to the 60.

In some ways, the JK Dana 44 is actually stronger than a 50. The pinion shaft on a JK 44 is a lot bigger (1.625" vs 1.375"), and you only get 30 splines on the 50 shafts. The JK will support up to 35 spline shafts if you build it right. Truss and gusset the JK 44 housing and do some upgrades on the shafts and you have an axle that beats out the 50 in just about every respect. And aftermarket housings blow both of them away.

 

A Superduty Dana 50 has the same size outer axles, u-joints, knuckles, hubs, ball joints and breaks as a Dana 60, all of which are larger than you will find on any Dana 44 axle. The Dana 50 has a smaller ring gear and carrier than a Dana 60 but it's still larger than a Dana 44. Under a lightweight XJ a Dana 50 is easily capable of handling 40" tires or larger. For anyone looking for axles the Dana 50 front was used in 99-01 Superdutys and all Ford Excursions. Sometime in 01 Ford switched to the Dana 60 front in the Superduty, and still uses it to this day, in 05 it changed from leaf springs to coil springs, and the axles got about 4" wider. The rear axle if it's a SRW will be a Ford/Sterling 10.5 which is a great axle with a lot of aftermarket support.

 

and the d50 is gonna be a lot cheaper than a D60 for all the reasons above

Just like the king-pin vs balljoint D60 debate.....under and XJ, either will work fine, just one costs more to get your hands on