I have a cheep arc welder, 110, would I have a shot at doing the swap? Thinks in advance

 

How many amps? Can you weld stick?

 

I have spent a long, long time searching the internet for the answer to the best D44 front end swap for a XJ. Below is a link to an excellent writeup on all the different D44 options for an XJ. A waggy axle will work great but will need to have coil buckets, track bar and control arm mounts welded on, but that is a lot of work just to end up with a low pinion axle. You could instead do a little more work and end up with a much more desirable result. Just take a Dana 44 housing from a 1970-1976 F150 and get some axles from a 1980-1984 Waggoneer. Then shorten the Ford housing to fit the Waggy axles. Now weld on those coil buckets, track bar, and control arm mounts and the end result is a high pinion, Dana 44 axle that is the perfect width for an XJ and can take stock Waggoneer shafts.

Click here to see the thread where I found this information.

 

it is a very popular swap to do the F250 D44 with the thicker tubed housing as well. Its a very good idea/setup if you have all the proper tools to do so, do it wrong and you could have a world of problems.

 

Thanks for all the info and help guys.

 

Yea in pretty good with it 90 amp

 

By the way, there are wide track wagoneer axles and narrow track out there. The narrow track are the ones you want and are pretty much perfect width as described above. The wide track are pretty much full width axles, so you should only get those if you want the 1-ton look.

I have not looked at production numbers, but I see a ton of narrow track and almost no wide tracks when I am out an about. Look for big plastic fenders on the body. Those are wide track. If the fenders are metal and barely protrude out from the body at all, they are narrow track.

 

Check out the front fenders on my old love intere....I mean Jeep. That is what you are looking for. Wide track are much bigger.


Also, '80+ are compatible driver diff. '79 and older are not. Now that I think of it, I am not sure they did wide tracks in '80 + anyway. Maybe it mentioned it in one of those links I did not read

 

140 amp minimum. if you cant get enough penetration here, it could mean your life.

 

Yea dude you need a 140.

 

I have two welders 1 a MIG 125 lincoln its rated for 1/4 but me personally would not use it for buildng an axle my other welder is a lincoln 225 stick welder i any axle welding i do i use the stick welder and if im welding cast iron i use nickel rods that are made for welding cast iron

 

Glad I asked, I have a second welder I can use but would half to go pick it up its used for MIG welding any steel at a local shop, up to 1 1/2 inch I think could I use nickel wire?
Sorry for jacking, that's my last q ha ha

Edit 1 1/4

 

You can get nickel wire for a mig welder http://www.airgas.com/browse/product...oduct=UTP17984