Danny74

I have a Question. I'm aware of the Dana 44a in the Grand Cherokee and its limitations. But I have the chance to pick up for less than $100 the housing for a Dana 44 rear end that goes into a regular Cherokee. It just the housing. My question is could I buy a 44 a from a Grand Cherokee and use all the insides and everything for that to finish and build for 44 that goes into the regular Cherokee. Are there anythings that I should look for or things that I should be concerned about in such a build? I don't remember if they're the same length shafts or if it'll work or not. If it does work, I will have a Dana 44 rear for my regular Cherokee classic with the disc brake setup on it..
So, will my idea work? Can I use the rear end from a Grand Cherokee with a Dana 44 a and put everything into a housing for Dana 44 that goes into a regular Cherokee?

FYI, currently I have a Dana 35 rear end in a 1988 Cherokee. It's Rusty and definitely needs a new diff cover.
I don't plan on doing much off-roading if any at all when I have this Jeep back on the road. I do plan on using it to tow with. I have often done moderate towing with it in the past.

TRCM

If you're gonna do much towing at all, I'd do the WJ brake/steering upgrade for the front as well, and a booster upgrade.

The booster upgrade I did on my 88 made a big difference, but I do not tow with it as the brakes are marginal at best, even when new.

Danny74

Well I already planned on doing the booster upgrade, but I never considered a WJ steering and brake upgrade. I will have to look into that. I am sure if I search this site I can find a thread about it right? Thank you for the advice. So do you think that my idea will work? Buying this Dana 44 rear housing, and then purchasing from a junkyard the 44 a from a Grand Cherokee and swapping over the guts and brakes ?

TRCM

I do not know for sure if the guts of the aluminum one will work in a cast iron housing

yes, many posts about the steering/brake upgrade

andrewmp6

The grands use a dana 44a which has a 44hd diff in it,And it will not fit inside a standard 44 like the xj used.Take a look http://d44tech.com/Dana_44A.html And honestly a chrysler 8.25 is as strong as a dana 44 its a lot easier to find and cheaper to buy if you don't have one.Its good tell 35s built up and past that your looking 1 ton axles which get pricey.

aka"dude"

I second just finding a 29 spline 8.25

bad_idea

Nah. Get an 8.8 out of an Explorer. Some welding required, but if you are able then it is cheap and easy. Bonus, they come with disc brakes.

The 8.8s in the Explorers came with 3.55s, 3.73s, or 4.10s. Limited slip or open diff.

The 8.25 came with 3.55s for the most part.

Danny74

thank you very much for that information. Just what I wanted to know and it's very helpful. I have thought about the Chrysler rear, but the junkyards want too much and every time I'm looking on my local Craigslist I can't find one local for a decent amount of money the closest one right now the guy wants 254, and with travel cost I'm going to end up spending well over 300 to get thing, and I would still have to buy a disc brake conversion kit to have disc brakes for it. Which would increase the cost. This one just seems like a a good a possibility because he's right in the next town and the only wanted fifty bucks for the housing, and the junkyard near me said they'll sell the rear end for the Grand Cherokees for $150 even regardless of what it's from and I know they have a few of them there that are V8 that should have the 44a axle.


First off, welding on Spring perches would be costly since I can't do them myself. And secondly if I ever got a hold of a 31-spline 8.8 Ford rear end I would put that in my Ranger. Replace the 21 spline 8.8 that's in the rear right now. Hey! That might be an idea... If I get a hold of nice heavy duty 8.8 that I can put in my Ranger maybe I could use the old axle in the Jeep.? But then I would also have to do some welding or actually, higher a welder to do it for me. That's the problem.

Actually, if I wanted to go nuts, there is someone local selling a matched pair of the Dana axles cheep, front and rear. A D44 front and a D60 rear with manual locking front hubs and he just wants 200 for the pair. Says he got to get rid of them. But I think that's Overkill. They're from an '80s Ford F-250 I think? Anyway, don't need to go that route. There's also somebody who's selling for 70 bucks a complete Dana 35 out of a Grand Cherokee with the disc brake setup on it and I could just buy that and clean up all the rust on mine, paint it, replace the differential cover, do the brake Swap and leave it like that. I mean I was pulling with a Dana 35 that was in it for a while when it was practically a new rear.

Does anybody know the capacity ratings for the Dana 35 that is in the Jeep Cherokee and the Chrysler 8.25?
Also the ratings for the Dana 44 and 44a would be nice to have.
I know what the capacity ratings of the axle assemblies for the Ford 8.8 rear are. Ford Rates the Ranger axle at 2750lbs and the Explorer axle at 3200lbs .



I guess the simplest an cheapest solution for me, is to wait till I can find a cheep Chrysler 8.25 and just bolt it right in there.
Then I wait till I have the money to do the disc brake conversion. Then I will have a nice rear axle upgrade with disc brakes.

andrewmp6

That dana 44 and dana 60 combo isnt out of the 80s unless they swapped them in it,The last f250 with a dana 44 front was 79 and those won't bolt in with out a ton of work to do.The chrysler 8.25 is your best and cheapest option,Watch your local craigs list for a jeep being parted out.Or find a better junkyard and get one.You can get a 8.8 that bolts in http://eastcoastgearsupply.com/i-476...-assembly.html

Danny74

Yeah I keep looking for that rear locally. I've actually had my eye out for the past 4-5 months. I've actually only found a couple of people selling the Chrysler 8.25 rear for less than $ 200 on Craigslist, but they all end up being almost 2 hours away. Making a round trip close to 4 hours. And with 4 liter V6 that's a lot of money in gas and a lot of time and wear and tear that I really don't want to put on my truck. Search that I just did this afternoon showed Chrysler 8.25 three and a half hours away, and a seller only want $65 for it. I just got to get lucky I guess. Like I said I was only contemplating the Dana 44 housing that I saw for sale because it was only about 50 bucks. Or actually I should say he told me he was willing to take 50 bucks for it. I thought since I had to do the spring replacement anyway, if I can get a cheap axle upgrade while I'm at it, hey bonus. But as it turns out I'm not going to find that right now

Well one good thing that came out of this discussion, is that I realized I should just forget about upgrading the rears on my Jeep for now and just clean it up and upgrade the the breaks to a disc brake setup. There's a guy about 45 minutes away right near where my brother lives who's telling the rear end of a 2000 Grand Cherokee complete. They are asking $70 for the Dana 35. So I could just take the parts I need for conversion off of that. I can just clean up my rear end paint it lubricate everything do the brake swap setup and put it back in with the Springs somebody's going to sell me for about $135. I already got a response from the man selling the 35 with the disc brake setup in regards to what he has.
This is what he wrote in his reply to me:
Now, I would like to thank everyone for their information and advice. Looks like I am better off leaving what I got, and just cleaning it up and painting it for now. So moving on from that quandary this talk of the Ford 8.8 rear got me thinking about the ranger that I'm driving. Which unlike my Jeep is currently a vehicle that is registered and insured and I'm using all the time. Maybe I should look into then Explorer rear end so I can put it in that as an upgrade. It would be a miner upgrade for the capacity rating as I pointed out in a previous post. But would also give me disc brakes which would be a nice breaking upgrade and better if I decide to use that for towing more. I would then have that spare Ranger rear end which would also be a Ford 8.8 and an inch narrower than the 8.8 that they have an explorer. So that would be good to hold on to as an upgrade for my Jeep sometime down the road.

But, I still would really like to know is the answer to my question that I asked earlier about the capacity for the Dana rear ends and the Chrysler 8.25. I did a Google search but didn't find a chart that had those numbers. I was wondering can anybody tell me that information?

andrewmp6

You have a inline 6 not a v6 btw

bad_idea

The rear axle in the explorer is somewhere around 1.5" narrower per side than the stock Jeep axle. If you go much narrower, your tires will rub on the inside of the wheel well. Are you telling me the Ranger axle is narrower than the Explorer axle? I wouldn't run that.

I also wouldn't put a dime into the D35, aint worth it. Find a friend who can weld, swap in an 8.8 from an Explorer. It is a day's labor (max) to weld on the brackets. Should be able to find someone to weld them on for you for $100 max. Assuming you do the cutting of the old stuff and fitting of the new. Easy work.

Danny74

I have an inline 6 cyl, 4.0L H.O. in the Cherokee, and a V6, 4.0L in the Ranger

The Ranger 8.8 is one inch shorter than the Explorers 8.8, overall. That's a half inch per side.
so that would make it two inches shorter per side.
I had not realised it was that much shorter than the stock Cherokees axel.
Hmmmm, yea that's real long for spacers.

this may sound sad, but I really have very few friends since most of mine moved away. And none of my longtime friends like the idea of working on old cars.
I do know two people that would be able to help me out but they charge me. I've known them a long time but we haven't hung out really since they've been married the last 10 years. One actually is the welder by trade. He offered me a discount of $86 an hour with a minimum of 5 hours work for any job. And my other friend is a mechanic by trade and he gives me a discount of $40 an hour on anything that I need help with, however he will not work with me, I have to drop it off at his garage and come back another day after he's done. And he has told me before that he won't do any metal fabrication for other people, in case something goes wrong he doesn't want to be responsible.

So, yea, there we have the problem. If it really is a day's work to do, that's 8 hours times $68 per hour and it adds up to $544 more money that I really want to spend right now. I'm not sure if I came out and said it but, you can gather from what I wrote I just really needed to replace the springs and thought I could do something with the axle while I was at it.
Any idea what the max capacity of the D35 is?

Cane

another vote for a 8.25. keep the d35 until you have the opportunity to get a 8.25 would be my suggestion. people give crap to the dana 35 but you said it yourself, you won't do much offroading and a bit of towing. keep your load under the factory specs and it won't blow up in your face. and don't be tempted to do burn outs but since it's a jeep that shouldn't even cross your mind haha.

that way you save on welding and labor because swapping it under the jeep is not that hard given you have the right tools. worst case scenario you bring the axle to your buddy that works for 40$/hr and he'll have it installed in 2-3hrs max given that you supply everything he needs.

bad_idea

I hear you on the no friends deal, I aint got many myself. I guess I take it for granted I work in the Fab business and have these tools myself. If you want to drive it down the coast, I can help you out. The actual welding is only about 2 hours, including welding the tubes. The work is in removing the old brackets and fitting up the new brackets.

Given your complications with using the 8.8, I'm with Cane, hold out for an 8.25. AS far as the strength of the D35, my father has one in his Wrangler on 31s. Light trail use, DD use for YEARS. Haven't had an issue with it, just use common sense. I seem to recall a pdf from Dana showing the torque ratings for each axle, don't remember where though. Might hit up Google.

I still stand by my previous, don't waste money on the D35. Hold out for a 8.25, easy bolt in.