Tpoirier6

A buddy of mine has a 79 bronco that he's junking and it has locked Dana 44s on it. Will these work on an xj? What will I have to change/fab?

kirknd4spd

They will work, but they will be full width. You'll have to cut all the spring, shock, and control arm mounts off (as long as the mounts on the front are not cast, I don't remember what years had the cast wedges), and weld all new mounts and perches on them.

And a 79 Bronco should have a D44 front and 9" rear. Not D44's front and rear.

Tpoirier6

Alright thanks for the info. I thought I was going to have to do a lot more. I didn't think of the full size either. I'm going to have to look into so new flairs...

sthon

I'm pretty sure the '79 had cast

Tpoirier6

Now that you mention it I'm pretty sure it is a 9" rear

kirknd4spd

Flares probably won't cover the tires with full width axles. I know of one Jeep around here with full widths under it and Bushwacker flares, and they don't even begin to cover his tires.

Tpoirier6

Jesus! Any pictures?

xjmarc

79 will have cast wedges so your only option is to run a ford type radius arm. Not that it's a bad thing. Modified with a heim or johnny type joint on the frame end they work exactly like most aftermarket long/radius arms. The spring mounts will need modified as well because they are too wide. Rear will pretty much bolt up except for the drive shaft. These axles are roughly 8" wider than stock.

andrewmp6

Or buy it cheap and resell it its used a lot in solid axle swaps on 80-96 broncos/f150s.If you want something xj width the early bronco was smaller or a fsj 80 or newer wagoneer.

Tpoirier6

Alright thanks for the info!

andrewmp6

Which axle do you have in the rear now a dana 35 or the chrysler 8.25?

Tpoirier6

The D35

93XJLI

this.

and you can get the tires covered by bushwackers, you just need to run wheels with a crazy deep offset, are big enough to fit over the brakes, and then make sure the wheels dont contact the steering up front.

Tpoirier6

This seems like its going to turn into more of a project then I wanted it to haha I think I'm just going to pull them out and flip them

xjmarc

Axle swaps are big projects. Most people think they can just swap in whatever but there is a ton of fab and even more little things most people don't think about like drive shaft lengths and u-joint sizes. The only easy swaps are ones that came from another XJ.