Since I can't get to working on the Valiant, I started building the axles for my buggy project. I've got a pair of D44 axles from an 86 Grand Wagoneer. I've already installed a set of 5.38 gears and Detroit EZ locker in the rear and started working on the front. A buddy of mine is trading me a full spool for one of my lockers so the rear will be coming apart so that I can get the spool installed back there.

I picked up a high output 4.0 and AW4 combo back in October and picked up two NP231 t-case that I am going to build a doubler with.

Here are some pics.

The rear axle set up (going to get reset after I get the spool)


As it stands right now, the rear axle has had all the brackets cut off, is cleaned up and has a couple coats of primer on it. The front is half apart.

Everything is on hold for now though as I am rebuilding/regearing a guy 5 axles right now. 1 F*$d 8.8, 1 C#&$y 14B, 2 front D60s and 1 Curries Rock Jock rear axle.

I've also got a friend that has a F$*d 8.8 rear axle for his YJ that has all the brackets cut off and is primered that I will be rebuilding for him along with a front D44 out of a Grand Wagoneer.... as soon as I find one.

 

I've been talking to a good friend of mine who's hobby is axles (the guy is very smart when it comes to Dana axles). I told him that I was tossing the idea around in my head about building a hybrid axle(s). He said that he would help out with what he could and that he probably has all the parts that I would need. So here is the plan.

Rear D44:
I will be cutting the spindles off of a rear D60 axle and welding them onto my D44 (after I mock them up on a junk D44 that I have of course). This will allow me to have a full floating rear axle with the strength of a D60 but the clearance of a D44 (great for off roading).

Front D44:
For the time being, I will replace the outer hubs with a set of 8 lug hubs (3/4 ton) to match the rear when I get that done. The plan is though to cut the Cs off and weld/rotate a set of D60 front Cs on. This will give me all the strength of a D60 with king pin joints and the clearance of a D44.

The idea is to get rid of all the weak spots of a D44. In the front it is from the Cs out (ball joints, hubs, stub shafts). In the rear, it's the fact that it is a semi-floating axle.

I know that just building a set of D60 axles would be cheaper but the pumpkin on the D60 is so much larger than that of a D44. Also, a non-shaved D44 w/60 outers has more ground clearance that that of a shaved D60. This will allow me to run a larger tire with a lower center of gravity.

 

what kind of tranny will you use with this combo?

 

Sound's like you are a busy man,how do find time for the forum! By the way, I got one of the new detroit EZ locker in my cuda,it is really smooth and more quiet than the original detroit locker.

 

AW4, it's Jeep's automatic and is strong and can be built.

 

I am, I am also renovating some of the rooms in my house.

Yeah, the EZ lockers are very nice but can not hold up that well to burn outs, doughnuts, etc., but are great for off roading and normal driving. I wish I had the money for a Detroit full locker because those are stupid strong.

 

do you know the ratios of that tranny
they must be high with the low ratio rear

 

1st - 2.8
2nd - 1.53
3rd - 1.0
4th - .75

I won't be using 3rd or 4th gear that much if at all. Primarily just 1st and once in a while 2nd.

 

Just about done rebuilding the F$&d 8.8 rear axle, just waiting on parts to show up. Moved onto the C#&$y 14B rear and found chunks of metal inside, pulled the drum brakes off and installed a disc setup, and found the supplied 4.56 R+P that the customer gave me is chipped. :banghead:

 

Well I've got the C$&%y 14B rear axle completed, still waiting on the parts from the customer so that I can finish up the F$*d 8.8 and started tearing into one of the front C$*%y D60s.

Little bit of back ground on the axle. John (the customer), had this axle in a K5 Blazer that he had started building for his brother. The project never got done and was towed. Problem is, nobody put oil in the diff. So a carrier bearing let go, R+P teeth are worn and the bearing race spun against the housing. That is where I left it last night and will go back to it when I get home from work today.







I think that the housing will be no good. If so, and John does not want it....... I may have just found a good donor housing to help me further my effort to build a D44/D60 hybrid front axle.

 

how can someone forget to put oil in it?

 

I have no idea. All I know is that I need to pull the Detroit locker apart and inspect that too and see if that is ok to use in another axle.

 

Well after work today I spent about $150 on materials and threw up twelve feet of shelves, a 2x6/4x4 constructed work bench and a 6" bench vise. I got all the wood from work for nothing and I gained a lot more walking space.

I've also got both front D60 axles torn down and am ready to start cleaning and rebuilding them tomorrow when the install kits arrive.

I'm sure that I will be posting pics of everything tomorrow night or Saturday morning.

 

They only threw in 1 quart of oil in the 14B rear and there was metal chunks in that diff. Those usually hold about three.

 

Well I've got the 14B and one D60 loaded with 4.56 gears, Detroit lockers, high steer arms on the D60, disc brake conversion on the 14B and the truss back on. The other front D60 housing is just and the BRAND NEW Detroit locker is toast too (although I can get parts and rebuild it). So those three axles are gone and paid for. The F*%D 8.8 is complete and I somehow took on a high pinion D30. Hoping to get that one done by this weekend and get both out and get paid for both.

I've got to help a friend with her 87 K10 truck. I guess the radiator support is shot and I know a guy that has a NOS one that is Line-Xed for cheap and is in great shape.

Not to mention I still have a carpet to pull up and a floor to lay done. It's a good thing I hate sleeping.

 

how cold is it up there? I hope you've got some heated space to work on your projects> I do not and it's 0 (read:ZERO) degrees outside.
..........WILL THIS WINTER EVER END!!!!..........
I may have to move to someplace warm like Alaska! hhhaaa
(maybe NH??) {naw, just thought about it, I would have to change my forum name}
..........hhmmm, Manchestermoparguy; no, dont sound good.......

 

It's not bad. mid 20s to high 30s, sometimes we hit 40. I do have a 200,000 BTU heater heating my 17'x11' (ID) garage. nice thing is I only need to run it for about 2-3 minutes and it is a toasty 85*-90*.

 

I may head outside and work on the rear axle some. I'm going to take out the carrier and locker and install a spool. If all goes well, then I will be also installing a Detroit locker in the front.

 

Well, I've got a D44 and D30 dome for a customer. I've got just one more axle, a Currie Rock Joc HP D60 rear axle to set up. These are pretty impressive axles. I'll make sure to post up some pics before, during and after the gear setup.

Also, Heather and I are ready to install the flooring that we got for the office. I just need to have the time to do it. I think that may happen on Wednesday or Thursday depending on if I get sent out to Michigan for work.

 

Hey, interested to see how your hybrids work out.
Low power with strong outers and high clearance should work out well!!
What are you goin to do about the shaft diameter difference of the larger D60`s and the smaller d44 carrier side gears?
Looks like youve been doin this a while so im sure you have a plan!!!

Im gettin my gears n rebuild parts to redo my ford HP 60 for the front of my YJ this summer..... full width and street legal are 2 words hard to put together up here!

Cheers!
Justin

 

ARB makes a 35 spline locker that I will be using for the front. As for the rear, I'm going to keep it 30 spline inner and outers using 300M material (stronger and better than 4340 chromo).

An easy fix for going full width while keeping it street legal is to use H1 wheels. With the 7" of backspacing, you keep your tires tucked in under the fenders.

 

Well my press and dial indicator came in a lot earlier than I would have thought. I also won a Detroit locker on E-Bay lastnight so I will be selling my EZ Lockers and carriers.

 

Press -


Bearing puller (now I can pull bearings off of D30 axles up to D80 and the Sterling 10.25) -


Ford full floating rear spindle -


Cut and cleaned up some. will need some machining done to it. -


The first D44 rear axle to go under the knife (Scout D44 has the same width measurement as the Grand Wagoneer N/T when measuring axle mount flange to axle mounting flange.) -


If all goes well on the Scout D44, then I will be installing my gears and spool in there. If not, I've got a back-up axle to use.

 

Turns out that the customer's brother actually drove that front D60 with no oil in it. When I removed what was left of the bearing, I saw that the section where the bearing sits was worn down so much, that a new bearing had about 1/16" of play.

 

Got a few more updates for this thread.

Last Saturday I went up onto the roof and found my leak. The flashing and tar around the chimney was poorly done and caused one of the leaks that I had during the last huge rain storm we had over here in New England. Well I cut away what I needed to and laid on some roofing cement (not the normal cement, some really thick, heavy duty, cement). I smoothed it out as best that I could. Well we are getting right now another good size rain storm and there were no leaks last night and I don't think that there will be any time soon (at least not from the chimney). Cell phone pics, sorry folks.









Last Sunday, Heather's father, Ken, helped me out with laying down the hardwood flooring in our office/computer room. The flooring is 5/16" thick and needed to be glued down. Everyone around that I talked to had never done this before. Well let me tell you, the room floor is only ~75 square feet and we got it done in less than two hours (that is with taking breaks in between sections). We would trowel on the glue and let is site for 10 minutes and then start laying down the flooring. We did this in two foot sections from one wall spreading the full width of the room. I think that if we just busted bum and didn't take any breaks, we could have gotten is done in about an hour.



Yesterday Heather and I got a plastic dome cover for the basement window that thinks it's a waterfall when it rains. We cleaned out around the window and around the cement wall that holds back the dirt. I siliconed and screwed the dome to the house and it is sealed up pretty well. The base board around the house is old and should be replaced as it pulled away as I put screws into it. Right now there are only a few drops coming in through that window (not too worried as it is a dirt and stone basement) but that is a lot better than a waterfall.





Last night, Heather and I go the future bedroom (TV room now) and walk-in closet (storage room now) cleaned out and start tearing down the old drywall so that we can insulate run new wiring. Well we found out that someone at some point put up some strapping over the original wall and then drywalled over that (for whatever reason). We tore one wall down and found that only parts or the outside wall were insulated....... and the insulation was wet. The outside wall had a little bit of mold on it so I cleaned it all up (one part bleach/2 parts water) and put a fan on it last night to help it dry out so that I could insulate it today. I got all around the window insulated BTW. Well this morning I went into the room to see how it was doing and found out that the window is not properly sealed (what a surprise with this house) from the outside and a little bit of water was coming in. So once the storm passes, I'll be tearing apart the outside of that window (which is a newer window - few years old it looks like) and sealing and installing new trim. It should only take me a few hours to do it all.

 

You can see the black spots on the wall. The roof above this room was leaking and in very poor condition. Last year in May I ended up tearing it all off, down to the rafters, and laying down new plywood, ice and water barrier, the proper drip edge, and new roofing.

I'm not sure how well this link will work to my Facebook album but I have all pics of the projects that we have done in the last year and a half. If you can't see it, add me as a friend. There are about 200 photos from now 5 small projects.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?ref=profile&id=585462028#!/album.php?aid=78505&id=585462028

 

I see re-pointing the mortar joints on your chimney in your future!

 

As in this coming weekend.......

 

Really busted butt yesterday...... til I pasted out on the couch after eating dinner at 8PM.




The ceiling is torn down as well.

 

Have you thought of cleaning the brick and leaving the chimney brick exposed in that room? I did it in my old house and it came off as a really nice touch. I'm here for any electrical questions, I've done lots of custom lighting. Scotty