dana 44 in a drag 4x4 truck

[zstroken]

Your shaft diameters are wrong.

D44 - 30 spline inners 1.31" diameter
D50 - 30 spline inners 1.31" diameter
'94-'99ish D60 - 30 spline inners 1.31" diameter
'99ish - '02 D60 - 32 spline inners 1.41" diameter

I thought the same thing.
2000-02 have the 32 spline.

 

[JoshH]

Comparing the GM IFS to a Dana 44 is way off. The IFS is a whole lot closer to the 9.25 axle in the 3rd gen Dodges than a D44 (other than being IFS, it is the exact same axle as what is in the front of a 3rd gen). If I was going for weight reduction in the front axle, I would build a hybrid axle out of a 9" Ford using a Hi-9 third member. You might be able to get away with 44 shafts made out of chrome-moly, but if you do go that route, make sure you do NOT use stock joints. Get some CTM or Ox joints. Also, if you plan on using real hubs that use a spindle and serviceable bearings (instead of the crap unit bearing stuff), use drive flanges instead of selectable hubs. I'm not sure the unit bearing stuff will be a weak link, but I don't know how those stub shafts and joints work with the other Dana 44 parts. You might have to do a little checking into that.

 

[bh10]

Your shaft diameters are wrong.

D44 - 30 spline inners 1.31" diameter
D50 - 30 spline inners 1.31" diameter
'94-'99ish D60 - 30 spline inners 1.31" diameter
'99ish - '02 D60 - 32 spline inners 1.41" diameter

No, they are right, but so are yours. Yours are the diameter at the splines and Im are not. D44 axles neck up at the splines. :Cheer:

 

[mondtster]

No, they are right, but so are yours. Yours are the diameter at the splines and Im are not. D44 axles neck up at the splines. :Cheer:

Last ones I measured didn't. They did neck down right before the splines, but that is due to the process used to spline the shaft.

 

[Phily 911]

I've never seen a set of the soft gears for a D44. They would probably have to be custom made, but if you have enough money you should have no problems getting some. The other thing to remember is that the material used in these "soft" gears can be hardened to any hardness you want. The same material is used in the gears made for nascar as the soft drag race gears, just hardened differently.


A couple of things to think about:

1. The mid '90s trucks had D60s with 30 spline axles. D44s use the same diameter 30 spline axle. At best, the later 32 spline axles used in the 60s would be a slight improvement but I wouldn't expect much.

2. The u-joint in a 60 is HUGE compared to that of a 44

3. The pinion shaft in a 60 is quite a bit larger than that of a 44.

4. The ring gear on a 60 is obviously bigger. This makes it possible for there to be more tooth contact between the ring and pinion. The Ford 9" has a bit of advantage here since the pinion is more offset than either the 44 or 60, which allows more tooth contact in a smaller package.

If this guy does all chrom moly shafts and u joints the shafts and u joints should be at Dana 60 strength. On paper at least. I don't really have the money to test that kind of thing, let alone money period. It could be the Ford 9 inch that I was thinking they make soft gears for or maybe a D-60. Something popular.

All this said, I think it will work but you will probably be on the edge with it. Especially if using slicks. An automatic foot braked car will probably give it the most chance of living. If you can afford it, I'd try to go the 9" route. It will be substantially cheaper if you can do the work yourself, but still more than what you would likely have in a 44.

Converting a 9" for a front axle would be cheaper than a HP 44 front axle? I agree a 9" would be better, but I would think it'd cost big bucks. Never the less he's got the most powerful 5.9 out there. So I imagine he has money to spend either way.

 

[mondtster]

If this guy does all chrom moly shafts and u joints the shafts and u joints should be at Dana 60 strength. On paper at least. I don't really have the money to test that kind of thing, let alone money period. It could be the Ford 9 inch that I was thinking they make soft gears for or maybe a D-60. Something popular.

You still have the small d44 size u-joints, which happens to be the location where I have seen the most breakage in the D44s I have dealt with in off road applications. That is assuming that you are comparing a 30 spline d44 to a 30 spline d60 too. The advantages of a d60 or 609 become even greater if you start comparing a 30 spline d44 to a 35 spline d60 both with chromo shafts in them. If you end up with shafts that are durable enough in a 44, then I'd really expect to see the weakness would move inward to the R+P.

I would say that a chromo d44 is roughly equal to a stock shafted 35 splined60.

Soft gears are available over the counter for the 9" and d60 applications. There may be more as well, but these are two of the most popular drag race axles so it makes sense. Like I said before, you can have anything made if you want to, but it comes at a cost. At the cost of getting some custom gears made, you could be pretty far along in building an axle out of common, readily available parts.

BTW - there should hopefully be some some nice, strong, 9" gears coming soon that aren't the standard soft gears. I'm not sure on what the time schedule or price is yet, but I know a guy who is working on bringing them to the marketplace.

Converting a 9" for a front axle would be cheaper than a HP 44 front axle? I agree a 9" would be better, but I would think it'd cost big bucks. Never the less he's got the most powerful 5.9 out there. So I imagine he has money to spend either way.

Nowhere did I say it would be cheaper than working on a 44, although it could possibly be, depending on where you get your parts from.

Building your own housing and doing all the setup work yourself will result in a much cheaper 9" steering axle than what the OP was looking at when he wanted to buy a bolt in replacement axle that was complete, which is the same thing that I said before. You even quoted it.

 

[Phily 911]

Nowhere did I say it would be cheaper than working on a 44, although it could possibly be, depending on where you get your parts from.

Building your own housing and doing all the setup work yourself will result in a much cheaper 9" steering axle than what the OP was looking at when he wanted to buy a bolt in replacement axle that was complete, which is the same thing that I said before. You even quoted it.

Easy. I'm not a good reader, sorry. Just exchanging ideas and learning as much as I can....

 

[bh10]

If this guy does all chrom moly shafts and u joints the shafts and u joints should be at Dana 60 strength. On paper at least. I don't really have the money to test that kind of thing, let alone money period. It could be the Ford 9 inch that I was thinking they make soft gears for or maybe a D-60. Something popular.

So what about the ring & pinion, more so the pinion, which has a nice tendonicy of sheering its self. Once you upgrade the shafts, lockouts, and ujoints, your weak link is the pinion.