jage Posted January 11, 2007 Posted January 11, 2007 OK, I'm looking at the final numbers for my front axle- how does running 64" width front and rear strike you guys? 9" of lift, 5.83 gears, 38" tires, 5 on 5.5", 1/2 ton knuckles
pingpong Posted January 11, 2007 Posted January 11, 2007 What are you talking about.... what axle? I am kinda lost. That is almost fullwidth... or is that the total width of your axle outside to outside?
jage Posted January 11, 2007 Author Posted January 11, 2007 It's a Ford 9" front and Ford 9" rear. That's "wheel mounting surface to wheel mounting surface", which he explained was the outside of the brake roter.
Oizarod115 Posted January 11, 2007 Posted January 11, 2007 It's a Ford 9" front and Ford 9" rear. That's "wheel mounting surface to wheel mounting surface", which he explained was the outside of the brake roter. :drool: drop-out-third-members :drool:
feerocknok Posted January 11, 2007 Posted January 11, 2007 Slightly under true full-width. No first hand experience -> If I were to put a truck of 38s, it'd have a 63"+ wms-wms. I'm trying not to web wheel.
DirtyComanche Posted January 11, 2007 Posted January 11, 2007 It's all about terrain. Where I am, keeping it narrow helps. Or you wind up tree humping.
pingpong Posted January 12, 2007 Posted January 12, 2007 Hugging tree is cool if you are an enviromentalist :nanner: It all boils down to what and where you wheel. If you do a lot of trail riding... narrow is ideal, and so is a shorter whel base :brows: but if you rock rawl and have larger tires it is all about stance and being stable, so being wide is your friend
88MJay Posted January 12, 2007 Posted January 12, 2007 64" is a good width. But, I would make the front wider than the rear. Say 66" or 67" and the rear 64". Or make the front 64" and the rear 62". It helps when trying to get around a tree or rock when on the trail. Most one ton axles (full width) are this way. If you ask around, axle shops etc., they will confirm that most people who custom order or build axles go this route. just my 2 cents again.
M357.5 Posted January 12, 2007 Posted January 12, 2007 Width is a matter of preferance. Mine is 67" wms to wms. But why limit yourself to 1/2 ton knuckles if your having custom axel houseings built ???? If your spending that amount of cash on a custom 9" front why would you use 1/2 ton stuff.....go with D60 outters , 35 spline Detroit Locker , 35 spline inner + outter shafts , ORD 5 bolt conversion hubs with Warn drive flanges. If your only useing 1/2 ton stuff , save your cash and swap a stock HP D44 Ford front under it. I run 36's on my HP D44 with 4.88's locked , and only pop u-joints once in awhile......I always have spare axel shafts with me. Not tryin to be negative......but your not gaining anything if you use D44 outters on your 9".....it's just money wasted for nothing.
jage Posted January 12, 2007 Author Posted January 12, 2007 Yeah I was wondering about that. It's a 2.5L so my weak link should be stalling the engine. Problem is there is like a 150% price jump between using 1/2 ton outers and 1 ton and that breaks me. Then you start to wonder about the logic of putting all that money into a rust bucket MJ that was free, or at least I do. But the front axle is the one place I had budget and I thought matched 9" axles would be very cool - the real question should be maybe if it is worth having a front 9" 1/2 ton over a ford HP 44...
DirtyComanche Posted January 12, 2007 Posted January 12, 2007 Short answer is it's not. The 9" is a really killer strong gearset with plenty of options. But, with both the HP or LP D44 the weakness is the outer stub shafts as they have to neck down to accomodate the hubs (they're like, 19 spline..). EDIT: This is with a built D44. IE, my setup with a spool/chromos/superiors and drive flanges would qualify. You'd be running these same stubs with the 9" setup with half ton outers; so again they'd be the weak link. I'd get a junkyard HPD44, or even a LP one (hey I did that!) or spend the dough now and get the 1-ton outers. Oh, the 1-ton stuff, would it be kingpin?
jage Posted January 12, 2007 Author Posted January 12, 2007 Yup that's exactly what we're doing. My friend who's finishing the build back in Indiana is going to look for an F250 front D44 and we're cutting down to 63" WMS-WMS and a Ford 9" is going in the back, cut down to 61" with discs and a drain plug. We considered an early bronco Front D44 but at 60" we're talking wheel spacers and a 60" back maximum... As for gears I'm going with 5.89 in the front and 5.83 in the rear which is about 1% difference.
RandysMJ Posted January 12, 2007 Posted January 12, 2007 Mine are 64.5 front and 64 rear. So far it's worked out perfect.
pingpong Posted January 12, 2007 Posted January 12, 2007 Just skip it.. if you are going to spend that Kinda coin.. just buy a d60 and narrow it.
jage Posted January 12, 2007 Author Posted January 12, 2007 I'm skipping the D60 because of raw weight issues, plus the 9" in the rear is a bargin for me and I don't want D60 front and 9" rear.
Oizarod115 Posted January 13, 2007 Posted January 13, 2007 I'm skipping the D60 because of raw weight issues, plus the 9" in the rear is a bargin for me and I don't want D60 front and 9" rear. the local shop up the street is trying to get rid of some unimog portals.. wanted me to buy them for the MJ :nuts: haha, he doesnt want them in his shop anymore. BUY THOSE!!!!
jage Posted January 13, 2007 Author Posted January 13, 2007 Yeah actually when I got my budget together for finishing the truck I was looking at mog axles, but with the 8-9" lift springs the portals would have had me at 14" or something. Have you offered to take them off his hands? :brows: http://comancheclub.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=112&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=unimog+photo&start=65
pingpong Posted January 13, 2007 Posted January 13, 2007 whats he want for the Mogs... I havent started building my links yet... they would be just bad @$$
DirtyComanche Posted January 15, 2007 Posted January 15, 2007 Mogs aren't the inital price thing... They get you later. Pinion conversion, brakes, narrowing or dealing with clearance issues...
Regger Posted January 15, 2007 Posted January 15, 2007 Mogs aren't the inital price thing... They get you later. Pinion conversion, brakes, narrowing or dealing with clearance issues... Actually, what you can do, is use a stock axle, say D44 & D60, and adapt just the portal hubs to the axle... Rob Bryce (Exact Engineering) did that for one of his customers.. He did it on a D30 front end with 3.08 gears in the diff. It was for a rock buggy. No need to go any bigger as all the gear reduction is in the portal. Of course the housing was heavily trussed.... Its an idea... Ryan
DirtyComanche Posted January 16, 2007 Posted January 16, 2007 I'd wonder how much wound up being in it. I guess it would be as easy as narrowing an axle other than the outer stubs would probably have to be splined 'differently' which ultimately would probably lead to all new shafts. That's assuming that mogs don't use a closed knuckle CV or anything like that - I'll admit I know little about them. That still leaves the brakes/bolt pattern too. Although, one can run what's there. But I'm not into 20" rims and 4-wheel drum brakes. It does make me think though. Unfortunatly the Canadian military won't be surplussing mogs or their parts anytime soon. Or maybe that's for the better that they don't.
jage Posted January 16, 2007 Author Posted January 16, 2007 http://www.exaxt.ca/ has info, they sell disc conversion kits or something. it's been awhile since I looked into this.
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