Wife's MJ

[jons87mj]

if you don't mined me asking but how much lift is on your truck :dunno:

[reson46]

if you don't mined me asking but how much lift is on your truck :dunno:

 

Around 6".

 

Willy

[reson46]

Progress on the D44 was slightly delayed by a wheeling trip to Montana. I ended up borrowing a friend's TJ Rubicon (who may have also found me another MJ) and having a great time. There are no MJ pics, but the scenery, mining history, and wheeling were incredibly. Those pics can be found here.

 

On the way to Montana I caught a ride for our monthly club run to the Cle Elum Valley. Much like Montana this area has great scenery, mining, and wheeling. Again, no MJ pics, but pics of the trip can be found here.

 

I did get some more work done on the D44 before the trip.

 

I picked up a set of the elusive '73 to '76 Chevy flat top knuckles, spindles, and caliper brackets.

 

I was able to clean up one of the knuckles and prepare it for paint just as my grinder decided to die. :wall:

 

 

 

Painted the beadlocks.

 

Picked up some Spidertrax 5x4.5" to 5x5.5" wheel spacers for the 8.8.

 

D44 master install kit. Gears are on their way.

 

Cleaned up the caliper brackets now that I picked up another grinder.

 

Not D44 related, but I also picked up three sets of fire extinguisher quick releases.

 

Willy

[reson46]

I picked up the gears on Saturday.

 

Now came the time to chop it up...and this was the plan that I came up with. Narrow it to use stock length TJ Rubicon D44 inner shafts. To come up with the amount I shortened each side I subtracted the length of the TJ inner shafts from the length of the F100 inner shafts. This is what it gives me:

 

Long side - 33.90625" (F100 long shaft length) - 31.85" (TJ long shaft length) = 2.05625"

 

Short side - 18.90625" (F100 short shaft length) - 16.93" (TJ short shaft length) = 2.07625"

(I just did the math again and it looks like I made a typo on the calculator. This should be 1.97625. After hours of calculations I was still able to screw it up. I don't think 1/10" will be that big of a deal. We'll see when I put everything together.)

 

According to those calculations I need to cut 2.05625" from the long side and 2.07625" from the short side. I ended up just going with 2.05625" from each side in order to make sure everything is centered with the TNT truss.

 

All of this should give me a track width within 1" of a stock Wagoneer D44, allow me to shorten each side equally, and allow me to use stock length inner shafts.

 

After lots of measuring and leveling I was finally happy with the position of everything and was ready to chop off the short side.

 

First cut.

 

Repeat for the long side.

 

Second cut.

 

Souvenirs.

 

A freshly narrowed D44.

 

Getting some idea of how much I'll need to trim from the truss.

 

 

Next up is putting the inner Cs back on, setting up the pinion and caster angles, and welding them on.

 

Willy

[reson46]

I beat the inner Cs back on. I started by making sure the axle was level.

 

Set the pinion angle. My research had led to a recommendation of about 13 degrees for 6" of lift. I'd say 12.7 degrees is close enough for me.

 

Set the caster angle for each side.

 

 

Next I'll recheck all my angles and start welding.

 

Willy

[RockMJ]

Willy, awesome work man! A word of advice though, that TnT truss is going to add some height to the front end of the Jeep. I used this truss on my 44 build in my ZJ and it added at least 1-1.5" of lift to the front because of the difference in the coil buckets over the factory ones. Just a heads up so your not like "what the hell?" can't wait to see the progress

 

RockMJ

[reson46]

Willy, awesome work man! A word of advice though, that TnT truss is going to add some height to the front end of the Jeep. I used this truss on my 44 build in my ZJ and it added at least 1-1.5" of lift to the front because of the difference in the coil buckets over the factory ones. Just a heads up so your not like "what the hell?" can't wait to see the progress

 

RockMJ

 

Thanks. I was pretty sure it would add some height, but I didn't expect 1.5". No big deal. It currently has 1 3/4" spacers. I've also got a stack of the stock isolators and I think I've even got a 3/4" spacer somewhere that I can play around with to get where I need to be.

 

Willy

[reson46]

Started the day by welding on the inner Cs.

 

Then I trimmed the ends off the truss and went through a lot of test fitting until I was happy with its fit. Getting ready to tack it in place.

 

Spent most of the day slooooooowly welding on the truss. I've still got a couple sections to finish up tomorrow.

 

 

While taking breaks from welding to let everything cool off I cleaned up some parts and started painting.

 

 

 

Willy

[RockMJ]

Sounds good Willy! When I did mine I just took out the ACOS I had up front and put a stock .25" pad back in and it sat perfect. Loving the progress man!

 

RockMJ

[reson46]

Finished welding the truss and added the lower control arm mounts.

 

Since I had come this far I figured it was probably a good idea to add gussets to the bottom of the inner Cs.

 

Cleaned up the hub assemblies and painted them. One had quite a bit of rust scale around the wheel mounting surface but everything looked great inside. The other looked really good outside but had obviously been intruded by water and not cleaned up. The old bearings had a lot of play, the grease was a lovely rusty brown, and the internal splines took a lot of brushing as well as an electrolysis bath to clean up.

 

Willy

[H3RESQ]

Looking good!

[reson46]

Since the TNT coil mounts don't come with spring retainers, I added my own.

 

 

Willy

[reson46]

Yesterday's delivery.

 

Picked something up at 4 Wheel Parts last night.

 

 

Willy

[Exxon Valdez Jeep]

4WPs must like it when you walk in! :chillin:

[imstuck]

Never a long bed fan till I seen this one. Looks great. What did you pay for the rearend? Gotta do that!

[reson46]

Never a long bed fan till I seen this one. Looks great. What did you pay for the rearend? Gotta do that!

 

Thanks. It's been years, but I think I paid somewhere around $175 or $200 for the 8.8.

 

4WPs must like it when you walk in! :chillin:

 

Yes, I've spent way too much money there lately. Our monthly PNW4WDA's region delegates meeting is there. Each of the last three months I've left the meeting with a stack of parts.

 

Willy

[reson46]

Gears and locker installed.

 

Trying to figure out which shafts to go with. There are so many options and companies I'm having trouble sorting through all the choices. :wall:

 

Willy

[Exxon Valdez Jeep]

Bobby Long if he's local

[reson46]

Bobby Long if he's local

 

I've got his u-joints and beadlocks, but he only carries Toyota axles. :(

 

Willy

[reson46]

A big thanks to my friend Shawn who let me use his tire changer last night. Swapped the tires over to the new rims.

 

He also let me use his press to install the new wheel studs. :yes:

 

Willy

[reson46]

Had the passenger steering knuckle machined and tapped for high steer arms.

 

Finished mounting the beadlock rings and seating the beads.

 

Installed the Spidertrax conversion spacers on the rear.

 

Installed the rear tires and wheels.

 

Willy

[reson46]

Started Sunday off at the White Knuckle 4x4 swap meet. Found the outer shafts that I was looking for.

 

D30 removed for the last time and D44 loosely in place.

 

Looks like my track bar is pretty much the right length.

 

I've got a few holes I need to enlarge. Even though I'm using TNT control arms, the upper control arm mounts on the truss actually use a larger bolt than the control arms. I think I'll need to invest in some larger drill bits to open up the track bar bracket.

 

Willy

[Boots]

Over all how hard would you say that it was to do the entire dana 44 swap? Including narrowing and all that. I have a dana 44 rear and a front one would sure be nice. Oh, and I really really like your Comanche.

 

Thanks :wrench:

Chad

[reson46]

Over all how hard would you say that it was to do the entire dana 44 swap? Including narrowing and all that. I have a dana 44 rear and a front one would sure be nice. Oh, and I really really like your Comanche.

 

Thanks :wrench:

Chad

 

It completely depends upon how much experience somebody has with this type of project. Not only does it require a competent welder, but an understanding of suspension dynamics. This is definitely not a project for somebody who has only bolted on parts to their vehicle.

 

Willy

[reson46]

New ball joints.

 

I needed to get some measurements with the tires on the ground, so I mounted enough stuff to get it off the jack stands.

 

Knuckle and spindle.

 

Caliper bracket.

 

Rotor and hub assembly.

 

Enlarged the track bar hole, mounted the track bar and tie rod. Looks like my old tie rod should work.

 

The truss added 1" of height. Luckily I had some 3/4" spacers that I could use in place of the 1 3/4" spacers I was using. This got me back to the same height as with the D30. Looks like I need to have the driveshaft shortened 1 3/8" too.

 

Next up are sway bar and shock mounts.

 

Willy