Hey guys, I have the opportunity to buy F&R D44's from an '80 Scout to put under my CJ8. Are these good candidates for the swap?

TIA

Nick

I personally dont like scout front axles. They have no caster, and there outer are the same as your cj. I would go for waggy axles long before i went with scout stuff.

I have to agree. Caster is important. But if you can get the rear for a good price I would go for it.
Please someone correct me if I am wrong, but in an Scout rear D44 are the shafts not the same on both sides. Thus only requiring one spare?

Yes, that is true - on a Scout II dana 44 rear, both axles are the same length and thus interchangeable.

WRT using the Scout II front, you should cut and turn the (can't think of the right name, I keep wanting to call everything a knuckle) "ears" the ball joints studs go into to have the necessary caster. Also, the steering ratio using the Scout arms is impaired, requiring some ingeniuity to overcome this. Apparently the scoutII outers are dana30 dimensions. Can you just swap back your dana 30 knuckles?

I'd like to know if a spring under axle install of a dana 44 front requires outboarding of springs in all cases. I know it's commonly done that way, but is there another way? Does it matter whether its a waggy front end, chevy, scout??

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
Does it matter whether its a waggy front end, chevy, scout??

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Yup. If you are dealing with a CJ, and you use a waggy or scout axel then you are going to probably have to outboard. Because the diff housing is just in the way. But the waggy and scout axels are alreay the right lenght. If you use a chevy axel you need to cut it down. If you cut just one side (the long side) then you can shift the diff over a bit and you can fit the spring perch. I believe I have seen this done, but can't remember where.

You can swap to chevy style outers. Just use everything from the knuckle out, including the stub shafts.

You can take your d30 outers and put them on the scout axle as they are identical. Just use the scout stub shafts.

Now I heard (from another Scout guy) that 1980 was the first year that IH actually put like 4-6* Caster into the front end. That way I wouldn't have to grind off the welds to rotate the Knuckles. Has anybody else heard this? That's why I'm looking real hard at these.

For mounting it I'm looking at that Avalanche kit for outboarding the front springs since it also incorporates a Shackle reverse. From the Knuckles on out? I'll probably be replacing all the D30-sized components with something beefier anyway. Something like '78 Ford F150 Rotors &amp; Hubs so I can have Internal Hubs and keep my rims too.

BTW, most of what I learned about doing this swap came from this Board, so thanks a bunch guys. Am I missing anything else on this swap?

Nick

I've always HEARD that '80 Scout 44's were teh year that they did put some caster into the front too.

As a note. a buddy of mine put '80 scout 44's under his CJ7. at the same time he went SOA with 4" springs. Maybe he was lucky, but he road around for a long time with no sway bar, or shocks and said it drove just as good as it did on the 4" SUA set-up with those parts. Granted he did put shocks on later, but he drove it everyday to work and said it still felt good. note: he's a mechanic and alignment is one of his main tasks.

for what that was worth [img]images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]