I decided to go with the '77 Waggie 44 front axle instead of the new high alloy axle shafts for my D30 narrowtrac. I'll be helping pull the axle off the donor and need to know what else I should try to get. The tierods are not included, don't know if they are bad or already spoken for. Do I need the pitman or draglink? Right now the deal is the entire front axle, rotor to rotor, for $50. It hasn't been driven for 6 years, so I'm sure the bearings and seals are in need of replacement. The gear ratio is unknown, so I'm probably looking at new gears. Do I need to worry about taking the cover off to inspect the internals since I will be replacing just about all of it? Also, does anyone have links to writeups on this swap? All the ones that came up in my search were for a 44 swap on a SOA. I'll be putting it on a SUA narrowed for a narrowtrac width.

Rick
80 CJ7

Rick,
To go SUA with the waggy front, what you need to do is have the long side cut down 4" and send the axle away to moser to be cut & re-splined. Peter's off-road in Salem OH can do this for you if you don't feel too brave. He cut my Chevy axle down for $100, and sent the axles away for me (that costs $60 including shipping). Matt Peters (owner) does an EXCELLENT job at this, in a very timely fashion.

After that, you can re-use your D30 outers if you like, otherwise you will have to find some D44 outers from a ford truck to get the right lug pattern. If you do a search on this there is some detailed posts as to what you need.

There is a writeup about doing this check under the "axle" section of http://www.off-road.com/jeep/tech

Email me if you have any questions, I've been through this whole thing already.

-Mel
email [email protected]


http://www.in2jeeps.com
"The only makeup I wear is never-seez"

Thanks for the info. Dan (jeepfreak1) emailed me some info on Peter's off road yesterday. It sounds like everyone is pleased with their work. I'll be giving them a call when I'm ready for the swap.
Is there an advantage to using my D30 outers or the Ford outers? When everyone says outers, that means from the steering knuckle on out, right?
So far, everything that I've read on this swap doesn't say anything about the front driveshaft. I assume that I'll need to get mine reworked or a new one. Is this right?
Sorry for all the questions, but I want to do it right and only do it once.

Rick
80 CJ7

Rick,
Here is a blurb from the off-road.com writeup, actually I was wrong about your D30 outers, you could use SOME of them, but you'd need to find Scout outer shafts. I would go with the ford myself, here it is:
================================================
What's left? I need to send the long side inner axle shaft in to be shortened, I need to weld the spring pad and shock mount for the long side back on, I need new ball joints and U-joints and I need to decide about the steering and brakes.

There are many steering and brake options available to me by mixing and matching Jeep, Chevy, Ford and Scout II disc brake parts, so this won't be a problem. My current thought is to use the Cherokee outer knuckles, spindles and Chevy type brakes with F-150 rotors (F-150's have the same 5 on 5 1/2" wheel bolt pattern as Jeep CJ's). There are two advantages to this: 1) I will get the stronger and less leaky internal type lockouts and 2) The Cherokee tie rod mounts on top of the knuckles and is much larger and stronger than a CJ tie rod.

Another possibility is using my stock outer knuckles, spindles, brakes and steering with Scout II outer axle shafts. Scout II outer axle shafts use the Dana 44 sized U-joint but are otherwise similar to CJ outer shafts. Or I could use non disc brake CJ outer knuckles with my stock steering, Cherokee spindles, Chevy type brakes and F-150 rotors and hubs or I could... The possibilities are limitless.
================================================== ==

BTW - the currie axles at 4wd Hardware are basically cut-down Scout axles & you are using the scout outers.

And also, I'm not sure how long you will want to cut to get narrow track. Although I know someone who is running wide track width in front & narrow track in back & has no problems. I'm sure if you ask Matt Peters he can tell you what to do also.

Yeah, Dan (jeepfreak1) got his axle cut down from Peters also after he saw the quality job he did on mine. There have been several people in our club who had drivetrain work done by him.

-Mel

http://www.in2jeeps.com
"The only makeup I wear is never-seez"

Hey Mel,

Can you give me some info on this guy? Does he cut the tube and re-weld it or does he actually take the knuckle off and then cut the tube? I will be going through this very soon with my cj, and I'm also going SUA. Thanks!

Lugnut 77 cj5

On cutting down the long side 4".....

I think if you have a narrow track waggy axle (61.5" wm to wm) and cut off 4" you'll be at the CJ wide track width not narrow track. In any case, verify before cutting. Measure twice, cut once. I would think you will be cutting more like 7-8".

I used the ford hubs with the internal splined lockouts. To me, that is the best option as long as you are having to do something. If you were swapping a Scout axle to begin with (with the right bolt pattern, etc) maybe you would just leave it.

Also, if you have to have a shaft cut down and replined, you may want to consider getting an aftermarket shaft that wil be much stronger.



-raymo
4.6 Stroker Scrambler

Matt,
does not butt weld the knuckle,he removes it from the tube.
I picked up my axles last weekend.you wont be sorry he does nice work,fair prices and is a great person to deal with.
all his contact info is at his website.
tell him I sent you.
Dan
http://www.petersoffroad.com/

<font color=green> JF1 </font color=green>

I just did the same thing you are wanting to do. If you cut 4in off of the long side you will end up being about the width of a widetrack cj. If you use the ford rotor you will gain about an inch more due to them being bigger. Dont bother with using your stock brakes and stuff. Just use some ford rotors and hubs, early chevy spindles, the waggy disk brake mount (which is GM), the waggy caliper which is also GM, and internal splined hubs from a ford or chevy. All of those parts are easy to come by. If you go to http://www.shortwheelbase.com jeepgod has a great writeup on changing to 5 on 5 1/2. I did basically what he said to do but i used 80 ford rotor and had to modify the caliper brackets. On having an axle cut or made just call currie they blow away mosser and are a lot easier to deal with. I also have not been to happy with what i have seen coming out of mosser lately. (The last three axles that were order from them, for the race trucks, were not made right at all. And some of there work has gone down hill.) Currie were so nice to deal with that the guy that helped me with my rears now has an account with them. They actually make the rear that i built. But they want 1200 bucks for it. You will be surprised at how good there prices are. On the parts that you want to keep. Grab the ubolts so you know how long and what size you will need to get. I use the waggy tierods and shorten the long one 4inches also. I used the waggy draglink and had to shorten that too. I even used the waggy pitman arm but it is way to long and because of my 4in lift being about 2 the drag link is hitting the tierod. I just need to find a shorter pitman arm. If you are buying the rear from a yard see if you can trade the waggy spidles and rotors off for the other parts that you will need.

Can someone please bring me a hammer my 33's just ate my fender again. Damn i need more lift.