Junkyard front D44 for TJ?

Jason4x4

New member
Not counting a TJ Rubicon (which I don't even know if it's very likely to find that in a junkyard), what would be a good candidate vehicle to grab a front D44 for my TJ?? I'm looking for minimal modifications to make it fit...what options are out there?
 

Rubi is the only option if you don't want to do any fab and it's not much stronger than a D30 since it uses the same tubes and outers.
 
You could use a D44 from a Isuzu trooper or Honda Passport, but you will need to fab up all the suspension brackets...
 
Rubi is the only option if you don't want to do any fab and it's not much stronger than a D30 since it uses the same tubes and outers.


I didn't say I don't want to do any fab, I just meant that obviously less the less fab I have to do the better. In other words if there's a D44 off of another vehicle where by chance a couple brackets happen to line up with the TJ...I know I'm not going to find a direct bolt in swap outside of a Rubi or a brand new axle. I'm willing to fab some brackets if I find the right deal on a used 44.
 

jfrabat, I think this is in regards to the front olny, those vehicles are ifs.


Waggy axle, plasma cut all the mounts off your TJ D30 and re-weld them onto the waggy axle. to deal with the bolt pattern different, I would either:
source bronco or F150 D44 outers and run 5 on 5.5 and get some bolt pattern conversion spacers for the rear.

or

if you can find them 4 on 4.5 to 6 on 5.5 conversion spacers for the rear and just run the waggy bolt pattern.

The only D44 front that ever came with a 5 on 4.5 is the rubi, and this was the reason for the D30 outers, the D44 hub is too large to allow for the 4.5" bolt pattern to fit.


Also, if your pretty good at Fabbing, consider a 9" with D30 D44 or even D60 outers, this is obviously gonna require some fabbing.
 
So I just found a local listing for both front and rear D44's out of a Jeep Gladiator pickup - owner believes it to be a late '60s model. He wants $300 for both axles. If we assume for the moment that they're not bent all to hell, is it worth the trouble to try and make them fit?
 

Offer $200, depending on the year, that is most likely a closed knuckle D44 and is not overly desireable. Verify what he is selling first. You could mod it to be open knuckle, but can be time consuming.

IIRC, the Gladiator never came with a open knuckle D44 front, that axle wasn't installed until 71 and after,but these are not gladiator's, they were just J-Trucks; but people have a tendency to clumping every jeep pick up into the gladiator catagory. I could be wrong, there were a lot of one offs and AG vehicle. you could have had SRW, DRW, solid front axle, IFS etc..
 
So I just found a local listing for both front and rear D44's out of a Jeep Gladiator pickup - owner believes it to be a late '60s model. He wants $300 for both axles. If we assume for the moment that they're not bent all to hell, is it worth the trouble to try and make them fit?

Won't work on your TJ unless you swap the t-case and do exhaust and floor pan mods because it's a passenger side drop front axle and most likely an offset rear.
 
Won't work on your TJ unless you swap the t-case and do exhaust and floor pan mods because it's a passenger side drop front axle and most likely an offset rear.

Thats what I was wondering. I'm not real serious about this right now, my wife and I are trying to buy a house later this year and once I have a house and have somewhere to put an axle while I work on it, (and install lockers and the like) I'll get more serious.
 

Good luck with that. After I bought my house my jeep didn't get any attention for quite a while and then it was after the honey-do list was done.
 
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