Well, Ian knows he has a project X about 5 miles from his house.

I have a feeling that I'll be speaking with Calmini here in a little bit about another kit as well.

The Dana 44's limit on tires is right about 35". Much more than that and you'll need to upgrade to the 300M axles, Extreme Duty Spicer joints, etc.

Ford F150 and F250 Dana 44's will also work. But there are some to stay away from. Converting the hubs to Chevy will be the trick setup.

Finally, some real axle talk on XOC! Woo Hoo!

Thanks for sharing the info!
But I'm confused: are you saying $800 apiece for the coilovers, so $3200 total; or $800 total for all four?
One interpretation seems too high, the other seem too low based on quick web search.
Thanks!

About $800 for a pair, depending on brand and type, and that's all you need.

It looks to me on the pic that the axle in question here still has the 5-260X u-joints.

Does anyone know the spec on Jeep 44's for stock joints to know for sure?

I know the early bronco's had front 44's with the 5-260X u-joints...which can be broken spinning 33's, no locker.

FWIW it looks in the pic that it is a 6-lug hub - maybe it already has chevy outers

Yah, I just realized I had a moment of cerebral flatulence, thinking one would need all 4!
$800 a pair sounds reasonable for what you get...I'm thinking they should be fully rebuildable, yah?

It would be nice if it was around the same price as the All-Pro kit for Toyota's. That kit comes with Hy-steer crossover steering, Long travel springs, hangers, shackles, shocks, hoops, rotors, flip kit,brake lines, wheel spacers. Complete kit less axle and drive shaft for $1759. If that's the case with Calmini's I'll take it now.

maybe i missed this but what are the plans to bring up the rear to match the front??? coils in the back or a spring over.... as for Dana 44's that is a great axle but there is kit out for a Dana 35 that will give you 44 strength. Check out the new 4Wheeler magazine and they have all you would ever need to know about what axle to get!!!

Tim

I'm curious about how they are getting the gearing to match up.

Most of us have 4.9 or 4.636 gears in the rear. If it's 4.9 then 4.88 R&P are available for Dana 44. If you have 4.636 then 4.56 are available and close enough. You can get away with a mismatch as long as it's not more than 1-2% difference in gear ratio.

Edit: Or you could do regear both ends with 5.13/5.14 if you wanted 35's.

Dana 35 is a rear axle only isn't it?

If you are replacing the rear axle why would you want to waste your money on anything less than a Dana 44? Izuzu Rodeo 44 rears are perfect for an X and you get rear Discs to boot.

Rule of thumb is 1% max for street, 2% max for trail-only. 4.636 and 4.56 are 1.6% different, don't think I'd chance that unless it was a trailer queen.

Brent

How often do you drive on the street in 4WD?

Street probably wouldn't be too bad....considering the relative lack of use of 4WD on the road....only in rather slippery conditions, ideally.

But I'd imagine in some high traction, off-road situations (ie: Moab's ill-named slickrock), the gearing differences could make things a bit funk-a-rific.

And if you read further, you can see that there is a kit that will give you Dana 60 strength with a Dana 44.

I will be interested in seeing one of these done and running on the trail.

its all a matter of how much clearance you want under your axle. a dana 35 will give you a great deal of clearance for the strenght of a 44. as mentioned the other kit will give a 44 the strenght of a 60. no matter what it just depneds on your driving habbits and what you need to get the job done!!!

tim

Um, I've driven to Vail from Denver before, taking over 5 hours (usually a 2 hour drive) in 4WD. Depending on where you live, and what you do, will depend on the situation. Floridians, I don't think they have to worry about it. Alaskans however, do.

Not much talk about the skid plates... Mounting brackets on the new cross members

I would like to see the tabs mounted vertically, and the bolts fasten from the side to prevent shearing them off, but with this amount of clearance, it may not be an issue.

First off I like the design of the kit a lot and would go this route if I were to SAS another Nissan.

Going down the SAS route one thing leads to another…larger tires, lockers, driveshafts, gears, SYE, tubing, etc. and there is a lot of things to consider. One thing that comes to mind is the front brakes…the waggy stuff is much larger and heavier so you need to consider that since the stock MC & system isn't going to work as well. Looks like Doug's going with the slotted, wildwood and other stuff while others have swapped to Chev MC and whatnot.

The stock D44 shafts and ujoints are a weak point and can/do break on a regular basis for those that wheel in the rocks. I upgraded to longfield super ujoints and carry spare shafts. Strength wise a rear d44 30 spline is weaker than the stock rear H233B and a downgrade IMO.

FYI the All-Pro kit for Toyota's is more like $2,100 even on sale now since they sell the rear suspension separate ($600). Can't really compare a coli-over front setup to leaf IMO price wise.

If the CALMINI Kit including the shocks is ~ 3K then it's a good deal.

About the gearing for a DD with 35's I would go with 5.13 gears.

I've been wheeling' my 90 SAS pathy for 1.5+ years with 4.56/4.65 R&P gears on every thing including slickrock in MOAB, in the snow on the highway, etc and haven't had any problems.

About the mounting brackets…matters to me…I have 6" more clearance and so does the HB. On the Rubicon and places like that you can easily hit them.

Can't wait to see a whole bunch of SAS nissan's on a run once you go SAS you never go back

Brian

Well, I picked my truck up from Calmini today. One word, WOW! It drives great.
There are still a few things that have to happen on it (rear springs, front sway bar), but it’s basically done. Myself and Cyclemut will be testing it out the weekend of the 20th and will be reporting on the offroad piece (I know, it’s the only piece that matters), but its highway manners were very good. Bump steer was virtually non-existent; breaking was fine, overall steering was very good. In many ways it felt better than when the IFS was lifted. I’ll try and take some photos this weekend.

-Doug

The weak spot in the late model 44 isn't the u-joint or the axle, it's the u-joint caps. They have internal "C" clips that fall off when stressed. With no retainer clips the caps start to walk, you get some play, a cap works out some more, you get play between the cap and the ear, and just like that the ear ovals out and tears. Solution for this is to tack weld the caps to the ears or get aftermarket shafts that allow the use of a full clip. That will prevent 99% of D44 failures. After that the weak spot is the outer axle.

Also something to check out is ARB's new 35 spline D44 locker. It uses the D44 R&P but uses D60 axles and outers (for those that start to get real serious)

Justin

But at what $ amount? To keep it reasonably priced, that would take a little chunk of change to accomplish. Or, a buttload of time scavanging through junk yards.

A standard D44 from a mid-80's Waggy will work nicely. Remember, we don't have a 350hp V8 grunting away under the hood. We're still running aluminum transmissions, t-cases and such.

Like sticking a kidney bean under a piece of rice. Overkill. Way overkill.

Hell, we could put UniMog axles under it as well. Just not necessary.

Mog axles would be unneeded, but the gearing, lockers, tire size, strength, etc... would be taken care of along with getting greater clearance. I could see doing a set of mog axles with a disc brake conversion and 40" mtr's on Hummer prototype beadlocks with inserts. Sure it'd be complete overkill and quite a few $, but most going with the SAS setup won't be using them as daily drivers (I wouldn't, with mog axles, top speed for the X would be around 65 mph). not quite to scale, but would really be a cool set up

I think your alignment is off.