I'd like to know what axles your all using and if you remember what you paid for them? Ratios, etc would be appreciated too. Thanks!!!

'85 Grand Waggy; $150. 5.13

Search is your friend

No no..I know what MOST people use. I'm looking to see if theres anything else that would work...I did the search already...

'89 grand waggy. $200. 4.89 gears. $125.

'02 xterra non-supercharged rear axle (complete from drum to drum. $245. 4.9 gears. $included in axle.

Are the axle shafts on these fairly easy to break?

I have a Dana 44 high pinion front, and a Ford 9" rear. Both off a '79 Ford Bronco. 5.38 gears in the front, 5.42s in the rear.

These are "full width" axles, though honestly they're "perfect width" if you ask me... The stock width axles are kind of narrow if you're going pretty tall (35's & up), IMO.

Only "downside" to these axles is that they have the cast-iron C-wedges in the axle tubing, so you either have to run Ford Radius arms (or upgraded Ford arms), or know someone that knows how to weld onto cast-iron PROPERLY...

I paied $400 total for both axles.

I'm running a narrowed (~2") high pinion Dana 44 from a 1976 Ford F150 (or F100 can't for the life of me remember) you wouldn't want to know what I paid for it, would make you cry, but all told with gears (4.88) and a locker well over $1,000. Next step will be chromo shafts when I start popping the stockers I have in there.

I just bought a Dana 44 HP & Ford 9" HP off a '78 Bronco. I love the width also, 63" WMS to WMS. The gears are a bit high at 4.10, but will get changed out soon enough.

Paid $500. Front axle came with newer Warn hubs.

The 78-79 Ford front axles stay away from unless you are planning on using the Ford radius arms. The 70-76 axles are the same width without the outer cast sections. 65 wide has seemed to work well for most folks. However if you go with Chevy flat top knuckles it makes the front axle more like 66 wide.

If you are planning on using the Calmini kit. A High pinion axle will not work with it. The cross member that runs under the bell housing is totally in the way. This could be modified at the cost of losing the ability to use their sway bar. It would not be an easy mod either. This kit is designed around the waggy axle. So there are a few more things to be dealt with too. Just use the waggy axle with this setup. It works awesome.

When we sased ChefTyler's rig, he already had 4.90's and an ARB in the rear. So we made an axle to match width of the 233b. The way we found out best was to take a high pinion D44 out of a 70-77 Ford F100/150 and cut the long side down almost 2 inches. This made his long side shaft the same length as a Waggy long side (no need for a custom length shaft). Now the axle just over 63 inches wide, which matches up with the width of an X. We also used the Chevy outer knuckle/hub assembly in order to make this 5 lug Ford axle into 6 lug. It works sweet!

Cyclemut used the Ford 9 and HP D44 combination. We had to ditch his 78-79 housing because of the casting outers sections and go with the early 70's Ford 44. With his leaf setup he wanted high steer. So with a little research he found a way to use the Chevy outer "flat top" knuckles with the Ford hub assembly. This way his front bolt pattern matched the 5x5.5 pattern of the rear Ford 9. This setup worked sweet! The only drawback is finding someone with an extra spare wheel with the 5x5.5 bolt pattern when you are wheeling with Nissan's. He will manage just fine.

If you have any questions go to roninwheelers.com. We are always willing to help folks out. Most of us have had the joy of pulling the IFS out of our rigs. Tyler pulling his!

Question for those with more knowledge than me:

With those C-wedges on my '78 ford 44 axles, is it possible to fab brackets onto the axle for aftermarket links & coil mounts? Say as in a 3-link set up? Would it work to weld fabbed mounts onto the C-wedges?

I may end up just upgrading to longer raduis arms to save some $$.

I'd take a look at the wedges on the axle and see if they're cast onto the housing or are welded to the housing.

Mine were welded on, so I just blew them off with a torch and the axle was fine.

After that, you have any option available to you. I went leaf spring. But will probably change that up in a couple of years of wheeling like she is now. I'll eventually link the front and rear. But she'll be more Xtruggy at that point than Xterra.

Yes, it is possible. Take in mind, the C-wedges are cast into the tube; there is no tube underneath them, so you can't just cut the wedges off; any bracketry you make will have to incorporate in those wedge shapes, or do as cyclemut did, and cut the tube completely.

A friend of mine has been running his own long-arm setup on a '78 bronco axle. He built mounts, and had someone that welds cast iron, weld them on, so it was done properly. He's been wheeling with this setup for +/- 2 years, now, and it's held up extremely well. This is on his Jeep XJ, with 37" Boggers, dual locked, hydraulic ram-assist steering, dual t-cases, etc. It's a trail-only rig.

However, he only went through the time/trouble of doing this because he already was running a long-arm setup on his D35 axle, and didn't want to buy new arms.

If you were to do this yourself, it would be MUCH easier to just purchase a set of long-arms made especially for this axle, or lengthen & reinforce the stock Broco arms. I am doing the lengthen/reinforcement route, as well as hinging the passenger side. Mine's still a work in progress, but the plan is already in place.

Thanks for the answers guys!

Cyclemut, I am pretty sure they are cast, not welded .

I have a fabricator that can weld cast iron. I spoke with him and he said we can fab up some brackets incorporating the C-wedges so I can go with my 3-link setup.

I will be using a lot of stuff from Ballistic Fabrication here in AZ. and AllPro Offroad.

Just go get a housing from a pre-78.. they have tube all the way out. You can cut the wedges off and have your way with it.

Here are some sweet arms for the 78-79 axle.
James Duff
Cage

A few more

78-79 axles are MUCH stronger... they're high pinion...

Yeah I saw all those arms. That would be the easiest route, but would I be satisfied with the articulation? Tough call on what to do.

May just see how the fabbed bracketry comes out for links and go from there. Gotta clean up the axles this weekend and prep for sandblasting/painting.

The Pre 78 are high pinion too... and are 1/2 inch thick tube all the way out.

True story. Not easy to find those down here. I did some quick searching on craigslist and arizona auto recycling assoc.

You find me one, Grandpa, I get it! :p

ETA: Just found ONE in Minneapolis. Wonder how much for shipping???

Interesting w/ the bronco axles.. I think I have some axle shafts, etc laying around for the Ford stuff. PM me if your interested...

There are a ton of them in the JY I go to here in KY. Not worth it to ship out to you, though.

Also, you can look for F-250s of the same year(s). Same axle width; thicker tubes.

bull shit they are.... Pre '78 use standard cut gears. That means they're not high pinion diffs...

The HP diff didn't get used 'til '78 when the Bronco got upsized to a "Full Size" sport-ute based off the full size truck of the day.

Shipping really isnt that bad considering the prices..Whats a JY charge for an axle shaft?

Just a shaft, or the whole axle?

Last time I was there (earlier this year) I believe the going rate was around $250 for an entire axle, hub to hub. But you have to pull it yourself at the yard I go to.

You are thinking Early Bronco... The Trucks used HP's throughout the 70's. The Early Bronco didn't change disks until 76 and some say a few had high pinions. Now go to the Junkyard, Look! and come back and apologize.

Here ya go... Dana 44 RS is what we are talking about. Thanks Mr N for all this info!!!

This article was written to document the early years of Dana 44 Reverse Spiral Solid front axle. It also includes information on the regular Dana 44 axle to compare the two, it is even expending into some Dana 60 info. It will concentrate on the Ford front straight axle from the mid 60's and several other axles. Additionally this article should dispel some of the myths about the first front drive axle that Dana / Spicer built with a Reverse Spiral Gear Set. The Dana 44 Reverse Spiral axle will be refereed to as the Dana 44RS within this article.

Dana designed the first reverse spiral axle in the early sixties for Ford. Dana released the 44RS for production in January 1965. Early enough to possibly be under a few rare 1965 F100's, however no written confirmation on this has been found. The 44RS was a complete new design in axle, with special design to lube the pinion that was above the fluid level. This axle has also been called the Dana 44 High Pinion, Dana 44 Reverse Rotation, Dana 44 Reverse Cut, Dana 44 High clearance and many more names. A reverse spiral axle has the center line of the pinion contacting the ring gear above the center line of the axle, and thus has different lubrication passages. This axle offers a strength increase over a standard rotation axle while in forward movement. It allows the drive shaft to contact the pinion yoke at a much higher level of connection, thus keeping the drive shaft several inches higher. The gears are not interchangeable with gear sets that are designed with the pinion below the centerline of the ring gear, however the carrier is. Reverse Cut refers to the direction the ring gear is cut for reverse spiral housing. The axiom of the reverse cut is to strengthen the gear while in the front drive axle of operation. Standard cut gears can not be swapped with reverse cut gears, however in the Dana 44 the ring gear carrier can be swapped. High pinion, Hy-Pinion or Hi-Pinion are all slang used in and out of the industry for a reverse spiral axle. High Clearance is a Ford marketing term used for the reverse spiral axle. Reverse rotation: is the single most misused axle term. Reverse Rotation is a slang term used to describe a reverse spiral cut housing. Neither the axle nor the axle shafts travel in a reverse motion, or travel 'backwards' compared to a regular housing. This term only shows the ignorance of the person or company using it.

In 1966 Spicer supplied this revolutionary Reverse Spiral axle, the Dana 44RS, for the new front coil sprung suspension on the Ford F100 4x4. (Picture 1 - 4.) The axle debuted with 3.54 or 4.09 gears, drum brakes, open king pin knuckles and running Spicier 5-260x U-joints. These axles were built in the Fort Wayne Indiana plant, even during the days of Edgerton. Spicer produced this style for Ford until the middle of 1971.

1971 was a year of change for this axle, the new axle now came with ball joints instead of king pins to hold the knuckles on. It still had 2 3/4" axle tubes with ½” thick walls and the 5-260 U-joint, with coil mounting brackets in 4 separate cast pieces welded at the top and bottom. The Panhard bar was still attached with a separate bracket, the axle stayed this way thru 1972.

1973 big change was to the larger 5-297 u-joint. It still came with ball joints, 2 3/4" axle tubes with ½” thick walls and the Panhard bar was attached with a separate bracket. The axle stayed this way thru 1975 on all F100’s & F150’s. The 1973 model year also saw the release of the 3.73 and 3.50 gear set in June.

In 1976 the axles coil mounting cast brackets were slightly changed. The front passenger’s side was made with the Panhard bar attachment cast in to it. Additionally 1976 was the first year Ford offered disk brakes as a standard option, although several late 75's have been rumored to have disks. This axle stayed the same for 1977 for the F100 and F150. The 1976-year also saw the release of the 3.00 gear set in December.

In 1977.5 Ford’s new F250 axle now started to appear. Previously, the F250 ran a standard rotation closed knuckle axle (see reference pictures below.) This axle for the F250 44RS is slightly different than the F100 & F150 offered in 1977. The F250 is a little wider than the F100 & F150, for the wider 8 wheel bolt hub. The F250 also has 3" wide axle tubes with ½” thick tube walls, and the axle has many different small changes from the F100 & F150 to include larger brakes. This axle stayed this way until it changed to the Twin Traction Beam (TTB) IFS system of the 1980 model year.

In 1978 the 44RS had its largest change to date for the F100 & F150, which stayed with the axle until the transformation to IFS in 1980. Spicer changed the coil mounting brackets from separate cast brackets that held on the radius arms to a new design that was a single piece per side, with the tubes pressed into the ends of the casting. The center of the cast pieces does not have a tube that passes through it! (See Picture 14) Instead, a tube is pressed on both ends and welded together. This system came with outer tubes 3/8” thick and center tubes 3/8” or ¼” thick.