92 explorer full width 8.8 and d44TTB

in the process of building a 92 explorer with a 4inch lift(i think it is) but running the D44 4wd TTb out of the fullsize broncos as well as the rear. Its comes to bout 8inches wider, 4in on each side. anyone interested?

 

[benjammin97624]

that will be something i will have to consider when i do my build.

 

[01STrunner]

This looks like a cool project. Definitely don't see it very often so I'll go along for the ride.

 

[MercuryMullet]

I get alot of looks with mine once people realize what it is.

 

[raiper]

Sorry been busy with project, bike, and got let at job so its been a slow process...its road legal now and drives alright. The coil springs I chose are a bit too soft so im going to install 2 more es9000 shocks on the front end. Already got them but gotta fab the mounts. Truck squats when u accelerate like a trophy truck but that will be done this week.

 

[Randall]

do the front suspension drop brakets to the dana 35 ttb fit the dana 44 ttb?

yes the drop brackets for the 35 fit the 44.

I've read that the stock (or aftermarket) Dana 35 TTB brackets do not in fact work with the Dana 44 TTB. The mount location is about an inch off on both brackets.

 

[raiper]

they bolt up but the shaft on passanger side is longer and needs to be cut and sleeved. been driving it around till last friday when it decided to only fire 5 injectors. the 6th one gets power but no pulse, thinking it the camshaft sensor so im gonna convert back to 91 harness and ecu so i get rid of the cps and egr codes(that i never had)

 

[Randall]

It seems to me like that would throw off the geometry and cause binding. Am I wrong?

 

[raiper]

gotta bring out the radius arms off to the side of frame as well. got some ballistic johnny joints on my arms too

 

[Randall]

I mean with the middle axle shaft and the moving of the pivot points from where it was originally intended.

 

[cmhaah06]

I realize this thread is a little older.... I had previously wondered if the dana 44 ttb would fit in the 35 drop brackets. So, the passenger shaft just needs some trimming? At least as I read this thread, I believe thats what I read, no? Isnt someone on the forum making a set of conversion drop brackets to bolt on a dana 44 axle to a ex/ranger/b2? I think Giant motosports even made a kit, however, I want to say the kit was about 600 bucks for the brackets only.

 

[raiper]

yes you can bolt it up to the BII/R/X drop brackets. I bolted it up and had to cut and sleeve the pass shaft about 2 inches. to achieve this and have it not break i took 1.5 reciever tubing .250 wall and litterally took a flapper disk and flapped the shaft stubs to a makeshift square and slid the stubs in till they both touched. welded with a stick welder the outside of the tubes and shafts together and then cut a lil bigger than a 1/4 inch down one of the rolled corners of the reciever tubing the whole length of the tube and welded the shaft to the tubing long ways. this version has held up quite nicely no problems and rub issues yet!

know anyone that needs wild horses 4.5 EB progressive coil springs? used for 4months mostly highway....coils are red color? they got for 165 new and weigh about 65 lbs total. free length 22 inch

 

[bobby walter]

you cut and welded the shaft to make it narrower????

damn!

i would rather stay full width and at least 2 in drop in pivots.



i have some brackets from the first run joel built about ten years ago that can be used to run the beams with no mods to the shafts.

to keep from cutting the shaft you simply move the pivot holes one inch each way. many lift brackets have enough room to allow this. if they dont, spend time welding plate to those and not your axle shafts.

this is key, it allows use of easy to source parts...the ####ing ttb 44's are everywhere and cheap for shafts....custom shafts i avoid when possible.


and as a bonus these days if you have the coin for max beef they make rcv shafts for this application now so theres no guess work ordering...you can even step up to a 35 spline carrier with some lockers....make for a beefy axle. big money but huge in strength.


these brackets can be run 1 inch either way even though they were not originally intended to do so, even without adding plate. joel did make runs of brackets designed to run both axle sets but no one is interested enough to buy them....they are huge beef for 300 bux or so and allow for a serious upgrade...you would think they would sell big but they dont...

of course as always it depends on goals, from desert running at speed to general wheelin to hard wheelin...

but steering is critical for soft hi travel trail springs, i run modded econoline piece/ and ranger piece in those pics for proper steering and system operation with full usable steering to allow use of soft springs off road wheelin and for road duty at up to triple digit speeds when possible...with bags in the coils you can dial it right in for best of both worlds. dump the air on the trail, pressure up for the road...drove awesome. the k link style is easiest for most as you can still buy superrunner stuff.

4x4 junkie has a real nice setup that would dial this in so you dont have to sell those springs op.


just throwing that out there.

 

[raiper]

yes i cut the shaft, but ironicaly its still full witdth to the T. the pass shaft is the only issue you have or atleast i did and steering. I would of rather stayed away from my custom shaft but since i was doing a garage build and didnt have a job to extremely fund myself i did what i could how i could and so far ive jumped, crawled, mudded, towed overloaded from stockton ca to prosser wa without any problem

 

[bobby walter]

yes i cut the shaft, but ironicaly its still full witdth to the T. the pass shaft is the only issue you have or atleast i did and steering. I would of rather stayed away from my custom shaft but since i was doing a garage build and didnt have a job to extremely fund myself i did what i could how i could and so far ive jumped, crawled, mudded, towed overloaded from stockton ca to prosser wa without any problem

i am lost a bit i guess.

your saying you used stock rbv lift brackets with the holes in the normal d35 location...no mods just bolted on??


the ranger has a different spacing on the pivots then a 150.

i am reading this your wms with stock rbv pivot hole locations is the same as it was in the f series??

your current width is dead on the same as fullsize?

if the 150 beams are in a similar plane of operation in a rbv as they were on a f series i dont understand the need to mod the intermediate shaft.


or are you over center for clearance reasons at ride height with maxed camber bushings, and its a travel issue and smashing the center u joint??


i remember dealing with a stock pivot location bolt in back 10 years ago or so and ending up using the 50 center setup on a 1 ton van trans slip yoke and reusing a d35 factory shaft....or maybe it was an aftermarket slipyoke....mark williams or something. it was 7 or 8 inches long i think. normal ones are like 5 to 6 iirc and it had to be longer. its a 1350 u joint application just like the d50 inner shaft. i cant remember the details but we were trying to get away from custom shafts. there was some problem and i just cant remember the details right now. seems cutting and resplining longside 10 bolt shafts was what happened at the end. i just cant remember, i looked around a bit at the club board as i am pretty sure it was a project there.


that said as long as a guy makes a extra shaft or two cutting and welding the shafts is fine by me....i am confident the neck down or ears will fail first if its welded right, so i dont have issue with that at all. i am more along the lines of bolt it and easy to find parts for mods as much as possible.

but since i can break d 60 shafts with a open diff and clapped out 6.5, i dont think i would be comfortable with custom d44 shafts. or any 44 shafts for that matter.

 

[raiper]

i am lost a bit i guess.

your saying you used stock rbv lift brackets with the holes in the normal d35 location...no mods just bolted on??


the ranger has a different spacing on the pivots then a 150.

i am reading this your wms with stock rbv pivot hole locations is the same as it was in the f series??

your current width is dead on the same as fullsize?

if the 150 beams are in a similar plane of operation in a rbv as they were on a f series i dont understand the need to mod the intermediate shaft.


or are you over center for clearance reasons at ride height with maxed camber bushings, and its a travel issue and smashing the center u joint??


i remember dealing with a stock pivot location bolt in back 10 years ago or so and ending up using the 50 center setup on a 1 ton van trans slip yoke and reusing a d35 factory shaft....or maybe it was an aftermarket slipyoke....mark williams or something. it was 7 or 8 inches long i think. normal ones are like 5 to 6 iirc and it had to be longer. its a 1350 u joint application just like the d50 inner shaft. i cant remember the details but we were trying to get away from custom shafts. there was some problem and i just cant remember the details right now. seems cutting and resplining longside 10 bolt shafts was what happened at the end. i just cant remember, i looked around a bit at the club board as i am pretty sure it was a project there.


that said as long as a guy makes a extra shaft or two cutting and welding the shafts is fine by me....i am confident the neck down or ears will fail first if its welded right, so i dont have issue with that at all. i am more along the lines of bolt it and easy to find parts for mods as much as possible.

but since i can break d 60 shafts with a open diff and clapped out 6.5, i dont think i would be comfortable with custom d44 shafts. or any 44 shafts for that matter.

Yes i straight up bolted the 44 to the RBV drop brackets. no mods.

The only problem i have had was the pass axle shaft. You can bolt the axle and run it but you cant run with the stock lenght. For some magical and retarded reason the pass shaft is too long and will not slide into the yoke going into the carrier.

http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc3/425496_3012132336615_1538413657_n.jpg
you can see that i folded the yoke up to fit the axle on.


Im using tuff country 4 inch drop brackets and extended radius arms and balistic weldable 5/8 bolt johnny joints.

Ive tweaked and modded the suspension since and dont bother using the fullsize coil buckets with dual shocks...wont work. Also i just switch back to non chopped stock explorer coil buckets after working out some coil choice issues. I had Wild horses EB coils in it. Boy were they flexy but you really had to pay attention when driving. Had to fab up a second shock mount to run it. So in all i had dual Procomp es9000s on the front. Im gonna get some coil springs made up from Deaver thats at a 375 lbs linear spring rate and 25 inchs long. I still had room to go on the Wild horses which were 22 inch free

you also have to make a front dshaft using the ujoints from the fullsize axle that bolts onto the d44 carrier and use the double knuckle ujoints from the explorer. .250 reciever tubing is used for that as well.

No i have not broken the ver.2 of the axle shaft or the first version of the drive shaft. I have build pics of them somewhere but everything is scattered at the moment.

My motto is 2x as hard 2x as fast. I dont go easy and like the pedal to the floor....i jump the truck frequently as well as use it as a DD.

btw im ditching the WH coils cus i want a linear rate, didnt like the look of progressive and the 50's are giving me **** about my suspension being too soft and threating to tow vehicle for "unsafe" purposes

 

[raiper]

the only mods i have done enginish wise is the snorkle and electric fan and i have a manual tcase. Im not afraid to snap the throttle when im stuck or about to get stuck in 4lo with my setup so torque shouldnt be an issue

 

[bobby walter]

well in that case your not full width to a t.


your close to 2 inches short of it. the 150 has pivot points close to 2 inches closer together over a rbv....put the pivots in the right spot and stock shafts work fine, but unless your lifted you have problems at the rail for max travel...i will be in the middle and live with bumps.


so that clears it up for me.

of course theres some offset as well with either setup when you measure close. i dont remember the details of that either. many guys went with ttb 44 knuckles or ttb 44 abs spindles if they had late bolt on brakes with custom bracket(easy to make) and wilwood calipers.


my point is that if a guy can weld shafts, he is better off modding the bracket to put the 44 beams in the right place so oem parts are cake to get.


conversely, i would also argue that for a typical sas fullwidth 44 swap this route is ideal for most because the ttb 44 is considered worthless. so base buy in of a functional unit could go from free to typically less then 150 bux where i am.

makes those 2000 dollar rcv shafts a cost effective investment in my eyes. if you look at a typical sas with standard upgrade shafts a good rcv ttb 44 build would be the same price and much stronger. i can appreciate this.

then add to that of course, having the oe side shortened 2 inches wont cost anything more in reletive terms so a guy can go either way really. way back when these easy solutions were not readily available....i am glad that has changed and this setup can be revisited.


i am confident the ttb will be long lived in this form.



the fact you have never popped a shaft puts you in a different level of wheeling altogether from me. likely your a smarter and much more conservative driver. i only smarten up when i get low on spare parts.

i have watched stock beat down 4.0's and even some 2.9's blow new dana 60 stuff and knuckles apart from the rubicon to las cruices to hollister and the hammers, so all things are relative to use at the end of the day. most of it i also got on video tapes as well.

but if your using a standard tape measure, you may want to do some more measuring. that math was done settled for me 15 years before i got my first grey hairs.

putting options out, not just opinions. i am a detroit boy, but i like to travel and experience 4 wheeling from many perspectives.

 

[raiper]

no its still full width. Hence having to bring out the coil buckets outwards 4 inches on each side of frame.

The drivers side bolts on without a hassle btw.

Im working on the pass side right now as i type this. Im not locked in the front end yet so thats why we may be arguing on this and im running 31's gonna regear for 33s and have it locked up front when i can afford it.

I got the whole axle, front and rear for 50 bucks. the lift for another 13.00

if it makes it any more of a win on my side for the front being full width i also shoved in the fuill width rear 8.8 from the bronco/f150 and i only welded on new perches and the correct pinion angle. the front matchs up with the rear perfectly so id have to say its full width....also the fact that 31.10.50R15s stuck out way past the stock body line fenders

 

[92302expo]

since the drop brackets are basically longer stock pieces, couldn't you also do a c&t to get the lift?

 

[raiper]

i woould of loved to cut and turn them to make the 4 inch lift but im not too confident in myself of that one, considering everything else ive done