Darkness's new project~ D44 & 9"

Well I have been planning for the longest time to cut and turn a d44 ttb and somehow make it fit where the d35 is but... not anymore much as I love the ttb frontend I had a deal I couldnt pass up fall in my lap so now its SAS w/ a d44 and 9" rear from a '79 f150 going under my truck
Current pics found here!

Current plan is...
D44
1:clean up/teardown DONE!
2:cut/narrrow (I'm not going to run a full width front) DONE!
3:reload it, new brakes/hubs/joints/inner shafts (one EB longside and f150 short side) possible locker/regear funds depending art Done, hubs, shafts, ujoints left to go
4:make it aimable, probably a early bronco steering setup or something semi custom
Steering on order

9" ON HOLD, going with the 8.8 and adapters for the current moment

1:clean all the rust off it (like the f150 frame thats sitting on it)
2:clean up/teardown
Added- Narrow it
3:figure out how to stop it, pick/figure out/fab brakes for it
4: maybe get new shafts/3rd member

Sounds simple right? Right... pics will be up by the end of this week for the project start

Note! I do know that the '79 d44 have cast ends and I am going to cut it down and it will work!

 

[FROADER]

4" backspacing on the 15x8 wheels. The rear sticks out the same.

 

[Savage Wolf]

10-15 mins? Wow you're closer than I thought!

Yeah please PM me your cell number, I might stop by this weekend (Sunday?) just to see how you're doing your SAS. I also should snap a few shots and upload them for you - you have shown no pictures YET!! You know thats a crime when doing an SAS

pics i have, just havent posted them yet,posting from my shop computer, pics are on my laptop in the house i'll have them posted later tonight

 

[Savage Wolf]

pics

setting up for the first cut

cut down about 5.98 inches and ready to reassemble I didnt take any pics of taking the tube out of the radius arm mounting area

bake at 450 deg for a hour, season to flavor
at the same time I had the axle tube on ice for the same amount of time

and here it is all back together, welded with 7018 1/8 rod at 120amps

 

[RockRanger]

I hope your wife doesnt see the picture of car parts in the oven. Looks like the shortening project was a sucess.

 

[Blee1099]

damn the garage still looks like that.. Hopefully one of these days, you'll actually be able to put darkness inside

 

[Savage Wolf]

damn the garage still looks like that.. Hopefully one of these days, you'll actually be able to put darkness inside

hell the axles are taking up most of the room right now

 

[Savage Wolf]

after some thought, the only thing I am up in the air about is what springs to use on the front end of this thing to attempt to keep the same height I am at now

tearing off the ttb crap should start sometime this week if not then on the weekend

 

[FROADER]

You can put the coil buckets wherever you want to make it whatever height you want. I've got the wild horses 5.5.

 

[Savage Wolf]

You can put the coil buckets wherever you want to make it whatever height you want. I've got the wild horses 5.5.

Yeah, that would work, but... I wonder how close the length is to my 6" ttb lift springs, and.. if I could use a f-150/full sized bronco coil instead, i have a v8 in my rig, plus going to be building winch bumper + some other stuff that may add about 200-400 lbs to the front of the truck during the winter months

 

[MEANEXPLODER]

Where Did You Get Your Spacers?

 

[Savage Wolf]

Where Did You Get Your Spacers?

umm what spacers for what?

 

[Nick26]

awesome, i'm glad i found this thread, i have the same exact axle and I wasn't sure how exactly i was going to narrow it until i saw you do it... I was considering drilling out those welded plugs on the differential housing where the long tube goes in. that looked the easiest, is there a reason people don't do it that way?

when you cut it with the chop saw did you cut it flush with the end of the radius arm mounting area or did you leave a few inches hanging out for pulling on and grind the welds off?

 

[Savage Wolf]

awesome, i'm glad i found this thread, i have the same exact axle and I wasn't sure how exactly i was going to narrow it until i saw you do it... I was considering drilling out those welded plugs on the differential housing where the long tube goes in. that looked the easiest, is there a reason people don't do it that way?

when you cut it with the chop saw did you cut it flush with the end of the radius arm mounting area or did you leave a few inches hanging out for pulling on and grind the welds off?

welll i was going to drill the welds, untill i looked in the diff housing and saw that the axle seals seat in the tubes (machined for them), plus the plug welds are not as easy as you would think to drill out
really i cut it off in 3 peices (if you look in the 3rd and 4th pics of the cutting of the axle you can see the 3 peices), first cut was a inch from my final cut mark, 2nd cut was on that final mark, 3rd and final was done with a grinder/cutting wheel flush with the radius arm mount, then used the grinder to remove the weld and drilled the tube peice out w/ aprox 14/64 drill bit to make hammering it out alittle easyer

to be honest cutting down the 78/79 d44 is the last thing i would recommend someone to try its a total pita

 

[Nick26]

How Not to install a v8!

to be honest cutting down the 78/79 d44 is the last thing i would recommend someone to try its a total pita

haha you do everything the hard way i guess then... well i got the axle and whole coil spring front suspension for free, its high pinion, and theres no way i can run full width in New England... so i'm going to give it a shot. im always up for a challenge, besides you made it look easy in your thread.

drilled the tube peice out w/ aprox 14/64 drill bit to make hammering it out alittle easyer

i don't understand exactly what you drilled, did you drill the tube lengthwise to make it c shaped? How did you manage to pull it out? were you able to tap the lip of it with like a long screwdriver from the knucle end?

 

[Savage Wolf]

haha you do everything the hard way i guess then... well i got the axle and whole coil spring front suspension for free, its high pinion, and theres no way i can run full width in New England... so i'm going to give it a shot. im always up for a challenge, besides you made it look easy in your thread.

i don't understand exactly what you drilled, did you drill the tube lengthwise to make it c shaped? How did you manage to pull it out? were you able to tap the lip of it with like a long screwdriver from the knucle end?

yes i seem to do things the hard way, makes my rig alot diffrent then everyone elses my axle cost me $65 (along with the rest of the 79 f150 it was in including the 351m motor) i'll take a pic of the tube peice that i hammered out and the "tool" used to drive it out

 

[zainyD]

I shortened a 78-79 D44 a while back and thought it was pretty easy. I removed the knuckle/wedge section by grinding off the weld that attatches it to the long side tube. Made my measurements, cut, and rewelded. You do need to make sure that you have the caster set correctly before you weld though.

 

[Savage Wolf]

ok, swap madness is underway again... work picked up so my time to work was cut down and another sas took up the shop for 2 week
Progress: d44 is sitting waiting for me to go pick up the rest of the outers (hub/rotor, bearing, calpers ect)

9" is now the hangup, I now have 3 of them, tore down one of the eb 9's
finding are:

brakes, EB's came with 3 diffrent bearing flanges on the 9" none of which fit the explorer disks, seems that a 76-77 EB 9 has the correct brake spacing (2.5 inch from the housing bearing flange to the axle face where the back of the rotor sits) tho this axle bearing flange backing plate bolt patter is diffrent then the late model pattern (aka torino end 3.5"x2") and is 3 9/16"x2"
so what does that all mean... to fit explorer disks, i need to cut the bearing flanges off the 9" and replace them with the late model/torino ends

gearing: the first 9" that I tore down (eb 66-75 large bearing 11 inch drum) has 28 spline axle w/ ford torc lok but the gears are showing 42-10 which is 4.20 gears

more to come...

 

[IZwack]

Hey Wolf -- cya at Paragon eh chap? Save some sushi for me - thanks!

oh and merry kurisumaSUU!

 

[Savage Wolf]

Hey Wolf -- cya at Paragon eh chap? Save some sushi for me - thanks!

oh and merry kurisumaSUU!

I wont be making the newyears run, seems that my matching 4.10 geared axles arent matched... one is coming out to be 4.2 gear ?wtf and 3.53.....

 

[IZwack]

I wont be making the newyears run, seems that my matching 4.10 geared axles arent matched... one is coming out to be 4.2 gear ?wtf and 3.53.....

Well I hope to wheel with you at some point!