hey you guys slow down.
You are not the first to put a dana 44 ttb under a first gen truck, it has been done, will be done again, and as I said Autofab even makes a complete bolt no it these days to do just that $$$$$
the Autofab kit uses custom pivot bracket to locate the Dana 44 beams under the truck in such a way the differential will clear. You guys must understand that the dana 44 diff is HUGE compared to the D35 diff. Its such a tight fit in fact that the Autofab kits uses uniballs as the pivot for the beam instead of bushings, bushings would have too much play in them and aloow the diff to move around enough to hit the crossmember/frame.
Now again the strength of the dana 35 TTB is jsut about the exact same as the dana 44 ttb when it comes to the ring and pinion and axle shafts, so you are not really gaining anything by stuffing this big pig under there.
the whole reason you would want a Dana 44 under the truck IMO is because it gives you 8+" of increased track width immediatley AND because the outers have the far superior spindle, hubs, wheel bearings, brake and caliper.
However people have now been putting the dana 44 outers onto the dana 35 beams, so this kind of defeats the reasoning for stuffing the entire dana 44 under there.
People have been building custom TTB beams for a long time now (including myself) and when done correctly you should not have issues or asd you said too many things can go wrong, my beams have held up to severe punishment over the last 5 years or so and they are a very simple cut and turn.
You can extend the dana 35 beams after the radius arms 4.5" per side and get the increased track widht that you would gain with the dana 44, so again that kinda defeats the track width bonus issue from trying to stuff the dana 44 under there.
When you go 4.5" per side after the radius arm it saves you a ton of $$$ because you can use dana 44 outer axle shafts instead of having custom shafts made.
Now I am not trying to discourage you from tackling this project really, I mean if you are dead set on stuffing that dana 44 under there go for it! just know you are not the first, nor the last and how do you think I know all this stuff? Its because I have reasearched it for years and followed the builds of people who have done it. I personally cannot justify that conversion, now when its easier to fit the d35 ttb under there, extend and truss the beams to gain the 8"+ track width, bolt on the D44 outers to get the brakes/spindles/hubs without the need for super custom pivot brackets, etc
John at Autofab saw a way to make this work and its an amazing kit, so maybe take a look at it and see whats involved, beacuse if you want to do it then I am guessing you are going to end up copying his kit 90%.
Coilovers, coils, whatever how you choose to spring it and shock it are after thoughts really, the camber correction for the lift height (re-locating lower ball joint, agian modified beam) the steering geometry, the radius arms, pivot locations, should all come first.
Then of course if you are running a dana 44 under your truck you will need to swap your master cylinder to accomodate the larger calipers, you will have to modify your front driveshaft to reahc the new D44 diff and attach to it, etc
So my point is this, there is alot to consider when tackling a project like this, as I said I say go for it if you are dead set on it, but logic tells me to stick with the d35 beams, modify them for your camber correction and width increase, run the d44 outers and you get all the gains without all the hassle or trying to fit the huge d44 pig under your truck.
Whatever you decide research is the key, check out the people who have come before you, check out the Explorers and Rangers running around that are already using a dana 44 ttb under them, check out the members on this forum who have machined their d35 beams to accept the d44 outers, check out the Autofab kit, check out the Camburg stages of TTB kits, reasearch the crap out of this and then decide what it right for you. I have already figured out what directin i am going to take, I already picked up a set of D35 beams to modify shortly.........shhhh its a secret.
I will have 18-22" of travel, coilovers, bump stops and dana 44 outers.
maybe off the 5.0 explorers?
