Sorry to hear it. You didn't learn the first time and had to do it again? You know that Ford circles all it's mistakes


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Its a 71 250 and a 96 ranger. The ranger has 208K miles on it, perfect compression, no blowby.... runs like its still new. I can tow a car and fully load the 8 foot bed till I'm almost on the bump stops and still do 50 up the hills. pretty good for a 500$ truck.

They make good trailers, for toting things, right?

Well its finally home. It cleared my garage door by about 1/2 an inch <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />. The hood flew back on the way home and is now smashed to bits <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/shiner.gif" alt="" />. And the tub is in NICE condition. Minus the rear fenderwells. I've decided to fix those with some custom cut diamond plate corners. The question of the front axle still remains. Its a closed knuckle deal and I'm still not certain what it is. It looks like a dana 30 but its closed nuckle. The kid swore up and down that it came out of a wagoneer. Mabye one of you will know. Another thing is that the perches need to be welded and all the tie rod ends need to be replaced. But other than that one sweet deal.



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So, are we to assume you are going to totally Frankenstine this thing or make it half YJ and half CJ or what?

I will probably use the tub since mine is a swiss cheese factory. But I will retain the CJ clip. I will definetly use the frame...mabye not the front axle. not going to worry about doing the back corner body work...diamond plate corners will do fine for me. I'm going to take some pictures of the front axle and post them to try to solve the riddle on what it is. Doesn't look very good though. The rear looks like a dana 44 but I will post pictures of it as well.

the early '70's waggy's came with closed knuckle dana 30 fronts. they are 5 on 5.5 bolt circle. waggy d44's are 6 lug. the front is worthless. i'm guessing someone put wagoneer axles under it. the rear is probably a 44 but it will be wider than your open knuckle narrow track 30 you have on your cj. I would say it's a toss up whether to swap axles out or not. you put a bunch of money into your amc20 right? i think the 44 is better though, even with your 1 piece axles.

i think your best bet is to run the axles it has but keep on the lookout for an open knuckle wagoneer 44 front. it will be 6 lug but you can use 1/2 ton ford hubs and rotors for a 5 on 5.5 bolt circle and gain internal selectable hubs(the wagoneer uses drive flanges). i found the parts for the conversion used for $200 but you may find them cheaper. all brand new will be about $450. i also have the same cut on the rear of my tub but i'm not too worried about it. diamond plate sounds like a good idea though if you don't need the room for you tires.

i'm getting ready to scrap one of those closed knuckle 30's along with a waggy carcass. if you want to pay shipping on any of it, i can send drums, shafts, hubs, or whatever your way. i don't recommend dropping a dime on it though.

one other thing. if you have the axles that i think you have, they are wider than your cj. they are 59" wms to wms. the same as yj,tj,toyota. your cj axles are narrower. you will either have to swap in your 30 and 20, or run the axles it has. swapping in your engine/tranny/t-case should be a breeze.

That closed knuckle part answers a lot of questions. It probably did come out of a Wagoneer along with the rear axle. They would be '73 or older and the front axle will be a Dana 27, which would have closed knuckles. Beind '73 or older also is why the rear 44 is five lug. The front axle is a boat anchor. You'd be money ahead to find a '74-79 Waggie Dana 44 and convert it to five lug to match that rear axle.

Don't get in too much of a hurry to change the rear corners. Flex the suspension before doing any work to see where the axle might hit if you do return it to stock. I cut my corners out like that after moving the rear axle back. The previous owner may have done it for the same reason. There are a lot of rockcrawler types who would love to have that tub as it sits right now BTW.

Learn more about what you've got before jumping in.

Well I kinda new this was going to be a problem with the axles. I've decided to sell the rear and junk the front. The springs in the front seem to short. So the new plan is to locate some YJ springs. and convert my CJ axles to spring over and throw them under the new frame. I still got a good deal on a frame and tub, considering my frame is a safety hazard just driving it to work. The rear axle is a 44 but it has a right side offset which wont line up with my driveline. One of my friends is going to order an atlas in the fall and is trying to find out if he can order it with a passenger side output...I know nothing about atlas transfer cases so I'm not the one to ask.

all the waggy 44's are offset 6 or so inches. it's so the driveshaft clears the gas tank on a stock waggy. the q-trac ones are offset even more.with the non q-trac type, like yours, the angle is no problem with a center output t-case. but unless you want to build a waggy front to go with it, you're probably better off putting your narrow tracks in.