I'm looking to do a SAS and an offroad shop I've gone to said they got a dana 44 that will work. It's from a narrow track wagoneer with a passenger side drop. I was set on the toyota axle until he told me this would work. The parts will be cheaper and it will be easier to work on. Which do ya'll think would be a better choice. I'm not to worried about keeping it all toyota. I just want the better one.

From everything I've read (and I believe Jim Allen has said it) the D44 and the yota are very similar in strength, so that part is a wash. However, just for the sake of keeping things the same, I would put the yota axle in the front and fill it with a v6 third to match your rear, then if you ever had a catastrophic problem with the rear you could swap them and still drive the truck. Also, you could use the yota e-locker thirds if you were ever inclined. My .02

Narrow track D44, IIRC, isn't what you want. ErikB knows more than I do, however.

Go Toy, throw Longs at it and be done.

I agree. I know Erik has had success with the 44, but there are so many issues that can be solved and simplified by just sticking with a Toy 8", including wheel bolt pattern, driveshaft bolt pattern, spare parts, same gear ratios front and rear, and bolt on hi-steer kits, etc.

The drop out diffs are easier to work on, IMO and with the new 30 spline Longs, I think the Toy 8" would end up being stronger than even a built Dana 44 anyway and I think have better ground clearance.

And finally, you have the option of going with a hi-pinion diff, either now or later, which solves a bunch of problems in it's own right.

narrow track dana 44 from what year?
waggys came with large diameter and small diameter spindles that use different part number bearings, there's two different knuckle designs, a flat top or a non flat top and only one kind can be used for high-steer arms. you will definetly want to replace the u-joints and axle shafts in the axle, and that's gonna run you about $600. the gears are a BEAR to install in a dana axle, and that's expensive, ann then you're gonn want to replace the cheezy zinc locking hubs (if it even has locking hubs, some came iwth drive plates instead) you're gonna drop $100 on new warn or superwinch hubs.

scary huh? it's SO EASY to drop $2000 into a dana 44 to get it to where it should be, strength wise for larger tires and lockers. I used to build spec front dana 44's as a side job, and it's not cheap.

OR, you can just buy a toyota front axle and put longs in it <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

I'd want to know the spring perch width on that 44. If they kept it at the Waggy width, then your tires will likely hit the springs at full turn if you run 35's or larger. Part of that is because the 44 turns sharper though. Hopefully they set it up for Toy perch width even though its a little more work.

As for the rest- building a 44 costs about the same as a Toy axle, so you can take your pick.

Stock D44 axles/joints are stronger than stock birfields, but chromo Toy birfs are cheaper and might be stronger than chromo 44 shafts/joints. The D44 diff may be stronger than a Toy 8".

The Toy axle will be nearly a bolt-in with all the SAS & steering kits out there for it. The 44 is a more custom and requires you or your installer knows what they're doing. The 44 also has big calipers, and will likely require a master cylinder mod (the end result may be stronger brakes though).

My SAS page has a lot of D44 swap info if you're interested (and some of the info in this thread is wrong and/or irrelevant). Overall, the Toy axle is a lot simpler, but not necessarily better.

I'm only going to pick on these two comments, although there is a ton of other irrelevant info in that and other posts...



<img src="/forums/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" /> I ran stock shafts from Pick-n-Pull with new joints for 5 years and didn't have too many problems. That includes 5 trips to the Hammers where I broke ONE shaft. They aren't bad if you drive sanely.



Umm... how it that any different than a Toy or any other axle? It costs money to build these things.

That said, I only spent about $1500 for my entire D44 swap. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/nana.gif" alt="" />

Iv had bad luck with toy axles. 8" is small and sucks. The toyota front axle has so much crap to break and I have broken so much of it. If you go toy look at spending over 2500 per axle to get it strong enough to wheel with out breaking. Go strait to getting a d60 up front. Cheaper in the long run.

Please describe the "so much crap to break" that you have already busted? And where is the $2500 that will be spent? I call major BS. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" />

Its not that hard to spend several thousand dollars building any axle. Here is a (fairly extreme) example of a top-o-the-line Toy axle built from scratch (including steering):



<img src="/forums/images/graemlins/scared.gif" alt="" />

Spending half that much isn't hard to do either by the time its all said and done. Its pretty easy to spend $1200 or more on the differential alone.

There are a lot of places you can skimp and save money too though (like I did), but to some extent you will get what you pay for.

My personal opinion is that, with a strictly bare-bones budget like I had, a D44 will be stronger than a Toy axle. But its more work and not necessarily what you may need or want. I think this is getting OT though... <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/shiner.gif" alt="" />