I am thinking that it would be wise to go ahead and do the front 44 first and match rear axle bolt pattern to that

I made a couple of calls looking for a wagoneer (1983'ish) D44. Found one yard 4x4 stuff only. They said $400.00. That seems a little high to me but I have been out of offroading for awhile and maybe that is a good price. Is it?

Also, on the 8.8 I found one with disc brakes and lsd from a 1988 turbo t-bird for $125.00 but have not measured it for width yet. It has 3:55 so a gear change would be necessary as well as axles. I have a 31 spline lsd carrier already waiting to be used in some project.

Still may be better off with the explorer version since axles would likely be swapped anyway for bolt pattern purposes.

An 8.8 is a good swap for a jeep... with 5 lug setup...

I paid 75 bucks for my front Dana 44 from a local pick and pull. Ive actually bought 3 or 4 Dana 44's from this place, and they really don't care what it is. If it's an axle, it is $67.50 with a 7 dollar core charge. Had to totally rebuild it, and put the 4.56's in it so the total cost on my sas was like 1000 bux. Most of that was in the cost of new rebuild parts. Timken bearings, Yukon gears, spool.. etc.

I used a Montero sport rear axle.

#1 Disk Brakes
#2 Factory Air Locker
#3 Huge Beef axle. Likely never break
#4 Bolts in. The montero sport was patterned off of the Gen 1 4 cylinder trucks, and the leaf spring width is identical. Only slight modifications need to be done to put this into a leaf spring truck. Youve got to cut the drivers side sway bar mount off, and re-drill a new bolt spacing on your the pinion flange to accept the stock driveshaft companion flange.
#5 Correct width to match the wagoneer front perfectly.
#6 6 lug man bolt pattern.

I think I paid 250 bucks for my Montero sport axle. It came from a 99 Montero Sport XLS 3000

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Good Luck. Go forth, and do good things.

I'm with Landraider on the Sport axle, much better option than the 8.8. As far as D44 prices, I paid 250 for mine, and it came with chromoly axles, factory ford radius arms, and 5.89 gears (which I'm taking out because I can't match them for the rear.) I'd say 400 is too much, especially if it needs to be rebuilt.

I thought $400 seemed high and I do like the idea of the sport axle.My search begins.......thanks for the help...