Shane

Speaking of deleting posts, that's better. Keep it clean guys, please.

jx94148

I love the way you think Mr F.

Did you see the ORS buggy's setup? I assume he uses Toy gear driven cases. I'm curious what tranny he has. Does anyone know? All I could tell was that it had a 3.4 and a right side diff Toyota front axle. The idea of filling a 3rd gen 4Runner with mini truck parts somehow rubs me the right way.

It comes down to how much coin you can throw into a truck at one time. If you insist on using all Toyota parts to SAS a Taco or 3rd gen 4Runner; Mini truck tranny, transfer, crawler, and electric locked front axle would be pretty interesting.

"Fill the new junk with old junk!!!" That will be my new battle cry.

I've always thought that junkyard parts provide the most bang for the buck. If you are doing one part at a time to get the same results, a left side diff Dana 44 axle with U joint upgrades seems like an obvious choice.

jx94148

Adrian,

I'd like to hear more about the Nissan you saw at Chinaman's. I didn't get over to see it. What do you know about it's setup?

Flygtenstein

The Nissan was a low-lift, coils sprung, radius arm solid axle truck actually working as a tow rig. It was just shocking to see something on 35's that didn't look of feel like a monster truck. Mark and Steve checked it out as well, perhaps they recall more than I did.

Mike's buggy had an FZJ 80 front end and a T-100 rear. Turbo tranny behind the 3.4, want to say R151, maybe a few more letters and numbers in there. Dual cases, both stock. That was a 95 though, not the new stuff.

Anyone know about high pinion 44's? I really have no appreciable knowledge about that stuff. Just want to keep it comparable assuming that one would want a high pinion Toy if they were going to the trouble of doing this to a new truck. I would imagine they are slightly harder to find than low ones.

Where is SteveO on this? I assume he has researched and thought more about this and may have some facts to share.

As far as cost, parts alone for the crawler and swap together would make me cry a little. I would rather do driveshaft work twice and separate the burning a little.

44Runner

High pinion 44 diffs are slightly harder to find than low pinions but they are still readily available. You want to look for late 70's ford trucks (78 & 79). Now these axles will be significantly wider than your rear, I want to say somewhere around 67". The plus is that Dana axles are cake to cut down. I would suggest cutting it down so it can take stock shafts so junkyard parts are still available for spares. You could cut it down to take stock waggy shafts or perhaps cut down just the long side to take a waggy long side and stick with a little wider axle over-all.

EDIT: I just noticed you have a 95 Runner. Being that you need a passenger side diff running a high pinion diff would be a bit more involved for you as you would need to either swap your t-case output side or swap the tubes on the axle. Both of which are kind of a PITA. If you did go through the trouble of swapping tubes, I would swap on some better ones, I mean, why not right?

EDIT #2: I neglected to mention that ALL high pinion 44s are driver's side. I realized that might confuse some people if I left that out...

Flygtenstein

Thanks Dave.

I do have a 95. I know I need a passenger side drop. I have been talking about 3rd Gen stuff since that seemed to be the focus.

Price on the High Pinions and assorted mods to get it in the right width neighborhood, or the Warn's and CTM's?

Maybe not for people here directly, but I think this could potentially contain some worthwhile info comparing the front ends now that there are several practical choices.

kyle_22r

i think a hi-pinion 3rd with an arb will typically run around 1500$ for a toyota 8". i agree that the main problem will be spacers and the wear they would add for that kind of axle, i don't know how you'd solve it though

justinh

what color was that pathfinder, was it burgandy? or was it black? there is a canadian guy that runs an early bronco set up in a black pathfinder but last i heard his was under major reconstruction and should be on something much larger than 35's. i know of a guy with a burgandy one that has a custom suspension set up on coilovers and last i knew he was running 35 mtr's or something. either way, i used to have a nissan and still follow them closely, with some more details i can probably get you more info on the build.

lcopelan22

Hell yeah, this is like the solid axle swap forum. Rtdawgs, and sschaefer3, those are some bad trucks. That's the first time I've seen em. Crawler is mean too! I got the pics coming for mine. I took them today but the cable hookup for the camera is missing at the moment so I can't download them-sucks. Anyway those 44's are tough. I had a 44 J-10 axle but got a yota axle for free and went with it instead because I was worried about steering issues. Mine turned out pretty good though- I like it. Much respect to the Dana 44 Swappers. That's a big job. We put a 44 wagoneer in my buddys 95 wrangler about 3 months ago. He did a homebrew hysteer on his. I think he's got like 3-4 hundred dollars total in the steering. It took alot of thinking but turned out really good. One more thing, I noticed ya'll talking earlier about dana 44's, transfer cases, 3rd generations, sides etc. I'm not a dana 44 expert but I do know that Wagoneer's are on the driver side. The J-10 Jeep Trucks are on the passenger side and are are 30 splined and are known to be bulletproof

44Runner

That is a Wagoneer 44 on my truck (green one pictured on the first page of this thread). All 44s to my knowledge have stock 30 spline inners. Not sure if there is actually any real diffrence between the J-10 44 and the Waggy, but I think they are the same strength overall.

lcopelan22

They make 28 spline Dana 44's also. Alot of people don't know this though. Dana 44's are on all kinds of stuff. And they have different strengths. There is something different about the J-10s. I have heard it said too many times. I have also read this alot. Last time was Petersons Off Road article "What's in your Jeep". They said that the J-10 was a serious truck with some really stout axles. They said a wagoneer had a Dana 44 so go figure. I also read an article in JP about a month or two ago spotlighting the J-10 and they mentioned that it had a bulletproof tough as nails dana 44. It was an older issue. But the J-10 in last months JP was they,re top pick of any Jeep. I really don't care and I don't know what it is but they are stronger.

44Runner

Hmmm, I have never seen a 28 spline 44 nor have I ever heard of one. Now very early 70's and before you could find a 19 spline 44. I have seen those in the rear variety, but 19 spline fronts are extremely rare. They did make 28 spline Corporate 10 Bolts which look very similar to a 44. You sure you are not thinking of a 10 bolt?

OneTrickToy

Okay... I'm incredibly naive... so deal with it... actually, I'm a college student who is trying to learn as much as I can about vehicle mechanics by working on my truck when things break.

If you aren't running huge meats.... Lets say you want to run 35's, at 4.88 on a 91....... Would it be possible to just rip apart a first gen and move everything over? What would I be missing here? Other than welding new spring perches and shock mount, what else has to be fabbed?

44Runner

Well you got the basic idea, but there is a little more to it. You have to take everything off the 91, like all the mounting points for the IFS. Then keep the IFS steering box and run an off the shelf cross over kit. Get some lift springs, and you are pretty much set. I wouldn't dig the 4.88s, I would go 5.29s...

lcopelan22

[QUOTE]Originally posted by 44Runner
Hmmm, I have never seen a 28 spline 44 nor have I ever heard of one. Now very early 70's and before you could find a 19 spline 44. I have seen those in the rear variety, but 19 spline fronts are extremely rare. They did make 28 spline Corporate 10 Bolts which look very similar to a 44. You sure you are not thinking of a 10 bolt? [/QUOTE

No I know a 10 bolt, my brother has one. I'll be a man, suck it up and be honest and tell you that I was thinking about a ford nine inch. They're 28 spline. Notice my at the end of my reply from yesterday though. We just high pinioned and detroited my buddys' 9" rear on his jeep and I just wasn't thinking. So I'll admit that I was wrong, But I swear that those J-10's have something different. I think it's the axle tube diameter; - maybe. But don't quote me on it. As I mentioned earlier, I'm not an expert-or anything on D44's!!!

44Runner

Yep, 9"s come in 28 and 31 spline. All 44 have the same diameter tubes but there are 2 different wall thicknesses.

lcopelan22

Yeah Ok you know what I mean. Damn. Let me re clarify- Dana 44 front differentials come in different everythings. Including-- makes, models, lengths, gears, and available "WALL THICKNESS". I'm sure they used different kinds of paint to paint the different one's with too. Somebody correct me if i'm wrong though and also fill me on on who invented the Dana 44 and in what year and why they did it and what prompted their idea and so on, while your at it. J-10 44's are still better, I don't care about a Dana 44 and as mentioned "I'm no expert". But I'm no DUMMY and if someone told me that It had a bigger diameter I would know what they meant. It would mean that the axle tubes were beefier. Diameter -- thickness. You get the point. That's how I'd explain it. Thanks for the Dana 44 info though. I really don't care about Jeep parts. I had a Jeep Wrangler - with Jeep stuff and Jeep axles and Jeep everything. I sold that Jeep to buy my Toyota.