dana 44s advice
 

Ok here's the deal. I have a 92 pickup with a SAS on 35s, but i want gears and to go wider. I found a guy with a set of dana 44s with 4.56 gears aussie lockers in both, built disc brakes up front, and a good bit of other goodies. It's everything i want for my truck, and I'm getting a heck of a deal on it all. The problem is that my buddy says he doesn't like aussie lockers, and with some cromolly shafts the yota axle will be stronger than a 44. I dont really have much money and im in a bind cause i need to let the seller know. I need some advice for or against danan 44s or the whole set up in general. Thanks

I would go with the d44s front and rear and than further down the road change the rear axle to a 60. for me i like the added width from the d44 i have

screw 44's and go with 60's youll be glad you did!

Look into FJ axles to stay toyota if you want and want it to be wide. T100's also have a wider rearend you could swap in back.

My vote is 60's though.

yeah the 8" with longs would be stronger than the 44 stock but they are still skinnier.

FJ axles are nice but i have been told the steering is the tricky one there because it is behind the axle so it takes some considerable work.

in my opinion if you are going to go through the hassle of changing the axles, drive shafts, brake master cyl?, and all that you might as well go 60's to make sure you dont change your mind down the road and have to do it again.

It is usually cheaper to go the right way first rather than doing it twice, no matter the deal.

just my 2 cents

hmm good advice. i was worried cause i saw one thread where a d44 swap was done, and it was terrible. I have thought about 60s, but i also have to dd this truck and dont wheel it too too hard. But i might really consider it.
If anything my bronco needs 60s too.

p.s. all three of yall have awesome trucks.

With just a DD why not get some wheel spacers for the width that you want?
I know you said gears and lockers but I think youll find the parts cheaper with toyota.

And thanks :hillbill:

Your probably talking about my sas. The guy that did it had MAJOR problems with time, so when i was about to get a lawyer, he finally worked on it but the lift was not what i wanted(drop bracket) and the shocks were mounted poorly. Its a lot of bs, but the one thing that i did learn from the guy who did it, who is actually really knowledgeable, is that in the long run, Dana 44s and 60 are BETTER AXLES than the toyota 8".
They hold bigger gear better,
They arent limited to 5.29s max
They are wider
And the big thing he pointed out was, in the picture below the part that has the white square around it, On a toyota axle this part will move under hard loads. This increases the chance of breaking stuff. This doesnt happen on the danas.
http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t...P/Dana44-1.jpg

Also he showed me his pickup he built, where a buddy of his bet him that he couldn't build a toyota axle strong. He put in LOTS of money into this toyota axle and, he lost the bet, it broke in not much time and he said if he had a 60 there with half the money put into it, it wouldnt have broke.


But some people prefer to keep it toyota, personal preferance i guess.

i see. no offense about your swap. I think im gonna deffanitely do the swap. I already have wheel spacers and its just not wide enough for me. Plus i dont want to put too much stress on the knuckles with big spacers and heavy tires.

Its all good, i just have to fix it up a little, do it though, you'll like it. Dont go bigger than 1" on the spacers.

dont forget that doing the dana swap is a little more work, on mine he had to shorten the axle a little on one side, plus you have to do the spring mounts and such, its not too bad though just not a bolt up job.

I was thinking about width and was thinking a fj-60 front axle and an fj-80 rear wouldd be cool and those axles are pretty beeft and i want to say about 4-5" wider? some one else will know better. I just ran out of $$ on my build, might still happen some day if i can find parts!

i have a question i dont do alot of hard wheeling and i am going to do a sas and one of my friends has a D44 that he is willing to give to me for free should i take hime up on his offer or go like yall said for a D60?

If you don't do a lot of hard 'wheeling, why SAS at all? If you've got money burning a hole in your pocket you can send it to me!

I would say your guy is NOT really that knowledgeable. NOBODY in their right mind would say a 44 is stronger than a Toyota 8" - even Jeep guys who really know their stuff aren't so keen on the D44. Nobody who knows what they are doing will run a tire over about 37" even on a built 44 - people run 37's, up to 40's on Toyota axles all the time.

http://www.longfieldsuperaxles.com/i...etestgraph.jpg

The only reason to go with a D44 is driver's drop and the width.

Toyota gear sets go to 5.71 - the D44 only goes to 5.89 - not a significant difference. The D44 is 8.5" ring gear with 1-3/8" pinion shaft. The Toyota is 8" with 1-3/8" pinion shaft. Oh - and D60's only go to 5.13 BTW (according to Precision Gear). As for the bearing caps deflecting, that MIGHT be a problem with a 4cyl diff, not so much a V6, and if you're really worried about it, the "8.4" Tacoma/T100 diff is trussed there. Proper install and CBPL practically eliminates this issue.

Now, when you start talking 60's, it's a whole different world.

obviously the guy who did your lift is a hack. why would you still believe anything he said. did he tell you that story while he was trying to sell you the dana 44? :bang:

The only way you should go to a 60 is if you are planning on running 40+ tires and given that you said it is a DD I would stick with a 44 or Yota Axle. 60's are rock anchors. Getting back to your question I run trails with a few people including myself who run Aussie Lockers with no problems at all. The yota axle is going to be stonger, but if you stick with less than 37's a set of cromoly shafts in the 44 and you will be fine. If you were starting from scratch I would go with the Yota, but if you can get a killer deal for the 44 with it set up the way you want it I would do it.

remember that the 80 rear has an offset diff. There are other yota axle choices that are wider that have center diffs like the T100 rear and the 96 and up 4Runner and Tacos

After seeing the butchery on your truck in an attempted SAS from this guy and you still believing a word he says...it is hard to figure out who is stupider.

Check out Pirate4x4.com. Post up your SAS pictures there and see what they say. :D

A well built Toyota axle upgraded properly will run 40s all day long and twice on Sunday to go pull out broken down or stuck Jeep crap on D44s. :flipoffsmiley:

:guitar:

60's i believe have the most gear choices,i am going 5.38 with mine and yukon has 7.17