DANA 44 OPINIONS and ADVICES

So I have a choice to make. My Willys runs a D30 up front and a D44 in the rear 3.73:1 ratios both open, front is open knuckle disc rear 11 inch drums. I have aquired a D44 with a WARN Full Floater Premium Hub Kit, 10 inch drums and 4.27 gears in an open diff. This houcing has extra welded bracketry on it that will have to be removed. The intial plan was to swap brakes on the FF 44 and have 4.27s put in the front. BUT since putting the plan together I got my hands on a 4.86:1 "ROCKEATER 18". this combined with the SM 465 and 3.73s puts me at almost 119 to 1 in low crawl. (4.27 put me at 136 to 1). One other point some type of locking device will be going in.
Which is the path of least resistance headaches and expense. I am open (pardon the pun)

 

First of all, are you going to ride it on road a lot….3.73 is way better on Mpg than 4.27. Personnaly I’ll stay with 3.73 because theets on the gear are bigger than the 4.27 so they are stronger. You can use the full floating on you’re existing axle but keep all the part that you are going to remove because if you broke something on the ff you won’t be able to find part easily because I think warn discontinued those. Go with the rockeater kit that the best thing you could do.

 

I like the 3.73s. The RE case was an awsome find. Brand new build with all the upgrades. (and a great price) I thought about running it behind the T86 for now but I'm gonna do the SM465 and RE at the same time. If I sick with 3.73s I'll sell off my WARN OD that came with the Willys.

 

I would be using the Rockeater and the 3.73's. Actually with your granny gear, 3.54's or something even higher would work very well and get you some decent on-road performance. In my book, anything lower than about 90:1 for a crawl ratio is a complete waste unless you are REALLY underpowered or over tired.

By all means use the FF kit. Flanged or 2-piece, break an axle and the wheel departs. With a FF, you just about need to drop them off a tall cliff to do that.

 

I won't go any higher than 3.73. I'm running 33s so it's a good fit, plus why spend if I don't have to.

 

What engine ?

 

225 Dauntless

 

Read this: http://z4.invisionfree.com/CJ3B_Bulletin_Board/index.php?showforum=1

EDIT:
Sorry guys...... I decided to pull that post.
I need to rewrite the article.
I don't like to get in a hurry when I post up new Jeep concepts.
I'll let you know when I get the article re-written.
I really just meant to jump start y2grey's thoughts concerning crawl ratios and it sorta turned into a half baked article.

Ill be needing some detailed D 225 input from various owners.
So I will like start a new post for that.
I also need to figure out trigonometery in order to mathmatically verify the known data.

 

Ken, your link goes to the CJ3B homepage.

 

He has a pretty cool post about crawl ratios

 

I have the 4.27 gears with the SM465. I really like it for offload. Of course I use mine as a toy. Not a freeway commuter.