Project closed knuckle revisted

[KaiserMan]

Then I guess $75 would be fair. Thanks.

Made a little progress. I've got one side of the 44HD down to the spindle. The caliper brackets are a perfect fit for the older Jeep and Chevy spindles. The older GM hubs won't fit on the newer spidles, and vice versa. The outer wheel bearings are the same, but the inner bearing is larger on the newer axle.

The dust shields are junk however. I'll have to find a set. Not that I really need them.

It was actually beautiful. All of the bolts (even the caliper bolts) came right off. I thought I was going to have to fight with them all.

[jepj2000]

I saw a pair that had been milled, drilled, and tapped for high steer for like $150 and then I've seen single ones for $40 or so. You can make a price for the pair somewhere in between there I guess.

Rankin

[KaiserMan]

Picked up the axle today. It's a mid 70's D44HD. With flattops. I ended up buying it for $100. It also has 19 spline drive flanges. So I'm going to start playing with the disc's tomorrow morning. Anyone know what a pari of flat tops are going for now?

[KaiserMan]

Minor news. I'm going to pick up a GM 8 lug disc brake axle tomorrow. Don't know if it's a D44HD (most likely) or a 10b. The guy wants the axle back, but I can have all of the brake parts for free. So I should be able to start fitting the brakes up sometime this week.

[KaiserMan]

Yep. Definitely going with studs.

I have to run the 8 lug hubs, snice I'm running 8 lug alxes from a camper truck. I like these GM hubs, they are about the same size as the D70 hubs on my fathers dually.

[Herk]

I looked at going to the larger hubs when I converted my 71 to disks, but ultimately kept the original hubs and spindles. Since I already had those parts, it was the cheapest way to go, and has held up fine for 8 years or so now.

Warn sells a conversion hub/spindle which allow the internal hub to be used with 5 on 5 1/2" wheels. Looks like F-150 or Ramcharger parts to me. The biggest strength improvement you can make to the closed knuckle would be to replace the spindle bolts with button headed studs.

[KaiserMan]

I could get them in there. I'd just have to have teh shafts cut down and the ends rolled, then open up the Jeep knuckle a bit. Wouldn't be a big deal, but I don't want to dump money into this project.

I did find notice that the part of the spindle that goes into the knuckle is 1/4" thicker on the GM's. Jeep is 1/4" thick , GM is 1/2". This should work fine since I will be mounting the caliper mount then the spindle, instead of the sindle and then the backing plate like was from the factory. Those caliper mounts are a good 1/4" thick iirc. The GM spindles are also much beefier. The outer bearing is the same size as the 5 lug Jeep D44's (but smaller then the 8 lug Jeep D44) and the inner is bigger. Don't know how the inner compare s to the Jeep 8 lug 44.

[Elliott]

I don't have any parts to offer you, but if it's any encouragement there's a guy on the M715 Zone that got 35 spline shafts into the D60 closed knuckle with some work...

[KaiserMan]

Been awhile since I voiced my hair brained idea to fit a closed knuckle Jeep D44 with disc brakes, modern 19/30 spline 297X shafts and internally splined hubs.

I have a 71 Jeep 5 lug D44 with 4.10's, and a mid 60's GM 8 lug D44 with 4.56's wo work with. Trying to spend as little money on it as possible.

Finally started working on it. Turns out the Jeep axle has 19 spline shafts, but the GM axle I have has 30 spline shafts, which happen to be the same length as the Jeeps. The shafts are the same thickness, and aslo have 260X joints, which is kind of crappy. But..I scrounged up some shafts from an open knuckle D44 (larger with eh 297X joint), and found that they won't work. They are 1/2" longer, and the yoke ears won't fit into the closed knuckle. So unless those are a no go. Honestly, I'm sure that I could get them in there, but it would be more work then I care to do.

I pulled the GM 44 apart today, and robbed the 30 spline side gears from it. I'll get those into the Jeep next weekend, I hope. I still have to figure out disc's. I need to get my hands on some GM 8 lug 4wd rotors and some caliper mounts. Calipers as well. Anyone have some junk ones I can use to mock things up?

If all turns out well I'll have a slightly beefier D44 and will also figure out how to get disc brakes on an 8 lug Jeep closed knuckle D44 using all GM/Jeep parts. It will also use the common large bolt pattern 3/4 ton 19 spline hub. There isn't much choice out there for the 3/4 ton 10 spline hub.