Giovannetti

Ok I got me a Ford Dana 44 in the back of a Blazer that was for drag strip only. I am gutting the blazer and putting everything in the Flamaro. Now what Im wondering wasa that the Dana 44 is a slightly diffrent set up. The blazedr is set up with traction bars and i believe the rear end is slightly smaller than our stock POS 10 bolts. But I do know that our 3rd gens use torque arms. So is this going to be possible? I dont mind doing (or paying ) anyone to get the job done.Thanks again for any advice or direction. I think this dana 44 that i have could withstand several bumper stands from what I hear and see

sofakingdom

iTrader: (1)

Well that depends on your definition of "possible". Anything is "possible", if you have enough time and money, and/or if your standards for the finished product are low enough.

To do what you're talking about is kind of way out on the far fringe of the "possible"; and certainly, a long way beyond "practical". It pretty much belongs in the category of "if you have to ask, you're not ready to tackle it".

The Dana 44 isn't all that anyway. I'm driving one around today, in fact; in my Cheep Bland Cherokee with the mighty 4.0L powerhouse :squirrel cage smilie please:. They're well known in the Cheep crowd for getting torn up in that application. I'd say, if one of them already has a history of doing bumper stands, it's largely used up; and what would surely happen is, you'd go to all the effort and trouble to transplant it, and it will proceed to grenade about the 3rd time you drop the clutch. It's a better rear than a 7½" 10-bolt, and probably better than the 9-bolt; but NOWHERE NEAR as strong as a 12-bolt (car, not truck), or a 9". In other words, it's NOT a racing piece.

I'd suggest dropping the thought.

Shagwell

installation would be very difficult, and by far not worth it. I've got a 4.3 that's broke a dana 44.
- To use the tq arm style suspsneion, it would require a custom mount to be welded to the housing for the tq arm, and possibly a custom tq arm. Welding to anything cast is less than perfect and is VERY difficult to get done properly. You would need to get the rest of the mounts off the factory housing in use-able condition and re-weld them to the dana axle tubes. You would probably also have to shorten the axles, thus requiring aftermarket axles and jig to properly re-weld the bearing ends back on the shortened axle tubes.
- To install with other suspension(ladder bar or 4-link) you would have to back-half the car. Meaning install proper frame rails and tie the to the front properly. If you were to go this route, you would be wayyyy past the point of running a 44.

All in all, it's very difficult, and to put in an axle thats only possibly stronger than what you already have in there, not worth it. - If you intend on putting some serious power into the car, then save the $ and get a 9" or a 12-bolt that is designed for the car, that way it will bolt in. If you're only talking a 12 sec car, put a few parts into the 10-bolt.

Giovannetti

well I need a rear end that will with hold low 11 second passes and I feel the dana will do it for me. It is beefed up a lil and has 4:30 gears in it and detroit lockers. I dont see me breaking this axle anytime soon b/c it is alot beefier than my 10 bolt I have now.......ashame it seems almost a waist of time to swap it huh.

Shagwell

It's just that the cost/headaches of the install would far out weigh the cost of a 9" install. - If you look at the actual strength issues of the diff, a 44 is no stronger than our 10-bolts. The ring gear, axles and bearings are almost the same size, so actual strength gained would be very little, if any.

- there are guys on this board running in the 10's on the 7.5 10-bolt. I'm running 11.7X's, 1.6X 60fts with a manual trans in a car that weighs 4001lbs w/o me in it. - BUT, the money involved in making a 10-bolt take it is almost the cost of a 9" or 12-bolt, and it's still weaker, especially if you go shorter than a 3.73 gear. - The smaller the pinion, the more likely you are to break it.

Shagwell

I went ahead and did some checking. The 44 has an 8-1/2" ring gear, thus it's strength should be similiar to the 8.5 10-bolts, depending on the casting of the housings.

It might be a way to go, but it would be very complicated, as I said before. The possible strength wouldn't offset costs involved, unless you were able to do all the work yourself. Still, i would heavily research the actual strength of it before considering the job.