A Rare Treat for You…Bill's Tech Article…Early Bronco Front Dana 44 in a YJ

Author: Bill Barnes

As everybody knows, an '88 YJ Wrangler comes with a Dana 30 disconnect front axle. Though relatively strong if used within it's parameters, it's still a weak link with it's small u- joints and no way to disengage the axle assembly in the event of a differential or u- joint failure. To remedy this, I could have taken a number of routes. I could spend big bucks and have a custom axle made…nope…I could shell out the dough for a Warn hub conversion kit…still relatively weak….nope, or I could play mix and match with a couple different axles I had laying around and put something together…yup! Don't get me wrong…it's still expensive, but it was under a grand to do this, so here's what happened.

A year or so ago me, Glenn Piwcio and Jason Carter went hunting for heavy duty axles to stick under a Ford Ranger. Jason found an early Bronco. We abandoned the Ranger but took the 9" rear we got and plan to stick that under Carter's CJ-7…someday. The Bronco front end sat on my garage floor, stripped of all it's pads just waiting to be used someplace, anyplace. So basically…I stole it from Jason but in a fair exchange, I built up a Dynatrac 44 front housing he bought for his CJ- 7. We'll put it in…somday!

Not long after that, a guy gave me a 79 Scout II that I originally planned on restoring until I took a real good look at it. It was bad. I kept the axles.

I started by ordering a ton of parts since this was to be a two- axle conversion about a month apart. Why? Different wheel lug patterns. Who wants to carry two spares the rest of their lives? Since the rear is a simple swap I won't bore you with details but I will tell you that's where the Scout II rear axle ended up. Carter now owns the Cherokee rear I had in there and is going in his Cherokee.

The bad thing about an early Bronco is the axle shafts are tiny. Granted, they're 30 spline 44 shafts, but they taper down and get skinny and have small u- joints. I remedied this by calling Wild Horses 4X4 and bought their huge shafts with BIG u-joint ends on them, and remember the Scout? I used the outers and knuckles and everything else I could from that hoping to keep the cost down…it really didn't. I hate old junk, so I bought a lot of new components like calipers, rotors and hubs and brake lines. Bearings aren't cheap and neither are seals. Don't forget to throw in things like a new ring and pinion for the rear I had to re-do, plus the Detroit I threw in for the fun of it. The saving grace was I used the ARB I had in the rear along with the whole shooting match in the pumpkin since all those things are interchangeable to the front. The Bronco front is not a reverse rotation axle assembly so rear guts will work in it. When I did the setup for it, I paid more attention to the coast side of the gear set since this is what the front drives on.

So, out goes the old Dana 30. In the last newsletter I told you I suck as a welder. Well, I have good welder friends. I called Glenn and let him have the "privilege" of welding the pads and shock mounts on his President's axle. : ) He does a great job and I trust his work. On the front end I wouldn't want it any other way.

One thing you notice right off is the pumpkin sits more inboard than the Dana 30 did. That means all the u- bolts can be the same size. It also means on a six- banger you have to do something about the exhaust system crossover pipe that runs from the manifold to the cat. Simple enough, loosen the flange bolts at the manifold and push the pipe towards the tranny some more and the driveshaft will clear it. The other thing is the driveshaft. I had to notch my skidplate because the pinion is lower, and because the pumpkin is longer, I had to go with a two- inch shorter front driveshaft, which luckily for me, I already had from when I did my tranny conversion a couple of years ago.

Well, how do you steer it? First you gotta knock off about 4 inches of tie rod at the adjuster end, then have it re- threaded so that it's total length is 48". You also have to take out about 2" of steering linkage so you'll be able to turn the wheels equally in both directions. Also, you need to have some tapered shims made so the Wrangler steering components will fit into the Scout knucles cuz the holes are bigger than the steering joint studs. Thanks to Eric Johnson for this phase. Then go ahead and attempt to set the toe- in. It might work!

Putting a steering stabilizer on is a slight challenge. The stock Wrangler Dana 30 had a mounting boss on the axle pad for this. No such animal on the 44. I took a Currie axle spring pad and a u-bolt and made a mount on the axle tube with a stud (bolt) welded to it to accept the stabilizer, then used the original mounting hole in the drag link to connect the other end. Seems to work.

After bleeding the brakes, checking all the nuts and bolts, changing my wheels to a 5 on 5 and a half bolt pattern, plumbing the ARB, checking the new locking hubs and going for a test ride, maybe we can make it to the club run. If I'm there with my Jeep, all was a success. If I'm just there, well…these things happen!

The Thank You Section:

Glenn Piwcio, welding and mechanical double checking
Eric Johnson, machine work ( he's the best)
Jason Carter, gorilla- ering and other bull work
Todd Landers, finding a sucker, er, buyer for my Dana30
Rick Boiros, my "consultant" (he made me put this in)
Nancy Barnes, her wallet

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