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MG MGB GT V8 Factory Originals Technical - Questions about Dana 44 axles

I've decided to build up a Dana 44 rear end for my project. Following details in the V8 Newsletter, I have located several possible donor DJ5 jeeps at a junk yard. Is it possible to tell the "posi-traction" units from the "non-posi" ones from the external appearance of the axles?.
Chris Jones (TX)

Chris,
Outwardly, I think there's no way to tell. The cover and axle housings are identical. All Dana 44's originally had a small metal tag attached to one of the cover screws which tells the gear ratio. The limited slip versions had two tags. One tag reads something like "Use limited slip lubricant only."

This had been my experience only, FWIW, so don't take it as gospel.

I work as a field service mechanic for Ditch Witch construction equipment. Some of their equipment uses Dana 44's and I rebuild them frequently. The vast majority
Scott Wooley

Before my 2 year old just came over here and hit the "enter" button I was saying...

The vast majority of these are the Trac-loc clutch pack type limited slip. I know other construction equipment companys also use these a lot in their equipment. The CJ5 axles are great because of their width, etc. But I'll bet you could pick up a limited slip for cheap or even free if you know where to look.

I've been thinking about going this route myself. Plus it would be cool to say my rear end is out of a 3500 Ditch Witch trencher!

Scott
Scott Wooley

I have done this conversion and the completed axle is sitting in the basement ready for mounting to my V6 conversion whenever I can get the tub through the finish paint stage.
A couple of problems I encountered were having to do with the brakes. The stock Jeep drum has a large bolt center diameter and is a 5 bolt. This drum can not be used to drill the B's 4 bolt pattern because the drum's center hole is too large. I converted to olderFord Econoline/Bronco rear brakes which are wider than the Jeep but have the same dia. for the wheel cylinders as in a B so I am hoping I won't need a line pressure balancer. The center hole is small enough to get a 4 bolt pattern once the faces of the axles are machined to fit this smaller hole.The problem comes in because the Ford plates are offset to the center which required shortening the axles and moving the shoulders for the wheel bearings by about an inch to the outside.
I did find that using the Jeep emergency cable with the Ford brakes looks like it will work just fine once I figure out a central compensator bracket and shortening the B cable drastically to hook up the the Jeep's one piece cable. I am also using a traction bar and panhard setup originally designed for a 65 Shelby Mustang. This took some work in making the mounts off the front spring perchs and fab'ing the body mount for the panhard.
Thomas Rynne

Thomas, thanks for your insight on the problems encountered with this axle. The Dan Lagrou article does not mention the axle shortening aspect of the conversion. Do you think that you used the same style of Ford backplates that were used in the V8 Newsletter article? What ratio are you running in your axle, what tranmission?
Chris Jones (TX)

The backing plates in Dan's article look custom made from aluminum flat plate and would probably eliminate the need for the axle shortening that I did. He mentions they are a Wilwood item. The Ford plates are pressed steel and are flanged or off set to the inside. The drums are as I remember 2 1/2 wide instead of the 2 Dan shows. They were drilled as Dan describes to 4 bolt centers and the old holes in the axle flange were welded shut as one of them will overlap the 4 bolt pattern. Their is an overlap on one hole in the drum as well but this isn't critical.
I went with a 3.56 ratio and I am using a Camaro V6 T5 tranny which has lower first and 5th than the V8 version. Everyone I spoke to said not to go as high as 3.07 on ratio if I wanted good off line performance. Their are plenty of other ratios available.
Thomas Rynne

This thread was discussed between 21/02/2004 and 23/02/2004

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