100,000 miles....should've never said anything (with pics page 3!)

    If you look up ford explorer axle codes you can find what axle you want then go to b&h on rt 40between elkton and northeast thenyou can buy some of the stuff like the yoke flange on rough country under builder parts I think they even have ebrake cable too

    Has anyone else had experience with switching a D35 to D44 and having to shorten or lengthen their driveshaft?

    With a stock D44, experience with lockers and such, do I need to upgrade my axle shafts? What would you recomend for a locker in a D44 in the rear, without going air/electrical lockers....

    Or instead of putting a locker in the rear of my D44, do I put in in my D30 in the front? Do I have to upgrade shafts?

    Quote from joo


    Or instead of putting a locker in the rear of my D44, do I put in in my D30 in the front? Do I have to upgrade shafts?


    The rear is more important than the front. You may hear people argue for the front but they are wrong.


    Upgrade shafts for front or rear? Don't worry about the stock D44 shafts. They will be plenty strong up to 35 or 37's. If you are talking about the front, then I would put alloy's in.

    My thoughts on lockers are that the rear locker is often better offroad, but will be noticeable on the street with under and oversteer and if the tires aren't so great will tend to make the back end slide out on wet/snowy roads because both tires break traction instead of just one. So it requires a little more driver skill. That said, I have a rear locker. :)


    Front lockers are invisible until you're in 4x4, and they'll mess with under/oversteer as well. That's mainly why I recommend them... invisible on the street. They can help with rock crawling when one tire gets jammed against a rock and the torque goes to the other tire instead of going over it. I went with a selectable front locker to help with the steering issues while locked. Carry a set of spare shafts with hubs attached... I've seen ujoints blow more often than shafts, but both are weak.

    Jerry / Whatevah

    2020 Gladiator Mojave - 33" Falken mud tires, LoD side steps, Zroadz bed rack, Quadratec QRC winch bumper, Superwinch EPi 9.0, Kleinn on-board air, Kleinn air horns, lots of lights, Yaesu ham radio with GPS tracker.

    Gone- 2012 JK Rubicon with stuff. Long gone- Long-arm 2001 Cherokee with stuff.

    did he have an SYE and new shaft? It seems that many of the SYE shafts are set up with extra spline length and maybe a little shorter on the compressed length that required, which lets them work with an axle with a longer pinion like the D44 vs D35. Very common on the XJ side, since our rear driveshafts are almost equal in length to the front, plenty of room to work with.

    Jerry / Whatevah

    2020 Gladiator Mojave - 33" Falken mud tires, LoD side steps, Zroadz bed rack, Quadratec QRC winch bumper, Superwinch EPi 9.0, Kleinn on-board air, Kleinn air horns, lots of lights, Yaesu ham radio with GPS tracker.

    Gone- 2012 JK Rubicon with stuff. Long gone- Long-arm 2001 Cherokee with stuff.

    So heres a little update....


    Earlier last week I drove to Ohio and back, 16 hours, to pick up this D44. Got a pretty good deal on it.


    Got home and it took Whatevah and I almost 2 days to put this thing in. We had a lot of trouble with bolts that were seized, and we didnt have air 't have air tools but we did have a power impact gun.


    At that point I had to buy a new track bar because the bracket wouldn't line up. So a quick trip to Q-tec solved that and a new track bar and some shock brackets.


    Today I wasn't successful on putting in the track bar. The bracket was bent in when we where banging on it, so tomorrow I'm going to have to heat up the metal and bend it out.


    Sooner or later I'll get it on the road again!

    drums and 3.73 to match the original gears.


    yeah I think we kinda buggered the trackbar mount hammering on it trying to get the upper control arms in place (the mounts were a hair too narrow for the arms to fit). At the time we were planning to reuse the relocation bracket from the D35 but for some reason it didn't match up with the bracket on the D44.

    Jerry / Whatevah

    2020 Gladiator Mojave - 33" Falken mud tires, LoD side steps, Zroadz bed rack, Quadratec QRC winch bumper, Superwinch EPi 9.0, Kleinn on-board air, Kleinn air horns, lots of lights, Yaesu ham radio with GPS tracker.

    Gone- 2012 JK Rubicon with stuff. Long gone- Long-arm 2001 Cherokee with stuff.

    Quote from whatevah


    drums and 3.73 to match the original gears.


    yeah I think we kinda buggered the trackbar mount hammering on it trying to get the upper control arms in place (the mounts were a hair too narrow for the arms to fit). At the time we were planning to reuse the relocation bracket from the D35 but for some reason it didn't match up with the bracket on the D44.


    What's it out of?

    It took us a whole day to get the D35 out thanks to all the nasty bolts. But we soaked them in pb blaster as soon as we removed them so they were wet all night long. Installing the D44 only took 4 hours including fighting with the frozen driveshaft and bleeding the brakes with the exception of the trackbar and tightening the shock bolts. Oh and the swaybar mount bolts wouldn't thread in all the way, no idea why. Stopped about half-way in.



    out of another TJ. I think 2005?

    Jerry / Whatevah

    2020 Gladiator Mojave - 33" Falken mud tires, LoD side steps, Zroadz bed rack, Quadratec QRC winch bumper, Superwinch EPi 9.0, Kleinn on-board air, Kleinn air horns, lots of lights, Yaesu ham radio with GPS tracker.

    Gone- 2012 JK Rubicon with stuff. Long gone- Long-arm 2001 Cherokee with stuff.

    Quote from whatevah


    It took us a whole day to get the D35 out thanks to all the nasty bolts. But we soaked them in pb blaster as soon as we removed them so they were wet all night long. Installing the D44 only took 4 hours including fighting with the frozen driveshaft and bleeding the brakes with the exception of the trackbar and tightening the shock bolts. Oh and the swaybar mount bolts wouldn't thread in all the way, no idea why. Stopped about half-way in.



    out of another TJ. I think 2005?


    Thats what he told me, with less than 50K on the odometer.


    I was able to get the track bar relocation mount back on today. After multiple attempts of installing the new track bar the thing just wouldn't go in the pocket. So I heated it up and bent it out. Then.....I was able to install the track bar relocation bracket.


    I did a woopsies to the JKS track bar I bought. Gotta fix the threads on it. :woops:


    Its rolling right now. Still not sure of its reliability yet, being an extremely paranoid individual. I drove it from the garage to my house, about 9 miles seemed okay.


    On that note, where is the blower motor resistor at? Heat only works on full blast...need to replace it? Where can I get one?


    Thanks.


    100,000 and she is starting to show her wear. I just made the final payment a few weeks ago. How ironic, final payment and it was on jack stands.


    Got silly stuff like the door handle won't open from the inside and other things. She needs some TLC.

    Quote from joo


    Got silly stuff like the door handle won't open from the inside and other things. She needs some TLC.


    I'm at like 55K (but 2 years older) and had door latch/handle problems.


    Take the inner panel off and take a look.


    There's lot's of stuff to lube in there too.

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