4speedfunk
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Okay. So this turd shows up on my doorstep about two months ago. I'm just now getting around to messing with it but, here's the back-story on this:
This is a half-finished hi-pinion Dana 44 that was started by someone in California. It is unique in that it is a passenger-side drop, perfect for a SAS in an H3. There is no such thing as a passenger-side drop, high-pinion D44...so you have to make one. I've built several of these and they are not easy. You have to really want a high-pinion to go to this extreme. So the story goes that this is a "full width" Dana 44 (a term I find irritating since every make/model truck has a different "width"). The inner C's have been removed, and the pumpkin has been re-tubed with the long tube on the drivers-side. It came with shafts, GM knuckles, and a few other odds & ends. It has a 5.13, open-diff, that is completely set-up with all new bearings & seals. My task is to make this thing "H3-ready".
I started by setting it up on my bench, and taking a closer look. The set-up looks good. The re-tube looks okay. But the guy that chopped the inner-C's off went a tad crazy with the sawzall!!! He damn near cut completely thru the tube on the long side. I stuck a rule in the groove to show you just how deep the cut was. Not good...
So applying my "anything can be fixed" attitude...I attacked the cut line with an angle grinder. I cut a deep "V" into the slot and then filled it with weld...
Nice. Then I hit it with a grinder disc...and finished it with a flapper wheel. TA-DAH! Good as new. So I went about with the rest of the assembly...put it on the bench...set the pinion and caster angles...pounded the C's into place. Everything was just peachy. For the helluvit...I grabbed a tape to check the ball-joint hole spacing on top & bottom against another GM housing. This was just a double check to make sure all was right before welding the C's to the tubes.
That's when a lightbulb came on. To my amazement...this thing was a full two inches short! 2-1/8" to be exact. So I compared the long-side shaft that came with the axle....to a stock GM long-side shaft and this revealed the gravity of the situation...
Crap. The long-side tube is too short for use in an H3. At first...I wrote it off. I either had to re-tube it with a longer tube, or sell it for use in a Scout, Bronco, CJ, or Sammy. But then I had a revelation. What if I could make the tube longer? So I thought about it, and went to work. First I trimmed off my beautiful previous fix of the saw cut....about two inches. That way I got good virgin tube to work with...
Next I cut a piece of .500" wall DOM axle tube, put it in a lathe and turned a 1.5" sleeve into one end of it. This sleeve will get driven into the original tube and align the new tube to the same ID...
continued next post....
This is a half-finished hi-pinion Dana 44 that was started by someone in California. It is unique in that it is a passenger-side drop, perfect for a SAS in an H3. There is no such thing as a passenger-side drop, high-pinion D44...so you have to make one. I've built several of these and they are not easy. You have to really want a high-pinion to go to this extreme. So the story goes that this is a "full width" Dana 44 (a term I find irritating since every make/model truck has a different "width"). The inner C's have been removed, and the pumpkin has been re-tubed with the long tube on the drivers-side. It came with shafts, GM knuckles, and a few other odds & ends. It has a 5.13, open-diff, that is completely set-up with all new bearings & seals. My task is to make this thing "H3-ready".
I started by setting it up on my bench, and taking a closer look. The set-up looks good. The re-tube looks okay. But the guy that chopped the inner-C's off went a tad crazy with the sawzall!!! He damn near cut completely thru the tube on the long side. I stuck a rule in the groove to show you just how deep the cut was. Not good...
So applying my "anything can be fixed" attitude...I attacked the cut line with an angle grinder. I cut a deep "V" into the slot and then filled it with weld...
Nice. Then I hit it with a grinder disc...and finished it with a flapper wheel. TA-DAH! Good as new. So I went about with the rest of the assembly...put it on the bench...set the pinion and caster angles...pounded the C's into place. Everything was just peachy. For the helluvit...I grabbed a tape to check the ball-joint hole spacing on top & bottom against another GM housing. This was just a double check to make sure all was right before welding the C's to the tubes.
That's when a lightbulb came on. To my amazement...this thing was a full two inches short! 2-1/8" to be exact. So I compared the long-side shaft that came with the axle....to a stock GM long-side shaft and this revealed the gravity of the situation...
Crap. The long-side tube is too short for use in an H3. At first...I wrote it off. I either had to re-tube it with a longer tube, or sell it for use in a Scout, Bronco, CJ, or Sammy. But then I had a revelation. What if I could make the tube longer? So I thought about it, and went to work. First I trimmed off my beautiful previous fix of the saw cut....about two inches. That way I got good virgin tube to work with...
Next I cut a piece of .500" wall DOM axle tube, put it in a lathe and turned a 1.5" sleeve into one end of it. This sleeve will get driven into the original tube and align the new tube to the same ID...
continued next post....
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