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Bye 10-bolt Hello D44 - easy 8 to 6 lug brake swap?

D

DizturbedOne

1/2 ton status
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I've been reading around, but it seems I'm even more confused than when I started. I'm hearing conflicting stories here. My cousin has a flat top D44 from a 3/4 ton out at his mom's house that I can have for FREE (right in my price range). My truck was originally a 400/TH350/203/D44/12-bolt, but someone swapped in a 30 (or 31? I forget now) spline 10-bolt up front along the way. This 10-bolt has got to go, I hate even looking at it, and it clunks in the passenger side axle tube in 4-Lo. I'm not spending a nickel on it with a free D44 sitting there (I already bought brand new hub locks for the damn thing!).

Problem is I have some nice 6 lug alloys with brand new 35" tires on them that I'm not parting with just yet. The guy at my local 4x4 parts store claims I can "just bolt up" my 10-bolt brake stuff from the backing plate outward, and have a six lug D44 without buying anything. I need to know if this is true, and if the whole process will be bolt on as far as steering and everything goes. I have no tools besides hand tools and can't afford a bunch of complications right now (always happens to me). I'll already be spending some change just freshening up the front end and doing my brakes while it's all apart (the truck needs pads) so that would kill me. I'd love to go this route, so I can just keep the 8 lug stuff and put it back on when I put a 14 bolt in the rear when I need new tires.

Any info or insight you guys could give me would be much appreciated.
 
All ya need to do is swap the brake brackets, hubs and rotors,and the calipers.
 
10bolt same strengf as dana 44 strengf:smokin2:

so if ya cant stand the look of yer 10bolt, yer 44 aint gunna look much better.
 
What Duntz00 said with the exception that you "might" need to swap the spindles also. There were 2 different sized inner wheel bearings on the D44 (1st design had a 1.76" inner diameter bearing up to mid 1976 and 2nd design had a 2" inner diameter bearing mid 1976-later including 10 bolt spindles all being 2nd design).
 
You aint gaining nothin by swapping in a D44. IMO a 30 spline 10 bolt is stronger in some respects, like axle shafts, Than a d44
have you even tried to find the noise in the front? It may just be something simple like loose dry bearings or u joint.
 
Guys, I know the strength issues. Its a FREE way to fix my front axle
and have the truck back to stock setup all while being able to sell my
ten bolt and make some change to do my tcase swap.
How can you naysay FREE!? Plus I'll have an 8 lug setup sitting around
for a 14 bolt after. Its all around great If you ask me.
 
Duntz00 said:
All ya need to do is swap the brake brackets, hubs and rotors,and the calipers.
Click to expand...

Not so fast, he will need to swap the spindles and stub shafts for everything to work properly. This would be a good time to put new u-joints into the axle shafts while you have everything apart as well.

In the end you should be running the D44 knuckles, axle housing, gears, and inner axle shafts. Then use the 10 bolt stub shafts, brake backing plates, spindles, hub/rotor, lockouts, and etc.
 
Why do I have to change the spindles and stub shafts?

I'm pretty sure it's a later model D44, so other than bearing size what else is different to require this? I really don't want to swap stub shafts and have 10 bolt stub shafts and hub locks on a D44 axle shaft. I don't like the idea of not being able to just rip an axle out of another matching front if I ever have the need. It's not THAT big of a deal, but what are my other options for not having to replace the stub shaft and hub locks with 10 bolt versions?
 
The later model D44's DO NOT have flat tops. It is possible that someone else has taken an older D44 and swapped to the newer 8 lug setup along the way. In that case you would not need to swap stubs and spindles.

The easiest way to tell which spindle the 8 lug setup uses is the lockout hub design. The older small bearing design used the external lockouts (6 large hex head bolts are used to hold them on). The newer large bearing D44/10 bolts use the internal lockouts with 6 small allen head bolts holding them on.

Note, the small bearing D44 on half tons also used the internal lockouts so they are harder to tell apart other than looking for flat tops.

The main thing you need to do is make sure the stub shafts, spindle and bearing hubs are all from the same style axle.
 
Thanks alot Kenny, I think I know enough to really take a stab at this now. Anything else anybody knows that might help me out is appreciated.

I suppose anything is possible with that front axle, including him being wrong. But he said it's ready for crossover, we'll see. After all his truck had a 14bff rear and they stuffed the D44 under it knowing it would never see 4WD. It was a 75 frame with an 86 body, 1 ton rear, 3/4 ton front, 350 from an RV, frame gussets welded all throughout. ANYTHING could be going on over here. lol. The D44 is all that's left. I'll have to confirm what spindles this 44 is running on and work from there.

If I can't do this without having frankenstein axle shafts, I might just see if I can find someone that needs a blown up six lug 44 hauled away. I guess I'll be a nice guy and help them out if that's the case... lol
 
There is absolutely no reason to swap outers. The outers are all the same between D44 and 10 bolt as long as it's not the really early D44 with the small axle joints in which case you couldn't swap 10 bolt stubs anyhow since there isn't a conversion joint for axle shaft joints.
 
4X4HIGH said:
There is absolutely no reason to swap outers. The outers are all the same between D44 and 10 bolt as long as it's not the really early D44 with the small axle joints in which case you couldn't swap 10 bolt stubs anyhow since there isn't a conversion joint for axle shaft joints.
Click to expand...

Nice. I definitely do not want to swap outers if I don't have to, it just sounds problematic in the long run. I don't mind putting the truck together from all kinds of different parts off different trucks because an entire part is easily identifiable. But when I start having to remember parts of parts... I can see it getting bad 10 years down the road. I don't want to have to take the truck apart first everytime I change something. lol
 
4X4HIGH said:
There is absolutely no reason to swap outers. The outers are all the same between D44 and 10 bolt as long as it's not the really early D44 with the small axle joints in which case you couldn't swap 10 bolt stubs anyhow since there isn't a conversion joint for axle shaft joints.
Click to expand...

His D44 is 8 lug and he wanted 6 lug. There is a difference in the stub shafts on the external hub 8 lug setup vs the newer large bearing axles. Something like 3/8 or 1/2 in length different.
 
He has never said which locking hub style he has and IF there is a difference between them i wasn't aware of that. :dunno:
 
Warn lists the same hub locks (the same ones I bought for my 10 bolt, woohoo!) for BOTH axles unless it is pre-76 like someone had already stated. I take this to mean that I will ONLY have to swap stubs (and hub locks) if I find the axle is pre-76. My cousin said it was flat-top so I think it might be, bummer. At this point I would rather find that it wasn't a newer one, and have the knuckle milled later when I'm dropping a bunch of money into crossover anyways.

Sound correct to you guys? I'm not that familiar with any of this truck stuff, but am learning something new every minute.

Edit: Almost forgot, the hubs I have are Warn 20990's.
 
I can tell you that my previous 1976 blazer had internal locking hubs and small bearing spindles and it was a 100% original axle to the truck.

Just remember that D44 and 10 bolt inner axles ARE DIFFERENT and will not interchange. If the D44 you have uses external locking hubs and IF the stub axles are different like kennyw says then you'll have to swap the complete axle assemblies with axles from a later year D44.
 
If it helps at all, I happen to know his axle has the big Selectro hub locks on them. The ones that look like a giant knurled handle from the 70's. I remember them well because we were laughing about them being all trashed looking on his nice truck.

Maybe you having the old style means the cutoff date is actually the last year of the run, not the first year of the new one. Good to know either way. I also happen to know from Camaro experience with Chevy that older parts get used on newer runs all the time though, lol.

So far it looks like I'll have to go check out the axle myself and just hope it's a later model like my 10 bolt. Otherwise I think I'll just hunt down the problem in my ten bolt if I have to swap stub shafts. I think that would suck for getting shafts to keep in the truck for the trail all the time. I'd really like to just do this with nothing but elbow grease, and I like the idea of the truck going back to D44 like stock.
 
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