Dana 44 Internal or external hubs?

[K588]

I have a '74 3/4T Dana 44 that had the drive flanges on it I want to put Warn premium locking hubs on it. It currently has the external style hubs should I leave these or swap out for the later internal syle? I do have a set of the hubs off I believe a 8 lug 10B, but dont know if I still have the spindles etc. or are they the same? The outside dimension of the inner bearing looked bigger on the external D44 hubs which leads me to believe the spindles and maybe outer axle shafts are different. I dont beat this truck hard it only has 285 BFG AT's on it mostly sees some mild trails and highway. Thanks in advance.

 

[thatK30guy]

I'd leave the stuff alone and install the Warns.

But if you decide to swap, you will need to swap over the spindles and bearing hubs/rotors. Both are different from the old and new.

If you have the caliper backing plates from the newer stuff, you should consider swapping that over, too. 10b and D44 calipers are slightly different and using a 10b caliper will see the need to grind off a little tab that protrudes from the side. Not doing so will hit the backing plate and the caliper won't go on all the way.
This choice is optional. You can either grind or swap the backing plates out.

Otherwise for the type of driving you described, I'd just swap the lockouts in and call it done.

 

[K588]

Sounds good, Thanks for the quick reply, I'll stick with the externals, just didnt want to make a stupid mistake of not doing it right the first time. I hadnt bought the bearings or locking hubs yet. The guy at the machine shop wanted me to remount the bearing hubs when he resurfaced the rotors so I wanted to make sure I put the ones I was going to use on.