Good axle deal or no? And front mini spool question...

[Lotsa_Faith]

OK I have a chance to buy a dana 44 front w/4.56's and a mini spool with a matching 14 bolt out of a CUCV with the Detroit in it for $900. I've been out of the 4 Wheel Drive game for a while, this is a pretty good deal for these two correct?

Also, how much harder does the mini spool make it to steer when the hubs are locked? Sometimes when cruising around the ranch I like to drive in 2wd, but with the front hubs locked in case I get into trouble quick. Would this have a big wear and tear effect with the mini spool? Looking to run about 37's or so, no big time rock crawling or mud racing, mostly just messing around through a few holes every once in a while.

 

[cegusman]

I had installed a mini spool in a dana 44 once. Was running 36" sx. First trip out in the mud broke both shafts while trying to turn within 15 minutes. Turning was horrible. Some say to just unlock one hub, that's fine if you want to fight your truck from pulling to the side that the hub is locked. In the end I went back to an open diff until I could find a dana 60.

 

[blazinzuk]

900 i bet if you looked around you could find some axles out of military one ton for that 4.56s and a detroit

 

[4X4HIGH]

With 37's and a traction device in a D44 = lots of broken axle shafts and VERY hard to steer.

 

[Lotsa_Faith]

Yea but I coudl either wait till it breaks then replace with open diff and new shafts, or even if I wanted to take out the spool I would just need some stock spider gears correct?

I'm thinking I will offer the guy $650 for them, the d44 is actually TWO axles, one is the housing with the knuckles and the 4.56 gears and spool, and the other d44 has the shaft and all the outers but is 3.73, so I would have to swap them over to the other axle.