need to turn knuckels on front 44

[XJHERO]

I have a waggy front Dana 44 for the front of my xj, i think i need to turn the inner c knuckles back a few degrees before i put the TNT truss on. Its a low pinion and i run around six inches of lift might add a bit more lift but not much.
Is  this a job you can do with out mocking up the front end, just grind them off and turn them back 10to 15 deg and burn them on??
If you can do it with out mocking up the front end is there any one on here that can do it for me?? I would and will do it but my time home is limited since i started working in BC.

any input would be greatly appreciated
thanks marry Xmas

[FiEND]

have to cut through, not grind off the weld.  once the C is off, then can grind the extra weld off.  i did it with my front diff when i put the new inner C's on.  i need to look back at my pics to refresh my memory though.  it was easy enough to do.  just had to go slowly.

the truss and brackets can go on after you get your pinion and caster angles worked out and welded up.

[raf2379]

I'll be doing the same thing on my front 44. if your careful you can cut around the weld with a cutting disc and then press or hammer the inner C off.

as for setting you caster 5-7*deg (i think thats the spec for XJ's) you will have to mock up the axle so that you know at what angle your pinion will be pointing at to your transfercase at yout lift height. your dont have to mock it up with control arms, just put it on couple jack stands, or meassure the pinion angle with your current setup if you will be using the same lift. use a dowel throught the balljoint hole on the 44 and attach an agle finder to set your caster properly.

you can see in this link how he cut the welds, in some he cut up the inner C, but in other pics he only cut the welds and hammered the C off. also shows how he set up his castor angle.
http://www.pirate4x4.com/tech/billavista/Hybrid_Axle/HybridAxle.htm

[Gearhead]

If it was me doing it , I'd use an arc air torch to burn the welds out of there , you can do some amazing things with an arc air , clean , precise  , beautiful ,   in the hands of a competant operator .

Mocking it up to verify all angles before final welding makes a whole lotta sense to me too , yup , I'm kinda picky about how crap gets done , prefering the ,  do it once , do it right and forgetaboutit approach .

[Bnine]

I have a good gauge for setting the caster and camber on knuckle Nate. Talk to me when you are ready.

Dont over due the caster. 5-7 degrees at your expected pinion angle. I dont expect you would have to rotate more then 5-10 degrees to get there.

[XJHERO]

Thanx for tips guys. So it sounds like I need to mark original location,  get the knuckles off, mock up truss and brackets set pinion angel and burn all that crap on. What did I miss??

[cLAY]

Set your pinion angle, rotate your knuckles for your caster and weld them on, then worry about the truss. When I did mine I didn't take the knuckles right off, just rotated them after I cut thru the weld while still on the tube. Heating the knuckles with oxy/actelnye torch helped get them to rotate.

Check where the tube goes into the center housing. Have seen D44s rotate the tubes on the center housing, might want to consider running a weld around there as well.

[4PLAYZJ]

When I did my waggy 44  I just ground the welds and rotated the c's. The weld were pretty thin.   Then I set up the diff on jack stands and mocked the pinion angle at 8 deg. I had the ball joints out and setup a piece of pipe that ran through the centre line  of the two joints on the c  and used an angle guage.  It was hard to get the c angles and I ended up with my caster spread backwards(higher on the left side).  Remember caster spread is very specific, 0.5 deg. makes a difference.  So when you do the ball joints install and adjustable upper ball joint kit so if your caster is not perfect it can be aligned out when you get an alignment.

If you need a hand when you do it let me know I can stop by.

[Bnine]

When I did my waggy 44  I just ground the welds and rotated the c's. The weld were pretty thin.   Then I set up the diff on jack stands and mocked the pinion angle at 8 deg. I had the ball joints out and setup a piece of pipe that ran through the centre line  of the two joints on the c  and used an angle guage.  It was hard to get the c angles and I ended up with my caster spread backwards(higher on the left side).  Remember caster spread is very specific, 0.5 deg. makes a difference.  So when you do the ball joints install and adjustable upper ball joint kit so if your caster is not perfect it can be aligned out when you get an alignment.

If you need a hand when you do it let me know I can stop by.

Just a reminder that if you can avoid having to use adjustables, it will allow for the use of external axle seals down the road. Once you use adjustables, it usually off centers the shaft to much to get those seals in the tube.

[4PLAYZJ]

Just a reminder that if you can avoid having to use adjustables, it will allow for the use of external axle seals down the road. Once you use adjustables, it usually off centers the shaft to much to get those seals in the tube.

Are external axle seals available for the wagoneer 44?  If so who sells them?

[XJHERO]

Thanx guys I'll be bugging some of you when I'm back in town.

[Bnine]

The universal ones from these guys will do the trick

http://www.sealsit.com/