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Help me with YJ & Wagoneer Axle Track Width?
      #255701 - 01/19/02 01:48 AM

First off I want to say how great everyone is for all the advice and information given here. I have a 1988 Jeep YJ I have swapped in a AX-15, now I’m looking to do a Grand Wagoneer Axle swap (Dana 44’s front & rear) & I think I have all the information I need to get in trouble. The only Information I can’t seem to find is, what are the stock track widths for a YJ & the Grand Wagoneer? I’m just trying to get an idea what the difference will be.
I have also seen somewhere that there are two different track widths for the GW and some have a central axle disconnect is this true?
I want to thank everyone for the help


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Anonymous
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Re: Help me with YJ & Wagoneer Axle Track Width?
      #255702 - 01/19/02 01:41 PM

I've done this swap a couple times now. The track widths are close enough, so go for it!

There was a slight difference in width between '80 and later and '79 and older, but the big thing there is that you need axles from '80 and newer becuase the front diff on these will be on the driver's side and the rear diff will be centered. There were some wide track FSJs in the '70s and the J-trucks were all wide. The '80 and up J-trucks are pretty rare, but these axles would be the ticket if you wanted to build a YJ that was wider than stock.

The vaccum disconnects were mostly in the early '80s, and they weren't in the long side tube like on a YJ or XJ. The vaccum disconnects were built into the diff on the driver's side. They are pretty easy to tell becuase the diff cover looks different from a regular Dana 44.

The front spring perches will need to be moved in by about 1/2" on each side. The passenger side is easy because you can cut off thee perch and reweld it. For the driver's side you'll need to weld the old spring centering pin hole shut (hint - drop a stub of a bolt in the hole and weld it to the casting rather than try to fill the entire hole with weld) and drill a new one, as well as do some grinding to make the U-bolts fit.

The rear is even easier, just move the spring perches.

The brake lines will all hook up. You'll want to go to the Wagoneer steering linkages. This means you'll need to put on a Wagoneer pitman arm and probably shorten the Wagoneer drag link. I'm usually working with high steer arms, so I don't know exactly how it will work if you are going spring under - except that it's easy to shorten the Wag steering pieces. The threads on the drag link are 7/8" fine thread, you can get a die from sears if you need cut it and re-thread. I've also gotten by with just cutting 1/2" from each part of the drag link and each end of the adjuster. If you go with high steer arms you'll need to shorten the tie rod too, same deal though, cut some off, grind it to size and use a 7/8" die to thread it.

If you aren't changing lift height, you'll normally need to shorten the rear drive shaft. Sometimes the front comes out pretty close, but usually it's a little off and ends up getting changed.

Let me know if you have any other questions about this swap.

You might want to check out this http://www.outdoorwire.com/4x4/jeep/projects/yjtransformation/ article too. It's a YJ with a Grand Wagoneer Dana 44 rear, and an F250 high pinion 44 front that was shortened to Grand Wagoneer width.

[ 19 January 2002: Message edited by: Nutter ]

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Anonymous
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Re: Help me with YJ & Wagoneer Axle Track Width?
      #255703 - 01/19/02 04:59 PM

Nutter
Is the GW Axles Spring Over or Under? I am planning on doing a Spring Over Conversion. Also what are high steer arms?
Thanks for the Help


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Anonymous
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Re: Help me with YJ & Wagoneer Axle Track Width?
      #255704 - 01/19/02 06:12 PM

The Wag front is spring under and the rear is spring over. You can easily weld a spring perch onto the diff casting on the front to make it spring over though. Very little difficulty is added by this, especially considering that you'll be moving all the other perches anyways. Another good option is to get your hands on an older F250 high pinion Dana 44 and shorten it to take the Wag shafts like we did for Brian's Jeep. The F250 front is already spring over, but you still need to move the spring centering bolt hole in the casting and do some grinding to really make the U-bolts fit right. The effort is well worth it though.

Take a look at this for info on the high steering arms http://www.outdoorwire.com/4x4/jeep/tech/steer/SOA/

I really reccomend you go with high steering arms for a spring over. Also, check out the ladder bar in the first article I mentioned. You really need something like this to help stop axle wrap when using YJ springs. While I'm thinking about springs, aftermarket springs are a good idea when going SOA. The 2" lift springs for a YJ from BDS are the best I've seen for a spring over Jeep, and they are cheap. Rubicon Express sells some similar springs, I don't know their prices though.

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Anonymous
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Re: Help me with YJ & Wagoneer Axle Track Width?
      #255705 - 01/21/02 12:55 AM

I did this exact swap myself. You can see my articles in the tech section here:

http://www.rightcoastcrawler.com/LloydC/Jeep.html

but in response to your question regarding TRACK width, I'd say the waggy axles are basically about 2 inches wider than stock. The spring perches are 1 inch wider, so you have to move each one in 1/2 inch (on the front, on the rear just cut em off and reweld them where appropriate), which I did in a slightly different manner than the ones noted in the above articles. But the axle itself is wider, so it will have a wider track width, all other things equal. The difference is minimal, though, but if it really matters to you I don't see any reason why you couldn't make it up with different offset wheels if you really wanted to, but personally I don't think the difference is going to be that noticable.

Chad

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Re: Help me with YJ & Wagoneer Axle Track Width?
      #255706 - 01/21/02 06:09 PM

Chad
I love the look of your Jeep. That is the look and mod’s I’m looking at for my Jeep. This weekend I was digging through my old 4Wheel Drive Mag’s (My Wife asks “why do you need to save these magazines back to 1984” This is why. I know I’m not the only one) and I saw in 1997 Four-wheeler they had an axle swap with a spring over conversion in a YJ. They talked about the using the GW axles but they suggested using a Dana 44 front from a Blazer because the springs were on top to begin with and this made it a lot easier with the spring perches in the cast housing but did not say anything about cutting them down. Nutter also mentioned this by using a F-250 Axle and cutting it down. This made a lot of sense to me but it looks like to me that cutting down the axle is a whole lot more work than just using a GW axle and moving spring perches to the top. Are Blazer axles wider than a GW? So would they need to be cut down?

One other question. I have used a 110 Volt Mig Welder and it does most anything I need, but for welding up these axles will I need a 220 Volt Mig or a Stick Welder? Or will the 110 be fine.

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Re: Help me with YJ & Wagoneer Axle Track Width?
      #255707 - 01/21/02 07:20 PM

Sorry to be asking all these questions.
My jeep will very seldom see the highway and it is not a daily driver so on road handling is not a big deal to me. I know GW’s do not come with track bars and I have seen comments made about making the brackets for the track bars on the GW axles. Would it be a big deal to just leave them off the axle and not worry about it? I know my CJ-7 was a little squirrelly and it didn’t have them and jeep added them for better handling on the YJ but should I keep them on my axle swap? Also do you keep the pinion angle the same as the GW or should I adjust the angle on the rear to have the yoke point at the transfer case?
Thanks

[ 21 January 2002: Message edited by: Moabs_My_Life ]

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Anonymous
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Re: Help me with YJ & Wagoneer Axle Track Width?
      #255708 - 01/21/02 10:14 PM

Well... The Blazer axle has the differential on the passenger side, so that's out. The YJ on the magazine may have swapped to a Dana 300.

The F250 axle isn't that bad to cut down. If you've got a chop saw, a welder and a cheap angle finder you can do the job in a couple of hours. You're going to end up doing some grinding and welding on the Wagoneer axle too. To me, the real question is whether or not you want the high pinion on the F250 axle.

I've done a lot of welding with my Brother in Law's older Hobart handler 135 wire feed with gas. It's great for things like spring perches or anything else that you'd attach to the axle tubes. Most of the welding on Brian's YJ project was done with this welder. For the really heavy stuff I used to get out my 225 amp stick welder, but now I've got a Millermatic 210 to do the heavy mild steel jobs. Anyways, a good quality 110V wire feed with the capability if getting into the 135 to 150 amp range should be enough welder for you to perform a spring over. If you decide to go for a second welder, the 220V stick is a lot cheaper than a good 220V wire feed and will get the job done on the heavy stuff.

Track bars? I think you already answered your own question...

Pinion angle needs to be adjusted according to the type of driveshaft you are running and the angle of the rear output on the transfer case. If you go with a CV drive shaft, point the pinion 2 degrees down from straight into the driveshaft. If you go with a standard drive shaft make the pinion paralell wiht the t-case output. There's some visuals on pinion angle in this article http://www.outdoorwire.com/4x4/tech/pinionangle/

If you've got more questions, keep asking! It seems like you're going to get this thing done right.

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