school me on a zj 44a rear?

Slightly more desirable than a Dana35.

the "a" stands for Aluminum. the Housing is Aluminum and is fine and dandy for Buffy the Soccer Mom, but not that strong for taking a beating off road.
 
Aluminum has half the strength of steel, but the housing isn't that much bigger than a regular dana 44. They eat carrier bearings, but the shafts and ring&pinion hold up ok.
 
If you have it, and you don't have the money to go another direction it can be made to work. It would be nice to have the 60s or hi-9s or whatever the flavor of the week on Pirate is but you can make due... What is your situation? Can you afford to wait? Is money or upgrading not a serious issue? There are far better options like others have listed but you can make that housing work with a truss tied into the covered etc. to eliminate most of the problems listed.
 
FWIW, I think the D44a holds up fine for moderate wheeling use. Obviously it's not a great candidate to swap into another rig that needs some beef, but when used in the general OEM design parameters it works. I beat mine pretty good this past year at Uwharrie and Harlan and its held up so far. It's welded with 33x12.50 Swampers. I drive it daily and for moderate trail use, 185k miles, was treated pretty rough before I got it, so far so good. I sure wouldn't be in a hurry to swap it out. Just my experience, yours may differ :).
 
cool deal

yeah i have a rear 60 for a swap but don't have the funds to do the 4 link mounts right now, but in the future would like front and rear 60's.but do understand that the aluminum is weaker than the steal,but when trussed it would help.thanks for the info.
 
If you already have the 44a (also referred to as 44hd), I say truss it, put a skid under it (the aluminum likes to stay behind when drug over rocks), and it can easily handle 33s. The worst thing about them is they do not have much in the way of after market support. As of right now, they only locker available for them is Aussie, and they are not cheap.
 
I've even seen guys rocking them locked and trussed with 35's...The Aussies are about $400 which makes it one of the most expensive lunchbox lockers. The 44a is a good axle that (IMO) is stronger than most people give it credit for. I agree with BigClay & JC, truss, skid, lock it & run it!
 
Back
Top