solid axle for isuzu rodeo?

quickdraw87 said:
After pricing all the parts out and comparing quality, i believe i'm going to go with a 90's model Jeep Cherokee. Time to sell the isuzu and find a cherokee in the 2000 dolla range.
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That's an interesting bent on your "situation". Im curious what measures of quality and prices you compared here. I basically know very little specific "rodeo" tech, but just what I have learned from this thread has taught me enough NOT to make that decision. A Jeep of any kind, much less an xj, is going to cost you more in the long run. Aftermarket support is there, but those front link suspensions get spendy in a hurry when you go to buying up long arms and nice track bars, then your still working with a link "type " suspension that leaves a lot to be desired IMO. basically a glorified radius arm setup. Then your still working with some of the worst factory axles out there, early 90's =d35 rear=boom. So now your still looking to upgrade axles, to what comes stock in your rodeo now! Think about how exited Rubicon owners are to say they have dana 44s , hell your half way home now. There is also always some value assigned to knowing what you have. You have likely done maintenance on your current rig and know where it stands, when you sell it that maintenance is taken as a loss by you. You will then have to spend money working the mechanical bugs out of your newly purchased xj before you get to spend money modifying it. Im not knocking jeeps or xjs, I've been down that painful road plenty of times myself, just shedding some realism on this thread. Sounds like you have a solid platform to build from now, id stick with it. Don't be intimidated by doing an SAS they're not that bad. Pick your poison, waggy 44 or toy front, and go for it! A nice swap can be done w either, and you'd end up doing the same thing to whatever else you might buy. I will cast my vote for a Toyota front in this case, and there are lots of reasons why. You can find some 4:30 toy thirds for sale from time to time and that should be pretty decent gearing to get you started on 33's. Id be willing to bet that the front output on your tcase uses a flange that could be drilled to Toyota pattern so you could run a toy drive shaft. I read somewhere that the rodeo 44 rears in the later ones use a thicker ring gear and have the same size pinion shaft spline as a dana 60. Id do some more research at least, before you sell. Get on google or pirate4x4 and do some reading/searching there is some tech info on your rig out there. Oh, and not to mention, you'd have a cool unique rig! I mean all this to be words of encouragement , good luck whatever you do.
 
You've got a good thing going with your rodeo don't screw it up and buy a heep!! You'll get years of wheeling out of the rodeo, soon rather than later the Cherokee unibody will fail on you and you'll have to start over.


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The yota axle would be better than/just as good as the d44 for an earlier trooper perhaps, but I don't know how well the width would line up with the rear on those later rodeos. The rear d44's are closer to 59-60" wide, meaning he'd need to run at least 1.5" spacers, and then deal with the scrub radius issues there. A d44 might be more expensive to completely build up, but he'd probably last longer on stock d44 shafts and joints than the stock toyota birfs.

However, without much 4x experience or fab skills, it's probably easiest to switch to the XJ if you NEED a solid axle wheeler. If you don't mind the IFS, then it is really cheap and easy to lift the rodeo, slap on some 33's, and wheel pretty much everywhere a similarly equipped XJ can go.
 
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