The 1978 Jeep Wagoneer front Dana 44 axle that I am using is a very good choice for a upgrade in the front. For starters its almost 50% bigger than the Dana 30, which came stock with most jeeps i.e.. CJ's & YJ's, and not just in length, which to some will be another problem, but also in the ring gear size and axle shaft diameter and also the axle shaft u-joints are bigger.

But in my upgrade my biggest problem was the lug nuts, the Dana 60 I have for the rear came stock with 5 on 5 and half bolt pattern. How you may ask? Because it came out of a 1970-1973 Jeep half ton truck (it was only a heavy duty option for those three years) and is a semi-floating axle. Meaning it is like a AMC 20 with one piece axle shafts, but way bigger. Anyways, I needed to convert that front D44 to 5 on 5 and half bolt pattern.

And to do that there are several ways to go about this.

1st

You can order the Warn outer axle shafts for a Dana 30, PN# 39105 for $99.95 a side from Four Wheel Drive Hardware, about the cheapest I could find, and use the D30 spindle, wheel bearing hub, rotor, and locking hub. You can still use the D44 calipers & caliper mounting brackets. But you will be running the whimpy D30 locking hubs, which I particularly don't like, especially with a V-8 and a Detroit Locker. Have seen to many of them explode, and while I have spares, I just don't feel like changing them all that often.

2nd

Use some Scout D44 outer axle shafts, they use the larger 297x u-joint, and will also work with all the D30 above mentioned items. Problem with this, try and find some of those just lying around.

3rd

To piece something together from junkyard parts!  For this you will need Chevy spindles (a spindle with 6 mounting holes and the small inner bearing surface), and in addition to those you can use some 1958-77 (Dana 44-5F) Chevy 1/2 ton front spindles (Blazer, 1500, GMC trucks also), 1974-1976 Jeep Wagoneer/J-Series spindles, and any 10 Bolt/Wagoneer spindle that has the larger inner bearing and just take it with the NEW Ford inner bearing to a machine shop and they can mill it down for that bearing for about $40 for both spindles.  These spindles have the correct 6 bolts to hold it on to the knuckle (Ford spindles use 5 bolts to hold them on to the knuckle).  Then use a Ford wheel bearing hub & manual locking hubs. Ford has 5 on 5 1/2 bolt pattern, uses the same bearings as Chevy's (they are 6 lug), and use the Ford rotors ($21 for '79 F150 rotors).  Another way to go is to use some mid 1970's Dodge 1/2 ton truck assemblies, roughly the same the years as the Jeep.  With the Dodge's you can also get the flat top steering knuckle plus all these parts to convert to 5 lug, since Dodge shares the same bolt pattern.  With this option you get the internal spline hubs, which are stronger than those stock D30's.  I found you can use any manual lock out set-up (1971-79 Bronco- F150- D44-1F, 70-76 F100- D44-7F, 59-68 F-100 d44 & D44-7F) from a half ton Ford, F-100, F-150, Bronco.  Just take the Chevy spindle with you and make sure the bearings go on.

Below is a list of the years of the spindle and knuckle you’ll need for a Chevy disk conversion to run Ford hubs on it. Do note all the different knuckles!

Here is the Chevy spindle on the Jeep Wagoneer knuckle, and also the Ford hub assembly. I had taken the hubs apart to clean and re-grease them. Boy don't those new rotors look nice. $21 at Advanced Auto (thanks Jackie & Dan)

And above you see the completed project, with the original Jeep Wagoneer calipers, they are actually a GM caliper, but I found if you ask for the Wagoneer calipers they are a few bucks less.

For brake lines I am running my stock CJ steel braided lines, but I had to drill out the hole for the banjo bolt. Where the bolt goes through it should be a piece of brass, you can just drill that hole to fit the banjo bolt from the Wagoneer caliper. Another option I found was to use some 1980 or newer Wagoneer calipers, these have the CJ size banjo bolts. In the future I will be using some extremely extended rubber lines that you can get at , they are like 33" long, might be a little long for most people but I don't want the lines holding me back. They are like $38 and the part number is 38286, THANK YOU JEEPN!!

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