Early Dana 44 questions

[dehudso]

Well, I was home last weekend, and I am most positive that I have an 3.07 ratio early dana 44 under the rear of my hudson:
http://home.comcast.net/~dehudso/rearend.jpg

My question now is this. Anyone out there running one of these rearends, and are you using a limited slip of some type?

I found this website:
http://www.drivetrain.com/dana44.html

But I am unsure as to what spline my axles are. 19, 27, 30? I am leaning towards a powertrax setup, so I can avoid any headaches with axles, and old weak spider and side gears.

Any advice?

[Cadillacin Marcus]

I run a 44 in my 60 GMC it has a 3.92: ratio center section with the factory locker.I believe my axles are the 27 splines.They have two center sections one works with 3.92: and numerically higher gears and the other under 3.92:1 gears.didnt know if you knew that..I broke my axle in my 60 with the stock 305 V6 i replaced it..but want to go with some stronger axles.They are workhorse rear ends..I'm sure mine broke from the 34 years of prior abuse and non maitenance.In my experience with these rear ends like in 4x4 and such is that they can take the abuse and will hold up under normal hot rodding.Unless you plan on drag racing on a regular basis the stock rear end will work fine,I have heard some bad things about the power trax I was told they were junk....??? I bought one and my rear axle guy said no,return it..And we went with the factory locker unit.I hope this helped some...

[Cadillacin Marcus]

oh and yes thats a 3.07 ratio and the trac-loc Dana/Spicer is the name of the posi you want to run...

[dehudso]

I was unsure about the options with different axle splines in these rearends. The way I understood was that the Trac-Loc is/was a ford part and is pretty strong. Thanks for the help, now I will be able to put some power to the ground. Any other advice?

[RileyRacing]

This is a dumb answer, but check the early Jeep sites. Alot of the early CJ's came with 44's. try asking at earlycj5.com or one of those sites. Someone there has GOT to know. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Jay

[dehudso]

Cool deal. Will give a try.

[Cadillacin Marcus]

Trac Loc is not Ford..is just a brand that make a posi unit for the Danas..I believe though that Trac Loc is actually a Dana Spicer brand in this case...I can't remember..Advice if you tear into this rear end replace all the bearings and do the job right..Its better to let a professional shop set up the gears unless you have all the tools to check back lash etc...You want it to be installed correctly otherwise you will have problems really soon.

[dehudso]

Thanks for the info about the Trac Loc. My best friend works in a rearend shop, so I should be able to have it done correctly. BTW, looking through the earlycj5 website, I am starting to think that I have 19 spline axles. They should be stout enough for what I want to get out of this car.

I have already broken the other style hudson rearend(nine inch style). I think this Dana, with it's 8.5" ring gear will hold up, especially once I get some new components in it.

[Cadillacin Marcus]

You should be cool..You can get axles from a wrecking yard that are 27 or 30 spline if you want to beef it up some..Or you can get strange Axles but those arent cheap..Thats great that a friend has a rear end shop,I had a friend who owned one also.Keep us posted on the build up/conversion..

[Rocky]

I gotta buddy that usta run a 54 hudson jet with a 302, 4 speed chevy in it. He bolted in a big ol' hornet dana 44 with a 4.10 posi and never broke it. He ran it at PIR [Portland international raceway] back in the 70's.

[dehudso]

Yeah, those 308's will pull and pull forever. They have torque all over the place. I bet a 308 in a jet, along with a 4 gear and a 4.10 was all kinds of fun.

Here is a little webpage with some pics of the car as it was last weekend:
Http://home.comcast.net/~dehudso/hudson.htm