The Dana 44

Ryan and I both have a D44 front end. Both with 4.10 gears, ryan is open, and i am locked. Both have new ball joints and new drive joints. They are just great for a 4x4 enthusiast who doesn't plan on running it extremely hard. On the last trip to the Mt. both front ends were broken in a mild play day in the snow.

Ryan runs really hard, he also towed a full size rig up a steep incline in deep snow a few times, he sheared the spider gears, ring, and pinion, and also broke a drive joint.

















The front end left the ground, everything was fine for about 30' until i turned, I destroyed my drive joints and axles.











The solution to the broken spider gears is easy, a locker, but the locker is stronger than stock drive joints and axles. So you must upgrade to chromoly, or CTM or equivalent drive joints. This is very expensive, at which point the decision has been made to scrap the whole thing and upgrade to a Dana 60.