OK, here's where people are going to jump into their silos. and launch their mortars from their entrenched positions. But let's be real for just a minute, and deal with facts instead of emotion.
1. The Ford 9 inch is without question, the most over-rated, under performing, worthless pile of excrement to ever get near the rear of a pickup truck. The fact that Hot Rodder's, race drivers, and Frank Currie believe otherwise is irrelevant. The 9 inch is just a pile of junk, and has never been worthy of off road use.
2. The Dana 44 is the second most over-rated, under performing, worthless pile of excrement to ever get near the front of a pickup truck. (Dana 30 being #1) The fact is that the entire off road community, Jeep / IH / Ford / GM and Dodge are all wrong. Nobody builds a 44 on purpose, and nobody who ever built a 44 didn't actually need something better.
3. The Dana 60 front axle is the finest front drive axle ever installed under a pickup truck between 1973 to 1998. After that, it received unit bearings and became garbage.
The GM Corporate 14 bolt is the best rear drive axle ever installed in a pickup truck. And the M1008 CUCV with factory Detroit locker is the undisputed king of them all.
And yes, absolutely 100% 8 lug. No serious person runs a junkyard 5 lug anything. Only possible thing that's worse is a 6 lug.
I am talking about 100% factory, not-upgraded, not modified, not touched. Zero aftermarket dollars. Junkyard axles. Burn them out of the donor with a torch, and weld them into your project. No, you may not remove the cover. OR change the oil. Set it, and forget it.
As soon as you are willing to dump cash into upgrades, then the world flips on it's head...and the Ford 9 inch suddenly becomes the rear axle of preference. The Dana 44 starts to look promising. BUT you MUST spend AFTERMARKET money.
The locking differential is probably the single greatest contribution to the destruction of the Dana 44 on the planet. The FIRST thing that most people do is probably the 3rd or 4th thing that they should do. The First thing you should do to your Dana 44 front axle with a locker is to plug the front disc brake hoses, (or re-install some manual drum brakes) and set the steering stops to max of 15 degrees of steering. The thing that makes the Early Bronco so awesome off road is the ability to turn the steering wheel. Millions of old Jeep Dana 25's survived simply because the leaf springs were so close to the tires that you couldn't actually steer them. Bad news, you have to make a 10 point turn to get anywhere. Good news...you rarely snapped an axle u-joint. The worst possible thing you can do to a Hooke's type universal joint (you call them Spicer, or Cardan) is to actually steer them. You can prove this to yourself with a socket extension and universal joint from your tool box. Just angle the joint from 0 degrees to 90 degrees, and tell me how well it transmits torque. THIS is the greatest problem with the RCV upgrade in a D44. Did you ever wonder why your front axle inner shafts are 1.31-30 spline from the pumpkin to the knuckle...but then the outer stubs neck down to 1.09 diameter and 19 spline? It's because of steering, and at full lock, that little stub is vastly stronger than the u-joint can handle. Straight ahead...the u-joint wins every time. As soon as you steer it...the joint just can't keep up.
So why install a Rzeppa CV joint into a 44? Is that a good compromise? Well...No. Actually, yes...it's a fantastic upgrade, and is the first upgrade you should do. BUT it is so expensive, and it moves the failure point right back to that 1.09 inch stub. So Yes, but No. If you install an RCV Rzeppa CV bell, you are foolish not to install 30 spline outers. But now you are spending $2K to move the failure point from the Spicer 760x joint to the INNER 30 spline axle shaft. Which makes you realize that it costs about the same to run 35 spline inners. And big bell RCV's, and 35 spline outers. And now the 8.5 inch ring gear and with the ARB RD06 / RD166 The ring gear is now the fuse.
So this is WHY there are two totally different camps of "what size of axle do i need to run 35 inch tires?" The answer is 1.5 inch, 35 spline. And at least 5-332x stubs, if you plan to steer it.
Notice that the answer was not Fabricated housing, or anything that remotely looks like a 9 inch in the front. Because of #1 above. There is not, will not be, and has never been a decent selectable locker for a 9 inch. You just can't get there from here. Run a Spool, and the 9 inch is king. Run a Detroit, and the 9 inch is OK. Anything else, and the 9 inch is junk. The ONLY reason to run a 9 inch or a fabbed housing up front is because it's easy to weld. That's it. You can MIG weld to carbon steel. So you fab a housing. With the advent of the Currie 60, or the Pro-Rock 60 or the TeraFlex, the ground clearance issue is moot. Putting a low pinion 9 inch carrier in the front end is just silly. Tru-Hi 9 is a reasonable engineering compromise, and I approve. BUT only if you run 35 spline, and a Detroit, and you don't care about street manners. There is almost nothing a 9 inch high pinion can do that a HP 60 won't also do. Granted the 9 inch weighs less. And again, if you run 35 spline shafts, then you NEED 35 spline stubs, and big bell RCV's.
That being said, I would 100% install a fresh set of RCV's into your front 44, and run the 19 spline outers. Then wait until you puke out your ring gear before I built a nice D60.
No matter what you do, you should have a plan. I wish I had gone 8 lug. But Alas, I'm still 5 lug.
