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Tracker/dana 44 hybrid (turd polishing) build

Red97

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Jun 5, 2016
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I know I know, it's not a dana 60, or even a dana 44, should be a bit better than sami stuff.

My rig (94 2 door sidekick) has a hybrid tracker center with chromoly sami shafts and outers. Well the housing is tweeked a bit and the kingpins are shot. So instead of building another, I decided to go wild, gain some width, beef, and clearance.


Picked up some scout ii dana 44's. 58ish wide


Trackick shaft left 30 spline d44 right.



Turned down the d44 spiders to fit the trackick carrier. (Middle)


Bored the outer bearing housings, and pressed in an alignment sleeve.

New tube left 3x.300 factory tube right is 2.75x.120. Pic is of the doubled up section


7.5" tracker carrier, with dana 44 shafts, spiders welded directly to the carrier. Think I am going to make a spool for the front and use the factory cross pins.


Tubes and ends, shafts fitted 57.5 wide before brakes.


made the alignment bar pucks.

Got it close, and welded the tubes to the center. cut the "cover" off. plan on making a new one from 1/4" with a ramp profile.


the d44 shaft just fits in the carrier without needing bored.
 
7f5b75832e9cd9f9603972e1cde0042f.jpg
 
I don't care if it's tons or not.. I'm digging all these odd ball little axle builds. Stuff like this is just as cool as those cookie cutter 14 bolt fronts, just smaller ;D
 
Beerj said:
Are the 44 spiders gonna live? There's not much material left there.

Only one way to find out.

The thin part is just to center the shaft in the carrier. Since the spline sticks through the spider, the thin section shouldn't see a ton of stress. The large diameter of the spider still offers more spline engagement than the stock spiders or your average d44 hub. In theory it should work.

When i get around to the front axle, i amp going to make a spool. Plan on turning down the tooth area to line up in the carrier, use a thick wall tube 3X1 bore it to press the spiders into. That way both spiders will be welded to steel, and each other then use the cross pins to hold vs welding to the carrier alone.

As it sits right now i am just using the outer spiders welded to the carrier, so if/when it does break it will take out the carrier.

I figure these should hold up to 35/36 with the moderate wheeling i do. Haven't broken a sami chromo yet... lol

pic of the rig these will be going under.

Will be linking the front with coils and full hydro during the swap.
 
I've read about doing a 9" minispool and resplined f150/Bronco axles cut down to trackick length and I always felt like that'd be cool to do.

That's seems to be an affordable and easier than what you've done but not quite as cool.

Awesome work tho!
 
rednecklights said:
I've read about doing a 9" minispool and resplined f150/Bronco axles cut down to trackick length and I always felt like that'd be cool to do.

That's seems to be an affordable and easier than what you've done but not quite as cool.

Awesome work tho!

Thank you,

If I could have found some eb axles 44/9" I would have went that route. But got these 3 scout axles cheap.

The small bearing 9" is interchangeable with the tracker rear, so it may be possible to modify a mini spool and just swap shafts to fit a stock hoising.

I figure going this route would save me more money vs building the d44's or the toy axles I had.

The money I am saving from the gear/install kits will almost buy chromoly shafts if needed.

The toys were a little too narrow, would have had to run new spacers and buy wheels.

Figure since I have 4 tracker rears with 5.13 this was the best route to go.

I am planning a small top truss and a full backbone on the rear axle.

If anyone has good pic of a fabbed and trussed rear I would appreciate it.
 


Made the cover today, 3"x 1/4 strips.


The filler pieces are 3/16. Can also see where I shaved the bottom.



Used 1/4" for the shave too.

Got an alignment jug set up to stright en it before I weld the truss on.
 
Thoughts? Questions? Concerns?

Never built an axle like this. Would like to hear from some that have. Just want to make sure I'm not overlooking anything.

Thank you
 


Well it is all trussed/plated now.

Have to add a vent hole, new axle bearings/seals and a pinion bearing/seal. Plus figure out what calipers/rotors I want to run.


Figure once I get the brakes on it will be about 40 lbs heavier than stock, should be a bit stronger too.
 


Started on the front spool today.



Warmed it with a torch till just before blue. bored the id .004 undersized for a nice tight shrink fit. Top gear dropped in nice, by the time i got it flipped around it started cooling. Ran it over to the press to finish the job.



Took bout 14 tons to get it the last 1/16" The 12 ton in the pic was after it settled in the last bit.



Compared to stock spiders. Need to get a 15mm bit/ream to do the pin holes.

Once it is installed in the carrier, the center pin will be half/half in the spiders. meaning for them to spin separate, the carrier would have to blow apart. I plan on cutting a groove and welding the "spool" also.



started turning the spider to fit the carrier. Hopefully tomorrow i can get it all fitted, minus the pins.
 




It fits...

Either get the material for 5/8 pins or get 15mm drills. decisions decisions
 
KyTrash said:
I dig it, Very cool :smoke:

Thank you.

I am thinking the spool approach may be stronger than the welded spiders alone.

I did notice the factory cross pins were fairly soft steel.Wonder if something a bit harder may be better? Like drill rod or some other semi hard material?

Haven't heard of many stock pins breaking, and for the spiders to spin seperate, it would have to smear all 4 .590 pins, think it would blow the carrier apart first.

Might be overthinking this, guess only time will tell.
 
Well, think I'm gonna get back to finising these.

Pretty sure I'm just going to weld the spool into the front carrier. Don't see a shaft breaking without doing some damage to the 7.5" ring gear.

Should have just built the scout axles :( oh well past the point of no return now.
 

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