Topic: waggy or ford d44?

[spuds015]

when i sas my taco i plan on running 35's stock 5vzfe and 5speed with dual cases driver drop non chain case. havent looked into cases or gears yet but i was wondering if going with the wider hpd44 would be better or worse or wouldnt matter with where i am going. with the wider axle i know i get more stability and a high pinion and the waggy sounds easier to swap and better turning radius and i can keep the rear axle an build it. thanx in advance for any info

[yjay]

The high pinion is obviously the cooler of the two, but I personally wouldn't want full width. I don't think that one axle is any harder than the other to swap or that the turning radius is much different because they both have basically the same knuckles and 'C's. If you want to you can narrow the passenger side of the Ford axle by removing the inner 'c' and cutting the tube. You can then use a stock or chromo waggy inner shaft and have a narrower axle without custom shafts. That will also give you more room on the driver's side axle tube for your leaf spring perch or link brackets because the pumpkin is kinda in the way stock width (Ford or Jeep). If you're not going to drive it on the street then full width would be the way to go. If that's going to be the case, try to get the 9" or Dana 60 that would have came in the same Ford truck.
If you decide to use a waggy front axle, I would recommend cutting and turning the knuckles back to raise the pinion up and improve the caster angle. I ran a waggy in my jeep and liked it.
On second thought, you don't want that high pinion. You should just give it to me and use the jeep unit  

[bigarms23]

go with a hp ford front and run 2inch wheel spacers for your rear taco rear axle i wouldn't cut down the front the extra width is nice

[<MIKE>]

go with a hp ford front and run 2inch wheel spacers for your rear taco rear axle i wouldn't cut down the front the extra width is nice

x2. i wish i kept my hp axle but i got a fully built waggy one with chromos so i decided to bail on my HP. but as was already stated they are the exact same as far as a swap is concerned. waggy axles are easier to find. it just depends on what parts you find and how much work you're going to be doing yourself. just remember the HP takes reverse cut gears when you go to make your purchase.

[spuds015 [OP]]

i want to do as much as i can myself. im going to be running leafs and it will be street legal but im not concerned about the ride on the street to trade off better performance off road, if i wanted a cadilac id buy one.  definitely not going to be chopping the axles. but the hp sounds like the way to go. thanx for the info!