my 44 needs help

[powerdriver 1958]

I am running a locked d44 up front and the last hole i was in i blew the gov lock and the right front stub.Today 1st hole of the year i tore the eyes outta both halves of the left side.the worst part is the motor is stock.

I have had a bunch of people tell me i am doing something wrong or the housing gotta be bent.what does this group think?

[msgross]

wow, I have some parts of you need any...let me know. If you are running into trouble it might be easier to sawp for another full axle. Why waste the time and tear up more shafts? Good luck.

[1969k10stepside]

and if you want to swap....2 & 1/2 ton Rockwells are in order
Actually,a dana 60 would be a easier and more expensive swap.
What kind of holes are you in to break an axle like that?Its no mud puddle!

[powerdriver 1958]

heres the the one i broke the right side and the gov lock in

[powerdriver 1958]

this is the one that got the left side

[CrashEd]

Was that a new ujoint that broke. I buy the best ujoints i can. Thats the only time i have troubles when i breake one and it sends a shockwave through the diff and tears it up.With a locker when somthing on one side cuts loss the other side is sure to find the weak spot or the diff will go bye bye. If was a new heavy joint it could of been just a bad one. I would fix it and put a new joint in the other side and check the shafts pull the cover and look around for anything stressed and if happened again id be looking for a new axle.
Ed

[special-K]

Believe it or not,this was probably caused by bad spindle bearings.Those tiny little needle bearings in the inner end of your spindle.They are what carries the whole outer end of your inner shaft and inner end of your outer shaft.If they`re worn,your yokes will contact the ball-joint cap and KABLOOWEE!!!Good bye u-joint and hopefully not a yoke or two.I replace them every time I`m in there,they are prolly the cheapest part in the whole assembly and they do so much to save the costly stuff.

[Burt4x4]

What size Tires?

I have busted many D44 shafts...perrty common for hardwheeling with tires 35" or bigger. Eventually I swaped in Warn ChromMolly shafts and CTM ujoints...perrty spendy $$$ to do that and most will say your better off just getting a D60 and be done. I resisted the going with D60 for years and my D44 has held up very well after the upgrades...but now I am going to swap in a D60 front & 14FFd rear, full 1Ton 8lug

[special-K]

Those upgrades really work out to beef a 44.But,Burt you are a 1ton axle kinda guy,that`s for sure.If you didn`t break thosr Cro-molys and CTMs,that says alot.

[msgross]

Originally Posted by special-K

Believe it or not,this was probably caused by bad spindle bearings.Those tiny little needle bearings in the inner end of your spindle.They are what carries the whole outer end of your inner shaft and inner end of your outer shaft.If they`re worn,your yokes will contact the ball-joint cap and KABLOOWEE!!!Good bye u-joint and hopefully not a yoke or two.I replace them every time I`m in there,they are prolly the cheapest part in the whole assembly and they do so much to save the costly stuff.

I agree with this since I just pulled apart one of my spare 44's to harvest parts this weekend. I noticed that one the lockout and hub were removed the axle had a lot of "slop" inside the spindle. The needle bearings had worn out and scared the axle itself. I'm hoping to use the axle since it wasn't to bad...

[Zoomad75]

I'd agree with the spindle bearing statement, but I'd also suspect tire size and the gov-bomb had something to to do with it. Stock shafts with a gov-lock kicking in and the big tires grabbing traction, something will give. In this case it sounds like both broke.

Think of the forces on the axle shafts/ujoints when the tires are spinning, then the gov-bomb locks and the tires actually grab traction at the bottom of the hole. The shafts went from spinning with a light load on them to the same or more speed with the load of the truck on them and hits traction. It's a huge shock load that twisted the end of that stub off.

Either way I'm betting you are running at least 35's or bigger for tires and got a heavy right foot like me. When you got both it's only a matter of time before something breaks with stock parts. It's d60 time or chromo's and quality joints.

[customcamper72]

looks like a typical result of a locked 44 & big tires, i,ve broken plenty of those over the years from hard wheeling, i finally stepped up to a 60 front this time around.

[powerdriver 1958]

you guys are dead on 38 ss tsl's and size 13eee.looks like chrome moly's coming soon. thanks for the info.

[special-K]

A locked front is tough on all axles,especially @ higher rotation speed,like boggin`.Equal resistance is not so bad,but when that changes...Blam!!
It takes alot to blow an axle at super-low crawl ratios,like absolute resistance on one wheel.Turning multiplies resistance,too.Horsepower is the lowest denominator in all this.Look at what an 85 hp tractor can do.
The Gov-Lok was out back and just did what they do best in hard offroad use.They are actually a great aid to a mostly street driven truck(like what the factory builds them to do).I don`t care what anyone says.I`ve had many and never broke one.I never tryed to make it do what it wasn`t designed to do.That`s where you get into problems.

[powerdriver 1958]

You may well be right about making it do things its not made to do.the part that bothers me is that this is the third time it's broke an axle ,i have to put a stop to that before i can pump up the motor any at all, which i can't wait to do.

[special-K]

Did the rear axle break?I thought just the Gov-Lok blew in the rear and the axles broke in the "locked" front.I`m confused,I guess.

[powerdriver 1958]

rear axles are fine.i have only broken the 44 axles

[special-K]

Oh,ok.Cuz you said you had a locked 44 in your first post,that threw me off.

[powerdriver 1958]

It is locked Lincoln locked.the very 1st thing that happened was the spiders broke. The p.o. i found out was doing single spinner smoke shows........a lot

[special-K]

So,just trying to understand,where does the Gov-Lok come into all this?

[vtblazer]

My vote goes to the wide open style assault your using to get through the holes.

I think the reason that Tim is confused is that you used 'gov-loc' and 'locked' to describe the same front D44 axle.

The term 'gov-loc' is just another way to describe a limited slip.
It's the GM proprietary term IIRC.

[powerdriver 1958]

well its from a lack of telling the whole story so here gos. I was at buddys place and runnin his mud hole and on the third full bore pass the gov lock broke(back axle)and quit pulling i backed off the gas but kept on it and when i crawled out. The right front caught a dry patch and thats when i broke the 44.(front axle).still pulled better on front axle only than any of the 4 furds that where there

[powerdriver 1958]

My buddy and i are in a poor part of the county(not far from claycomo ford plant)and most of his friends are furd freaks and our old truck aren't near as shiney as theirs so the challenge was on.two of them had to be drug out,one finally made it thru ,and one went home clean............haven't seen them since.

[special-K]

Funny story there.Yeah,that`s when they give out.One side slippery,the other side grabbin`.I`ve busted a u-joint and beat the yokes to death coming up out of a mudhole up a bank,then the high-side front tire hitting the dry pavement.I was in the pit when someone said the cops were there.So,I didn`t use the entrance.I just blew up the grade.It was an operating quarry,private property.I had 37s.
The morning after:

[martinkh]

Not to go off topic, but I am putting in a D60 front and a recently rebuild 14bolt rear, rear having a supposedly rebuilt gov-loc. Is the 14 bolt gov-loc prone to grenading under hard use, or just the smaller axles? Eventually there will be a no-slip in the front as well.

You all certainly make me feel better about my decision to go with the one ton setup regardless.