Open Discussion - Front solid axle conversion

[JustinS]

You do realize that swapping a Dana 44 in the rear would be pointless and a waste of money right. Our axles have a ring gear of 8.25 and a Dana 44 has a ring gear of 8.50

Well unless the Dana 44 was given to you for free!

If you don't want to bolt in a Dana44 rear from a 2wd XK, and are going to upgrade....a Ford 8.8 would definitely be next on my list.

[07JeepXK]

Yeah ford 8.8 would be nice but wouldn't work so well with our computers

[JustinS]

QTII commanders utilize a separate controller for the transmission/transfer-case right? Wonder what would it involve to eliminate all 4x4 function from it for full manual control of transfer-case.

There have been several SAS dakotas...wonder what they are doing.

[JustinS]

It looks like the jk guys that swap to a hemi use the 545rfe and it bolts to the tcase that comes in the manual jk...they use 2wd motor/trans combos.

[Matt]

To get full manual tcase in a xk/wk you need to do 2 additional things
1- match the nv245 gear reduction or reprogram the computer for the new gear reduction
2- have a switch that tells the computer what gear you're in

It definitely adds significant complexity to doing this swap if you're not satisfied with the nv245. Lol probably deserving of its own thread too

[Matt]

I swapped a manual tcase into my Explorer back in the day. Didn't need to do anything special though because the computer didn't care, i just had the wrong speed displayed on my dash.

The xk/wk platform is a completely different beast due to the advanced traction control system that monitors each wheel speed relative to trans speed and even relative to steering wheel position.

[06JeepXKHEMI]

As I said a bunch of times before if I struck millions I'd do this but you look at trialbyfire and other heavily modded XKs and there really isn't much they Can't do.. I know people mention wheeling with the luxury of our rigs with the capabilities of SFA but to be honest I'd rather get another trail rig if at all to have fun with, you start swapping drivetrains and the luxuries of our XKs are almost gone minus the interior's.. I hope someone does it cause it'd sure be cool just not realistic for me right now.. Plus I love seeing look on people's faces when my IFS Jeep does what it does with minor upgrades, that to me is what makes wheeling an XK fun..

Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2

[JustinS]

To get full manual tcase in a xk/wk you need to do 2 additional things
1- match the nv245 gear reduction or reprogram the computer for the new gear reduction
2- have a switch that tells the computer what gear you're in

It definitely adds significant complexity to doing this swap if you're not satisfied with the nv245. Lol probably deserving of its own thread too

Do the 2wd xk's have traction control? I wonder if it would be as simple as swapping in a 2wd ecu/pcm when you do a sfa swap to overcome those issues.

[Matt]

Do the 2wd xk's have traction control? I wonder if it would be as simple as swapping in a 2wd ecu/pcm when you do a sfa swap to overcome those issues.

Yes they still have the ESP, however the front is controlled a bit different since there's no power to the front wheels. We'd still have the same issue since all of the modules talk to each other, so if the wheel speeds don't match what the computer thinks they should based on engine/trans RPM, the vehicle will go into limp mode and be stuck in 2nd gear.

[07JeepXK]

Can't wait to get my front diff wired up. This beast won't need a solid axle.