14 Bolt Full Floater

[Blazin]

The 10 front axles are all the same 6 or 8 lug. Its the spindle and everything that goes on it that are different.

[frickenbored]

alright so I did some more searching on craigslist and I found what I think is a very good deal.  A guy not to far away from me is selling a dana 44 front axle and a 14 bolt full floater rear axle both with 4.10 gears, both from an 86 chevy pickup, and both for $250.  I'm about to jump on this deal but I was wondering, is the dana 44 a direct bolt in for a 10 bolt front? And is a dana 44 any stonger than a 10 bolt? Also I'm not sure if its manual locking hubs or not but how hard is it to convert it to manual locking hubs?

[Chevalade]

Thats a decent price, I'd snag that up. And the 44 should be manual hubs. It is a direct bolt in. Pretty sure u-joint is same as well. You may wanna run a lil bigger tire so you ain't doin 3k rpm down the highway.

[Irish_Alley]

direct bolt in- yes. hubs you can even swap them out with the ten bolt, they are about the same in strength. 250 is a good price. i have 38s on my truck with 410 ratio and I'm ruining about 1800 at 50mph if i can remember right I'm running @ 60 mph it about 2200

[frickenbored]

Oh I plan on running a 4" lift with 35" tires by the end of this summer, so I'm going to call this guy either today or tomorrow and hopefully grab those axles.  The 44 sounds pretty good, the add says its a HD dana 44 with a dual steering stabilizer setup.

[frickenbored]

well looks like i'm going to pick up those axles tomrrow.  and as an added bonus the guy also has a set of 8 lug aluminum hummer rims that work with those axles that have 36" goodyear mt/r's mounted on them for $50 a piece.  I'm also gonna grab those.  I think a 383, built th400, 14 bolt ff, dana 44, 4.10 gears and 36" tires are going to work very well together.  Does anyone know if a 4" lift will clear 36" tires or am I going to have to go with the 6" lift?

[fitz]

 Not to rain on your parade but I didn't think they made a Dana 44 in 1986.
 And as far as the 8 lug Hummer rims, are they factory? I know allot of guys run the factory hummer steel wheels with the 37" tires on our trucks but they have to recenter the rims to make them fit.

[frickenbored]

Not to rain on your parade but I didn't think they made a Dana 44 in 1986.
 And as far as the 8 lug Hummer rims, are they factory? I know allot of guys run the factory hummer steel wheels with the 37" tires on our trucks but they have to recenter the rims to make them fit.

The dana 44 may not be the orignal axle but I'm figuring that if it was already mounted on a 1986 pickup then it should bolt right in since the front ends are the same.  As for the hummer rims they were the rims that were on these two axles already.

[frickenbored]

I picked up the axles today and they are in perfect shape and according to all my measurements they are direct bolt in's.  I have a question about the gears though.  I counted the ring and pinion teeth on both the dana 44 and the 14 bolt ff.  The dana came up with 45 teeth on the ring gear and 11 teeth on the pinion gear which comes out to 4.090909090 or 4.10.  Now the 14 bolt came up with 42 teeth on the ring gear and 11 teeth on the pinion gear which comes out to 3.81818181 or 3.82.  I've searched everywhere and 3.82 is not even an option for any GM axle and this is def a GM axle.  I'm not sure what to make of this...

As for the tires their like new Goodyear wrangler RT II's 36x12.50 R16.5  The hummer rims havent been recentered but for 50 bucks a piece I still bought them and I'm just going to get a cheap set of steel rims.

[frickenbored]

I just bought a 14 bolt ff for my 1988 K5 blazer and I was wondering how to tell if its equipped with a gov lock.  When I turn one tire the other spins in the opposite direction like an open diff but from what I understand the gov lock doesn't kick in untill theres a load on it.  I'm hoping its an open diff that way I don't have to replace the carrier to install a detroit locker.  $350 compared to $770

[Da67goatman]

The best way is to pull the cover and look for clutches vs spider gears.  But if you don't want to open it, keep one the yoke from turning and spin a wheel.  If it doesn't want to spin, its gov lok, if it spins its open carrier.  At least this is what i was told.  I haven't pulled the cover on mine to find out how accurate it is.

[frickenbored]

I already pulled the cover today to count the teeth on the ring and pinion to make sure they were 4.10.  I dont think I saw any clutches but would I have to open up the actual carrier?

[Blazin]

A gov lock has all kinds of crap, shafts, cams, springs etc. they are right there when you pull the cover.

[Irish_Alley]

the only thing is can think of is you miss counted and there are 41 teeth on the ring and 11 on the pinion that means its 3.73. if you look at the ring there will be some numbers post them

[frickenbored]

I did miscount...it was hard to count the pinion teeth from the top of the diff so today I unbolted the pinion shaft assembly and pulled the shaft out and counted 10 teeth so it is in fact 4.10.