Hello, and welcome to another installment of our continuing saga to turn a rattle-clap '68 J2000 we purchased for $800 into a safe, economical, and comfortable highway cruiser, as well as a capable camping rig and weekend hauler.
Last time, we followed the techs at M.I.T. in El Cajon, California, as they put the full rebuild on a pair of Dana 44 axles. In case you missed it, Cappa donated the rear '73 Dana 44 from his J2000 and an '83 Dodge 1/2-ton Dana 44 front he had lying around. The only thing he asked in return was the assurance that our old axles wouldn't mysteriously appear on his front doorstep. While we never actually made that promise, we did put in a call to Rubicon Express and PSC Motorsports for some supplies we knew we'd need when M.I.T. swapped out our tired two-piece Dana 44 rear and 19-spline, closed-knuckle Dana 44 front for the more modern axles.
In addition to a really sweet line of suspension components, Rubicon Express has a whole section of its Web site and print catalog dedicated to builder's stuff. With brackets and mounts, high-misalignment suspension joints, brake lines, spring perches, and a ton of other parts, we can spend hours dreaming up stuff to do with the items listed in the Rubicon Express Builder's Section. And when it comes to easy, one-stop shopping for steering components, PSC Motorsports is the cat's meow. Since we knew our stock steering setup wouldn't work with the new Dodge axle, we put in a call to PSC for one if its beautifully crafted, heavy-duty tie rod and drag link kits. The kit includes everything you need to build your steering linkage bombproof the first time.
And of course, we've got to give a huge shout of thanks to M.I.T. in El Cajon for making it all come together. Technicians Christian Garcia and Andy Thomas turned our axle swap around in a day so we could drive the truck home that night. Here's how they did it. Next time we'll be yanking the tired 232 engine and drivetrain for a more modern powerplant.
 After rebuilding our Dana...  After rebuilding our Dana 44 axles, M.I.T. easily handled the swap into our Project J2008. And don't think you've heard the last of the company on this buildup. There's more M.I.T. drivetrain savvy coming your way in upcoming Project J2008 installments. |  M.I.T. tech Christian Garcia...  M.I.T. tech Christian Garcia puts the finishing touches on our freshly rebuilt '73 J2000 Dana 44 before slapping it in place of our stock 19-spline, two-piece shaft stocker. The new axle has factory 30-spline shafts, Yukon 4.56 gears, and an Eaton Truetrac differential. |  Because Hell Creek Suspension...  Because Hell Creek Suspension hadn't finalized its post-mount J-truck lift kit at the time of our install, we ordered up a quartet of Rubicon Express U-bolts for our axle swap. Rubicon Express carries U-bolts for a huge selection of axle tube diameters and in a wide variety of lengths. |
 Moving up front, M.I.T. tech...  Moving up front, M.I.T. tech Andy Thomas torches off the factory Dodge spring perches and shock mounts to ready our '83 1/2-ton Dodge Dana 44 for the installation. After rough cutting with the oxyacetylene torch, Thomas smoothed the tubes with a grinding disc. |  Here's a little old versus...  Here's a little old versus new. The Dodge 1/2-ton open-knuckle axle specs out at about 67.5 inches wide, as compared with the old axle's 67 inches wide. The difference is barely noticeable and helps with the increased turning radius afforded by the open-knuckle frontend. |  The '73 axle is nearly an...  The '73 axle is nearly an exact bolt-in replacement for the stock '68 axle. Garcia needed to transfer the parking brake cables from the '68 axle onto the '73, and he reused the '68 hard brake lines on the '73 housing. Otherwise, it plunked right in place. |
 The new axle is right at home....  The new axle is right at home. Notice the new yoke that M.I.T. installed when it observed that the factory '73 yoke was damaged. M.I.T. keeps a wide array of parts on hand for just such last-minute emergencies. |  As we mentioned before, we...  As we mentioned before, we put in a call to PSC Motorsports for the company's stellar heavy-duty tie rod and drag link kit (PN TRK-110). The kit includes 7 feet of 11/2-inch, 0.250-wall DOM tubing, four beautifully machined weld-in tubing adapters for 7/8-inch shank right- and left-hand thread rod ends, and four right- and left-hand thread 1-ton GM rod ends. |  Before installing the axle,...  Before installing the axle, Thomas began by enlarging the factory Dodge tie rod end tapers to match the larger GM tie rod taper. At our request, Thomas reemed the knuckles from the bottom because we though we'd have spring-to-tie rod interference. We were wrong. There's enough meat left to taper the knuckles from the other side, so we'll handle that at a later date. |
 After some careful measuring,...  After some careful measuring, Thomas located the 2-inch-wide Rubicon Express spring perches (PN RE1900) on the new axle. Remember those Hell Creek Suspension front U-bolt flip plates from the suspension installation? Here they are, as promised. They have the correct width for use with the J2000's 2-inch-wide front springs and feature oblong U-bolt mounting holes for use with several different axle types. |  D'oh! Just when you think...  D'oh! Just when you think you're home free, Murphy's Law rears its ugly head. In our case, the drag link made hard contact with the spring pack when turning left. We'll have to add a 1-inch spacer under it. More bad news was that our Dynatrac steering arm positioned the tie rod end solidly into the tire. We borrowed a 1/4-inch wheel spacer from M.I.T. to get home, but when we add the steering arm spacer it won't work, so we'll have to find another arm that positions the tie rod end further inboard. |  The factory pitman arm was...  The factory pitman arm was also given the larger taper. To give a bit more clearance, the pitman arm was tapered to accept the tie rod end from the top, not the bottom.And for those of you let down by our failure to locate a proper dropped pitman arm for the manual steering box when we did the lift kit, we can report that Rubicon Express's dropped pitman arm for a manual box CJ (PN RE2505) is a perfect fit on the J2000's steering box and stock drag link tie rod end. |
 Dodge Dana 44 front axles...  Dodge Dana 44 front axles have the passenger spring perch cast into the centersection. It makes swapping into a smaller vehicle a pain, but on a J-truck with the outboard post-mounted springs, we discovered the centersection makes a perfect positioning device for use with the Rubicon Express offset spring perch (PN 1910). The offset perch makes it really easy to weld up against the censtersection. |  Thomas finished off the swap...  Thomas finished off the swap by welding the stock Dana 44's shock mounts to the Dodge axle and by installing a beautiful pair of 22-inch-long Rubicon Express braided steel brake lines. After bleeding the brakes, we found the fronts dragged just a bit, but not severe enough for us to dive into the stock master cylinder to remove the drum brake check valve, since this truck will be getting a new master cylinder in a little while. | |