Our '96 Honda Passport axle is about 1/4 inches wide from wheel-mounting surface to wheel-mounting surface ('98-'04 models may be a bit wider). Our axle also came with an ABS sensor in the top of the differential housing. We pulled it out and made a cover plate for the hole. You can just clip the wire and leave it in there if you want.
We hacked off the Honda spring perches and shock mounts and then pulled the axleshafts and differential carrier. We then took our pair of Dana 44s to a ring-and-pinion specialist to have the 5.89 Yukon gears and install kits from Randy's Ring & Pinion set up and mounted on traction-ensuring Detroit Lockers from Eaton. The driveline shop even wrapped the differentials up with some plastic to keep the innards clean in the shop and during the ride home. | 
We built an axle bracket jig using the original Dana 35 housing, some spare tubing, and steel bar from the local home center. The jig is used to locate the new Dynatrac brackets on our junkyard Dana 44. |
The older models, like our '96 Honda Passport axle, came with leaf-spring perches and a steel cover bearing the Dana diamond. Look for the orange tag sticking out from underneath one of the rear cover bolts (right). Ours indicates a limited slip differential. The other tag (left) has the gear ratio stamped on it-4.30:1 or 4.56:1 ratios are common. All of these axles have thick ring gears and use numerically low Dana 44 carriers, so keep that in mind if you want to run the original gears and swap in a locker. | |