Rear D44 mishap...

Rusty

New member
Well we're riding through a normal trail we do around here, and my pals Rear D44.. twists.. the roset welds on it broke.. all the suspension geometry stayed true and the yoke hit the floor. Well enough talk here are some pictures..

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So anyways.. To make the day more interesting.. I'd told myself that morning that heck.. it's a small trail we do all the time i don't need to bring the heavy machinery.. turns out I did.. so, because we didn't have the right tools for the job and the local hardware store wasn't able to supply us with the right tools, all the efforts with the tools we had at the time we in vain... we ended up calling for back up when all else failed and a friend showed up with a small generator and tools.. (We weren't able to un-screw the rear part of the driveshaft because the bolt heads were all eaten up, and too fragile for vise grips.. :grayno: ) ended up taking us 10 hours to get off the trail... all because I decided to leave my bag with the bigger tools in it at home.. moral of the story.. Always bring the big tools.. lol)
 
Don't feel bad. Your not the only one it's happened to. Happend to me about 6 weeks ago. Finally got mine back together but installed a prorock 60 instead of fixing the stock axle

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rinkishjk

New member
Well we're riding through a normal trail we do around here, and my pals Rear D44.. twists.. the roset welds on it broke.. all the suspension geometry stayed true and the yoke hit the floor. Well enough talk here are some pictures..

View attachment 92242
View attachment 92243
View attachment 92244

So anyways.. To make the day more interesting.. I'd told myself that morning that heck.. it's a small trail we do all the time i don't need to bring the heavy machinery.. turns out I did.. so, because we didn't have the right tools for the job and the local hardware store wasn't able to supply us with the right tools, all the efforts with the tools we had at the time we in vain... we ended up calling for back up when all else failed and a friend showed up with a small generator and tools.. (We weren't able to un-screw the rear part of the driveshaft because the bolt heads were all eaten up, and too fragile for vise grips.. :grayno: ) ended up taking us 10 hours to get off the trail... all because I decided to leave my bag with the bigger tools in it at home.. moral of the story.. Always bring the big tools.. lol)

Always be prepared. That's one heck of a day for sure. I've seen a few of these breaks on here lately. Hope it's not the new trend..
 

wayoflife

Administrator
Staff member
Last 2 years? Let's see, I've got a 2012. "F" it, I'm still goin' wheeling this weekend.

Yeah, not sure what happened but we only really started to see really crappy rosette welds (as opposed to just the standard crappy) on Dana 44's on 2012-up JK's. :rolleyes2:
 

Rusty

New member
I was able to pop the "welds" out of the diff with just a screw driver without really prying.. so they weren't really welded on...
 
Yeah, not sure what happened but we only really started to see really crappy rosette welds (as opposed to just the standard crappy) on Dana 44's on 2012-up JK's. :rolleyes2:

Yup the axle should never break like that. When it Happend to me it was the last thing I would ever suspect.

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wayoflife

Administrator
Staff member
I was able to pop the "welds" out of the diff with just a screw driver without really prying.. so they weren't really welded on...

Yup, I have seen it before too. Whatever robot they are using just sticks a booger of a weld on and with little to no penetration.

Yup the axle should never break like that. When it Happend to me it was the last thing I would ever suspect.

When we (people in the industry) first started seeing these new Jeeps with these really bad rosette welds, we knew this was going to be a problem and it's really unfortunate that we were right.
 

wayoflife

Administrator
Staff member
Honestly, I don't know. The axles are still made by Dana and they must have changed something to cut costs.
 

JKBANDIT55

New member
Wow, makes you wonder what else they skimped on to cut cost...

Is it possible to add some more weld to help prevent this? What would be the proper way to prevent it?
 

MR.Ty

Token East Coast Guy
Well. Looks like ill take the philosophy of "drive it till you break it" then get whatever "60" I can get my hands on. :D

2014 JKUR
 

wayoflife

Administrator
Staff member
Wow, makes you wonder what else they skimped on to cut cost...

Is it possible to add some more weld to help prevent this? What would be the proper way to prevent it?

You can try to knock out the booger of a weld that's in there now, clean up the hole the best you can and then have a proper rosette weld burned in. That would help out a lot.

Well. Looks like ill take the philosophy of "drive it till you break it" then get whatever "60" I can get my hands on. :D

2014 JKUR

LOL!! that's one way of looking at it :crazyeyes:
 

RUBINOT

Caught the Bug
Curious, are those welds covered by the warranty?

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Rccrwlr

New member
Well we're riding through a normal trail we do around here, and my pals Rear D44.. twists.. the roset welds on it broke.. all the suspension geometry stayed true and the yoke hit the floor. Well enough talk here are some pictures..

View attachment 92242
View attachment 92243
View attachment 92244

So anyways.. To make the day more interesting.. I'd told myself that morning that heck.. it's a small trail we do all the time i don't need to bring the heavy machinery.. turns out I did.. so, because we didn't have the right tools for the job and the local hardware store wasn't able to supply us with the right tools, all the efforts with the tools we had at the time we in vain... we ended up calling for back up when all else failed and a friend showed up with a small generator and tools.. (We weren't able to un-screw the rear part of the driveshaft because the bolt heads were all eaten up, and too fragile for vise grips.. :grayno: ) ended up taking us 10 hours to get off the trail... all because I decided to leave my bag with the bigger tools in it at home.. moral of the story.. Always bring the big tools.. lol)

So what would you have done with your big tools?? If the housing is pinned against the floor are you just screwed?


--rccrwlr
 
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