Postal Axle Desirability?

Is the Postal Jeep rear axle; as I understand it a Dana 44 with 3.73 gearing and a TRAC-LOK differential of any value/desire?

I found a potential donor vehicle to help my restoration. Missing engine, transmission and much of the floor. But I could scrounge a lot of the small parts from the interior and under the hood. It's a bit more money than I want to spend. But if I can recover some from the axle then it might be worth it. As I understand it, these axles are narrow even by CJ standards. With the manual specs listing the rear tread width as 47.28". Though I suppose this means you could do a disc brake conversion, use wheel spacers and still keep your early CJ narrow track look... j

Oh and of course these are CENTER diff axles.


Thanks
Matt

 

Yes! Great axle, traclic meh but a centered flanged is a great axle.

 

If it has the early style steering column, those are getting very hard to find.

 

I believe the rear springs are set wider than CJs, so perches need to be moved. The Postal rears work well with a D20 transfer case.
-Donny

 

Yes it's a 1970 RHD. Looking in the parts manual the column is identical to the LHD but the steering box is a different part number. My steering column is ostensibly fine. So that is a part that I imagine is surplus to my needs. I hadn't even thought of the steering column as being hard to find?

Thanks
Matt

 

The postal Jeep steering columns are nice if you want to convert a 71-older CJ to Saginaw steering, and keep the stock looking column and steering wheel.

 

Thanks for the responses guys. I think I'll spring for this Jeep knowing I can recover some of my costs from the axle and steering column. That will make the parts I get worth it to me.


Matt

 

Some of the early ones are only 49.5" track width. The most desirable are the 72-74ish that are 52" wide so actually an inch wider than CJ.

 

The axle in 67 MGB is from a 74 postal. I had to replace the spring perches and mount 3.31 gears. But it was the same exact width as the MG axle and handle all the power of Buick V8

 

I like the sleeper look. I knew a guy from high school and in 1974 he took me for a ride in a Buick alum V8 powered MG. That was a crazy ride. He had a truly 'Buba Made' steering to get around the engine. I never rode in it after I saw the steering mod. He cut the steering shaft in the engine compartment and used a double row chain and a couple of pillow blocks with sprockets.

 

U

 

I’m glad I didn’t know about chain and sprocket approach. I might have tried it!