Wide track Axles in 75 cj

Ok I found a set of wide track axles with limited slip in the front disk brakes and alloy USA chromoly axles, rear have superior one piece axles and 456 gears for a great price not sure of the year cj they come out of yet but was wandering how hard it would be to put these in a 75 cj5 or would I be netter off staying with what I have

 

The front is a virtual bolt in if you get the drag link and tie rod with it. The rear will need the spring pads moved and depending on which brake backing plates it has there may be some modifications needed for the park brake cables. Personally I'd stay with your 44 rear and use wheel spacers and swap the discs (if you don't have them) over to your front axle, swap in the 4.56's if that's what you're after, or swap the whole front axle. The AMC 20 has small axle bearings and weak axle tubes. The carrier (center housing) is also very thin and known to bend as well as the tubes. If you are planning on VERY light street use and trail running, and running 33" tires or smaller, maybe fine. If anything more, stay away from the 20. I've had to re-tube wayy too many of them to recommend them to anyone.

 

I think that you'll need to outboard the front spring perches also

 

I second Nickmil's synopsis. Wider is nice, but not worth the strength value lost by replacing the 44 with a 20. If you want to go wider, I would also recommend either spacers or wider offset wheels, or scout axles if you can find them although even those are wider than many that eye that swap realize.

 

Nope. Wide track cj 30 front has the spring pads in the same location as narrow track cj 30,25, and 27. Swapping to scout, wagoneer, etc axles do require outboarding the spring in front however.

 

Word of caution on running spacers on the rear. I ran a wide track front and narrow rear with spacers. Yes it will work fine depending on the type of wheeling you do. I bent one of my rear shafts outside of the bearing at the flange with this configuration. I did this on an extreme rock trail with lots of v-notch and tire side loading. I have no proof but I don't think it would have bent if I had not been running the spacers. That being said. I did run it with spacers for 4 years before I bent the shaft and it was abused during that time.

The spacers will work fine for almost all trails. Just watch the side loading.