Dana 44 Ford VS Chevy snouts and hubs

[slvrbullet]

I'm looking at using the Dana 44 hubs on my current project but I wanted to see if anyone had any input before I buy the hubs. The Ford snouts use the small bearing but seem to have a longer spacing between the bearings. The Chevy stuff has a larger 2" bearing but seems to have slightly less spacing between the bearings probably about 1/8" less and the snout looks to be about and 1/8 shorter to. Is this going to make a huge difference?

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[Ryan B]

If it's going onto a ttb dana44 steering knuckle, and putting chevy snouts and hubs on it, and if you are using stock ford rotors (like on a bronco or f-150) you will probably have to run a spacer between the hub, and the rotor to space the rotor inboard. The reason is the chevy snouts move the hub outboard, and you'll only get about 40% brakepad wear then it will spit out the inner pads.

[slvrbullet]

It's going on a IFS project, I was planning on running all Chevy parts so that way I can keep the 6x5.5 lug pattern and keep it simple. I did put a Ford hub on the snout and no way it would work the inner bearing on the large bearing snout barely even mates with the race.

[McCredie A]

I have a 4wd chevy and have had pretty bad luck with the hub assembly. This is not the first chevy i had failures with either.

[Chris_Wilson]

A lot of people have raced on the Ford d44 stuff with good reliability. The smaller spindle (than chevy) does not seem to be an issue. Assuming your spindle nut (wheel bearing nut) stays tight which can be an issue since the drivers side does not use reverse threads, both sides use the same spindle. The weak link is the cast upright that the spindle bolts to. Some people fabricate uprights and I think there is a steel upright kit available from someone.

[slvrbullet]

At one time wasn't the Dana 44 snout and hubs the preferred set-up before custom machined snouts? I have access to a lathe and mill so I will machine the backing plate for the snout. I was going to recess the snout as much as possible into the plate to hopefully help with reducing some of the loads on the snout. Is it possible to run a spacer between the two bearings to help keep the pre-load and add some additional strength to the snout like they do with the custom machined hubs?

[Chris_Wilson]

I do not think that is needed, the Ford D44 spindle, hub and bearing package is quite strong. Just use a good aftermarket spindle nut retainer system. There are several out there. Also the inner bearing is larger than the outer so a preload spacer would need to account for the different spindle sizes for inner and outer bearings.