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Flipped Diff Rear Engine Questions

zerobalance

Well-known member
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Sep 15, 2020
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2874
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Ohio, the middle part of it
This has been covered some, but searching all morning, I'm not finding much concrete.

I'm building this bus:
Lifted TDI Volkswagen Split Window Camper Bus Build

Talked about T cases here:
Transfer Cases Able To Handle Full Time Front Output Use?

Which lead to me buying this Rubicon.
Screenshot_20240809_092059_IAA Buyer.jpg


So now I have a NV3550 and 241 case, along with select-able locker 44's. I also have a pair of Toy 8" axles.

The next issue is making axles go the correct way. Plenty of talk of flipping diffs. I have to retube the axles regardless to suit the rear engine offsets, so the center sections can be manipulated any way needed. I see a lot of speculation on gear failure due to running on coast side, but have any actually failed? I want to be able to reliably drive this thing long distances on the highway. If the solution is to use reverse rotation HP gears in the 44's, I'll probably just sell them to help fund this and build the Yota axles.

So what's the move to make these things work and live.
 
Iirc, flipping a low pinion in the front and a high pinion in the rear will run on the drive side if you're worried about it.

If it were me, I'd get a hold of a company like busted knuckle who cuts up D60s all the time and ask for a high pinion D60 center. Then when you retube the rear you can just add in the D60 center.
 
YotaAtieToo said:
Iirc, flipping a low pinion in the front and a high pinion in the rear will run on the drive side if you're worried about it.

If it were me, I'd get a hold of a company like busted knuckle who cuts up D60s all the time and ask for a high pinion D60 center. Then when you retube the rear you can just add in the D60 center.
Click to expand...
Just straight flipping the diff over would make the pinion pull rather than push the ring, correct?

Going d60 defeats the purpose of the rubicon axles factory locker, also a 60 is way too big for my application.
 
zerobalance said:
Just straight flipping the diff over would make the pinion pull rather than push the ring, correct?
Click to expand...

Man I'm having brain fart on if a low pinion pushes or pulls under normal operation.

zerobalance said:
Going d60 defeats the purpose of the rubicon axles factory locker, also a 60 is way too big for my application.
Click to expand...

From what I remember, those lockers weren't known for being that great anyway.

I get that a D60 is overkill, but they're way more common these days than a HP44 and I'm not sure the locker would switch over anyway.

Honestly, as mu h as those rubicon axles go for, you might be better off selling them to fund a different set of axles.

9" center would be the best since it's available in high and low pinion and has basically infinite gear ratios.

Or if you think the Toyotas are strong enough. High pinion 3rds are easy to come by and lots of options for aftermarket housings.
 
Man, some people sure are incapable of thinking outside of the "just buying expensive shit that bolts together" box. Say nothing about reading between the lines and seeing that this isn't gonna be that kind of build. :laughing:

OP, your front axle is sorted. An LP axle normally drives on the "wrong" side in forward operation. Your engine is spun around so you're basically going in reverse and therefore driving on the "right" side. You just need to solve the oiling issue.

Considering how many full time 4x4 trucks GM and Dodge shat out with low pinion D44 and 10B front axles worrying about which pinion bearing is loaded is a fool's errand

If you absolutely must upgrade the rear the easy button would be to get a D44 out of a TTB F150. It uses a normal a D44 carrier (not sure if this is true about the D50, do your own research) so your Rubicon lockers and shit will fit it and you can bore the case and press in some adapters to slip inside the tubes you'll be removing from the D44 (PM me if you need someone to make these). The TTB center wasn't designes for tubes so it doesn't have the meat there to resist bending so you need to truss the thing when you're doing. If you do all this right you can re-use all the existing stuff off your D44 rear.
 
arse_sidewards said:
Man, some people sure are incapable of thinking outside of the "just buying expensive shit that bolts together" box. Say nothing about reading between the lines and seeing that this isn't gonna be that kind of build. :laughing:

OP, your front axle is sorted. An LP axle normally drives on the "wrong" side in forward operation. Your engine is spun around so you're basically going in reverse and therefore driving on the "right" side. You just need to solve the oiling issue.

Considering how many full time 4x4 trucks GM and Dodge shat out with low pinion D44 and 10B front axles worrying about which pinion bearing is loaded is a fool's errand

If you absolutely must upgrade the rear the easy button would be to get a D44 out of a TTB F150. It uses a normal a D44 carrier (not sure if this is true about the D50, do your own research) so your Rubicon lockers and shit will fit it and you can bore the case and press in some adapters to slip inside the tubes you'll be removing from the D44 (PM me if you need someone to make these). The TTB center wasn't designes for tubes so it doesn't have the meat there to resist bending so you need to truss the thing when you're doing. If you do all this right you can re-use all the existing stuff off your D44 rear.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I mean I don't mind spending money but I don't need 60s, I have 3 sets of super duty one tons but I ain't swinging those under a VW bus with a 4 cylinder and 30's.

I was close to pulling a apart an axle since I can't seem to wrap my head around the drive side without actually looking at it. The front axle will be non issue as it's only use will be serious low speed, I'm screwed getting to a camp site type stuff, I'm not worried about drive vs coast on the front. I'm not worried about destroying stuff from excess force, I am concerned about making it 3k miles and eating a R&P because the gears are wearing funky running backwards

Now the decision is to sell the rubicon shit and profit big, and build toy axles, or sell the toys and retube the 44's. The 44s will be way easier just because of design, round tubes and none of the truss stuff, already rear disc, and already locker equipped; the yotas have lockouts already, and I suspect are a fair bit lighter.
 
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