Questions about Jag rearend in my Volvo 1800

[Volvo Heretic]

Greatings all. Sorry to barge in on your forum, but I have just joined looking for information on Dana44/Salisbury rear center sections.

I am thinking about building a custom IRS rear end to put under my souped up '72 Volvo 1800 sports car. I found this thread looking for Jag rear end information:

(Jaguar Diff advice required)

Does anybody know what the differential stub axle flange to flange width of a Dana 44/Salisbury Jag center section is? Here is the Dana 44 I am looking at, but I'm not sure of which years this covers: [color=#1a6791]http://www2.dana.com/pdf/5329.PDf and I hope this is even a Jag unit.

I would like to adapt the Dana 44 center section to either a late '70's Cadillac Eldorado or4x4 Chevy S10 CV half shafts, spindles, and control arms depending on the width of the Jag rear end. I am trying to come up with an outside wheel flange to flange width of 54.5" to 56" The Eldorado/Toronado inner CV joints to wheel flange is 20.5" and the S10 is 18.5". I would have to use a coil-over shock and I don't know whether to use inboard or outboard brakes.

I think that an adapter plate could be built to mate the Dana 44 stub axles to the CV joints without too much trouble?

After bolting on Mopar spindles and brakes to a Volvo 164 front suspension and bolting this into my 1800, there should be plenty of room for a Chevy V8.

They call me crazy, but I can't see why this can't work. Any information would be greatly appreciated.

[craggle]

Barge away mate!:thumb:
We are a friendly bunch around here and welcome anyone who's interested in cars and big engines.

I happen to have an old Jag diff sitting in my garage and it seems to be 14 inches between output flange faces.

That is a useful document you posted there about rebuilding the diff so thanks for that. I will keep it for any future reference.

Good luck with your project.

Craig.

[russell_ram]

But of course we don't use the Dana 44 IRS unit in our builds.

It was a (reasonably) rare alternative but totally different to the GKN 4H based unit we normally use. Jag fitted them to XJS V12 for a few years. Not sure why - alternate source or GKN supply problem (more likely it was cheaper than the GKN unit).

I believe it's totally interchangable though, so the width quoted should be about right.

Good thing is though that all the standard US upgrade Dana 44 gears, pinions and lockers etc should fit - so there are any number of ratios etc available that aren't for the GKN based one we use.

HTH

Russ

[Volvo Heretic]

Great! Thanks for the information, with the Eldorado suspension @ 20.5" x 2 = 41" + 14" center section = 55" is just perfect if a .5" adapter can be made to fit the two together. I guess bolt threw the stub axles into threaded holes in the adapter and threw the adapter into the CV joints.

What's a GKN unit and do I what one?

This all came about 30 years ago when I had my Volvo hubs and axles welded up and redrilled from the Volvo's 5x4.25" bolt pattern to 5x4.5" to attach my Weld Racing Draglite wheels and the machine shop got the lugs .10" out of round as you can see if you watch my You Tube video.

Luckily, the wheels are dual bolt pattern and will fit the Mopar 5x4.5 and GM 5x4.75" bolt patterns.

I thought of putting a complete Vette or Jag rear end in, but everything would have had to be shortened and I think the Eldo suspension will have better geometry.

I also tried to see if Dana could just supply me with some custom rear axle shafts to fit my Volvo made Dana 30 1031 live axle in the 5x4.5" bolt pattern, but Dana must have used 100 different bearing sizes and I can't seem to cross reference the Volvo's shafts. The Dana 30 also isn't strong enough for a V8.

Jeep made a Dana 44 live axle that would have been the right width, but offered it for part of one year only and I can't seem to find one.

To have had a live axle custom built cost about $2300, so I might as well go for the independent one which I hope will cost a LOT less.

If the car stays with a rebuilt-up 175 hp Volvo 6 cylinder, I what a 3.54:1 ratio. What would a guy want with say a 300 hp V8 and 5 speed?

Quarter mile is about 16 sec @ 90 mph and 6000 rpm in third gear and top speed is 120 mph @ 5000rmp in fourth with a 3.31:1 rear ratio.

The thing seemed fast enought 30 years ago, but I need to be able to keep up with every kid in a Honda and moms in a mini van.

[Purple AK]

Hi And Welcome :thumb: Personally I would go for a shortened Jag rearend as it must be simpler to keep it all the same. The 6 cylinder XJS should give you a 3.54 locker diff and 4.75" hubs

[Volvo Heretic]

I don't know how much power the second generation Eldorado shafts can handle, but if I had a lot of money and I was going to have a lot of horsepower, I would use early Cadillac Eldorado drivetrain parts which came with 400+ hp and 500+ lb/ft and was used in their GMC motor homes, but came in a 5x5" bolt pattern and bolt them up to this center section:



from Dutchman Motorsports:

http://www.dutchmanms.com/1_irsindy.html