Building the ultimate Dana 44?

[4.3LXJ]

So, time to start putting parts together. One nice thing about modern D44s as opposed to older ones is that you no longer have to put shims between the carrier and bearing.
dana has gone to outboard shims which makes it very easy to add and subtract shims to move the carrier. Another issue is that with the JK gears, you have to bore the holes out for the ring gear bolts to accommodate 1/2" bolts instead of 38". I found a local machinist that does a lot of work for local street rod clubs. Another issue is that you have to use the 3.73 and down carrier due to greater ring gear thickness. So I built a spreader bar to spread the housing and just slip the carrier in.