Originally Posted By ahy
I would think the D44, like the 8.75, would hold up fine in a cornering application until you combine lots of HP, really sticky tires, a manual transmission and hard launches.

I don't know about fit, and impact on the driveshaft and angles... but you could get disk brakes for low cost that way. Otherwise, I would (and did) stick with the 8.75. It serves me well with ~590 HP and ~680 ft lb torque and manual transmission... with 200 TW tires. I'm just concerned If I switch to 50 TW tires, it will let go on hard launch.

My understanding, the D44's used in Vipers were heavily beefed with special alloy parts and much stronger than the SUV version. With 50 TW track tires or slicks, I would guess a hard launch would break a Viper D44 also. That's probably why Viper drag racers switch to a D60.


The aluminum D44 from the ZJ Grand Cherokee uses the same internals as the Viper D-44. The only time Viper guys ever seem to go away from the D-44 is when they ditch the IFS. There are 1200 HP Vipers using the stock D-44 rear axle. As for fitment it has the same 5 on 4.5" pattern and is 59.5" wide WMS to WMS so it is a perfect fit for my 70 Bird clone


99 Ram 2500 QCSB V-10 Stepside
72 Magnum Marine 27' Twin 5.9 Magnums
70 A-100 Sportsman /6
67 Coronet R/T 440
66 Charger 470
53 Plymouth Suburban flathead T-5