Driving to breakfast yesterday in the RC, and the drivers side front wheel bearing let go. Got it tore apart this morning, and I'm wondering what my options are. One thing, is that I don't have much experience with 4WD or axles. It's a Dana 44. What's the most cost effective way to go? Take it out and to a shop for rebuild? Where is a good resource for parts? How available are the parts?

What year is it? Does it have locking hubs, or 'full time 4x4'? I have no idea if they changed designs over the years of Ramcharger production, but my '76 wasn't all that hard to do. Just take it apart, slide the bearings out, and new ones in and reassemble.

If the bearings were really bad, you may need a new rotor as well. If the inner race spun, the new bearings will be loose on the rotor and they won't last very long, you will be doing it again.

Getting the inner races off the rotors is the hardest part of the job. Gene

It's a 1975, full time. I've been looking at video's, still figuring out what I need.

I'd say it was pretty bad, as the wheel practically fell off. The nut had less than one turn holding it on, and there were NO bearings left on the outer. Don't know yet if the spindle is hurt, caliper looks OK, but it was about to fall off too. One of the pads fell out driving it off the tow truck.

Wouldn't be surprised if the knuckle itself AND spindle are now toast, so you might want to locate a spindle, knuckle with the 6 bolt retainer too.

locating a spindle shouldn't be difficult. A lot of guys will almost give the full time d44's away because they swap it out for the more favorable part time axle or the d60. There is a YouTube video that shows how to change the bearings.

Ok, time to show some more ignorance. I thought you could add locking hubs, and an NP205 or a "part time" kit, and get part time. Is that true?

I've found some D44's on CL, but none for my app yet.

You have some options . I have done the fulltime to partime swap on two different late seventies trucks, and kept the 4 1/2" bolt circle by using the expensive, and I'm sure by now, hard to find kit. You had to be careful of which partime 203 case kit to use. 205 is much better, and so is swapping outer knuckles to 5 1/2 " bolt circle that became standard after 79 on the 4x4's. I believe you could still use your pre 80 axle housing too. Not positive on that, but someone here must have done it.

Got some time on it tonight. The spindle and 6 bolt retainer are toast. Knuckle looks ok from what I can tell. So where is a good place to find these parts? Not the usual places I know to go.

And at this point, I'm just gonna fix and run what I got. Upgrades will be for another day.

try this site...there are several available on the west coast http://car-part.com/

There was a kit to convert to Hubs.I did mine on my 79 Ramcharger.The kit was in a 73 I bought.Ther was a bearing you had to install in the case also.Been like 25 years since I did the swap though.I know if the knuckles are even a bit bad they will eat new bearings.had to replace one set twice.Then i got a good used knuckle.Rocky