I am having trouble with the rearend in this Jeep. From my understanding, this was the first Grand Cherokee to get the aluminum housing Dana 44. The Jeep has 96,000 miles on it and it is ready for it's fourth set of bearings. I contacted Currie enterprises because I wanted to replace it with a Ford 9 inch rearend. The Currie Rep told me he could build virtually any rearend for the Jeep with rear disc brakes but there is no way to mount the ABS sensors. The Jeep dealership has told me that they are not having any problems out the older Dana 44's with a steel housing but they can't tell me which Grand Cherokee's to look for in a junk yard. The dealership thinks all the steel housing rearends have drum brakes in the rear and therefore I have the same problem with the ABS sensors. Are there any other custom rearend manufactures that can solve my problem or is there possibly another Jeep I can swipe a steel housing rearend from? Love the Jeep - Hate the rearend! Any help will be grately appreciated.

Check out an explorer rear its a 9 inch with disk brakes you may have to move the perches though I read somewhere that you can make them work but you have to find like a 98 or newer I think  

all GCs with the 44 had AL center section! they were all problem prone. older GC with the 5.2 had an iron 35 that did fine. seams like any iron center section could be swaped in, if its a 4 channel abs (I cant remember if its 4 or 3 channel, 3 channel has ABS sensor in the diff, 4 has it at the wheels)

sound like you dealership should have got you a new axle the first time. the dealership I worked for did several

Initialy the TJ didn't have ABS with the 44, but it might have been an option later. The TJ uses an Iron 44

a TJ axle might be a direct swap in (right width and bolt patern, same type of suspension, but mounts might be a little off)

you may want to look at whatever got put into the durango (maybe a chysler axle, not danna) maybe narrow it, and slap some 5 link mounts on it.

I also have the 98 Grand Cherokee 5.9L and I also have rearend problems, took to dealership they told me flat out on 3 different occasions that "Jeeps just make noise" I still have yet to figure out what my probs are so I wish you good luck in your ventures if you figure out something that works let me know...By the way do you have any probs with your brakes at all?

Jeep Girl from Minnesota

Jeeps do not just "make noise" from the rear end, take a ride in another GC (either a brand new one or an older one with the 4.0) they might have on the lot.

I think the noise comes from the pinion moving around a little bit, because the aluminum isn't as ridgid or as strong as iron.

I know jeeps dont just make noise, but everytime I have brought it back to the dealership and took them for a ride thats what they told me. And now our Jeep dealership has sold itself out to some other co and honestly they all suck. I have taken it to a 4x4 place before and they are really good but they take way to damn long to figure out the prob. I dont really know that it is my rear end, I think my prob lies in my back brakes are consistently grabbing. Which I cant figure out why and quite frankly im sick of taking it to places and because im a girl they think im an idiot and they try and screw me over. So personally I would rather figure the prob out myself and fix it myself. Now all I have to do is figure out where my problems are coming from. Thanks for the advice tho. Is there a place to go to find out what are common problems with makes of vehicles???  

thanks pete...

jess