what would stop an 8.8 from being hi pinion? i recently decided to put one in my tj and when i cut off alll the brackets i figured what would stop this thing from being hi pinion? i have even seen reverse cut gears for this axle, is it posible???

it all depends on the center section. You can't just flip your low pinion center section over and hope that it will work as a high pinion.

right now the pumpkin is offset about 3 inches to the one right side. could i just do everything backwards?

The offset is so the drive shaft does not have a bend in it - as it goes
into the diff - if you just flip it - without adjusting the tube length
then it will be offset too far to one side - off by six inches on a 61
in axle is bad...

Most of the diffs I have seen will not just flip - you have to adjust the
tube lengths - axle lengths- and figure out the gears - and the oiling
mechanism for the pinion bearing. If you do not move the tubes then
the brake brackets will be backwards and upside down.

good point. i guess i was just getting ahead of myself during this project, but it didnt hurt to ask

Another thing to keep in mind is that your ring gear has a power side and a coast side to the teeth. If you were to flip a center section over, you will trying to put your power on the coast side of your ring gear, which will severly shorten the ring gear's lifespan.

hey man thanks a lot for the info. i think its gonna stay a low pinion for now

If you are into wrenching/building - doing a rear axle is the
easiest to learn on - I did one a year ago with a chop saw,
mig welder, plasma torch, and hand tools, angle finder, mics
etc. I did a standard diff - since I did my own work on all
of it - all I paid for was parts - and I got a D-44 rear axle with
all my high strength goodies for 1500 - including a used locker
, gears, and RE bracket set, new track bar, and new brakes, etc.

My biggest bill was for the locker, then the brakes, and then
the gears and RE bracket set. Used extra strong tubes and put
my own re-enforcing brackets on - would have cost me 3500+
if I had gone through one of the custom builders.

I started with a donor axle I got off craigs list for 120 ...

that is exactly what im doing now. i started out with an 8.8 complete with brakes from the local junkyard for $100, which was a steal! i got home and throughout the same day cut cut off all the old brackets, thanks to my dad who showed me how to use a torch!!! boy was that fun! i rebuilt the calipers, bought new pads, got the e-brakes working, pulled the old bearings and seals, so now im just waiting on the new alloys!!

The 8.8 is supposed to be a good upgrade for the D-35 rear - just don't try to flip it. If you are doing your own work you can put all the skid and re-enforcing brackets on it that you want and the
issue of the reverse cut becomes a non-issue.

My axle had heavy tubes from a truck so I had to
upgrade the bearings cut the tubes to the correct length - not much of a problem - but i screwed up the tube ends and had to buy two new ones - cost me 68 each - Not a big hit but I was
learning.

Make sure that you have a good model axle - I had a working D-44 from another jeep - so you can get all your angles and positions correct.

My RE bracket set was BIG and I had to play with the spring bucket position a few times to get a
postion that would fit the axle brackets and shock locations correctly.

In the end I was seventeen degrees forward of the stock axle.

I loaded the axle - after tacking - three times
before I got the upper arms to fit so they did not hit any thing - but I got an extra four inches of travel by playing with it for a weekend - actually two - the track bar bracket
was shot so I really got some major payback from getting it positions 90 degrees strait up.

On my new Unlimited this is going to be the
very first thing I do - too many painful lessons
on geometry ... (Dana-60) Just have to figure out what to do about the ABS ...

Once I had all the brackets and tubes welded I took the axle to
a shop to have them check the tube to be sure it was strait - cost
me 120 and an afternoon of time - was worth it - I had the brackets
tacked and they welded them up while it was there so we could be
sure the re-enforcing brackets did not bend the tubes - one did
and it was aligned and fixed in a few minutes - worth the time
because ARB lockers do not like tubes that are out of alignment.