Jeep CJ-7 Unexpected Rear End DISASTER!

It's Jeep season as WELL as Hot Rod season and this gorgeous example of a 1986 Jeep CJ7 comes to us with smattering of issues, and it turns out the biggest one isn't even something that was on our radar originally! Well that's the life of a real world hot rod shop, figure out what's going on and why, and fix it.
This year of Jeep CJ-7 is an interesting one, where they came in both Model 20 rear ends as well as Dana 44s, depending on build time. Ours as you'll quickly see is a Model 20, with some major issues!

[@terryeustice5399]

Pretty clean for almost a 40 year old Jeep. Thanks for taking us along this repair.
💯👊👍

[@peterkovacs8654]

Survivor CJ! Nice!

[@davidgough1161]

Nice jeep! the only thing I know about these is I put a TBI 350 and a 5 speed from a z car with the factory transfer case in on in the mid 90's, dead reliable and couldn't stop it. really cool Jeep!

[@dw1370]

Nice CJ7 in good shape

[@grayhawk-bh6bw]

One piece axle shafts are a normal upgrade also..

[@WiSeNhEiMeR-1369]

Thanks for the JEEP content ...
COOP
...

[@user-hi2ev7ug4l]

Another one from back in the day ..put gas in...nice buggy....good content and thanks 🔧👍

[@darrel3043]

My 1986 CJ7 came with 5 speed and Dana 44 rear.

[@mikeburnett7028]

Hey Austin, did you get your power tour route yet?

[@WiSeNhEiMeR-1369]

??? no REPLACEMENT on the Leaf Spring "short" WEDGES ???
COOP
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[@davebliss6124]

Could use a hand with that axel!

[@WiSeNhEiMeR-1369]

DANA rear ends in a CJ-7 ???
I had no idea that JEEP returned to the DANA setup
1976 went to AMC MODEL-20 car junk with Axle & HUB bolt-together
COOP
...

[@richardlucore6813]

AMC ran out of model 20 rears, so they bought dana 44 rears to finish production. It's pretty rare to see the 44 in the last year of the CJ.