To be honest I've never heard of a 29-spline Dana 44 axle, and actually surprised somebody found reference to this on the internet....but doesn't mean they don't exist.
I would suspect the stock rear axle on an '83 CJ-7 to be a Model 20 which would have 29 spline axles. Some late '86 model CJ-7 had Dana 44's with 30-spline axles. Though on an older vehicle like that it's hard to tell what might have been swapped in over the years.
Take a look at the below picture and it shows a Model 20 vs. Dana 44 diff cover difference (both are on the top row).