1 ton front and rear axles

[Bronco_Willis]

Ok so tomorrow I am heading out to take a look at some 1 ton axels for my 87 bronco. The year of the axles is 88. I have been trying to research and find out, but I'm lost. Am I going to be able to get away with swapping out the axles? I have never done this on a bronco before, but on a car it was ****. Same thing?

Also, will I need to bump up my tranny and transfer case? The ones I have are stock with the 87 bronco.

 

[Yardape]

The rear is easy, just remove the 8.8 and bolt in the 10.25 the front is a different story. This will take a bit of fabrication. You will have to decide if you want to use coils like a 79 Bronco or Leafs from the donor. This will also lift your rig about 4.5 inches. With that lift comes another problem, your driveshaft will hit the T-case crossmember, so you will need to build one or modify yours. Your rear end has a pinion ****** to mount to the driveshaft whereas the 10.25 will have a pinion yoke. So some creative thinking is in order here.

 

[Bronco_Willis]

Will I be able to take the drive shaft from the 1 ton and use it?

 

[Justshootme84]

BWillis, we can discuss this in chat, JSM84

Idid the same thing on my 84 Bronco, using the drivetrain from an 88 F-350. There is a brief listing in the SAS sticky at the head page of this forum to read. The F-350 driveshafts will not work. They use larger u-joints and are not the right length. You'll curse the stock TTB set-up after you do this swap, JSM84

 

[Bronco_Willis]

What a better route to go, coils or leafs in the front?

 

[Yardape]

Coils would probably be easier, but you will need a kit. I think Cage offroad should have everything you need. Be a bit more expensive but easy. I chose to go with leaf springs, never costed anything but my time. I was able to do it with parts I had laying around. And my welder of course.

 

[Bronco_Willis]

Well I was not able to head out and look at the axles this evening. But I talked to the guy on the phone and he will let me have them for $100 a piece. Which means I will have money left over to rebuild them!!!

Now will this affect my tranny or T-case in anyway?

 

[Justshootme84]

you can use the stock tranny/ t-case but will have to figure something out for the driveshafts, since the 1-ton axles use larger u-joints than the bronco. i tried swapping just the slip joints between driveshafts ,but that won't work. Either need to swap out the yokes to fit what you have or have new driveshafts made. I made my own from square tubing

 

[Yardape]

Are the u-joints themselves bigger or just the cups? I know on one Bronco we were able to just use bigger cups to fit the larger yoke size but I cant remember what the reason was.

 

[Justshootme84]

the Sterling 10.25" rear has a bigger u-joint. the Dana60 front just has the slightly larger cup than the bronco ones.