axle swap

[rgchak]

I have a '91 Bronco and was thinking of swapping a newer (2000 - 2004) F-150 differential with factory disc brakes in place of my stock 8.8. Has anyone tried this?

 

[Elmo]

I havent done it or seen it done. But provided the speed sensors are there for the abs to work it should be doable

 

[Krafty]

the only issue I can think of with this is your bolt patterns will be different with the 98 to 2003 axle, they use a 135mm pattern and the old 5x5.5 works out to about 137mm so you will have to run two sets of rims or wheel adapters on either front or back.

you will also want to look at spring spacings, and shock locations to ensure they are the same. I know in 2004 and up they moved the shocks outside the frame rails.

GL

 

[Seabronc]

Ditto on what Krafty said. The wheels on a 2003 axle are hub centric where the 93 the are lug centric. Nobody makes an adapter that could adapt your front wheels from lug to hub centric. That's not a big deal as long as you are willing to live with two different wheel styles. If you get the wheels with the 2003 axle, they will prob ably be 16 or 17 inch and you can get either 16s or 17s in the 5.5 pattern for the front from LMC truck. Jeff's Bronco Graveyard offers a hub to disc conversion kit.

Good luck,

P.S.

If you do it, take lots of pictures. It would be an interesting "How To" build posting.

 

[rgchak]

Good Point about the conversion to metric, I didn't think about that. The 8.8 was used from '83 to 2010 and Yukon sells an axle drilled for multiple lug patterns, YA F880039. It's listed for use in the Bronco '83-'96 and F150 '83 - 2010. So if I buy a newer differential with factory rear discs from a F150 ( I've seen them listed for around $500) I might be able to swap axles with my '91 Bronco or buy axles from Yukon to retain the standard bolt pattern. Thanks for the responses.