solid axle swap

[danielsimmons5]

I 'm loking into Fabritech's solid axle swap for my 89 bronco(12" of course) I would like to hear from any one who's bought one . I want 1ton axles but too much $. do I have to remove leaf spring perches to install 3/4 ton front axle?

exactly what axles will work ?antything solid right?

 

[Broncoholics]

Yeah and keeping the pumpkin on the drivers side. You can cut and reweld the perches where needed on the axle so it lignes up with your 89 Bronco frame rails. The drivers side axle is shorter than the passenger side so there isn't tons of room for the perch. You will end up centering the axle with an adjustable trac bar (axle to frame).

F250 & F350's have the same axle in rear or close (D60 or D70). The front F250 will be a HPD44 and the F350 is a HPD60 in most cases. Its nice to have the high pinion but the D44 sounds a bit weak for you. Above you mentioned 12"? Sounds like you plan on running some big meats.

 

[danielsimmons5]

Yeah and keeping the pumpkin on the drivers side.  You can cut and reweld the perches where needed on the axle so it lignes up with your 89 Bronco frame rails. The drivers side axle is shorter than the passenger side so there isn't tons of room for the perch. You will end up centering the axle with an adjustable trac bar (axle to frame).F250 & F350's have the same axle in rear or close (D60 or D70). The front F250 will be a HPD44 and the F350 is a HPD60 in most cases. Its nice to have the high pinion but the D44 sounds a bit weak for you.  Above you mentioned 12"? Sounds like you plan on running some big meats.

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[danielsimmons5]

why would i re weld the perches ? I'm switching to the c- bushing radius arms that come with the kit. what about the drivers side perch thats cast into the diff housing? yes I want to run 40's.

 

[Broncoholics]

I should have read thru what I was typing. I can see that was confusing.

Better off to save for a D60 running 40's. I run 38's and snap D44 axles.

What I meant to say is you cut off the leaf spring perches from the D60 and buy the axle wedges from most any Bronco vendor and weld them on.

You tell them what axle you have (D60) and are using D44 c-bushings and radius arms. This way they give you the correct wedge thats already shaved down due to the increased size of the D60 tube. Your D44 stuff bolts right up.

What we did on a friends was bolt everything up with the axle wedges loose on the axle tube. This way we could tighten up the c-bushings to install the coils, radius arms, tires and still rotate the axle to get the correct pinion angle and check for level. Its not easy we used a 4' pipe wrench to rotate. Make sure no jack is under there so the truck is sitting where its going to be. Make sure the radius arms are bolted to the frame end before starting all this.

You want to make sure the wedges are equal in height up/down placement on axle. If one heads down hill or up hill slightly the Bronco will have a lean problem on one side

Tack weld the wedges in place (space between c-bushings) once everything is measured out equal. Side to side locations of the wedges doesn't matter so much. Take everything apart and weld those wedges on real good, reinstall. You can get a conversion u-joint if you don't have the cash right away for a new driveline. 1330/1350. Or 1310/1330 in some cases.

If you end up doing a HPD44 from the F250 get some good chromoly shafts and the Yukon u-joints or CTM's. You can also get a larger yoke.

 

[ocalabronco]

save your money and dont get the fabritech kit. its a waste of money. essentially, you are paying over 1500 bucks for some brackets and radius arms that would cost you a whopping total of 150 bucks to make. the only part you really need a welder for is the track bar mount, and even that can be made to bolt on. do alot more research, familiarize yourself as much as you can with your suspension, both the current and future setups, and learn as much as you can before you start removing parts. Not just anything solid will work. it has to be driverside drop on the pumpkin, high pinion axles are more favorable, and make sure you think about the appropriate gearing before you undertake this. doing an SAS ain't hard, but it is technical

 

[johnski]

I 'm loking into Fabritech's solid axle swap for my 89 bronco(12" of course) I would like to hear from any one who's bought one . I want 1ton axles but too much $. do I have to remove leaf spring perches to install 3/4 ton front axle? exactly what axles will work ?antything solid right?

30407[/snapback]

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All you answers are here: http://fullsizebronco.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=29