Bronco or F-150 D44?

[greenbeer]

A friend of mine was telling me that I shoulnd'nt use a 78-79 Bronco Dana 44 on my SAS conversion, because unlike the F-150 D44, they have cast iron sleeves over the axle tubes. He says this would make it difficult to weld on. I want to dissagree with him about the tubes because the Bronco is based on the F-150, so why would they have different housings? Anybody have any thoughts?


Bryan

 

[jimbo74]

i am not sure which ones have the cast housing, its the bronco or the f150 but i can assure that one of them does have the cast housing and not the welded on ones liek the otehr axle..... i do beleive your friend is right though... from what i remember about it, only use the one with cast perches if you are going to stay full width, then you dont have to mess with them at all....

 

[greenbeer]

Would'nt it be too wide if I kept it full width? Most people seem to lean towards cutting 6 inchs or so.

 

[jimbo74]

too wide is a relative term... most people trim the 6" to fit within the wheel wells, but if i had a trail truck that i was going to do an sas to, i could fix that with fender flairs and offset rims and it would look fine.....

 

[DB_1]

78/79 Bronco's I know for sure have the cast wedges on them...pass side track bar mount and wedges are all a one piece cast unit. The tube does NOT go through the cast piece. Most people that cut down these axles cut out 6" out of the long side (in the middle) then sleeve and re-weld it. It works and is still strong and probably the easiest way to do it.
Welding to any cast steel is tricky unless you know what you are doing, the cast you are welding to must be properly heated to accept the weld.

 

[NOTAJP]

If you keep the axle full width, the suspension will not line up with the frame and make the SAS very difficult.

 

[Felix]

I am using a 78 bronco axle for my sas.

It is heavier piont blank. the reason is the way the full size bronco is build. As it has a shorter wheel base and most had the 351m/400 which makes the weight ratios on the axles higher than the f150's. The axle tube is 3" and the cast wedges are sleaved over the tube insted of just welded on the sides. Also the short side (driver side) inner axle shaft is 1 inch longer than the early bronco axles. Currie enterprises cut the 5 13/16 inches out of the center of the long side of the axle for me to make it accept 66-77 Bronco inner axle shaft. Then they sleaved the inside and rose bud welded it back together. if you look in the thread link in my sig you will see some close up shots of the splice welds.

I am not saying that you should look high and low for or only accept a 78/79 bronco axle just letting you know the difference between them. the big thing is the 78/79 bronco and i think all f150 axles are high pinion. I like this cause it gets you drive shaft and pinion angles in better shape. this also gets your drive shaft up and further from harms way.

hope this helps

 

[james t]

Just an FYI- all 78-79 bronco and F150 D44's are the same. All have high pinion, and all are cast radius arm mounts. There is no difference between the big bronco and truck axles.

If you plan on keeping it fullwidth and going with the coil/radius arm setup, then the SAS can be done fairly easy. Look to Msupertek's SAS thread. You just need to outboard the radius arm mounts on the frame... and space the upper coilmounts out a bit.

 

[greenbeer]

Thanks guys. On Saturday i'm going pick up a 79 Bronco D44 with 3.50 gears. After that begins the fun. I want to finish this project by spring, so wish me luck!

 

[Felix]

good luck . I just got done working on mine tonight and all that is left is the track bar. It is so good to see it sittin on all four tires again.

 

[IZwack]

What about f-250 axles? do they have casted wedges too?