Dana 30 and a Ford 9" off a 68 Bronco

Hey everyone. My friends dad has a 68 Bronco with a Dana 30 and a Ford 9" on it. They have 4.10 gears and the 9" has posi. The truck has a 300 straight six, and a 4 speed on the column, that are supposed to work. He parked the truck about 2 years ago, and said that the axles wont need to be rebuilt or anything except for maybe new ball joints and U joints. He will sell me the entire truck for $500, but will not just sell me the axles. Is this a good price for a Dana 30 and a ford 9"? I figure that I could use the 9" in the rear and go SOA to give me another 5" of lift which would bring me up to about 9" with my double aal's and shackles. Then up front I figure that I will need longer coils and I can still use my 2" coil spacers. The dana 30 is nearly a bolt on installation isn't it, except that I would need to weld on new radius arm mounts; right? And the 9" should be a direct bolt on. What do you all think? Also, I would be able to run 35's with this setup wouldn't I? Are 4.10's low enough for 35's? I never do any real hard core offroading, or beat on the truck very badly.

Thanks,
Andy

 

[CONavajo]

Why don't you just keep the classic Bronco and make a sweet rig from it? Or is the body/frame trashed? Or are you planning on swapping the axles to your Ex and putting even better running gear under it?

Decent condition EB's are pretty valuable these days in the off road community BTW.

 

[XplorerKid]

and if i remember right the early bronc's d30 his drum brakes.....

 

[james t]

Throw the D30 in the trash, it is absolutely worthless. And before all the D30 SAS guys here jump my @ss, let me explain about the early bronco Dana 30-

Its got drum brakes, its low pinion, and it has the super tiny 260 ujoints in the shafts. You could get away with 35's on it on the street, but any trail usage locked with 35's will result in failure. Disk swap would be around $800, or $300-ish if you round up ebay parts. Not worth it.

The rear 9" isnt that great either. Its small bearing, 28 spline. For whatever reason, the 9" 28 spline shafts will handle abuse offroad- im still 28 spline in the rear and even with a spool and stupid driving i havent broken a rear shaft yet.

My opinion- buy the truck and fix it up if its worth it, but those axles arent worth swapping.

 

[audiodude332001]

Is it possible to use the drum brakes on the front of my explorer, or do I NEED to convert it to disc brakes?

 

[audiodude332001]

Why don't you just keep the classic Bronco and make a sweet rig from it? Or is the body/frame trashed?

Decent condition EB's are pretty valuable these days in the off road community BTW.

The body is really rusty, and not really worth fixing.

 

[XplorerKid]

I woudlnt suggest running the Drums upfront :thumbdwn:

Plus as James was saying(and listen to him he knows his stuff botu EB broncos) the D30 in it aint worth it......

 

[Robb]

You don't want the EB D30, plain and simple. There are many other better choices out there.

 

[audiodude332001]

Would a Dana 44 be a much better choice? Did they come with disc brakes? What vehicles came with a dana 44?

 

[james t]

EB 44's came with drums up to 75, 76-77 were discs. You can convert to discs using Chevy stuff for pretty cheap. Problem is, you're still stuck with the 260 Ujoint. You can run chevy D44 shafts and have the long side inner cut/resplined for a cheap solution to get the bigger 297 joint.

 

[glfredrick]

I've got an EB 44 and 9" for sale in the for sale section if anyone is interested...

 

[Brett]

Buy the truck and sell the doors for $500. If it's a 68 1/2 model (like mine) the doors will have removable window frames and inside door handles like 69-77. EB dudes go nuts for these doors. Only 1/2 year production - very hard to find.

Part the rest out on Ebay. All that little EB stuff is valuable.

BTW, the EB d30's are junk. Mine has a blown d30 - with a baseball sized hole in the front housing from some carrier parts. At the time this happened, it had 31's....