F-150 8.8 Swap?

[mounty71]

Bummer. I was hoping to not have to go through a gear swap again. Major headache the last time. Where did you find that chart?

 

[mounty71]

Once again bumping this because I need a little more clarification. A friend of mine has an 8.8 in his '99 F150 that he may not be using, and it has disc brakes. I read through this thread twice just now but I'm still a bit unsure of a couple of things. I'm keeping the 5x4.5 bolt pattern, so aside from re-drilling the axle shafts to that bolt pattern and machining down the hub surface to fit an Explorer rotor/wheel, could I just replace the F150 disc brake parts with Explorer disc brake parts? Steve, did you have clearance issues with the disc brakes because the axle originally had drum brakes? So in other words, with a '97+ axle would you still have run into the same problem?

 

[Stic-o]

Once again bumping this because I need a little more clarification. A friend of mine has an 8.8 in his '99 F150 that he may not be using, and it has disc brakes. I read through this thread twice just now but I'm still a bit unsure of a couple of things. I'm keeping the 5x4.5 bolt pattern, so aside from re-drilling the axle shafts to that bolt pattern and machining down the hub surface to fit an Explorer rotor/wheel, could I just replace the F150 disc brake parts with Explorer disc brake parts? Steve, did you have clearance issues with the disc brakes because the axle originally had drum brakes? So in other words, with a '97+ axle would you still have run into the same problem?

The '97 150 discs are 13" vs.the 11" explorers. So not sure just swapping brakes would work. Plus your talking new custom shafts to match the ex pattern. Lot of work to keep a housing. The aadvantage of the older axle is availability of off the shelf parts. There were some spacing issues with the rotors but nothing some washers didn't fix. Everything is just really tight, but doable.

 

[mounty71]

The '97 150 discs are 13" vs.the 11" explorers. So not sure just swapping brakes would work. Plus your talking new custom shafts to match the ex pattern.

I was thinking along with the caliper mounts, swap the explorer rotors on also once the new bolt pattern is drilled in the axles. I was wondering if the spacing issues you experienced with an older drum 8.8 would also be seen on a newer one, since the newer one already has disc brakes on it, just larger discs.

 

[mounty71]

Well I decided to go ahead with this swap since my stock rear end started whining really badly. I had the shafts machined to keep a 5x4.5" bolt pattern though. Turns out I don't have any interference between the back of the axle flanges/studs and any of the parking brake components. I did have a bit of trouble getting the c-clips on the shafts for some reason and getting the shafts to spread back out and getting the pin to turn around, but once I did that there is plenty of clearance. I did also grind down one part of the parking brake lever and the back of the studs on one shaft in anticipation of interference, but there ended up not being any.

Picture for proof:

So basically, except for machining the shafts and cutting off the Bronco spring perches and shock mounts, it's a bolt on swap. I didn't even need to modify brake lines at all, I just stretched the stock hardline a bit. Will have more pictures when I finish.

 

[Stic-o]

 

[mounty71]

Oh ya, and I had the flange turned down to avoid interfering with the bevel inside the brake rotor parking brake area, so I didn't need to use washers either. Been driving it to work the past 3 days and it drives just like it did before. Here's a picture for others to see how it looks under the truck.

 

[Kirby N.]

So you had the axle flanges on the fw 8.8 turned down to fit in the stock rotors and this got everything working correctly? I saw a thread on the full size bronco forum where a guy did this and then drilled his rotors to the 5 on 5.5 pattern. Everything was bolt on then. If this is what you did I think I will be going that route.

 

[mounty71]

Correct, I thought it made much more sense to modify the axle shafts instead of the rotors, so i can still get over the counter rotors when I need to. I'm also not planning to change the front wheel bolt pattern.