need some help. Picking up 79 bronco axle

[tom_mcmullen006]

I am needing some help. I am picking up a 79 bronco front axle. I have a friend who will help me shorten the width to the same as the rear. My question is this. will my hubs from my current front axles swap to the bronco axle? I want to keep the same lug pattern up front as the rear since i bought some wheels i like and theyre all the factory explorer lug pattern. also. My leaf springs are under the rear axle. My buddy and I plan on flipping the springs for me and that should give me about 2 inch lift right? will that work out even with bronco front suspension/ f150 coils and shocks? Any and all help will be appreciated. thanks guys!

 

[Flip4ford]

I don't believe you can use the same hubs they are Dana 35-- and the bronco is Dana 34. You get about 4-5 inches of lift if you flip the rear springs. Your whole seering set up will need to be fabbed up and you need to make sure your gears match.

There are several post on here about doing a solid axle swap (SAS) You need to do a search and read through what others have done to save yourself allot of time and headaches.

 

[Freshmeat]

He meant to say the Bronco axle is a Dana 44.

 

[Foxracin]

Hubs will not work. D44 lug pattern will be 5 on 5.5

 

[Flip4ford]

OOPS meant Dana 44

 

[Elessar65]

I suggest starting HERE and reading as much as possible before doing anything. Research, research, research, do some planning, THEN start cutting and welding and grinding. Trust me.

 

[94Gexplorer]

for the rear flipping the springs will give you 5.5-6" of lift and you will need about the same for the front to clear the engine crossmember i think

 

[CodePoet]

yeah flipping the rear will give you somewhere in the 5-6" range. You will need to trim the x-member as well to clear it with that much lift. I'm running about the same amount of lift on mine.

I'd just leave the front full width and get a matching 9". I have maybe 400 in my 9" and it's got a full spool, 5.14 gears, and disk brakes. They're not hard to build. You can space the coil buckets out in the front pretty easy too so you can fit the full width front

If you do want to shorten you d44 you will need to remember that the axle has cast wedges. Here's some info on how to shorten it. Just scroll down a bit http://www.therangerstation.com/tech_library/narrowing_a_ford_dana44.htm

As far as shocks, when you get everything in measure it then go to the parts store and tell them the compressed and extended lengths and get what fits.