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Solid axle ?'s

No. Another Navajo was done before.

As for an update:

more :hammer: and :D and :bounce:.

Slowly getting there!
 



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Hi Tom

Tom, I have a friend in Livermore that owns an automotive machine shop. TECH Machine...I can probably get some good deals if you ever need your d44 discs turned or rods threaded or the like :)

He quoted me for turning my front discs....FREE!!! I just have to do it myself on a Saturday when he works @ the shop.
 






Hm.. I just decided to replace my rotors/hubs. For $75, you can get a replacement hub, with brand new rotor, brand new bearing races, seal surfaces, and studs, all put together. (autozone!)

So, for about $225, I've got completely brand new brakes on the front. (hubs, bearings, seals, rotors, calipers, pads)

Not too bad.

As for the tie rods/draglink/trackbar, we've got a machine shop right next door, that has the tools to cut and thread them.

One of these three already has an adjuster on it (tie rod?).

The trackbar appears to be the same thickness as the tierod, so I can use the same adjuster on it.

The draglink appears to be thicker than the d35 balljoint, so I'm pondering that one.
 






Cool beans man! Looks good. Just a thought, would'nt RA drop brackets help with the curving of the coils? I'm not sure if you can use your old Super Lift RA brackets. I've been tinkering with the idea of a solid swap, it's good to see all the input from everyone. The muddy water is getting clearer! :D
 






Two reasons for the coil doing what's it doing:

1) not enough drop on the radius arms. No, the superlift are NOT the answer. They have less drop than the factory drop brackets from a 78/79.

2) The coils are 1" too far forward on these mounts. I'm going to make new ones someday, but these are good enough for the moment. (can you tell I want to drive it? :))
 






Quick question - what u-joint does the drive shaft and pinion use?

Is it stock, or something else?
 






I had to use some funny combination u-joint. 2 different sizes.
 






Update!!!!

Hehehee..

http://dweeb.lbl.gov/~tdavis/pics/solid/completed

forklift.jpg


What, only a 32 on the forklift scale?
 






Tom you look a mess!!!
And here I thought you were a suit and tie kind of guy. he,he
The straight axle is looking good.
Looking forward to seeing it in person.
 






Looks good, Tom, I'm jealous. My truck is sitting on jackstands in the driveway, waiting on parts :( A few questions:

did the brake lines from the Explorer fit into the D44? Or did you go with another brakeline setup? How many inches did you cut from the drag link and track bar? exactly which bolt was it that you used as a reference point for the passenger side radius arm bracket, formerly of the transmission crossmember? How did you fab up the new transmission crossmember? That's it for now, I'll have more later...
 






Originally posted by Mudd*****
Looks good, Tom, I'm jealous. My truck is sitting on jackstands in the driveway, waiting on parts :( A few questions:

hehehe.. jack stands. I have to jack it up, take off the wheels, and let it back down to get jackstands to touch the frame. What a royal pain! :)


did the brake lines from the Explorer fit into the D44? Or did you go with another brakeline setup? How many inches did you cut from the drag link and track bar? exactly which bolt was it that you used as a reference point for the passenger side radius arm bracket, formerly of the transmission crossmember? How did you fab up the new transmission crossmember? That's it for now, I'll have more later...

I have skyjacker 6" extended brake lines on the front; they bolted right up to the d44 brakes, and actually have almost too much slack in them!

Inches cut - hm, I can give you my final measurements. From what I can tell, my draglink is too long by about 1/4". I welded a d35 ball joint on to it. Also, if your cutting down 6", my measurements will be wrong. (I cut down 6-3/8") Also, since the only adjustment in the d44 steering is the toe-in, and the d44 steering components cost a small fortune, and would still have to be cut down, I've decided to order a trailready bullet proof steering system in the next few days.

The bolt: On the passenger side, the Reference Point Bolt is the bottom bolt that holds on the crossmember. It's on the side of the frame.; there are two bolts there, one about 2/3rds the way up the frame. They are also attached together. The radius arm bracket bolts right up to the bottom one, and gives perfect axle placement. On the drivers side, I drilled a hole in the radius arm bracket that's about 1/2" farther up, and used the same hole/bolt as what held the transmission crossmember on that side. You can measure from the axle to the radius arm bracket; make sure it's the same on both sides. Get a titanium drill bit; it will last much longer than a cobalt, and it's worth it. Frame Steel dulls drill bits FAST.

Transmission crossmember - We cut it, and welded the crossmember to the radius arm bracket.
 






Thanks Tom, one of these days I will be done and will stop asking you questions! I had the same problem with the jackstands. Then I went and bought some 6 ton jackstands that reach up far enough. here's another question: which locker did you end up going with in the front?
 






Originally posted by Mudd*****
here's another question: which locker did you end up going with in the front?

d44 ARB.

much beefier than the d35 ARB.
 






Does it bump steer?

Nope. Went flying over a set of railroad tracks at 45mph - and no steering correction was needed.

But, in that one picture, your drag link and trackbar angles don't match up!

Silly, that only applies when the truck is level. Look at the first picture with the truck hood open. The track bar and draglink line up!

So what is wrong with the steering?

Well, the drag link is slightly too long, and the tie rod is also slightly too long.

But, because these parts are expensive in the first place, and I'd still have to cut down good pieces, I'm ordering new steering from Performance Products. (? got to check on this one - same place kampy/riffman got their steering from).

How did you get the trackbar to align up?

Simple. I used the trackbar mount from the donor 78 bronco. I cut the shock mount part off, and bolted it to the frame using a the bolt next to the shock/spring tower, and the top bolt hole in the trackbar mount. We then welded along the side and bottom to keep it from moving.

The truck is positioned perfectly; There is *no* tension on the trackbar when the vehicle is on level ground.

So what did you start with?

My navajo had a Superlift 5.5" lift kit, with Superrunner Steering, and Superrunner Extended Radius Arms.

What I reused from the Superrunner kit was:

a) the coils
b) the pitman arm
c) one d35 ball joint, for the pitman arm.
d) left the rear SOA kit in place.

In the back, I have OME 2.5" springs.

In the front, they are 5.5" Superlift coils (113, not the 133's). The coil adapters are simply blocks of 2x4 square tubing, 3/8" thick. I drilled two holes, that matched the original radius arm coil mount holes. I then drilled another hole, 3/4" in size, that I placed the coil stud from the old radius arms. Presto, instant coil adapter, with 2" of lift. With the 1/4" height gained from the d44 solid axle, I now have a total of 7.75" of lift in the front, and 8" of lift in back.

Wow! What did it all cost you?

Well, I overpaid for the d44 axle; but it was a complete axle, with radius arms, mounts, track bar mount, coil pads, rotors, calipers, hubs, and steering.

I got a set of rear axles from dutchman - cost, about $300 with shipping.

I replaced the rotors, calipers, caliper pads, bearings and seals for about $250 (autozone).

I cut the axle down, which cost me $150 for machine work on the tube, and $65 for cutting down the axle (dutchman, includes shipping)

The front d44 now has an ARB in it, with 4.88 gears; we also re-geared the rear 8.8, replaced the axles, swapped from drum brakes to disk brakes, and new cover (T/A cover). All this added about another $1500 to the cost.

Did you replace the C-bushings?

Not yet - I'm not 100% sure they need to be replaced yet.

What are the radius arm bushings? Did you use poly, or rubber?

Hey, this vehicle needs to flex. So, no poly for that spot; they are rubber.
 






More flex shots:

trail-flex.jpg


and

trail-flex-2.jpg
 






looks flextastic
 






Well, I figured something bad had to break; (a brake line is simple.)

Found it this morning at the alignment shop.

The frame rail where we welded the trackbar bracket to ripped!

Sounds famaliar rick? :)

That one gets more work now.
 












All pics to date are here

Got new software, that allows me to setup slide shows really easy.

You can see the bolt holes I used for reference on the passenger side.

Also - correct cut down size is 5.85" to get an EB axle into the long side of a 78/79 d44 axle housing. Found it on Dead Link Removed

for more information. ie:

right side, inner:

71-77 bronco - 28.06"
78-79 fullsize - 33.91"

33.91-28.06 = 5.85 inches.

left side, inner:

71-77 bronco - 18.31"
78-79 fullsize - 18.91"

18.91-18.31 = .6 inches

for a total of 5.85+.6 = 6.45" difference.

The outers are identical on all years.

Ryan - I'll look at the shims.
 



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u-joint found!

Found the right u-joint for the front driveshaft.

It's a neapco 1-0134HD, spicer 5-134x, rockford K134, precision 253/275/353. According to this chart:

Dead Link Removed
 






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