Solid Axle Swap - truck is in the shop

[Mat R]

I dunno, I still think the leaf spring solid swap will be a little easier to pull off. i feel safe that I won't screw up the geometry of the axle, while dealing with coil springs is a little more tricky, because then you also have radius arms, and whatnot.

I figure I'll find and axle, have it trimmed to fit, and make some brackets for the leafs. That and the steering are the "hard parts" for me to deal with.

Mat

 

[tiessen]

Well, to answer your radius arm ques, I just bolted the brackets from the 79 Bronco (donor) right up to my frame, no mod's (well, a little nip and tuck). Caster can be adjusted in the C-bushings. Otherwise, grab a set of coils and bolt it in.

The steering is not hard. You need to shorten the tie rod (and rethread) and shorten the drag link and rethread to accept a tierod sleeve from your old steering. That way you can you a tierod end from your old steering to mount to the pitman arm and have an adjusting drag link. The Panhard bar can just be shortened but you will need to fab a bracket off the frame for it.

If you do go leafs you will have to grind off the C-bushing stuff on the axles before welding on spring perches. Or, if you can find a 3/4 ton Dana 44 from an F250, it will already have leafs.

Cheers

Dale

 

[Mat R]

Did you use the stock radius arms from the Bronco axle? You said that you just did a nip and tuck? Define nip and tuck. If it truly isn't that bad, maybe I will just have to try coils.

If I do a leaf swap, I will find an axle that was built to run leafs, that way I will just by all of the running gear, including the leafs since I might be able to use them... Hmmm... maybe I'll just kind of go with whatever I can find for a donor vehicle.

Now, if I was just out of college so that I could buy a car to use a daily driver and do all this cool stuff to my truck, THEN I would be set!

Mat

[Edited by Mat R on 11-26-2000 at 12:41 AM]

 

[Rick]

When you get an axle out of a leaf sprung Ford I would imagine that the spring perches will be spread to far apart to work on the Explorer.

 

[aphsu92XLT]

A couple questions

So I have a couple questions involving this swap, because I'm seriously looking into doing this in the near future. First off, I plan on keeping my coils, I want to find some prebuilt radius arms, so I need to find out what the dimensions on the axle are. Also, I'm guessing I'm going to use a 44 from an early(66-77) Bronco, right? Not the fullsize ones, but the early model, I'm assuming. Also, I need to know if that would fit the driveshaft and if I need any modifications to my driveshaft now. Lastly,for now, does this swap change the height of the ride using the same coils? I remember someone mentioning something like that. Thanks alot, I hope to get this done before the Truckhaven run, if I can.

 

[Mat R]

Ya, but my superlift 5.5 lift gave me practice at welding spring perches. I bet this time I'll get it right Which way is the shock supposed to go again?

Mat

 

[Kampy]

Ok Dale, you've peaked my curiosity so here's my list of questions.

How much did they shorten the axle?

Did you keep the track width the same?

How did they narrow it? Cut the end off or section and sleeve it in the middle?

How did they modify the coil buckets?

Do the Duff coils have better flex than the superlift coils and do you know what the rate is?

What needed to be done to the engine crossmember for clearance?

Thanks.

 

[Clint]

It seems to me that a leaf sprung front end would be cheaper and easier .Articulation,my willys uses wrangler springs with soa and drop down shackle's in the rear and it has way more flex than my explorer Iam not puting down my explorer but i could set the jeeps front wheel on my xplorers hood so if i do a swap its gonna have a nice set leaves sittin above the axle.now thats my 2 cents

 

[Rick]

Originally posted by CMartin91
Articulation,my willys uses wrangler springs with soa and drop down shackle's in the rear and it has way more flex than my explorer Iam not puting down my explorer but i could set the jeeps front wheel on my xplorers hood so if i do a swap its gonna have a nice set leaves sittin above the axle.now thats my 2 cents

A coil spring setup can be built with just as much articulation. I believe taking a coil sprung Explorer frontend and making it leaf sprung is like taking a step backwards. The ride quality isn't as good. If anything I would like coils all the way around like on McNeil's Explorer.

TJ's use coils all the way around, have more flex, out of the box than any of the older Wranglers, plus, they ride 100% better. There are now numerous kits on the market to replace Wrangler suspensions with coil over setups, I don't think you'll ever see a TJ owner swap his coils for leaf springs.

Coils front & leafs rear

[Edited by Rick on 11-26-2000 at 04:56 PM]

 

[Clint]

I guess since my explorer is a daily driver it would be better to stick with coils so u won that one but if i do even more custom set up on the j#@p i would stay with leaves .

 

[Clint]

Top ten truck challenge how many of those trucks and jeeps had leaf springs front and rear but on an exlorer Iam going to stay with coils if i ever get the money to do it.The reason i was thinking leaf spring is its way cheaper but i have driven my jeep on the road and the ride sucks but thats not what i was going for so it worked out that is for my jeep.

[Edited by CMartin91 on 11-26-2000 at 05:47 PM]

 

[tiessen]

How much did they shorten the axle? I can find out exactly, but they shortened it to Early Bronco specs.

Did you keep the track width the same? Early Bronco, about 2 in wider. 60" instead of 58" I think.

How did they narrow it? Cut the end off or section and sleeve it in the middle? The housing was pulled from the diff and cut, re pressed into the diff and welded back in place. The inner R side axle was cut in the center, tapered on both ends and re-welded. Supposed to be stronger than resplining and comes with a warranty. The axle is now the same dimensions as a R side inner EB axle, so a replacement is not custom. Just buy a HD (297x ujoint) axle shaft.

How did they modify the coil buckets? They were heated and bent to fit. Afterwards, the shop said it would be easy to built new buckets...

Do the Duff coils have better flex than the superlift coils and do you know what the rate is? Duff coils are WAY better. Superlift coils are 450lbs/in and the Duff are progressive, 175lbs/in then 350 lbs/in. They ride quite nice on the road.

What needed to be done to the engine crossmember for clearance? See pics of Rick's swap.

They nip and tuck for the radius arm brackets was on the passenger side. The drivers side bolts right up, the passenger side requires a bit of cutting to make it fit.

Also, the coil perches were moved back about 1" to put the axle a little forward and make the coils line up nicely.

I just got back from running some really tough trails (see the IRC club at http://www.island4x4.com) and the truck performed awesome. Even the J**pers were impressed (when I walked up stuff they couldn't...HA).

Cheers

Dale

 

[Paul Gagnon]

Looks great Dale. I will have to crawl around under your truck when I come down there at Christmas.

 

[riffman]

Got any more pics there big fella?