Ford Bronco Solid Axle Swap
My truck is a 1996 Ford Bronco XLT with a rebuilt 351 windsor as well as a rebuilt jasper transmission with about 50,000 on them, but the truck has 240,000 miles on the odometer. Before the swap it had a 4″ lift with 33″ tires and was my daily driver. After the swap I installed 6" deaver coil springs in the front, shackle flip in the rear with blocks, 4.56 ring and pinion, and 37″ tires.
Before I did the axle swapped I had 4.56 gearing in the rear and stock gearing in the front. So I figured instead of just swapping the gears in the good'ol TTB I decided to swap in a 1978 Ford Bronco Dana 44. The part gathering itself took exactly a year and the installation of the axle took about 3 weekends.
Here is a complete list of all of the major parts I had purchased, along with the prices, as well as where I had gotten them (let me know if the links do not work any more).
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1N6zo8X3LMVYtdglfI_negY66S4kDyzJakImWcB0GSNA/edit?usp=sharing
After dropping the TTB out of the Bronco we then proceeded to figure out where to mount the coil buckets. I used James Duff Coil buckets (only the uppers). We put one bolt through the bucket just incase the welds ever failed and then moved on to bringing out the 79 axle.
After rolling out the axle we attached the coil springs (in this picture I had 4" skyjacker spring installed) and hung the axle from the coil buckets. When you do that it allows the axle to center itself and is almost in spot where it will sit. You may need to make some adjustments for example mine had to be pushed forward just a little bit in order for the coil springs to sit straight.
*You will need to use the yoke off of the TTB and install it on the solid axle if you are using the stock TTB drive shaft.
Next up was to attach the radius arms. The way we did this was welding a piece of DOM tube to the stock radius arm and angling it inwards so they would sit directly under the frame. We then took a piece of ¼" flat steel along with ballistic tabs and made a U-bracket.
Then we proceed to get some ¼" flat stock and welded that from the radius arm to the DOM tube as well as put two ½" bolts on each side through the radius arm/flat stock just to be safe.
I also cut part of the cross member off and added a power steering cooler in front of my radiator.
The Final thing was putting the James Duff dual shock mounts in. I ended up bolting them and creating my own shocks tabs that attach to the radius arm. (Pictures to come).
Over all I am very happy with the axle swap and if I could do it again I would do it the exact same way. I just want to say thanks to Andrew, Steve, and Kyle for all of your guys help and knowledge. If you want to see my truck in action go tohttp://YouTube.com/KlinglerEnterprise I am going to start posting a lot more off road videos and will more than likely do a tour of my axle swap. If you have any questions feel free to ask me on my Facebook page,http://facebook.com/JPKINDUSTRIES, I will be more than happy to answer! Thanks for checking out the write up.
YouTube: http://YouTube.com/Jpk92
Online Store: http://JPKINDUSTRIES.bigcartel.com
Facebook: http://facebook.com/JPKINDUSTRIES
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