complete axle swap

[Foul Al]

i'm thinking of swaping my axles from an 84 f-250 into my 79' bronco, i looked at the truck's and the front axle looks like it won't fit with the engine cradle.( if thats what its called-engine cradle?) does anyone know if it will just bolt in or do i need additional hardware?

the 84' has a 460 complete drivetrain and it's free to me.

 

[Broncobill78]

Ok, now don't get me wrong here, because I say this with a grin, but I have to ask. Have you completely lost your freaking mind ??? You have a 79' Bronco, the 78/79's are pretty much the *ultimate* bronco setups having a solid V8, a *very* tough C6, an INDESTRUCTABLE NP205 *gear-driven* transfer case, a 9" rear axle and a D44 solid front axle. This is a combination that results in a toughness and durability that modern trucks can only *aspire* to match. The 78/79's pretty much set the standard, and you're looking to SWAP your existing straight axle D44 for what has to be either a D44IFS-HD or a D50 ?!?!?! Have you gotten off your medication ?

Swapping in the 460 is an excellent idea, but stop right there & sell the rest of it as a rolling chassis or maybe score the D60 rear end out of it and swap THAT into the Bronco, but changing a 79' over to an IFS front end is like putting a Yugo engine into your Ferrari. I can promise you right now you'll never hear the end of it at cruise-nights or on trail rides. You'll be the guy with the truck everyone's pointing at and giggling. If you've got a woody to swap axles then find a D60 front end from the junkyard, swap in the 460 & D60 rear from the free-to-you F250 and THEN you'll have yourself one badass Bronco, but right now you're going in the other direction.

78/79's don't have engine cradle's. I'm guessing that what you're looking at is the front crossmember. Regardless, a swap like that would involve *quite* a bit of work, cutting & fabricating. Even if there WERE some merit to the swap it would be a *whole* bunch of work. The frames are completely different, the IFS mounting points simply don't exist on the 79' and the whole job would pretty much consist of custom fabrication. The only axle you want to swap that D44 for is a D60.

 

[bidibronco]

Hey, if you just want the axle and it's a "free to you" type o' deal, can I have the engine/tranny/tcase and that rear axle? I have to agree with broncobill, if I ever had it my way to do over again I would've gotten a 78/79 for the SOLE FACTOR OF THE SOLID AXLE. I think I may have found a d60 for the front as well but the 44 would be fine for my offroading or lack there of. Do us a favor, look them both over while making around 18 emties and trowing them at both rigs, then let us know what you decide...

 

[Foul Al]

Hey, if you just want the axle and it's a "free to you" type o' deal, can I have the engine/tranny/tcase and that rear axle? I have to agree with broncobill, if I ever had it my way to do over again I would've gotten a 78/79 for the SOLE FACTOR OF THE SOLID AXLE. I think I may have found a d60 for the front as well but the 44 would be fine for my offroading or lack there of. Do us a favor, look them both over while making around 18 emties and trowing them at both rigs, then let us know what you decide...

thanks for the advise bill and i think i just might do that. i'm no gear genius by no means, but will that rear work well with the c6 or do i have to do some work on that as well?? and as for the rest of the truck it is available for a small fee. and i mean small. i'm in PA. so it will have to be picked up.

 

[80dad]

thanks for the advise bill and i think i just might do that. i'm no gear genius by no means, but will that rear work well with the c6 or do i have to do some work on that as well?? and as for the rest of the truck it is available for a small fee. and i mean small. i'm in PA. so it will have to be picked up.

arent all f250 4x4's solid frt axles? i thought only 1/2 tons etc were twin i beam etc

 

[Broncobill78]

Nope, All F-series trucks & Bronco's were switched over to TTB axles in the 1980 changeover. The 250's usually got either a D44IFS-HD or a D50, but 79' was the last year that you could but a solid front-axle F-truck or Bronco. F150's & Broncos were coil sprung & the 250's & 350's ran on leafs but that was the only design carryover.

 

[gibs0n06]

ok thats wrong not all f series got TTB the F350 stuck with solid axles up front at least every 350 i have seen is solid from 80 to current they never went TTB on the f350 and up becasue i was gunna do a swap from a 350 to a 250 so i could have solid axle up front and get rid of the crappy TTB but never ended up doing it and took the 250 to the scrapper

 

[Broncobill78]

/emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" /> Good call. That's one of those freaky things that Ford did. Ok, here's the real deal. From 80'-85' Ford put the TTB axle under the F350's (if you doubt it just ck any factory manual from that period), *however* in 86' they started putting the straight axle D60 back under them again (go figure, who the f*ck knows why). From 86'-91' it was possible to get a straight axle F350 but from 80'-85' and from 91' onward they were TTB. It's one of those squirrly things that they did for no apparent reason, other than to maybe use up existing stocks of D60's. Everything *except* some 86'-91' F350's is a TTB. If there's anyone out there who knows WHY Ford went this way please clue us in, inquiring minds want to know.

Since the original post was regarding an 84' TTB donor I didn't feel the need to get into all of the strangness surrounding the issue, but since you brought it up I figured some clarification was in order.

 

[Ric]

Broncobill78 are you still monitoring this forum, I have a question I'd like to ask you

 

[miesk5]

Yo Ric,

Welcome!

Bill hasn't logged in here since October 7, 2009.

Ask any questions anyway, someone may have an answer.

Al

• October 7, 200