my roommate has a bronco ii with a 8.8 and soon to be dana 35 ttb out of an explorer. he wants to put a 302 and 4.56 gears with 33's i dont think that the axholes will hold up. hes got a junk 78 bronco and im trying to convince him to swap the 44 and 9 inch. what do you guys think? i have a yota and dont know much about the 8.8 or 35 :)

If he already has the 9 and 44 then this should not be a question.
The 8.8 is plenty strong for 33's but again he can just use the axles from the 78 and go full with.

8.8 will hold up to 33s no prob. Mine's held up to 35s so far. Not so sure about that dana 35 though. A full width 44 and 9" in a BII would kick ass though. I've seen a few around here....

if it is a 28 spline 8.8 then i wouldn't expect it to hold up, due to the 302 he wants to put in.
The d35 will do alright unless he locks it up..

that said i am in the process of a f/w d44/9" swap in my ranger. I did EB width first, shoulda just done the f/w and been done with it.

The stock rear 8.8 in the 96 Bronco I had was rebuilt at 80k for a bac pinion bearing, it started making noise again at about 160k. I think it would be OK in a lighter truck though.

If its an Explorer 8.8, then its got 31 spline shafts. If so, it will hold up just fine to a V8 and 33's.

that said i am in the process of a f/w d44/9" swap in my ranger. I did EB width first, shoulda just done the f/w and been done with it.


shouldnt that be done by now :flipoff2:

Explorer 8.8 will hold up to 37s under a BII. It'll laugh at 33s. That D35 is hi-pinion and also wouldn't sweat it (although the locking hubs might, but there are replacements for those)

The only big reason I see for the 44/9 would be to go fullwidth.

it should be, but negative income the last two months has stopped all progress :(

still haven't wired the garage for the welder yet either, even though i got all the materials for free.