1986 Bronco SAS

[sshelly]

Iwant to sas a dana 44 straight axle into my 1986 ttb bronco. How much work is involved?

[onebadcherokee]

The search button is your friend.

[adrianspeeder]

There is a whole detailed forum for this on www.fullsizebronco.com

Adrianspeeder

[animator]

I learned everything I needed to know by searching this board alone. Go search and spend a few hours reading, then when you have more specific questions that aren't covered in any of the threads, then ask.


It's not an easy task, but it's not difficult, it all depends on your ability.

[rokdog03]

its easy

do it, its worth it, i have a 86 bronco with a 79 8 lug d44 with 79 bko suspension and it 10 times better than ttb

[Ramboss429]

If you go with leafs up front it is way easy. If you go with coils it is a lil tougher as you will have to fab a track bar. Either way it isn't that hard and well worth it. When you get into the swap let us know an we can help ya more!

[PROJECTJUNKIE]

You'll have to fab a panhard, maybe shock towers, maybe new radius arm drop brackets, but well worth it. I'm picking up a 79 F150 4x4 with a lift on it, let me know if you need any parts, I'm in Tucson.

[Lars915]

You'll have to fab a panhard, maybe shock towers, maybe new radius arm drop brackets, but well worth it. I'm picking up a 79 F150 4x4 with a lift on it, let me know if you need any parts, I'm in Tucson.

You don't have to fab any of this stuff, just the track bar bracket. Use a mid-80's F-350 drag link. Other than that it's all stock 77-79 F-150 or 78-79 Bronco. Not quite bolt in, but awful close.

[Jrod-13]

other than making a trackbar bracket, it basicly bolts right in.


However.. two BIG issues I ran into that most people don't is

1. external slave clutches
2. headers.

Both like to interfere with the front driveshaft.

[fordnut]

pretty easy swap biggest thing is fabbing trackbar bracket everything else is pretty close to bolt on. done broncos rangers and f150 all the best thing the truck ever had done.

[PROJECTJUNKIE]

You don't have to fab any of this stuff, just the track bar bracket. Use a mid-80's F-350 drag link. Other than that it's all stock 77-79 F-150 or 78-79 Bronco. Not quite bolt in, but awful close.
Never did much work on a ttb truck, are the radius arm brackets the same distance from the front end as a pre ttb truck? Are the spring towers centered over the axles? Is the steering box in the same location as a pre ttb truck? Any cross member interference?

[animator]

Never did much work on a ttb truck, are the radius arm brackets the same distance from the front end as a pre ttb truck? Are the spring towers centered over the axles? Is the steering box in the same location as a pre ttb truck? Any cross member interference?


No, the radius arms should be a little further back, the 78-79 arms are a bit longer than later model arms.

Springs are close to being centered, but my experience was that the springs towers are a bit further outward than the spring pads on the axle, or they are angled such that the springs angle outward a bit, meaning that you have to pull the springs inward to bolt up the axle to them.

Steering boxes on 78-79 are mounted on top of and to the outside of the framerail, where later models have them mounted on the inside of the framerail. I made that mistake when I ordered steering for a 78 axle, and ended up having to cut down the drag link and re-thread it to work with my 93 truck.

Crossmember clearance is an issue, and should be trimmed. I'm using 6" lift coils and initially didn't think it would need to be cut, but after hitting it while just driving down a bumpy road, it definitely needed a trim. I cut the front lip--the part that hangs down where PS lines are run--to be close to even with the bottom of my trac bar mount, which is mounted under the frame and ties into the crossmember, and I still need to trim a small section from the rear of the crossmember to allow diff clearance.

This was all on my 93.

[Jrod-13]

I moved the stock rad brackets back and reused them.

For steering a 79' F-150 tie rod, and 89' F-350 drag link works perfectly.