All,

With the 38's on my bronco, the turning radius is horrible. I'm thinking about getting a 9" and 44 from an F150. I'll keep the 3rd member from the rear and the gears and lockers from the front, sell my axles and buy new, longer ones for the new housings. Sound good so far?

So how much work am I looking at? The F150's have the same front setup as the EB's. So will I need to move the ears on the axles? Any other gotchas? Thanks guys for the info.

Oh yeah, :flipoff2: I did a search.

-Jack

Not a lot of work but it will probably be a couple of weekends. Make sure the front end you get has the C-busy wedges you can grind off. A lot of the later HP44's came with the knuckle ends and the wedges as a cast single piece unit. Moving them in is no big deal and you might have to move the axel panhard mount, agian easy to do. Don't forget to ream the knuckle on top and do the GM style tie rod over while you have everything apart. The rear is a snap, don't forget when your moving the spring perches to tilt it up to help with pinion clearance.

Thanks FM. Will the HP front end be compatible with my carrier and gears and all other internals from my existing 44?

And that's a hell yeah about the knuckle reaming. I did that to my existing front end and it's real nice.

What do you think about Wheel spacers?

why would a wider front axle help your turning radius? the EB front axle should have a pretty tight radius... are your stops adjusted correctly? I have 28.5x 14.50's on 10" wheels on my EB and my turning radius is almost like stock...almost...

I have some 1978 F150 axles under my rig. I did run into some issues. The wedges have to be cut and moved in. The RC housing also got in the way of my exhaust. I went and got some stock 5.0 headers and am readoing the exhaust. In all honesty, I would call Mike Ladd up in Chico at Bent and Twisted and ahve him do all the cutting the rewelding of the c-busihngs. Mike has done a lot of these and can do it in his sleep. If you are gonna do it, do it right.

Call mike at 530-342-3003 Tell him Dimitri sent you

Dimitri

Originally posted by TexasTeadrinker
why would a wider front axle help your turning radius? the EB front axle should have a pretty tight radius... are your stops adjusted correctly? I have 28.5x 14.50's on 10" wheels on my EB and my turning radius is almost like stock...almost...

I suspect his problem is the narrow track is causeing the tires to rub the radius arms. the wider F-150 will allow the tires more room to clear the arms.


Eric

Alpo nailed it. I think I'm gonna try some wheel spacers to start with. Several people on the BroncoFix mail list recommended them. A lot cheaper and easier than the housings. I'll post up on how they work out.

-Jack

I've got some spacers I'm getting ready to sell. they are 1.5 from samsoffroad.com If your interested give me a holler. you will still be 2.5 narrower than a full width overall.

No your front gears will not fit in a HP axle. The locker will however. I am planning on swaping the 3rd member since it is not worth much (spool & 4.56's) and running the stock axles front and rear, until I have problems with breaking them. I hope to make quite abit of money on the swap. ;)

There are alot of guys that have done this swap and they are very willing to help walk you through it.

Finding a front axle has been my biggest challange so far. Ideally you would want a 76/77 with disc brakes. The 78/79 and later stay away from. It is a ridicoulous design. 73-75 had drum and you can use your bronco disc brakes if you like. the mounting is higher for the steering anyways.
Good luck, Jake

Jake

Thanks for the info Jake. I'm going to start keeping an eye out.

PM me with what you want for the spacers. I still don't know which way I want to go. But the spacers would be a lot less work.

How wide are the full width axles? 65" WMS to WMS? I know I could search but f it. If you know off the top of your head, let me know.

yeah the wms is supposed to be 65.5 on the 1/2 ton stuff.

Originally posted by IronBenderII
Thanks FM. Will the HP front end be compatible with my carrier and gears and all other internals from my existing 44?

And that's a hell yeah about the knuckle reaming. I did that to my existing front end and it's real nice.

What do you think about Wheel spacers?

You'll be able to re-use your carrier, but will need new gears as your current ones are not reverse cut.

if the c's on the axle have to be cut off...how are they re welded on? are new ones welded on? if so where do you get them at? iv been wondering how people do this...so im askin...thanks

Duff sells them for like $80 a pair.

I had Mike Ladd take care of the whole thing. You really can't go wrong with him. If you want full width, have mike take care of you.

Dimtiri