Well, today is my birthday and I picked up the new front axle today (happy birthday to me!).

All I can say is WOW. forum/magazine/google photos do not do these things justice. It. Is. Freaking. HUGE.

I was going to attach pictures, but at the moment am too noob. I do I pull images off my hard drive to post? The insert image option only asks for a URL...

 

You have to upload the pics to a photo sharing site.

 

Or upload them into an album on your account here from your hard drive ans use the URL that's established once they're on here. That's what I do.

 

Thanks for the advice, I tried to upload to my album on f150 but it said there was as security token missing or some such non-since...so photobucket came through.



http://s1340.photobucket.com/user/je...g.html?filters[user]=139386236&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=1

 

Nope - you didn't do that right.

https://www.f150online.com/forums/qu...-pictures.html

Post #2.

Use the Testing 1-2-3 forum till you get it right.

 

Okay trying again...here it is day of purchase.




The thing is a monster. After getting it home in the bed of the truck I have some more body work to do...whoops. I've spent the last week piddling with it, tearing it down a bit at a time. I'm taking the knuckles off tomorrow and maybe cracking the pumpkin and checking out/removing the gears and axle shafts.

At that point I will have a good parts list, once everything is on order I will take axles, housing, diff cover, knuckles and spindles to local powder coat shop. I was quoted $200 for bead blast and paint...seemed reasonable to me. While I wait I will source the Sterling 10.5 for the rear and start it's tear down. I'll snap some pre-paint photos tomorrow and post.

 

There we go! Is that your truck? She looks pretty good to me as-is

 

Yup, thats her. But good enough is never good enough is it?

 

That powder coat price does seem good to me. I need (want) to get my chrome bumpers blasted and painted, but PC get the surface baked off/clouded in the Texas sun, so I can't use it on exposed pieces.

But nope, it never is. I can't seem to shrink my modifications list, even though I should be running out of things to do. I just love that body style. It's gonna be killer when it's all done. I'd love one with a fresh coat of paint, interior, and drivetrain with about as much lift as yours has now.

 

Hey fellas, thought I would check in here and update yall. Like any project, the goin is slower than anticipated. Between work and school I have had to steal time to bend some wrenches.

I have decided against powder coat despite the reasonable price. The local custom off-road shop convinced me Por 15 would be easier to maintain and that I'd be happier in the long run.

My plan for the way ahead:
-Next week: get the axle blasted/painted, buy the Sterling 10.5
-Finally figured out exactly where/when we are moving back east--Ohio/July. now to find the new garage for me and house for the wife.

 

Well parts continue to stream in, I have the locker, u-joints, ball joints, and seals. I still need the wheel hubs, rotors and pads. I received the radius arm brackets for a 4x2 but contacted the dealer again and we have agreed to swap for the 4x4.

I need your help! there is one joint remaining that I have been unable to locate. The parts guy at the dealer couldn't find a part number. I have circled it in this picture:


Any ideas?

 

I have no idea what that is, but posting again to keep up with this build. Try posting that in the suspension forum.

Glad to see you making progress!

 

Update!
Howdy, well all parts are located or purchased. Got the gear set in last week. Also got the parts back from sandblasting pic:

Saturday was a bummer, spent all week prepping for paint...marine clean wait a day for drying, Metal Ready and wait a day for drying. Friday arrives and I found out I had to work Saturday. All I wanted to do in the world was get to painting. Sunday (today) arrived and the wife and I got to work at 0700. This was the result:



The axle needs one more coat of POR-15 then I will spray with POR-15 Chassis Coat top coat.

I want to have the locker and gear set installed by the 15th.

Also found this thread over at Full size bronco:
http://www.fullsizebronco.com/forum/...d.php?t=162366

After reading I am relieved to hear that it is more or less as easy as I had thought!

 

Very nice!

 

Nothing is ever easy...
I took my freshly painted knuckles and newly acquired ball joints to a mechanic to have the joints pressed in. Learned that despite the axle housing being the same between F2/350s and F4/550s, the joints are not the same. Not even close. The F350 lower ball joint is nearly 1/2 smaller in diameter. Went to Napa and got some new ball joints $100+ more, brought them to the mechanic.
Went back today to pick them up and while waiting I noticed my steering knuckles on the bench...no ball joints. I'm starting to get annoyed. The mechanic finally gets to me and informs me that he doesn't have a ball joint press large enough to press the joints.
Soooo...I fold and take the knuckles and joints to my local ford dealer. They can't grasp the concept that the VIN for the axle differs from that of the truck it will be installed in. Once we work that out they quote me the price for ball joint replacement in a vehicle. I finally got out of there with a quote. What the first dude was going to charge me $20 for the dealer wants $100. What's worse is that I didn't have a choice. Damn dealers.

I talked with Randy at bulletproofsteering.com. Told him about my project, the man knows everything. Seriously, I learned more in that 45 minute phone call than I did in 2 months of interweb research. I will be going to them for custom steering components once I install the lift. Check 'em out sometime.

Based on Randy's advice I have decided not to install the stock track bar ball joint in the axle, instead I am having a ball joint shape milled out of solid 4340 chromoly bar stock. The premise is ball joints move and track bars should be rigid...sounded legit enough to me so I contacted a machine shop. I should get the rigid not-so-ball ball joint for around $300.

One last item to discuss today: Making up track bar distance created by the lift at the axle side, at the frame side or split the difference across both locations? Randy claimed it was better to make it up at the axle. His reasoning seemed sound: Frame flex is inevitable so why help it with added leverage at the track bar bracket. What are your thoughts?

Thanks for reading, I'll post again when I take the locker/ring and pinion in..getting closer!