Who makes a solid axle conversion kit for my '99 F-150, 4x4 Off Road pickup?

Had her out mud bogging tonite and the IFS just isn't worth the hassle to modify for extreme off roading.

Thanks

 

I believe Fabritech has a kit for it. Don't get that mixed up with fabtech though.

The kit can be purchased at www.broncograveyard.com

 

When you call the Graveyard, be sure to speak with Jeff. He is very cool and easy to talk to. I was just out there to weeks ago for a sweet early bronco show! It was awsome. Anyway, good luck with your conversion.

 

LMAO............go buy fabritech if you like paying 2-3 times what the kit is really worth. Least they include a container of vasolene with every purchase, it makes getting bent over by them a little easier. Now that being said, they're the only ones who make a premade SAS kit. Funny thing is you can do it yourself or have a shop build it for you for the same money or less and have a suspension thats 10x better than fabritech. Their quality on every kit of theirs I've seen is subpar at best. Alot of the brackets aren't braced properly and will break if actually wheeled. Now if you wanna get into the price. Almost $2000 for just the kit itself, and thats not including the axle. You gotta provide that yourself or buy one from them. If you wanna do this you gotta get 2 axles (D44 and 9" or 2 D60s) so you have matching bolt patterns. So now you're looking at $200-300 for a 78/79 D44 (you'll want those years since you get reverse rotation gears and disc brakes). Then after you buy the axle plan on rebuilding it will all new bearings and seals. Expect to pay $100-200 or better for that. Then decide what axle shafts you wanna run. If you wanna lock it and don't wanna replace shafts every time you wheel (or at least reduce the likelyhood of it) you're stuck with 33s. If you leave the front diff open then you can go up to 35s. Any bigger and you'll break left and right. So if you want the stock shafts you'll probably have to repalce the u-joints at $25-50 a pop. Then since this would most likely come from a boneyard you gotta rebuild all the brakes. You're looking at $300-400 for that. Then you get to gear and lock the axle (if you're going to this much trouble on an IFS vehicle you might as well lock the SOB) so there goes another $750 for gears and a locker if you go with a cheap lunchbox locker instead of a good full carrier which would put the price for that to $1000 or so. Then back to the tires. If you wanna run locked with bigger than 33s and don't wanna be constantly breaking you get to go out and buy a set of Warn alloy shafts and a set of CTM joints. This will run $1000 for the front axle alone and another $500 for the rear axle shafts. So just to setup the axle (this is separate from the fabritech kit so you get to pay this either way) is gonna run you in the $3000-3500 range depending on actual costs but thats just for the front axle alone. Then you get to pay another $100-200 for a matching 9", then gear and lock that for another $700 (run a full spool rear) and then the $500 for the matching alloy shafts if you went that route. Then you gotta buy fabritechs kit or do the fabbing yourself so you're talking more cash. Just to give you an idea of the fabbing you'd have to do. You need to remove and make a new front frame crossmember. The stock one is what the front suspension bolts to but that hangs down so far that you'll have clearance issues so you need to remove it and make a newer lower profile piece. Then you gotta either make or get some raduis arm mounts for the crossmember (78/79 F150 raduis arm crossmembers are perfect for this). Then you need to brace them up. Then you need to either find or make a tracbar mount and tracbar, as well as deal with the steering, but most of that can be gotten from a 78/79 F150 chasis. Then you gotta buy coils so thats another $150 for a pair. Bottom line you're talking $4000-5000 and up if you wanna do this swap. Thats the reason that I never did this swap on my 97. Its just too expensive and more pain in the *** than its worth. There are other better trucks to do this swap on. A 97+ 2wd is much easier than a 4x4, an 80-96 F150 is a breeze to do this swap on as well. Now I'm doing this swap on an 86 Ranger and I'm building everything myself and I'm only paying 1/4 of what fabritech wants for theirs, and my suspension will outflex and outlast theirs.

 

Why would you have to change the rear out? I thought the 78-79 bronco front end was similar. I researched this awhile back, I was really considering doing it. The front axle totally rebuilt to how I wanted it was going to be around 2000, and that was with having a shop do it all. I would save quite a bit by buying the parts from a junkyard and doing my own work. I agree that it is a lot of work and money. But, if it can be done right, I'll give major props.

 

97+ F150 bolt pattern is 5x135mm

96- F150/Bronco bolt pattern 5x5.5"


Unless you wanna keep 2 sets of wheels around and 2 spares I'd swap the rear axle. A 9" ain't really all that expensive. Biggest cost is going to be gears and locker. If you have a shop do it its gonna be expensive due to all the labor thats gonna be involved. You're going to drop $4000-5000 between axles and labor to have this done. Why not find a little older truck that would be easier and cheaper to do this on? The problem I saw with mine was that I can't justify spending that much money on a new truck like that only to take it out and beat on it. I guarantee you'll get body damage with that setup. If you don't then you're really lucky or you're not using the suspenion to its fullest and then whats the point. Find a cheap beater and then do the swap on that. You won't have to worry if its gonna make the drive to work on Monday and you don't care what it looks like. Thats why I got my 86 Ranger, I couldn't justify beating up such a new truck anymore.

 

I have been searching for a '78 or '79 F-150 or Bronco for a long time but haven't been able to find one in good shape. I was thinking that my '99 is paid for and we build all our own trucks so maybe i'd throw a solid axle under it. Also my buddy who made the cover of Petersen's 4 Wheel and Off-Road has alot of connectioins in the 4 wheel industry and we can get all our parts for cost.

I already had a Ford 9" sitting in the shop, I'd just need to find a Dana 44 for the front end.

Does anyone have the plans for making all the crossmembers and brackets for this conversion? If so, I'd greatly appreciate them.

 

Well, I still plan on building a 97+ truck with the straight axle, after I get out of school and have the money and time. I think it would be a fun project.

I was kind of wondering, could you use the front and rear axle out of a newer SD?

 

Yeah you could, but why????? Theres LOTS better axles to use than those, especially for what you'll pay for the newer axles. Some don't have the actual 2wd on them, just auto and 4wd positions on the hubs. They use weak top hat hubs. They use a metric bolt pattern which will make wheels a little more expensive. They also use leaf springs which would be a little tougher to swap in than it would be to swap in coils. Lastly most of the front axles are D50s up until about 2002 when they went to D60s in all SD trucks. Up until then you could only get the D60 in the F350 duallys. If you want to run D60s you want 78/79 F350 or the F250 snowfigher or 86-97 F350. They were MUCH MUCH better axles than the new SD axles as far as offroadability. The best axle is a 78/79 D60 since they're disc brake, king ping, reverse rotation, and long short side axle shafts. Basically the ideal axle.

 

Yea, those are some good points. I was just a little curious. Seemed kind of cool.

 

Well , just because of the Vaseline container included in the purchase and the many invasive uses it may have, I will never never, go there. I

 

alright i may be new to u guys but im not new to wheelin ive done the SAS before and i see a couple of problems......... if your wanting to lift the truck for serious wheelin then yes the IFS has no travel (useable) isn't reliable past a 33 and a locker will tear up the aluminum casing,cv's or hubs or etc....so your looking at a solid well heres one problem up travel the frame stays flatter around the front of the truck because of the A-arms mounting positions unlike the I beam trucks which is a breeze to do one on (i did it on a explorer) because the frame bends up around the front for clearance of the I beams .....so then u have to lift it higher to get the up travel u want and i see a D44 suggested well that's funny because i figure your going to have to lift it atleast 9" and a 33'' sure will look goofy in that wheel well ...now i ran 35's on my locked d44 but my x was lighter than are trucks so i would keep it to a 35 if u don't want a locker .....now u could run a Dana 50 out of a f250 and i think some f350's which is basically a D44 with d60 outers my buddy ran this axle on a ranger and he has had no problems with 35's and locker and he beats the crap out of it ....but if u wanted to go the cheaper route u could get axle shafts made from warnd for your 8.8 to match the bolt pattern of the d50 d60 or d44 . but all in all i agree with everyone else that it's too much money and i can't see myself running a new truck on 4 and 5 plus trails