I have a friend who has a 96' f150 with a 6" lift and wants a solid axle conversion with a dana 44. ill cut the basic questions, what all is required for the swap? Do they make a kit out there? I will be doing all the work, so thats not a problem.

 

I don't know much about pre '97s, but didn't they come with a solid axle dana 44?

 

As far as I know there are no kits out there, so you will be fabbing up a lot of the parts yourself. I have seen that body style truck with straight axle conversions and I like it. I would first start with getting the right springs and make sure that the axle that he is going to be using is in preety good shape. You are going to have to swap the gears out to something that will match both front and rear. You will also have to deal with steering issues b/c the steering on his IFS wont work with the straight axle. Also you will want to beef up the frame where, especially where you are mounting the springs to it, maybe a couple more cross memebers or something like that. You will need at best a new front drive shaft, maybe some bigger brakes with a larger capacity master cylynder. This is by no means a complete list, it is just somewhere to start. I did a conversion on an 93 Silverado but I got a kit from Off Road Unlimited. You should call them and see if they might have some info on a company that manufactures a kit for the F150. It would be far cheaper to sell the F150 and buy a F250 or 350, but it sounds like you are set on the conversion, so by all means go for it and keep us posted.

 

I am preety sure that they came with the TTB front end.

 

I am preety sure that they came with the TTB front end, which was Fords answer to the Chevy's IFS.

 

lol if they did, we wouldnt have this problem, but i found a kit from broncograveyard.com for 1800 minus the axle, we will look around and find a 44 with 355's in it so we dont have to swap them, id like to find a cheaper kit though if possible...

 

Me and a buddy did this on his 88 bronco2. Big pain in the *** but alot of fun. First day we cut out all of the "crap" Then we got all kinds of steel, 3x3 angle iron, chromoly shaft and went to town. We started with an axle out of a 79 bronco. Big no no, They have the huge radius arms on them and we spent the better part of a day grinding those off in order to weld on some perches. The steering isnt bad if you know what you wanna do. If the F150 is lifted try to find someway to do crossover, if not invest in a dual stabalizer. And now is a good time to think of shock hoops. Ill stop now and ask What is the truck gonna be used for DD?

 

Actually, it's not too bad. I did it on my Bronco. You will need the axle from a late 70's F-150/Bronco and make sure that it has disc brakes. You will need the lift springs for a 70-79 model F-150. The swap is supposed to add an additional 2" of lift in the front, so if the truck doesn't sit level and you want another couple of inches of front stick with the 6" springs for the 70's. Some people say that the upper springs buckets need to be changed but I didn't need to with my swap. You can use the OEM bracket for the driver side pivet as a track bar bracket as I did. You just need to remove it and relocate it near the steering box. You may be able to use your current drop backets and OEM radius arm brackets on the solid axle arms. You will just need to relocate them further back on the frame. As for steering, just buy the linkage for the late 70's model and bolt it up. You will need a welder, air hammer, chisels, drill and bits, and a plumb bob at a bare minimum. There are a few web pages that go thru the whole procedure with pics. I that it was fun and not too difficult. I only have a few things that I wuold like different but just for a quick swap it performs well. http://www.fullsizebronco.com/forum/...ad.php?t=44462 <--- Is a good site to refer to.