LanceD

here are some pics of my 95 Ford F350 front axle that I have finished rebuilding and welding the dodge brackets onto. the reason I am changing is to get rid of the CAD unit, its a Hi pinion axle, it has external locking hubs and serviceable bearings, and 35 spline inner axles! plus I can upgrade to 35 spline outers later on.

Mcmopar

Nice,

What else did you have to change? Where did you get the brackets to weld on?

LanceD

all I had to do was get some custom made brake lines because the fittings are different. and the brackets I got on ebay. I bought a old D44 from a 1500 for 60 bucks and had the seller hack them off the pumpkin for me. oh yeah and I have to shorten up my tie rod and drag link by a few inches

Mcmopar

What year did you use?

tool

Very interesting, this is the kind of mod I've been looking at since I am currently replacing my front hubs.

I'd love more info.

joefarmer

Looks awesome Lance! I may have missed it, but how do you plan on mounting the dodge 8 on 6.5" bolt pattern wheels on the Ford 8 on 170mm bolt pattern hub?

brandon.

G1625S

That's a great bit of work! Love the high pinion

ddestruel

"here are some pics of my 95 Ford F350 front axle..... "

there in lies the answer, 1998 brought about the existance of the metric 8 lug fords, 97 and earlier used a 8 on 6.5 pattern

very nice work. how much narrower etc. i am in the same boat but have a 1990 ford srw king pin dana 60 to play with thinking inline with what you did thanks for the pictures.

been reading that the kingpin doesnt make for as nice of an install as yours any thoughts or experiences. how about track bar angle and drag link angle are you just going to use the ford tie rod and drag link? then then weld on the trac bar bracket in relation to how the drag link sits?

joefarmer

Ah! I guess I need to read and retain more information over on pavementsucks.com.

branodn.

LanceD

the axle is about 1.75 inches shy of the one thats in there now, so if it makes that much of a difference I will just get some 1 inch spacers for the wheels. I made a custom tie rod and drag link for my dodge about a year ago using heim joints, so all I had to do is drill out the knuckles to 3/4 inch for them to bolt up to. other than that, I am going to have to shorten my tie rod and drag link by about 1.75 inches or so so they will line up good. I have a DT track bar and nothing is being changed with that, except when I put the coil bracket on, I welded the nut for the bolt that holds on the trackbar to the axle and I had to grind a little off the C to clear the nut. If you are going to put a kingpin axle in your truck you might want to check out this writeup: http://www.pavementsucks.com/tech/dana60swap.php it will probably help you alot.

DeanM

Great job

Dean

CTD NUT

Nice job Lance......that will be a slick and strong setup when it is in......

ddestruel,

How come you don't like the king pin setup?........I much prefer the knig pin setup because the only wearable part is the plastic bushing in the uppers and those seem to last for years........CTD's seem to tear through balljoints.

Haulin_in_Dixie

All this gets me excited..... Guess I should get that heavy ford front axle set up for mine if the differential is on the right side. Dana f70 should be pretty strong...

How did you line up the pads for the proper tilt of the axle? Locating the setup for the welding is what stumps me at this point.

LanceD

that was the hard part. I made a simple tool for checking the caster angle of my axle that is in my truck right now and then I measured the angle of the coil buckets in relation to the caster angle. then I set up my new axle on the jackstands at the same caster angle. After that I put the coil buckets on and adjusted the angle to match the other one and tacked them on. then I measured a bunch more. I also measured the distance between the coil buckets and made sure they were centered on the axle. here is the tool I made and the angle finder I used:
the tool is simply a piece of flat steel bar with 2 same length bolts welded to it.

I didn't even use the protractor on the left but I thought I might need it so I bought it too.

Rattlerattle

Looks nice.

So are the coil buckets the same for the 1500 through 3500?