Solid Axle Swap BS Thread

Eric where did you buy your spools? I might go ahead and order one and save myself the trouble of replacing gears

 

ECGS for the front spool. The rear is actually a "mini" spool. It doesn't replace the carrier, I got it from JEGS for like $35. But, it's not as strong. I needed a real "spool" for the front since the locker ruined the carrier.

 

I welded the Rear because I don't see the point in wasting money on a mini spool or locker when I want an arb in there like I have in the front. It'll be worth the wait.

 

Anti squat up front isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's not like anti squat in the rear where the back of the rig will lift under acceleration. The front will essentially push the front tires into whatever obstacle you're on instead of lifting the vehicle.

 

Oh OK. So you think those are pretty acceptable numbers?

 

I used my Lincoln 180 Pro Mig with Crown Alloys 44-30 wire and standard C25 gas and a MAPP gas torch to preheat/post heat.

http://www.bakersgas.com/CRO-RS44_1F.html

Do you have an axle yet? I know my 87 Ford D60 center section welded nicely. I laid so much wire in there, it's not going anywhere.







When you shove a Dana 60 up there at full bump, you may find you won't have much room for a truss. My axle gets about 1/4-3/8" away from the oil pan at full stuff. I definitely wouldn't be able to have 6" of uptravel if I put a 79 Dana 60 in since the diff is more centered. The late 80's Dana 60 fits perfectly between the oil pan and frame. Super duty diffs are even more offset towards the frame so you might need to chop out some of that if you have a truss.

 

I think raising your panhard will raise the roll axis but raising the panhard also gives you less uptravel so you really have to see what fits your truck rather than stick to a set guideline in a computer program. You know where your steering box is and you know the panhard will in general have to follow the drag link for minimal bump steer. I literally get zero bump steer in my truck but my panhard and drag link are very close to the same length and angle.

 

Gotcha. I was asking because I couldn't find a full spool for the 8.4, only mini spools. I might just get another carrier and weld it

 

Your dropping serious $$$ on a link and coilover setup, go find someone with a stick welder, who knows what they are doing, get them some nickle rod and have them burn that shit on the right way. I could only guess how much that would suck to break the upper link mount off the pumpkin...

 

I welded an 8.4 carrier a while back and ran it with no issues still have it but have no use for it.

 

Wanna ship it? I'm guessing it's still 4.10's?

 

I actually am scrapping the D60 idea right now. It's just too much money. I wanted to bring new life to the truck and I think going to the coilover setup will help that situation. Besides if I was to get a D60 right now, I really need to get the 78/79 axle due to leaf spring width. I want a wider range of options and by linking it now I can use whatever axle I feel like (Hoping for a 05+ F450) when the time comes.

I couldn't afford to link AND ton swap so I chose the easier and cheaper of the two evils. Going to run the D44 with a 3 link for a couple more years.

Also, I don't have a draglink or steering box. Full hydro double ram FTMFW I can put that panhard where ever I feel like! I also have about 4" less uptravel than you will have considering the full hydro ram is in the way of my uptravel (5" @ 26" frame height) I do not feel like re-doing it as it's welded on there like a mother fucker and it was a decent amount of work to make it. I'll play around with it once I get it cut up.

Definitely going to stick to the truss idea because of the lack of access to proper welding material and I can't speak for my welder but... He's newerish (45acp) haha.

Mini spools are strong and super cheap too.

I agree, but It'll be way to difficult to find someone with the right stuff to do it. Running the truss idea eliminates that need and I can just do it with regular MIG

 

yeah it's still a 4.10 but I have nothing against shipping it.

 

I wouldn't have to setup the gears again going that route since it just goes in place of the spider gears right? Just reset the backlash?

I'm going to look more into the mini spools and I'll let you know.

 

Hell, but I put my mini spool in I didn't even re-do any backlash. However, the ford 9" has easy adjusters for the backlash and I set them back up exactly... Seems to work fine for me haha.

 

Haha idk how the 9" works but most toyota diffs have threaded adjusters on the sides so it's stupid easy.

 

Sexy

 

Such clean. Much shiny.

 

this is not one of those diffs. it is shimmed. and all you have to do if you do a mini spool is make sure you put the shims back on the correct sides. clean up the diff with some brake clean and just use a paint marker to mark where everything goes. pull the bearing cap the carrier mark your parts then unbolt the ring gear and hammer out the pin that holds the center pin in place (a short piece of welding rod works wonders for this) then pull the center pin and spiders replace with new parts and reverse the order.