I have a '75 F250 4x4 with the captioned axle up front. I am interested in upgrading to disc brakes. I was wondering if the knuckles can be removed from the housing and replace with open knuckles with discs? Is there a better, or cheaper way to upgrade to disc brakes in the front with this axle?

 

all i know is the closed knuckle axle is relatively weak compared an open knuckle.....if you have the bucks scrap it for a dana 60 from an 350 of around the same year....or if not a later open knuckle high pinion dana 44 from a 250, they'll have disc brakes on them anyway and alot more torque compacity,


and of course take a measuring tape with you to the junk yard so you know what width you need... i.e. spring pad to spring pad, lug to lug.

 

I have to disagree with the statement that closed knuckles are weaker than an open knuckle. I ran a closed knuckle 44 with 40" tire 4.88 gears and a powerlock on a 7000 lb wheeler for years. Here is the catcher It was an hd 44. There were two different closed knuckle front axle in 44 form and one more in 60 form. The small closed knuckle ( about the size of a softball) Will take a disk brake conversion. the large 44 and the 60 Share the same outers(about the size of a volleyball) These as far as I know will not take a disk brake conversion unless you were going to run something like 20" wheels. Even at that it would still be an all custom job. I would never trade a hd 44 for a standard open knuckle on strength characteristics alone. The hd 44 will win every time. But it does have many downfalls. Parts availability is one major issue. The large hd 44 axle shafts aren't avail new and the used ones are getting hard to find. The small wimpy ones are avail new ( actually they are an open knuckle shaft that will fit). Another issue is the drum brakes. Yea they suck!! But it beats changing axle shafts every time you put it into 4wd. Now if you don't wheel this thing real hard then you can't beat an open knuckle disk brake high pinion 44. Just don't abuse it and expect it to hold up. So I guess my opinion is if your going to wheel it hard stay with the HD 44 until you can upgrade to a 60 or a 70 front axle . Yea you might have to live with drum brakes a little while longer but the money you save can be put towards your open knuckle disk braked Dana 60. Just my 2 cents.

 

Thanks guys. Won't be wheeling this real hard. Most "abuse" will be as a tow rig for my real wheeler. That and weekend lumber yard runs. I was thinking of discs because of the towing duty.

 

the heavy duty verision came in both open and closed knuckle, they're on high gvw f250s

 

I just dropped my rig off this weekend at the gear shop to have 3.54's installed front and back, I told the guy that I eventually wanted a D60 front, he asked all that I would be using the truck for, he basically said that the HD44 closed knucked was esensially a D60 with samller pumpkin/ring gear. He said that the axles and bearings were relitively the same size and that was a great strong axle combo and that I should keep it. Would like to have disc brakes though, if anybody knows how this can be done, let us know.

Thanks

 

Bushman,
I would not poo-poo the 44 HP open knuckle too much. I put one in my '75 F250 4x4. With a slightly bombed 6.9, (well about as far as it could be w/o a turbo) I amost ripped the center out of the clutch jerking on a chain. Axle held.

 

I just got a 71 f250 4X4 with closed front dana 44 axle. I think it is the smaller of the two knuckles. Is tis an ok axle for erneral driving and light 4x4ing? I want to swap to power disc brakes. Any idea if it can be done and what I need to change? The GVW is I believe around 6600 lbs. Thanks. Charley