I have a 1993 f150 flareside that i lifted 6 inches last year. I bought the lift from skyjacker for $1800. It included 6 inch lift springs both front and back, as well as extended radius arms. After all of that work and swapping 4.10's both front and rear I have decided to ditch the TTB Garbage suspension for the proven performance of the solid axle.

This is what the truck looks like now with the TTB 6 inch lift on 35's
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A few days ago i found a dana 44 out of a 1979 bronco on craigslist for $140 and picked it up two days later.
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I tore the axle down and this weekend ill be sandblasting the entire thing to get it ready for a fresh coat of paint.

In the mean time i have been compiling a list of parts id need to complete the swap.

So far i have purchased
Brake calipers-
Brake pads
new spindles
dana 44 master overhaul kit from jeffs bronco graveyard
4* c-bushings
4 inch lift coils from bds on JBG
New Ball joints.

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I painted the calipers with hi-temp engine enamel. I had painted my rear drums with the same paint and it held up great.

all thats left to get is lower coil spring pads and retainers
so far i have spent somewhere around 900-1000 total for all of the parts

I plan to reuse the hubs and rotors from the ttb. As well as the 4.10 gears.

I would really like to have extended radius arms for the swap but im not paying 500 plus for a pair so i plan on grafting the stock 1979 radius arm mounts into my extended ttb arms by notching the rectangular tubing to allow the c shaped mount to slide in and be welded solid.
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it should work out fine as long as i measure the angles carefully.

the only thing im not sure about is if the stock traction bar will work under my truck since it's not adjustable.

 

I would just get a 1979 adjustable track bar from Broncograveyard.com. That's what I got, they're like $150 or so.

EDIT:
I also run the a SAS adjustable drag link. Its adjustable and connects the 80-96 pitman arm to the solid axle tie rod. Got it from Jeff's Bronco Grave Yard, and yes there is a difference between the 70's pitman arm and 80-96.

 

That's a really good deal on the axle for what's there. I'd also suggest the adjustable track bar.
Really nice looking truck by the way. It's so weird to me, seeing a truck that isn't just rotted out like they all are up here in WI.

 

jeff's has both a drag link and trac bar?

also could you post some pictures of what setup you're running

 

The truck came from pennsylvania where rusted out trucks are pretty much the only thing you see. Lucky the guy who had it before me too really good care of it. Ive only had the truck for 4 or 5 years but i try to keep it looking good. Plus the fiberglass bedsides prevent common wheel well rust. Im from new jersey near the barnegat bay so the salty air gets to a lot of vehicles around here.

 

Yes, they have the drag link and track bar.

My setup:






I bought a drop 6" lift down pitman arm, what I wish I did was flip the tie rod over knuckle and just kept the factory pitman arm.

 

I've made some progress with my project over the past week. Ive been spending my time after work cleaning up and prepping the axle and other parts for paint and the axle rebuild.

I borrowed a small portable sand blaster from a friend and used it to clean the axle, knuckles, and caliper mounts. They came out great. Now they are all painted up and waiting to be put back together.






I removed the front axles and the third member from the TTB because It has the 4.09 gears i need to swap into the new axle. If my truck wasnt my dd id just take it all apart now but i need to be able to drive it.






I just bought a shop press and bearing splitter to help in the rebuild but i needed to weld up a base for pressing the carrier bearings off. it came out nice





The rest of the parts i ordered came the other day beside the new lift springs.

i'm going to be using my stock coil spring towers with the new axle. Has anyone had any problems doing this? I know some people say you should use the older style but some say the newer ones work fine.

 

Nice progress.

 

I sure would like to know what the final outcome of the build is?

I am thinking about something similar; however, I do a bit of towing so I would definately need to keep the front sway bar to limit roll. Does your new setup address that issue?

Thanks in advance

jc

 

Subscribed,
Interested in future progress photos

 

I like what you've done so far. Even though if I ever do this I'll go with Dana 60 front and rear, too much hassle to end up with something very similar (regarding strenght). But you really have done a great job, and everything looks extremelly nice.

 

I've been real busy over the past few weeks with work and family stuff so progress is slow.

Right now the front end of the truck is gutted and that ttb garbage is out of the way.





This was easy to do as i expected everything came right apart unlike last year when i was putting the lift on the first time.


once all of that was out i robbed the two axle halves of their hubs and rotors because they are a direct swap to the 1979 spindles.

I've also finished the gear swap and the complete rebuild of the axle i love the way the red calipers and diff cover look with it all done.







I had to buy new locking hubs because my old ones were damaged from water getting into the hub and sitting like that so i decided to try out Milemarker Premium Stainless hubs.



I like the way they are built and they seem just as good if new beefier than the warn premiums i have had before but only time will tell if they hold up.

I have run into a problem with my radius arm situation. Earlier today i attempted to cut up my ttb extended arms and weld in the cast c's from the stock arms i had.

This didnt work out well not only is the angle of the arms way off but they ended up being about the same length of stock arms so i ditched that idea.

Does anyone know where i can get radius arms for cheap. Im having no luck finding any near me. Also id like to have extended ones but for 500-700 for a pair thats not looking too good. If anyone could find me a used pair of arms extended or stock id appreciate it.

 

This is an awesome project. I need a tip here real bad. I own an 85 F150 300 inline 6 4speed/w 32's for now and a 9" out back with dana44 up front on coils. i need one of those adjustable track bar brackets. and what trac bar to get. I know i can use the adjust able drag linkage from 92-97 f350. and still need to do the brakes. but for free I'm doing good. I got nothing in cash into this truck and for that she's amazing.

 

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For the radius arms try your local scrap/salvage yards. Hopefully you have a 4x4 salvage yard near you. I just picked up a set with my dana 44 yesterday at Nuelle's 4x4 Salvage here in Missouri. They have one left. They were $50 a pop.

I'm doing this swap for my 93 F150 for good reason. The actual bracket that the Passenger side of the TTB attaches to snaped in half up top by the oil pan. Luckily it didn't get into the pan but naturally it needs to go... Could have had something to do with the 39.5's I have on it, but it was more likely the ditch that my truck ate. Yes the truck won by far.. 3 foot ditch, scared the crap outa me and my buddy but we drove away fine... **Note: be cautiouse in tall grass it made it look level** The truck was still drivable untill my wife ate a tree stump in it one night about a year later. It was only a crack until the stump.

I'm still in the parts collecting phase of the build tho. I've hit a snag finding any spring seats but I'm hopefull that I can fab something out of what I have on the TTB.

So far all I have is the axle, complete knuckle to knuckle, and the two stock radius arms for the 79 150 they came out of. I have to drop the gears in mine to so I'll be buying those soon. The downside is I have to drop the rear end gears too so mine will take some time to save up for.