Hey guys I know way back when we had discussed the rear end conversions to disk breaks. I know some guys liked the idea/conversion and some weren't a big fan. I've been driving my 88 F250 4x4 I6 more as a plow truck lately. The need for a locker or LSD in my open diff rear end has become apparent. I was wondering if I could use a newer axle off a 99+ F250/F350??

From what I can remember there are kits to weld onto your rear axle to convert over to rear disks but then you don't get a parking break (i've got a manual so I'd like to have that). So instead of choping up my old axle, buying the conversion kit, and doing a locker install... I was wondering if the 99 axles were rear disks and if they were LSD's? A simple axle swap from the 10.25 to the 10.5 Sterling would be easier and quicker to do...

Thoughts???

 

You do get a parking brake with rear discs.. at least on the kits I have seen, the central hub of the rotor forms a small drum and there is a pair of cable activated brake pads in there.
I don't know that the wheel bolt pattern ever changed on the bigger axles so swapping in a later axle should be pretty straight forward.

 

The bolt pattern changed to metric in '98.

 

OK so I just did a little search because I was curious if they just started using metric measurements for the same bolt pattern or if it went metric and the spacing also changed. Looks like the '99+ axle is 8x170mm which equals 6.69" while the older 10.25 axle is 8x6.5".

 

Yeah and we discussed this a while back too. The rear (caddy eldorado) disks is what people were using and there was some heated discussion about whether or not the caddy calipler setups were reliable on the truck. Either way I could have the rotors re-drilled at the older truck specks.

 

If you want to swap axles and get rear discs, swap in a van axle! They come with rear disc and a reliable parking brake, and all have the 6.5" pattern you need. Should be a fairly straight forward swap, you could probably find one with LS, too. Yeah its a Dana axle but they hold up well enough, plenty of 70's era trucks with them running with no problems. May have to mod the driveline, but better than hacking up an axle to get unreliable Eldorado brakes on it, or have to carry two different wheel spares...

 

The superduty 10.5 rear axle does have the wrong bolt pattern, but the super duty van with a dana60 has the disk brakes and the correct bolt pattern.

As a side track, I think the 10.5 and the d60 van have the same size rotors, so redrilling the rotor may be unneeded. Only need to redrill the hub. I asked this before on a thread similar to this, will the 10.25 hub fit on a 10.5 housing.
All things to look into. But the disk brake van d60 should bolt in and be an easy swap.

 

You beat me to it. I started typing (before your reply) then had to help the wife for a while.