I bought a Dana 50 TTB setup from a guy on Craigslist for $120. I'm regearing my Bronco to 4.10s, and the Dana 50 had 4.10s, so I wanted the differential to bolt onto my Bronco's stock D44 TTB system. I also wanted the stronger stub shaft.

Anyway, I took off the parts I wanted and sold the rest. I sold the axle shafts for $120 and made all my money back. Then I sold the spindles, knuckles, and hubs and made another $250. I scrapped the rotors, calipers, and some other small stuff and made another $13. I still have the bare axle beams which I'm trying to sell, but I'll probably end up scrapping them and make another $10 or so. That Dana 50 was the best thing I ever bought for my truck.
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...ttb-parts.html

Not sure why you had so much trouble selling your parts. I listed all my stuff on eBay and had no trouble selling them. I just priced my stuff lower than everyone else's and did "buy it now only" auctions. When people see the low price AND it's buy it now only, they know someone else could ****** it up at any time, so that encourages them to buy it before someone else does.

Oh yeah, and once I install the Dana 50 differential and stub shaft, I'll be selling my stock Dana 44 diff and stub shaft and make at least another $150-200.

 

if i remember correctly, dana 50 and dana 44 do not use the same carriers or gear sets.

 

The only thing that I could add to the converting a 2wd 150 to a 4wd is that from the years that this thread (87-96) is on, the frames were the same. The F150 frame has a lot of holes in it, from what I understand was to lighten it. However, the rest of the frame is the same. I remember calling Ford several years back and they verified that. The only thing would be the shackles would have to be either welded on, bolted, or riveted on, but the holes should be there... And according to my Chilton manual, they all shared the same drive line. 4.9/5.0/5.8/7.5, E4OD, BW1356 with the different sized axles for the tonnage of the truck. Although I don't remember an F150 coming with a 460... Or did they?

 

You're right, they don't. But you can take the entire Dana 50 differential (including the housing, you don't even remove the gears or carrier or anything) and bolt the entire Dana 50 housing onto a Dana 44 axle beam.

 

ahhh. ok. i don't really mess with the TTB stuff except to remove it to put solid axles in.

 

You said PARTS, not a whole axle. And since the D50 TTB and Dana 60 use MANY of the same parts, they re the same cost. IE, wheel bearings, hubs, ball joints, U joints, locking hubs etc. They re the same cost. but the 60 is actually CHEAPer because the same parts(ball joints) last 3-4 time longer than in a D50TTB.

I stand by my statement earlier NOTHING about the TTB is better than the Dana 60 solid axle, including cost

 

Sorry, I wasn't clear enough. I meant parts for a swap, not parts for maintenance. I certainly didn't mean to suggest that a TTB would be cheaper to maintain.

 

Ok, I thought that is what you meant

 

I'll take a dana 50 ttb for the street or ballin through rough terrain. Someone with a dana 60 wouldn't be able to follow me. . .

there are some instances where a ttb > solid. TTBs are more finicky, no doubt, but setup properly the ride quality can't be matched. Ask too much of it while towing, you'll have horrible steering. Just wanna fly over bumps? Nothing (4x4) massed produced is better.....period.

 

I like where you're heading here!

 

I'll agree that a COIL sprung TTB is great for going fast over rough terrain. Especially if modified well it will have more wheel travel than any other IFS system, and less unsprung weight than any solid axle system. It's the gold standard for go-fast 4WD.

But a stock LEAF sprung TTB has less wheel travel than a stock solid axle, and they can't be modified to give significant wheel travel. The best I can say about the F-250s leaf spring TTB is that it's not so bad that everyone needs to run out and replace it. But it's worse than either a solid axle or a coil spring TTB for everything.

 

Not true about the leaf springs. With a little lift and some spring tuning it is a long travel high articulation setup. Yea, the leaf springs don't take as well as coils to high arc (spring twist) but I've set up a few in my day, including one I ran for ~7 years, and there's no comparison between a setup ttb leaf sprung and a solid.

 

If you've got around the basic geometry problem of a leaf spring TTB then more power to you. The swing arm won't let the wheel move front-to-back but it forces it to move right-to-left as it moves up and down. Meanwhile the leaf spring doesn't really like the tire to move right-to-left, but it forces it to move front-to-back as it goes up and down. The problem here is obvious. It works OK as long as both the swing arm and the leaf spring are about horizontal, but the only way you get any wheel travel beyond that is from bushing flex. It's as bad as trying to get an early Bronco front end to articulate!