Installing A 1978 F150 Straight Axle On A 1995 F150
Originally Posted By Daren Woods
Hi my name is Daren and I have always loved fords. I was born and
raised with them on our home farm. Well in 1995 I bought my new truck
that is a 1995 ford F-150 Extended Cab 4×4. I really love this truck
so in 1997 I put a 6″ superlift suspension lift on it. I use it on
the farm alot and also do alot of four wheeling with it but I’ve had
a lot of problems with the front end eating tires and not driving right
down the road so last winter I set a goal to redo it or sell it and
buy a 1999 with a strait axle.
As you can guess it was cheaper to modify my truck and now I really
love my truck and holds up under all of the abuse. Well here is what
I did.
I found a 1978 ford F-150 front axle and started working on it. I
used a 1978 axle because this axle had the same distance between the
coils as my stock axle had. I put everything on the axle new except
the ring and pinion because they were in good shape and had the
right gear ratio. I took all of the I-beam parts off of my truck by
jacking it up and supporting it so it wouldn’t fall and then I just
unbolted everything and then rolled the new axle under the truck.
It will line up with the coil mount but you have to use the 1978
coils because the axle mounts are different from the 1995. I then
bolted the coils up.
I used the 1978 radius arms and measured the frame and then I had
to drill new holes in the frame were the end of the radius arms are
this is because the radius arms being longer.
I bolted the arms to my drop brackets that was already on my truck. Now I had to hook
up my steering and the trac bar. I found that a 1992 F-350 4×4 was
the right size. I bought the steering arm that goes from the gearbox
to the tire rod. I also bought the trac bar and bolted it to the axle
and then to the I-beam frame work under the motor. You have to drill
the frame and add a support bracket to the trac bar. Everything else
hooked up like the drive shaft and the brakes. The biggest challenge
is getting the axle strait with the back axle when you drill the frame
for the radius arms. The best way I found to do this was to keep
measuring the distance between the back axle and the front on on each
side to make sure I have the same distance between them.
Well that’s about it I hope somebody can use this info to better their
truck.
