Hey guys i have a IFS problem. I bought a dana 44 Trac Loc for my 88 F150 IFS 300 L6. The Problem it isn't for a IFS which when i bought it it was listed as fitting either. Then some guy told me that dana had one for the C-clips on the axles. The bronco graveyard said they had never heard of that you just had to use a spring in your axle to hold them in place. I this is so where does the spring go a does some one have a diaghram so they can show me where they go.

 

The spring they are talking about goes in where the right axle slides apart to keep the 2 sections of the axles pushed out and keep it from falling out of the diff.

 

Well how long does it need to be and what kind of pressure. Are we talking about a valve spring of just a stiff hardware spring. I work in tool & die as a machinist i could get all differant sizes and pressures of die springs. On the right side meaning the passenger side?

 

There shouldn't be any difference in the carriers on a D44 IFS or straight axle. I too am running a Trac Lok in the front of my 84 F150, if memory serves me correctly... there is a snap ring of some kind that snaps into a groove on the axle shaft to keep it from coming out of the diff housing. Have you removed the center chunk from the truck yet?

 

it really doesn't take much of a spring, I used the dampner spring out of the middle of a valve spring when I did mine in my 86, just something that will fit in there and keep the 2 halves of the axle from coming together and possibly pulling the end outof the diff but still allow them to have some movement for cornering and compression of the suspension.

 

another option although possibly more expensive is that the early 80's dana 44 TTB used an external retainer for the inner axle shaft on the passenger side. I'm not sure of the exact years but my '82 has this.

FORDS_FORLIFE

 

Thats what he is trying to eliminate, the track lock does not have a provision for that C clip.

 

I wasn't talking about the c-clip. The early axles have a plate which bolts to the carrier on the outside and retains the inner axle shaft. This is what is currently on my '82 F-150 and i much prefer it because you don't have to pull the carrier to replace the u-joint or axle shaft.



FORDS_FORLIFE

 

When i did mine i bought a used trac-lok and then i took it apart to put new clutches in and while i had it apart i took the side gear for the right side to a machine shop they machined it flat just like they are on the open carriers and it worked fine to get the c-clip in.

 

Well I just got my next question answered. I will probably do the machine work on my carrier myself since I'm a CNC machinist and have a full machine shop at my expense. I didn't know if the carrier could be modified to work like the original but i don't have the original out of my truck yet so i didn't know how it was designed. I know the clips can break sometime so i thought about just running it with the spring setup. Which of them would be better. Could you run both as a precaution about dropping an axle.

 

Either go with a spring which is going to be the economical way, or get a third out of a 1980-82 fsb/F150 that uses the bolt type external retainer mentioned above. I don't know why ford got away from that design and went with the c-clip.

 

Thats a easy question to answer, cost. C clip is cheaper then the bolt on retainer to build and assemble.