help! I'm going to admit that I have no idea what I need to convert the front to an 8lug and after searching I've found nothing to help me.

where do I start? can I go to autozone and pick up oem parts or do I have to go junk yard hunting(they aren't too helpful around here...)?

 

buddy of mine has an 8-lug he is looking to get rid of!

-cutts-

 

how much/what condition is it in?

I'd assume it has everything I need to convert mine to 8lug.

 

lol dont know how much he is asking, but its in good condition. he just replaced the spiders and cleaned it up.

heck, i'd just buy it from him swap it under and then sell your D44!

i'll get a price

-cutts-

 

I just did a conversion on my dana 44 and i bought a dana 44 from a highboy and used everything from the brake calipers brackets out including the spindles. My donor front end had the big hubs and i love them they look really good with my 15x10 white spokes.It is really an easy conversion has long as you have all the right parts.

 

thanks

is it a coil setup?

and while we're selling axles, anyone looking for a 9inch that had a spider gear explosion?

 

no but its easy to convert, i did it to my 60

-cutts-

 

Cap,

Where are you at up in MD? I'm down in VA near DC and I 'm getting ready to do the same swap on my D44. I'll be using a mix of parts from custom caliper brackets, Ford spindles, hubs, chevy rotors and calipers.

If you are close we can meet up and figure this mess out!!

 

I'm up in harford county, probably quite a drive!

fishy, what's involved in converting to coils, just weld on coil buckets?

 

DOH sorry man, he has already gotten rid of it! sorry bout that!

depends all on how you wanna setup it up. if you wanna do just ford radius arms then i would get the wedges and bushings from BGY (o wait, lol i did do that!) weld them on the axle then get a pair of ford radius arms and bolt them on. the coil buckets sit on top of the radius arms. you'll need trac bar and brackets, upper coil towers, lower coil buckets, radius arms, wedges, C-bushings, radius arm brackets, and of course... coils! i suggest BC broncos, they are supreme quality and are $160/pair!

here is how ford setup radius arms


-cutts-

 

well, its for my '78 bronco, so it's already setup for coils, I just need to match the front to the back for 8lugs.

thanks for all the info/help/cool diagram though!

iunno, maybe I'll just carry two spares. that sure would take up a lot of room though.

 

Cap,

I posted this in another thread avout D44 and 9". Anyway it might help out with what I have found so far:

It depends on the D44 that you use and the availability of the 77 1/2 - 79 F-250 parts in your area. All you need is the caliper backing plates, spindles, hubs/rotors, and calipers from the F-250. There are people that do the Chebbie conversion using the knuckles out from mid 70's to early 80's 3/4 ton trucks. The reason for the knuckle on the chebbie is Ford uses a 5 stud knuckle where chebbie uses a 6 stud. Now if you found that the D44 that you get is a drum brake axle, then the chebbie spindles and out will bolt right up. This is basically the same conversion that older Broncos use to convert to disk, but they use they chebbie 1/2 stuff with Ford hub/rotors.

Hope this helps out some with your conversion.

 

you probally can use chevy if the mounting holes are the same but, then you have to use the brakes as well and hope fully thats it .. you'll be better off with ford go to a junk yard or someone who has a used one then you get a whole bunch of extras

 

Well, I know for sure that the disk brake conversion on the older drum brake axles, like I had in my old 74 Bronco use Chevy caliper brackets and calipers with 79 Ford F-150/Bronco hubs/rotors. Back when Ford went to disk brakes, they worked a deal with Dana to make the knuckles slated for the Fords so that they had a 5 stud mounting flange for the spindles. This would make the Ford parts more unique to them, where Chevy, and Dodge/Jeep kept the 6 stud mounting flange. This is why we are able to do the disk brake conversion on the old trucks. The Chevy 3/4 ton axles are still a small bearing, 6 stud flange on their version of the D44HD, so the Chevy parts will bold uo from the caliper brackets out and are much more available as they ran the same setup from the mid 70's to the later mid 80's. Ford on the other hand only had the 5 stud flange on the 3/4 ton axles (in 2 different versions of 76-77 1/2 and 77 1/2 to 79) for a shot period of time and parts and donor trucks are very scarce in some part of the country.

There are kits and parts floating around ebay that use a custom caliper bracket, and chevy rotor and caliper, mated up to a ford 3/4 ton spindle and hub. Supposedly this kit will allow you to run a 15" wheel with the 8"x6.5" lug pattern without any grinding on the caliper, like you have to do with the Ford 2 piston calipers, or running a really small backspacing (2.5" as opposed to a normal 4.5"). A Dana 44 is a Dana 44, the differences are really in the brakes, how the knuckle/spindles studs are oriented, and where the pumpkin is located. I've been researching this for a while now so I can find the best options for my front axle. I'm not a big fan of chevy's (I currently own 7 fords!!), but I would rather know that I have a larger parts availability than a limited access to spare parts, at least close to where I live. It's just another way Ford screws the people that buy their products with limited production of products and little/no aftermarket support. I'll get off my soap box now.....

 

You are right about the spare parts thing, but just about any auto parts store has the ford stuff in stock too.

One of the nice things about the ford 8 lug stuff is the dual piston calipers, and if you are running bigger tires, it sure is nice. A buddy of mine had a bronco with 37s and stock brakes, and you had to use both feet when the brakes were hot or wet. My truck with dual pistons and 36s requires little effort with one foot. If you get on it hard enough, it will skid the tires.