axle swap.
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Joined: Mar 2000
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From: Craig
axle swap.
If you are going to swap to a solid, but keep the coils, I would recommend using the front out of a 78-79 1/2 ton truck. The Bronco will work too. You will need the radius arms, brackets, steering (tie rod, drag link) and possibly calipers. I just put a solid-leaf under my 82, and I like it already (only been under a week). I used the front out of a 3/4 (needed the 8 lug to match the Dana 70 in the rear). I had to do a LOT of fabrication, but you should not have as much. I believe you can take the brackets for the radius arms from the doner truck and put them where you need them. Measure from the center of the wheel to the bracket, and duplicate the measurement on your truck. Then you will need the spring buckets (I think) from the frame of the doner. Mount these to your frame, put the solid under it and bolt radius arms in place, mount springs and you are ready to go. As for the brakes, the calipers from your truck may work, but I had to use the calipers from the donor on mine. For the steering, this is where you will have to get creative. You are going to have to do crossover steering (from the steering box to the pass. knuckle). I used the tie rod from a 79 1/2 ton, and cut the 79 drag link (connects the box and tie rod together) and mated it with my long side 82 drag link. You will probally have to custom make a drag link because the 78-79 steering box is outside of the frame and the 80 and up are inboard of the frame. I put the two together because I have to clear leaf springs, so you may just be able to shorten yours to connect to the tie rod. I believe you will also need a track bar because you don't have the brackets in the center of the frame any more. You may also have to do some triming of the crossmember so the diff clears and doesn't hit. Hope this helps, and if you need any more help, let me know.
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