Man that is some top-quality fear mongering there. You must be a lawyer for Ford. If I have an accident and I am at fault, I can be sued whether my RABS is working or not. I can be sued even if it is NOT my fault. Please don't come on here and make a statement that doesn't even make sense and is designed only to scare. How the heck did any of us stupid drivers even keep our trucks on the road before Ford blessed us with RABS? Control your vehicle next time.

 

Just to throw a wrench into this off topic conversation, when I was young and stupid I had an exploder. The ABS didn't work, for some reason it thought I was locking up all the time and would release the brakes, SCARY. Anyway so I took the ABS fuse and blew it on purpose, my plan was then to blame my next accident on the ABS and could show the fuse as proof. Never got to try it though, I rolled it.

 

Back to the OP: Forget the LTD axle. Get a 9er from a truck. Nines were installed at least up to '85, maybe some '86s. The LTD housing may or may not be as strong as the truck housings, and as per prior posts, the lug pattern will be different, and it will probably have 28 spline axles and maybe even small bearings. That and all the welding you'll have to do for spring perches and cutting off the other brackets, plus a sub 3.0 ratio--no bargain.

Or--novel ideal--find an 8.8 from the same or similar year truck and swap it in.

 

I see those on CL pretty regular, a lot more common than a 9-inch there.

 

Oh heck, I just checked and found out he's in Australia. Maybe finding an 8.8 is a little tougher over there.

 

by retrofitting proportioning valves and such

Not posting for sake of adding to any debate on the rabs valve, however I thought it was worth mentioning that they do have a proportioning valve on em stock from the factory.

 

I am no lawyer, nor do I particularly like lawyers - I do however like making their job of defending me easier by not screwing up in the first place

Ya know, I just looked closely at mine, and now that you mention it does have a valve that looks very much like that of them fullsize passenger Ford cars with disc brakes all around - would that be what you're referring to? If so do you know what its bias curve is, cause like I said my RABS gets a good workout about every time I take the truck into town, so the modulator valve must not be cutting down the pressure much?

 

I did this swap a few years ago. I bought a whole truck for 75 dollars. The truck i bought was an 82 the truck it went into was an 89. Everything bolted up. but you also have to make sure you get the same gearing, or plan doing a ring and pinion swamp on one of the ends. I just swaped the front pigs out.

 

Ya know, I just looked closely at mine, and now that you mention it does have a valve that looks very much like that of them fullsize passenger Ford cars with disc brakes all around - would that be what you're referring to? If so do you know what its bias curve is

The stainless valve body in the rear port on the master cylinder, yea that's it. Its exact bias I couldn't say, I might mention it in the book but I never looked it up.

Gotta be somewhere around 2/3 front 1/3 rear simply judging it by the amount of fluid as viewed shot from the front verses rear port with it on there. Just a pencil lead sized stream if that out of that valve.

Be interesting trying to drive one without it! Back wheels would lock up the second the brake pedal was touched! Driving in the rain would be near impossible!

Well I wasn't going to comment on it but guess I will.

The rabs valve does a pretty good job, it does a fair job stopping the rearend from coming around on ya in a panic stop, especially in the rain. Anyone doesn't think so probably isn't quite old enough to have driven trucks before the valves inception. Not the best anti lock setup no but it does what its meant to do.

Driver back then had to pump the pedal to avoid it, the rabs valve in these trucks removes the need to do so.

Myself I kinda liked it way back then, I still remember the house on south division, could fly down that ole alleyway behind the house, hit the brakes spin it around 270deg and ease it right on backwards into my parking spot. Never once missed it, I either do a simple side slide, or spin it most way around, just depend on how I felt at the time. Oh yes to be young......twas a lot of fun back then, well still is just gotta do it with some moderation now days is all.

 

Haha, yeah, the good side slide and in the parking spot - I used to do that with my first car, even more fun than with a truck cause it had an automatic e-brake release with vacuum servo to which the previous owner plumbed in manifold vacuum

The fluid shot out of the metering valve has a lot to do with the piston pushing it out too, you gotta remember the chamber in the master for the rear brakes is smaller than that for the front brakes so naturally there will be more fluid shot out the front port.

in any case, this is way offtopic now...

 

The fluid shot out of the metering valve has a lot to do with the piston pushing it out too,

Don't know if it is exact, took the valve out and pushed the piston and the amount of fluid from front and back ports look real close to the same volume, just a partial stroke though. And I never measured it, again just a visual observation/comparison kinda deal.