[Cartman]

All of my local homies tell me to stay waaaaaaaaay away from a HP44 out of a half ton (5x5.5), because rumor has it that the axle tubes are paper thin.
I've seen tons of you guys run these things and have not read a single failure of the axle tube on here, or pirate.

Anybody got any first hand experience on this?
I want to ditch the TTB on my bronco and get a HP44 out of a 78-79 half ton. I'm planning on modifying the stock arms - lengthen and kick them in a bit so I can turn the wheel all the way without the 35x16s rubbin......

Thanks doods

 

[n8big]

I have a 1995 Bronco on 40" Ground Hawgs with a solid axle dana 44!!!! No problems here...

 

[Cartman]

Leafs or coils?
If coils, did you use the 7 degree offset bushings on the control arm mounts?

 

[n8big]

8" skyjackers from the TTB and 7 deg. bushings! Custom track bar mount & radius drop brackets. Soon to be extended radius arms ( I hope )...

What year is your Bronco?

 

[Cartman]

83, but its got a F-series cab and shortened 8ft box on it.

I still call it a bronco though
changed my avatar so you can see the shitbox

I wanna extend the radius arms so I don't have to worry about the niggyness of those drop brackets....I'm planning on mounting them to the frame and gusseting the frame accordingly...
For steering, I'm planning on doing a hi-steer as this will reduce the need to redo the stock stuff to clear for the TTB swap. Only thing I can think of needing right off the bat is perhaps a 2-4" lift drop pitman
I only want the minimum amount of lift since I cut the living shit out of my fenders & relocated the inners... and it clears 35s with no problems right now..
I wanna keep her low & mean

 

[CheapThrillB2]

yuo don't want to turn the arms in so you can turn sharper...........turning sharper means breaking axle joints sooner

 

[n8big]

Gotcha!!! Still tho that is cool... I think we still have a track bar bracket for a 8" lift???? I would have to check... We just finished a few weeks ago a solid axle swap for a guy from Lansing... 89 Bronco 6" springs, 1" spacer, he's got 37" Swamper SSR's on it...

 

[Cartman]

Nice....
It will be odd because I'm planning on lifting my Cummins 10" and putting 40s under it and that will be what tows my 35 inch tire equipped wheeler....lol
If the bronx breaks, I know that the cummins will fit the bill nicely

 

[Cartman]

yuo don't want to turn the arms in so you can turn sharper...........turning sharper means breaking axle joints sooner

Yeah but 90% of the time I wont have the wheel @ full lock WFO....that other 10% is a whole different story :sonicjay:

Just want a tighter turning radius, running on those damn jeep trails is a mofo with a fullsize

 

[n8big]

I follow JEEPS all the time!!!!! No problem!!!!

 

[Cartman]

I follow JEEPS all the time!!!!! No problem!!!!

The trails we make/go on are hella tight even for jeeps...when my fullsized ass blows thru there I leave body parts....theres a reason my hood & fender are a different color than the rest of the truck :tonka:

edit: thinking back on it, alcohol played a major part in that too... haha

 

[95geo]

you need to check how far your shafts can turn without binding, you can do this on the jack stands and a paint pen. just turn the wheel from lock to lock and spin the tires, adjust the stops on the knuckles until there is sufficient clearance in the yokes of the shafts.

you friends probably say the tubes are too thin because they are running them on an 8k lbs truck with 44" ground hogs.

for what its worth i bent a rear dana 44 with 1/4" tubes... lots of factors had to do with it though, not just "thin wall tubes"

 

[Cartman]

you need to check how far your shafts can turn without binding, you can do this on the jack stands and a paint pen. just turn the wheel from lock to lock and spin the tires, adjust the stops on the knuckles until there is sufficient clearance in the yokes of the shafts.

you friends probably say the tubes are too thin because they are running them on an 8k lbs truck with 44" ground hogs.

for what its worth i bent a rear dana 44 with 1/4" tubes... lots of factors had to do with it though, not just "thin wall tubes"

Yeah thats a very good idea.... I was planning on doing that but can't frickin stand it when the tires rub on the radius arms...I could adjust the knuckles for that I spose, but the tighter turning radius would be kickass

 

[Jeepaholic]

The 78-79 are the weaker ones because of the radius arm mounts and the way the tube doesn't run all the way to the knuckle. pre 78 the mounts were welded on to the tube, which most think is much stronger.

The best bet it to get a f-250 housing as it has even thicker wall tubing and weld on the radius arm mounts (you can get the at the jeffs bronco graveyard) It will be alittle wider though.

 

[Cartman]

Yeah, but the damn F250 housings are more expensive than the F150s....damn YJ guys are driving the price up on the F250s
My friends and I have like 4 of the F150 fronts....
Thanks for the advice, looks like I have some options to weigh

 

[whiterhino]

You can do the jackstand test to get close but a friend of mine used to hit his radius arms when he got twisted up. (Vic)
He also had a problem rubbing on the radius arms and catching a tire lug & binding up which breaks the joint. I don't know if it is across the board but his arms were a bit of an "I" shape which gave a nice lip for the tire to catch. He ended up welding a mini skid plate onto the arms where the tire would catch and he never broke a joint again.

 

[Cartman]

You can do the jackstand test to get close but a friend of mine used to hit his radius arms when he got twisted up. (Vic)
He also had a problem rubbing on the radius arms and catching a tire lug & binding up which breaks the joint. I don't know if it is across the board but his arms were a bit of an "I" shape which gave a nice lip for the tire to catch. He ended up welding a mini skid plate onto the arms where the tire would catch and he never broke a joint again.

...and thats exactly what I'm trying to avoid
I plan on kicking the arms in a bit to fix this issue...
my TTB arms rub right now and its annoying as hell

Thanks man!

 

[CheapThrillB2]

sent ya pm

 

[CheapThrillB2]

okay heres a pic of a f150 D44

the radius arms bolt on with 4 bolts on each arm, the arms pinch the axle where their are wedges welded on, the 78-79 wedges are cast onto the arm and really can't be removed, for what you wanna do with the arms this will allow you to weld the wedges further in on the axle relocating the where the radius arms are (moving them in to clear the tires)

the coils attach to the top of the radius arms (the two bolts holding the little bucket in place)

buy these and this allows you to put the radius whereever you want on the axle

take the F250 housing and put the f150 knuckles, rotors,hubs,everything attaching and bolt onto the f250 through the ball joints

http://www.greatlakes4x4.com/showthread.php?t=53165

 

[Cartman]

Cool...I've thought about it and I'm not really intrested...I can pickup a pre 78 HP44 with all the shit I need on it fairly cheap...If anything I'd just buy that and slap a new shaft in it and probably resell or trade for a pre 78