[montego69]

Hi all,

I've been working on a new project- 60 F100. I'm swapping in the drivetrain from a 62 F100 4X4. I want to update to a dual reservoir master cylinder and front disc brakes. Anyone out there with some experience with this type of swap? I'm looking for a factory type setup, not one from an aftermarket company specializing in high performance, bolt-in kits. What, if anything, is a bolt-on from newer model trucks?
Thanks in advance for any help,

Nick

 

[cdeal28078]

I am no 4x4 guru so take what I say with a big grain of salt. lol
I had a 76 4x4 F150 with the solid axle in front and it had discs. Might take a look at one of those and see if it'll work. What axle do you have in the front?
clint

 

[montego69]

hi clint,

i got a dana-spicer id guide from a friend of mine so i'm hoping to check into it this weekend. i'll let you know what it is.

nick

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: montego69 on 2/25/06 2:44am ]</font>

 

[montego69]

cliff,

it is a dana-spicer 44 axle. looks to be completely stock.
anyone out there aware of a factory type swap to disc brakes or am i wasting my time because the drums are completely adequate?

thanks,

nick

 

[BBFMAN]

I had an old F150, I think it was a pre 75 chassis, (the body and title said 79) and it had Chevy spindles and hubs. From what I recall, alot of the 1/2 ton trucks with Dana 44s all take the same ball joints, so the spindles swap as well. Look up the Moog part number for your upper and lower ball joints, and for, say, a 78 or 79, and if they are the same, all you really need are junkyard spindles and backing plates, everything else can be bought in the aftermarket, or get it all used, whichever you prefer. Dont forget to check taper diameter and placemnt on your tie rod ends as well.

 

[Classof68]

If you haven't already, take a look at fordification.com
Great resource.

 

[mondtster]

So, does your front axle have open or closed knuckles?

If they are open knuckles you can use chevy, dodge, or ford brake parts to do the conversion. Basically, you will need to take everything from the knuckle out (including the knuckle) as well as the outer axle shaft.

Personally, I would go with GM stuff only because they are very plentiful around here. There is a whole pile of GM front axles at the junkyard here, but I have yet to see a Ford solid axle. I don't think the ford trucks in the '70s were very popular around here for some reason.

 

[mondtster]

On 2006-03-01 06:43, BBFMAN wrote:
I had an old F150, I think it was a pre 75 chassis, (the body and title said 79) and it had Chevy spindles and hubs. From what I recall, alot of the 1/2 ton trucks with Dana 44s all take the same ball joints, so the spindles swap as well. Look up the Moog part number for your upper and lower ball joints, and for, say, a 78 or 79, and if they are the same, all you really need are junkyard spindles and backing plates, everything else can be bought in the aftermarket, or get it all used, whichever you prefer. Dont forget to check taper diameter and placemnt on your tie rod ends as well.

Dana 44 parts are dana 44 parts for the most part. There were some variations depending on who Spicer made the parts for (Ford, GM, Dodge, etc.) but everything will pretty much interchange.

 

[My427stang]

You cant do it the way you want without custom spindles and brackets for the calipers.

Pre 73? maybe, but definitely in 71 and before, they used trunion bearings instead of ball joints. That style front end, open or closed knuckle was slightly different on the ends of the axles and you couldnt bolt the disk brake/bearing combo onto the spindle, not to mention no way to mount a caliper bracket

In addition, you couldnt bolt the new style knuckle onto the old housing because of the disk brake uses ball joints and its completely different. The spindle itself is even a different bolt pattern and OD, so you cant swap that

What I did on my 71 (which should be the same) was to put an entire 76 front axle under it. Its a bolt in and then you have ball joints and disks

(Personally, trunion bearings rarely loosen up but they need to be packed now and then, so I like them better, but having disk brakes is worth the weaker but easier to service ball joints)

 

[mondtster]

On 2007-04-29 08:42, My427stang wrote:
You cant do it the way you want without custom spindles and brackets for the calipers.

Pre 73? maybe, but definitely in 71 and before, they used trunion bearings instead of ball joints. That style front end, open or closed knuckle was slightly different on the ends of the axles and you couldnt bolt the disk brake/bearing combo onto the spindle, not to mention no way to mount a caliper bracket

In addition, you couldnt bolt the new style knuckle onto the old housing because of the disk brake uses ball joints and its completely different. The spindle itself is even a different bolt pattern and OD, so you cant swap that

What I did on my 71 (which should be the same) was to put an entire 76 front axle under it. Its a bolt in and then you have ball joints and disks

(Personally, trunion bearings rarely loosen up but they need to be packed now and then, so I like them better, but having disk brakes is worth the weaker but easier to service ball joints)

So, have you seen an open knuckle kingpin front end? I was under the impression that the kingpin to ball joint switch took place at the same time that they went to open knuckles (hence the reason I asked that way).

I guess you learn something new everyday.

 

[My427stang]

66?-72 ran an open knuckle, trunion bearing front end, no ball joints.

Not only have I seen it, I have three. I still have mine, a spare from our 68, and one in pieces from a 66 I took my 4.56's from. When our shop truck was eating ball joints with 10 inch rims and 35 inch tires, I held onto them in case mine started fighting me. All 1/2 ton 5 lug. Ironically, 2 of the three trucks they came out of were 5 lug Dana 60 rears instead of 9 inch. I have two of those too, talk about a rugged rear.

So far my ball joint swap-in axle with disk brakes held, but I still have the old style axles and have personally packed the bearings a couple LOL of times over the 23 yrs I have owned the truck. I am 100% of what I have

Now these arent kingpins like a 2WD truck, just to be clear, they are tapered bearings almost like a wheel bearing instead of ball joints, top and bottom, and you can tell because where the ball joint would be, you have a removable bolt-on retainer

I am pretty sure we are on the same page, but just in case, I wanted to make sure we werent mixing terms

Unfortunately, you are in the same boat as I was, easiest thing to do is find an old F150 or Bronco and swap in the whole axle if you want disks

 

[mondtster]

Interesting info on those Ford front axles from the mid to late '60s. We really don't have very many of that era of 4x4 trucks around here anymore and/or they all have running gear that has been swapped so I guess I need to do some more research on them.

As far as the "kingpin" statement goes, yes we are on the same page. It is just what the 4x4 guys call the trunion bearings so that is what I've been calling them.

Back on topic, the easiest thing to do is an axle swap. A person could also cut off the original inner knuckles and weld some balljoint ones on and use all the parts from there out as well. The only thing that would need to be looked into in that type of setup would be what u-joints the inner and outer axles are supposed to have and make sure that they are the same.

 

[My427stang]

You could cut the ends off, but I'd think the housing swap would be easier

Either way, sounds like you have a pretty cool old truck, not many of the early 4x4s around anymore

 

[BikerDude]

The guys at www.slick60s.org are very good resources for 61-66 Ford truck info.

 

[eliteman76]

Well, around here, the yards are still full of the 76-up stuff for Fords, and a fair amount fo GM stuff.
For ease, I would just go the full swap for a 76-up axle.
All I know is, on my '79 1/2 ton, I love the fact it's an actual solid axle and not the IRS like my '84 was.
Hell, I saw someone do a leafspring dana44 swap on a 1998 F150 4x4 shortbox, for daily street use, so you could swap in about anything if you feel up to the task.