'79 Bronco with D44& Radius Arms....

I'm fixing to buy a '79 Bronco and pull the 9" and HP D44 for a swap onto my XJ and part out the rest. However, I don't know if this is gonna be worth my time.

Anybody done a swap with what I'm talking about?

I'm fine fabbing a crossmember for the radius arm setup and setting up the steering, but what other things will be popping up along the way?

Will the 9" be worth a flip?

I did a search but only found info on an EB D44.

I appreciate any info y'all can enlighten me with.

FarmerMatt is using a Ford axle with stock radius arms, but extended with a heim on the end. I think his is a Bronco axle, but it might be an F150. From pictures, it seems to work great. I'm prettys sure the Bronco D44s have 260x joints and the 9" has 28 spline shafts. swap the joints/shafts for 760x's and shafts for 31 splines or better and run 'em.

I just cut a 1979 Bronco axle down a couple of weekends ago. 4 inches off of the longside for 62" WMS to WMS. You'll need a custom shaft to run this. If you cut 6 inches off of the long side, you can run an EB shaft. In fact, you'll have an EB axle, but with the bonus of a reverse spiral case!

CRASH

A friend of mine just finished putting a Hp44 and 9 inch into his ZJ and did some fancy work with the radius arms. I'll see if he has a write up yet.

CRASH said:

I just cut a 1979 Bronco axle down a couple of weekends ago. 4 inches off of the longside for 62" WMS to WMS. You'll need a custom shaft to run this. If you cut 6 inches off of the long side, you can run an EB shaft. In fact, you'll have an EB axle, but with the bonus of a reverse spiral case!

CRASH

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Will there be problems if I run it full width? Afterall, the 9" will still be full width.

mad maXJ said:

FarmerMatt is using a Ford axle with stock radius arms, but extended with a heim on the end. I think his is a Bronco axle, but it might be an F150. From pictures, it seems to work great. I'm prettys sure the Bronco D44s have 260x joints and the 9" has 28 spline shafts. swap the joints/shafts for 760x's and shafts for 31 splines or better and run 'em.

Click to expand...

Matt has the EB D44 and the EB 9". The one you are getting should have the 297 joints in the D44 and RC. The 9" for the 79 I believe is the big bearing one. Should have 3.55 or 4.10 but most likely 3.55 gears. It should also have 31 spline shafts.

when did the bronco axles go from ~60" to full-width?

Are full size Bronco axles not " full width "?

If not, what are considered " full width "?

Perhaps I misunderstood the whole FW thing.

mad maXJ said:

when did the bronco axles go from ~60" to full-width?

Click to expand...

Bronco history 101... 66-77 EB or early Bronco, axles about 60" wide.
78-79 (The best IMHO) Redsighn of the Bronco for 78 to go along with the Ford pickups. axles went to "full width" about 66"
80-96 TTB front and 9" till the 8.8 was adopted in the 80's.

HTH!

Will anything end up being in the way when/if I move the spring perches?

What's gonna be involved as far as relocating things go?

Have you read Farmer Matt's EB axle install? This is basically going to be what you are doing if you are narrowing. If you are running it full width, you are going to have more issues to work out. For instance, unless you want the control arms hanging below the frame rail, you are going to have to build yourself some custom arms. They are too far apart on the axle to tuck between the frame rail.

CRASH

More SPOBI out of the CRASHes mouth...? Actually the "C" mounts on the "fullsize" axle are angled inward more than the EB axles so as the mounts end up being about the same distance apart when comparing both axles. The "C" mount flexibility is very forgiving though & allows a lot of give to mount the arms narrow or wide. You will want / need to run extended arms to gain clearance & flexibility.

Matt

Okie Terry said:

Will anything end up being in the way when/if I move the spring perches?

What's gonna be involved as far as relocating things go?

Click to expand...

The coil buckets do not line up to the XJ mounts but the arc is livable. The nine will bolt right up. Perchs are in the right location.

I have been researching the exact same d44/9” axle swap from a 79 bronco. The cast mounts of the d44 make it difficult to adapt mounting bracketry. I think its easiest to simply retain the radius arm setup and for better articulation you can extend the arms to a custom crossmember, preferably with a removable section in case you need to drop the tranny. You may want to consider caster/pinion angles and clearancing the frame rails when you extend the arms if you want to tuck your frame mounts up high. Other issues – steering, trackbar, limiting strap, adapting xj driveshaft to 9” pinion, track width and wheel backspacing, etc…
Heres some links Ive collected that may help you out.

This thread gets a lil into radius arm dynamics if you are thinking about wristing one arm to alleviate axle bind. Although from what Ive gathered everyone seems to flex just fine without the additional degree of freedom. Also gives some info on extending the arms and if you wanna have a flexible joint or keep the stud/bushing style is up to you.
http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=3160&page=1&pp=15&highlight=radius+arm
including link to some pics for welding tube onto arms

You can flip the coil buckets on the axle 180* to reduce coil bow. This guy made some wedges to straighten them out
http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?p=999&gid=712518&uid=512063

And a few progress and final pictures from POR of some XJ/MJs with a few d44/9” combos…
http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=235002&page=1&pp=25
and another visual…
http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=159138

Also, you may need to match the front and rear ride heights since the front axle with radius arm mounts will give you an additional lift. thats all I can think of for now…

Chris

how did he Hi-steer w/ stock knuckles on that dana 44 HP?

Patrick