76/77 F-100 9" questions?

ok, so ive been looking and dreaming into a ford 9" / HP 44 full width swap, and have found a 76 f-100 HP44 for 150.00
and a 77 f-100 9" for 175.00

have read:
http://77cj.littlekeylime.com/Dana44.htm
http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=47527
and MANY other threads and write ups - few questions...

will these be the same width?
77 had the disk brakes, 297's, locking hubs, but welded mounts, correct?
Spline count on the 9" - i cant seem to find this anywhere, here, pirate, ford forums...

anything wrong with these axles? near as i can tell the "bad" axles for me (i dont want to run radius arms) are the 78+ HP 44's and the 77 and older are good - with 76, 77 being the best based on - disks and 297's...

plannin on RE bracketry - though wondering about taking the brackets off the d30 and welding them to the d44?
the hardest one would be the diff housing bracket - that might be a custom fab job...

my intention is to run 33's then 35's - is this too overkill?

thanks guys - sorry to bore with ANNOTHER d44/9" thread

You really need to pull an axle out of the 9" and double check. I swear that I remember Ford bragging on F150s of those years having 31 while F100 had 28. Not a big deal, they are an easy swap

I pulled an axle from a 77 F100 that was 31 spline. but that doesn't mean for sure that yours will be. pull it and check.

BrettM said:

I pulled an axle from a 77 F100 that was 31 spline. but that doesn't mean for sure that yours will be. pull it and check.

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thanks -

any night owls know about the front end? im going to look at this axle tomorrow - and if its complete (like my wallet fears) it will be mine

call lance at 817-594-9201, he can tell you anything youd need to know about a 9", the 44 im not sure about but hes money on the 9".

I think all the full width 9" from the late to mid 70's are all 31 spline. The early bronco banjo style 9" was 28 spline, but some full sized had them to. It is so easy to pull the shafts on a ford 9" and the whole 3rd member if U had to. Just slip put 1 shaft and count the splines.

XJ_ranger said:

my intention is to run 33's then 35's - is this too overkill?

Click to expand...

Its not going to be over kill....Just bulletproof

AARON

ok - now i feel really stupid

this is going to have to wait till $$$ appear out of nowhere - at 150.00 for just the housing and gears - then 70 for each stock axle - making 290 - then knuckles and hubs, disks, calipers grrr -