eb f&r

how muck work is it to put the front and rear ends from a late 60's bronco in an xj ? and is this a good swap ? front is d44 not shure about rear yet

Not sure how much work, But I know a few members have done it. I think Farmer Matt did his like that. Oh, if your looking for a 44 front, you want a 71- 77 Bronco, as the earlier modles also had Dana30's.

FELIX said:

as the earlier modles also had Dana30's.

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you sure about that?

I thought I remembered folks saying they all had 44's, and I just googled some history, and I see what you are saying about 71-77.....

also....do a search here.

farmermatt and I have gotten into some good debates about eb's into xj's......

I don't think they're worth the work

I am getting ready to do a frame off resto on a $73 so I am researching a lot of info.

starting with the front. it has drum brakes so you need to convert to disks. not hard to do though. the front is a low pinion housing so gear strength is equal to a high pinion dana 30. not to mention that earlier bronco's like the 60s did have a dana 30:banghead:
the 9" rear will more than likely have small bearings with 28 spline shaft. in order to run 31 spline shafts you need big bearing housing ends.
anything else?
I don't think its a good candidate for a swap.

Even if you do get a dana 44 from an eb, they have the small 260-x u-joints, the same size as a dana 30 before 95' when they went up to 297's. The dana 44 also has crappy drum brakes, but can be swapped out for discs by using chevy & ford stuff. The eb ford 9" has weak 28 spline shafts, more than likely small bearing, although 75' and a few harder to find units had a big bearing, but still 28 spline shafts. Also the eb ford 9" had a weaker housing (banjo style) than the later units found in the 78'-80's bronco & f-150 before they went to ford 8.8's in the back. I know this because I had a pair I at 1st was going to swap into my Wrangler, but then I got into xj's and rather sold them again because I saw all the work involved. The eb dana 44 does line up nice in the xj and you just need to to a custom crossmember to run it as the width & coil buckets line up. Check with FarmerMatt and see his writeup on this site in the tech section.
Troy

You are better off getting the 78-79' or so 2nd generation dana 44/ford 9" combo then you get discs up front, 297 u-joints, 31 spline shafts in the ford 9" and a stronger 9" housing, but a tad wider at about 64-65" WMS to WMS, not to wide though. Actually the width would nicely offset the lost center of gravity of a larger lift and allow you to run some 35-37" tires. Plus 2nd generation ford bronco stuff is easier to get than 1st generation stuff as the 1st gen is seen as a much more collectible and modifiable unit for off-road, wearby the 2nd generation is wider and doesn't have quite the following.

If it's earlier than 71 than forget it. You'll be taking steps backwards rather than forwards. I still hold that EB 44's are a good swap in the right circumstances. Beezil & I have gone round for round beating each outher up over if it is a good swap or not (we've both run EB 44's in the past). Search out those debates & here's a little right up I did on the swap. Things have changed a little since this right up, but overall you'll get the idea.

Matt

http://www.naxja.org/html/techarticles/ebswap.html

76-77 are the only good candidate in my opinion. They come with disc front (maybe it was an option, but all the ones I've seen have discs). And the rears are the better non-banjo (forget what they're called) style 9" housing. Maybe those rears started earlier, but my brother just used 77's with the better 9" and front discs, and I know the change overs started in the 76 model year.

Just upgrade the front shafts to get 297's and the rear to 31 spline.....BTW, in the 77, the big bearing housing ends are on there already....I think. I know my brother just bought new bearings and 31 spline shafts, and he was set, plus of course a locker and crap. They are also welded on radius arm mounts, not cast. So they are easy to use any front suspension you want.

If you're not getting everything I'm tlaking about on the EB axles you're getting...you're downgrading. The only downgrade with the 76-77 after everything is upgraded are the low pinion 44, and the originally super low pinion of the 9".

so i would be better off keeping the d30f &d35r than spending 250 bucks on a 67 0r 68 rusted out eb

Your front dana 30 is stronger that a 67 / 68 dana 30 any day of the week, period, end of story. Your easiest swap in the rear would be an XJ 44 or waggy 44.

BTW Gearwhine, my 71 rear 9" is big bearing. Not everthing on those old beasts are set in stone... Kind of like cracker jacks. You never know what surprise you're going to get.

Matt

maineiac said:

so i would be better off keeping the d30f &d35r than spending 250 bucks on a 67 0r 68 rusted out eb

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If you're just getting the axles...forget it. If you're going to restore it.... grab it.

oh yeah, matt...never said the 71's wouldn't have it..just that the 77 we have did...

gearwhine said:

If you're just getting the axles...forget it. If you're going to restore it.... grab it.

oh yeah, matt...never said the 71's wouldn't have it..just that the 77 we have did...

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i dont have room for a resto project now i was just going to take what i wanted than junk it

Rawbrown said:

the front is a low pinion housing so gear strength is equal to a high pinion dana 30.

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okay, call me defensive, but everytime I hear this it gets me.

i don't have any numbers, but it seems pretty agreed upon that the LP D44 is in fact slightly stronger in the gearset than a HP D44. The more important part of this is that they're near equal strength when you're going forward, but the LP D44 BLOWS AWAY the strength of the HP D30 once you put it in reverse (which is often the gear you're in when the most weight is on the front axle). Another thing is that the D44 has a much stronger and stiffer housing which does a much better job of preventing the pinion gear from walking up the ring gear.


that's not to even touch on the balljoints, high-steer, brakes, available ratios, hubs, etc


In other words, a LP D44 is still a very good upgrade over a HP D30. However the advice here is right, the 60s EB axles probably aren't worth your time. Look for late 70s EB, F100, F150 axles or 80s Waggy axles.