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Floater ends for Ford Nine Inch

rcmbronc

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markw

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Thanks for posting those links. I hadn't heard of Solid before. That looks promising. I'd been contemplating Shreiners due to cost but like the D60 hubs.
 

Broncobowsher

Total hack
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Jun 4, 2002
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34,833
Are you planning on keeping the 5X5½ bolt pattern or going to 8-6½?

I know there are more 5-lug options out there. Mittler Brothers?

Cheap and 8-lug it is hard to beat using the Dana 60 outers. 5-lug it a bit harder.
 
OP
OP
rcmbronc

rcmbronc

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Staying 5x5.5. Does not seem like Mittler has a 5x5.5 option, just 5x5.

I also looked at Spidertrax. Look nice. A bit more spendy than Currie and web site usually lists most stuff out of stock.
 

Broncobowsher

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Lets get Todd Z in on this. I know he pays a lot more attention to the desert racing and knows what all is out there. If I can think of anyone that hangs around here that would know, it would be Todd.

I remember the old Warn kits back in the 90's. For the most part glorified Dana 44 front end parts. After a few years they were showing that those parts were not up to the task of living in a rear axle.
 

pbwcr

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Jul 11, 2007
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Having miles on Mittler FF hubs, if I were to do it over I would spend what ever it takes to get unit bearings. Without a precision spacer between the bearings a non UB unit will eventually fail.
PaulW
 

toddz69

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Lets get Todd Z in on this. I know he pays a lot more attention to the desert racing and knows what all is out there. If I can think of anyone that hangs around here that would know, it would be Todd.

I remember the old Warn kits back in the 90's. For the most part glorified Dana 44 front end parts. After a few years they were showing that those parts were not up to the task of living in a rear axle.

LOL - Yeah, I geek out on stuff like this (as with brakes). 68Ford runs one of the Schreiner units and is real happy with it. Most of the options I see listed in this thread are good if you don't need a parking brake. I'm always a little gun-shy with the unit bearing stuff but it seems to have proven itself with a lot of the rockcrawler guys and I have a pickup at home in the driveway with 200K on it and the original unit bearings and it's just fine.

The Warn stuff was an interesting concept (I ran it myself) but proved to have some engineering design problems (mainly the hubs) that helped kill it. Apparently Yukon hubs are working well on at least one of the kits still in use.

Todd Z.
 

68ford

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Dec 26, 2004
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Toddz will likely agree that tube works is one of the top of line options. Very nice stuff.
https://tubeworks.com/
I use the 31 spline shreiner racing billet steel hubs and have had no issues in just over 20k harder than most miles in my opinion 😁 one thing nice about shreiner hibs vs grand national.isnthe bearing spread is about an inch wider is I remember correctly.
 

nvrstuk

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Just a Bronco driver for over 50 yrs!
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Jul 31, 2001
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I looked at several FF setups...I'm not a racer and I've always been on a budget... I couldn't justify the prices knowing that potential proprietary parts might not be available in a few years

I went with 14 bolt spindle ends from RuffStuff in a new replacement (needed a new housing) rear 9" housing with stock 14 bolt rear spindle hubs. RCV makes in my mind a very simple, very strong FF setup. Bearing spread is wide. Most parts are OE and readily available

I've been known to be a pretty good "tester" of drive train parts and it's worked great for me so far...

It would mean redrilling the spindles to 5 on 5 1/2" for your application
 
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Yeller

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Nvrstuck's set up is very close to the solid kit, the 14 bolt and dana 60 front spindles and hubs are close enough to interchange. I've had no luck machining a 14 bolt hub 5x5-1/2 log pattern but the dana 60 hubs are not proprietary and 8lug ones can be machined as well. Another option is the flange kit from Ruff Stuff to bolt a dana 60 front spindle on the rear, that works as well. If you think you want unit bearings suck it up and buy the spidertrax ultimate, they are the only ones that l've found to live in hard use. Just had the wheel fall off of our light weight crawler at the last comp, it might get 4 hours a year of run time, however they are quality hours...lol bearing was replaced last season.
 

ntsqd

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Oey, from a fatigue failure perspective really, really not a fan of those RS hubs. Looks to me like too many compromises were made.
 

nvrstuk

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I'm not running them so bombs away...what do you see that looks like a fatigue concern on the RS hubs?
 

Sledneck

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Oct 3, 2006
Messages
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I have Ruff Stuff housings front and rear, used the RS flanges and two front end kits from Solid. Just called and had them take off the outer shafts, and upgraded one set of calipers to caddy for the park brake. Now I have the same spindles, rotors, brake pads, bearings, ect on the front and rear. Kept it simple.....
 

ntsqd

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It is basically a thin-walled tube with a thick walled flange in the middle of it. The roots of the flange are sharp corners. Run a tire sidewall into a rock hard and how will that hub react? Its going to flex/distort at that flange to tube transition.
It probably won't fail the first time that happens, but it will fail some X number of times later when that happens. Given what appears to be a large difference in thickness I'll predict sooner rather than later.

Now look at the camburg hubs. They are a lot wider at the base of the flange than they are at the stud holes, and they have gusseting webs between the studs. (As an aside, they should have bought ARP studs for those rather than making their own. ARP already makes an extremely similar stud.)
 
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Broncobowsher

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I have Ruff Stuff housings front and rear, used the RS flanges and two front end kits from Solid. Just called and had them take off the outer shafts, and upgraded one set of calipers to caddy for the park brake. Now I have the same spindles, rotors, brake pads, bearings, ect on the front and rear. Kept it simple.....

So Dana 44 parts in the back? Warn tried that in the 90's and it didn't wear very well. There was a later kit that used some bigger parts, but that still wasn't working and the kit was pulled from the market.
 

Yeller

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So Dana 44 parts in the back? Warn tried that in the 90's and it didn't wear very well. There was a later kit that used some bigger parts, but that still wasn't working and the kit was pulled from the market.

Dana 60 parts.

Unless your running internal axle seals I've found RCV drive flanges to seal well enough to hold the gear lube in,most do not over time.
 

Sledneck

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Oct 3, 2006
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So Dana 44 parts in the back? Warn tried that in the 90's and it didn't wear very well. There was a later kit that used some bigger parts, but that still wasn't working and the kit was pulled from the market.

The front axle is a Ruff Stuff housing with Dana 60 Reid knuckles, so all parts are Dana 60. I did have to clearance the RS spindle flanges in the rear to clear the calipers, but other than that, all went together well.

I am running inner axle seals with Yukon drive flanges on the rear, and it did initially leak. Pulled the axle shafts, replaced the seals and polished the shaft where the seal rides, and have not had an issue since. Should have polished it in the beginning so the seal is against a smooth surface.
 
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