full width axles

[chad estes]

Bought a 75 F150 4x4 to swap the disk brakes onto my 75 Bronco but now thinking about swapping the full width axles into the Bronco. Any suggestions appreciated. Thanks

 

[Digger556]

Might depend on what you do with your Bronco.

Standard axle width is fine for running around town in more or less stock form.
It has a more classic look IMO.

That said, I love my full width axles. Having a high pinion 44 really helps with driveshaft angles and wider track can help with stability. I mostly tow and daily drive with mine, hitting the trails on occasion.

 

[Apogee]

Where do you live? Different states have different rules regarding tire stick out allowances, so that's something to consider. There are extra-wide flexible fender flares you can run to be legal if needed.

I'm putting '76 F150 axles under my rig now, but intend to run 37's like Digger does and intend to drive/wheel it accordingly. My other wheeler is a '77 F150, so I'm pretty used to the width already, but the narrower body sure will be nice at times.

How do you intend to use your rig? Tire size?

 

[chad estes]

Going to run 35s as of right now, as for use it will mainly light trails and street use. The plan keeps changing as I go. Need to make up my mind so I can pull the tub and get serious on work. Need to trial fit engine for clearance issues so I can get tub off and focus on chassis. Stuffing a supercharged 5.4 in it which again has deviated from the plan, already built a nice 351 for it. Think im leaning to the full width axles. Thank you guys for the input.

 

[DirtDonk]

How much suspension lift? The high-pinion front differential and the big 5.4 might not leave much room for each other.

Paul

 

[chad estes]

Was figuring 3.5, and Im 4 linking the back.

 

[kyle]

Did the 75 F-150 have a conversion or swap? F-150’s didn’t have disc brakes until 76.

 

[DirtDonk]

Good catch. But if it's from a junkyard or from an owner that does not have documentation and only goes by what they were told, maybe it's a '76 after all.

Or perhaps some trucks got the disc brakes late in '75 production just before the changeover. I'd like to know if that ever happened just for my peace of mind.
In about '82 maybe I bought an axle for the disc brakes from a dismantler that was marked as a '75 axle. All these years I just assumed that they either got it wrong, or there was a late running change.
The people at this place (Truck Heaven in San Jose) were very sharp and knew their stuff. So maybe they were just given the wrong info on the truck the axle was removed from, or maybe it was very late in the '75 run.

I'll never know, but maybe if Chad's "75" does have disc brakes we can find out when it was built and see if any of that is possible. Be cool to know.

Any build date info or VIN info on your donor Chad?

Paul

 

[68ford]

One thing to consider is the terrible kingpin inclination angle early broncos have when running most wheel/tire combos. The scrub radius is terrible. If you were to run the full width axles and as little offset wheel as possible, you might get decent kpi #s. This would make it narrower overall which may or may not interest you.
Being on full width axles the diff is several inches farther to the drive side, you should actually be better off with oil pan clearance.
Exhaust needs to run over the frame to the outside if you want anything decently free flowing.

 

[Qumanchew]

One thing to consider is the terrible kingpin inclination angle early broncos have when running most wheel/tire combos. The scrub radius is terrible. If you were to run the full width axles and as little offset wheel as possible, you might get decent kpi #s. This would make it narrower overall which may or may not interest you.
Being on full width axles the diff is several inches farther to the drive side, you should actually be better off with oil pan clearance.
Exhaust needs to run over the frame to the outside if you want anything decently free flowing.

You just described exactly why I went with full widths. I'm running 76 f150 axles. The diff is moved 3" to the drivers side. I didn't want to run a lot of lift so that helped out tremendously with my setup. I'm using the Dodge 1500 wheels for now, 17x7 with 4.5" backspace. Eventually I'm going to make some 17x7 with 5.25 backspace.