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Swapping in a disc brake Dana 44
- Thread starter 66Coupe
- Start date
bknbronco
Bronco Guru
price is a hard one. depends on alot. no matter what id tear it down and redo bearings and seals. Hopefully its the right gearing. Id say $200-$400 and plan on another $500 in rebuild parts, twice that if it needs regearing.
I think most of the conversion kits use chevy parts?? Im not a fan of the stock ford disks or the chevy swaps. I chose to use a later year ford knuckle out swap. Allows for larger, stronger axle shafts. I found my knuckle out parts from a 79F150 i think, and i paid $100.
The stock bronco disk knuckles have a smaller hole (which dosnt allow for larger axles), and also has the TRE arms pointed out which can interfere with wheels and larger TRE like used in the chevy TRE swap.
It depends on your mechanical ability, pocketbook, and future mods?
Im also gona say that a disk brake bronco dana44 is gona be harder to find than the knuckles out form a later year ford. The new conversion kits sold at the vendors are the easyest to find but not necessary the best route to take.
I think most of the conversion kits use chevy parts?? Im not a fan of the stock ford disks or the chevy swaps. I chose to use a later year ford knuckle out swap. Allows for larger, stronger axle shafts. I found my knuckle out parts from a 79F150 i think, and i paid $100.
The stock bronco disk knuckles have a smaller hole (which dosnt allow for larger axles), and also has the TRE arms pointed out which can interfere with wheels and larger TRE like used in the chevy TRE swap.
It depends on your mechanical ability, pocketbook, and future mods?
Im also gona say that a disk brake bronco dana44 is gona be harder to find than the knuckles out form a later year ford. The new conversion kits sold at the vendors are the easyest to find but not necessary the best route to take.
Are you saying swapping in a disc brake 44 for a drum brake 44 or for a Dana 30? If I already had a drum brake 44, I'd just do the brake conversion to it. Much easier than pulling the entire axle.
The real issue is cost - if your existing front diff is good, it is fairly cheap to swap drums for discs, especially if you go the used part route. I agree with a previous post that the best conversion is the F150 knuckle-out swap (vs chevy or 76/77 Bronco spindle out), as it gives you the most flexibility with steering and axle upgrades and there are millions of F150's out there in junkyards (= cheep parts).
Getting a used front diff (like a 76 EB D44) and swapping it outright is a crapshoot, even assuming that you get one with the correct gearing. You will still in almost every case need to buy new calipers/pads and brake lines, along with a longer tie rod kit as the '75 and older is really too short for the 76/77 knuckles. Realistically you're looking at $200 - $300 plus the used diff, and praying that all the bearings/seals/u joints/etc are all good. If the diff has been sitting for any length of time, the axle seals (on the inside of the diff, keeping gear oil in the housing) will be elongated and shot, requiring removal of the differential to replace them. If you need to replace bearings or rebuild the R&P, expect to get to $1000 in parts and labor (including the $200-300 above) quickly.
If your existing front diff is toast, then by all means a swap is an option, but the costs will add up - I just completed a swap to a high pinion D44 on my '75 where I did an even trade for my stock trac-loc housing for a shortened HP housing, axles (full length) and the correct R&P (I kept the F150 disc kit from my stock axle). I spent $800 on an Auburn Ected Max diff (I know a trac-loc is about 1/2 the cost), $150 on new axle and u joints, and $150 on bearing/seal kit. I did the install myself (I already have the $300+ in tools/setup bearings), spending 1.5 days for the R/R and rebuild/setup.
Compare that to the $300 + alignment when I did the F150 knuckle out swap....
Getting a used front diff (like a 76 EB D44) and swapping it outright is a crapshoot, even assuming that you get one with the correct gearing. You will still in almost every case need to buy new calipers/pads and brake lines, along with a longer tie rod kit as the '75 and older is really too short for the 76/77 knuckles. Realistically you're looking at $200 - $300 plus the used diff, and praying that all the bearings/seals/u joints/etc are all good. If the diff has been sitting for any length of time, the axle seals (on the inside of the diff, keeping gear oil in the housing) will be elongated and shot, requiring removal of the differential to replace them. If you need to replace bearings or rebuild the R&P, expect to get to $1000 in parts and labor (including the $200-300 above) quickly.
If your existing front diff is toast, then by all means a swap is an option, but the costs will add up - I just completed a swap to a high pinion D44 on my '75 where I did an even trade for my stock trac-loc housing for a shortened HP housing, axles (full length) and the correct R&P (I kept the F150 disc kit from my stock axle). I spent $800 on an Auburn Ected Max diff (I know a trac-loc is about 1/2 the cost), $150 on new axle and u joints, and $150 on bearing/seal kit. I did the install myself (I already have the $300+ in tools/setup bearings), spending 1.5 days for the R/R and rebuild/setup.
Compare that to the $300 + alignment when I did the F150 knuckle out swap....
Guessing you have a 44 already with drums.........
Swapping it in allows yuo to do things in stages if money is tight (as it was for me). I put on the power booster and bracket first and ran with 4 wheel power drums for years.
Over time I read 100's of posts and decided what conversion I wanted. I picked up the parts (79 bronco knuckles, spindles, caliper mounting brackets) used, bought (local parts store) new hubs/rotors, calipers, pads and wheel studs. Reused my stock drum/drum (no RPV) MC with H-block and the stock 74 locking hubs. New brake hoses from local parts store. I used 76 F100 front hoses. Had to modify the hose brackets (star to small D shape)but that was nothing. I was also changing gears so the 44 master rebuild kit came with all the bearings and seals needed. Think the only thing it was missing was the spindle rebuild kit....
I priced everything out and bought over time thus I was able to save some money using sales and prmotions to get a part here and there.......If you don't have time then a kit is the way to go.
Swapping it in allows yuo to do things in stages if money is tight (as it was for me). I put on the power booster and bracket first and ran with 4 wheel power drums for years.
Over time I read 100's of posts and decided what conversion I wanted. I picked up the parts (79 bronco knuckles, spindles, caliper mounting brackets) used, bought (local parts store) new hubs/rotors, calipers, pads and wheel studs. Reused my stock drum/drum (no RPV) MC with H-block and the stock 74 locking hubs. New brake hoses from local parts store. I used 76 F100 front hoses. Had to modify the hose brackets (star to small D shape)but that was nothing. I was also changing gears so the 44 master rebuild kit came with all the bearings and seals needed. Think the only thing it was missing was the spindle rebuild kit....
I priced everything out and bought over time thus I was able to save some money using sales and prmotions to get a part here and there.......If you don't have time then a kit is the way to go.
