Bringing the Bronco back to its Solid Axle Roots
This is been a long awaited project for us, as we we tired of bending the TTB steering, Tired of Blowing up ball joints, and wheel bearings. The TTB is not that bad of suspension design, but if you want to get into serious rock crawling a solid axle is the way to go.
It all started when we got a good deal on a Dana 44 high pinion Axle from a 79 bronco. We grabbed it, took it home and started to tear it down. We replaced about everything in there, like new 4.88 gears with a ARB locker,New ball joints, New u-joints welded to the axles, new caliper, brakes, turned the rotors, new bearing and seals, a new drop brake line and new hard brake lines. We also took this time and used a reamer to put a new taper on the knuckles and put the tie rods on top of the knuckles for better steering angles not to mention better ground clearance for the steering. A lot of people ask "why not use a Dana 60?", well the Dana 60 front ends just plain old cost to much, for the added price of a 60, you can buy a lot of spare axle shafts for your Dana 44.
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Parts Needed
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| Diff Build up | |||
| New upper and lower ball joints x4 ($40) | New calipers and brake pads x2 ($35) | 4.88 gears x2 ($165) | ARB air locker ($500) |
| New U-joints x2 ($20) | Bearings and seals ($60) | Resurface rotors ($20) | Brake hard lines ($5) |
| Longer braided line x2 ($40) | 7 Deg bushing kit ($40) | ||
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Everything else
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| 6 inch front springs ($130) | Upper coil buckets x2 ($20) | Shock mounts ($30) | RS9012's x4 ($70) |
| 6 inch rear springs ($400) | Spring pivots ($180) | Misc metal ($40) | Radius arm drop brackets ($130) |
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Torn down rusty parts |
As the diff gets torn down |
another angle |
The First thing we did after building up the axle and gathering parts, is to work on the rear springs, We ordered up some Superlift 6 inch springs and some BC Bronco Leaf relief's to gain about 8 1/2 inches of lift. The leaf relief's were a little hard to get on because they are designed for a early bronco who's springs are 2.5 inches wide, where the fullsize's are 3 inches wide. After consulting with some springs shops who gave us the go ahead, we ground off about 1/4 inch on each spring to get the rockers on, and got some new spring plates for a Early bronco. After that we found some free time, installed the rear springs, put new rancho 9012 shocks on and added a new longer rear brake line.
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How the Pivots work |
Rear spring with rocker installed |
Installed on the truck |
We were not shocked to find out the the Spring rockers did not like the street driving. They just added to much body roll for a daily driver, so we rigged up this quick disconnects from some 1x1 tube with a peace of 1/8 flat bar welded on top. Then drilled a hole for a pin so you could pull the pin, and pull the it out so the rockers could flex once again.
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Rear View |
Finished Project |
Front View |
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