Swap 8.8 Explorer disc rear-end to 94 Bronco?

Hi!

I blew out my 94 Bronco's rear diff on a 4x4 trip and several people told me that as long as I have to dump some money into it, I may as well swap for an Explorer 8.8 with disc brakes.

Well, that sounds great, but nobody can tell me if it will be a direct plug-and-play straight-across swap, or if I will need to fab brackets or other stuff to get it in my Bronco.

Has anyone done this? If it really is that easy, I'll run down to a local auto recycler and grab one.

Thanks,
-Derek

Hmmmm.....I wish someone could answer your question. I like the thought of having disk brakes on the back of my 96.

Yeah, I gave up on the idea for now and just rebuilt my existing 8.8. Since my LS carrier and the gears were destroyed when the cross shaft fell out (yep, it just fell out), I bought a Detroit Locker and used the opportunity to jump from my stock 3.55 ratio to 4.10. This brought it back to about stock with the 33" tires, so I'm very happy with the results.

I was told by one of the guys in my 4x4 club that you can go to a wrecking yard and grab the disc brake mounting brackes from the 8.8 on a Ford explorer to swap them over. Then you could just buy new Explorer calipers and keep your existing axles and stud pattern. He wasn't clear on what to do about the discs, so I'm guessing that you'd have to find some that would fit or drill them to fit the older 5.5 pattern -- each brake job. What a pain.

Of course, I can't even start thinking about that until I change my front D44 ratio to match the rear, and the carrier break at 3.92 requires a new carrier. It's amazing how a simple-sounding decision can just keep taking more and more money to complete...

-Derek