1980 F150 axle swap

Ok, well I think I am going to buy the 1980 F-150 (refer to "Should I Buy This? Diamond in the Ruff?"). All the information I have been able to gather seems to indicate this would be a pretty good vehicle. The striaght six can be upgraded, the NP435 or T-18 is a good tranny, the transfer case is decent but could be swapped for a 205, and the 9-inch is a good axle.
That leaves the front D44TTB. In the future I would like to swap it out. First of all where can I find info on the swap including lift info and should I go with a dana 44 or a dana 60? Would the 60 be overkill and would it be a mismatch with the 9-inch? Are there any donor vehicles I could scronge from?

Thanks
Chris

I am currently in the same situation.
for your axle swap I would look into a leaf sprung 84 f250.
that vehicle has a dana 60 rear and a dana 44 front end.
also another good canidate is a 79 ford bronco. the suspension would bolt up on a
coil frontend without mods.

Cool. Quik question, do you think I should swap the 9 inch out for the 60? That is assumeing I can find a donor vehicle with both axles.

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Cool. Quik question, do you think I should swap the 9 inch out for the 60? That is assumeing I can find a donor vehicle with both axles.

Depends what you want to do. The benefit of a Dana 60 is not only the larger rearend but the axle size as well. 9" rears can have up to 31-spline axles. If you plan on running large tires while doing heavy offroading, then you should consider upgrading the axles. You can still have a lot of fun with a 9" rear and a dana 44 frontend and not have a lot of breakage.

I would worry about the frontend first, though. If you're going to go through the effort of swapping to a solid axle frontend, then go with a dana 60. The only reason to swap from an IFS dana 44 to a solid axle dana 44 is for articulation. Solid axles will render better articulation.

It all depends what you ultimately want to do with the vehicle.

Ok, yeah I guess it would make sense to tell ya what I want to do with it. I will probably use it for on road driving mostly, however, I am very spontaneos and turn off on any dirt road that looks fun or interesting. So, I am planning on running 33s to 35s. I live in the desert so I am not building a monster mudder. I would like to build more of a trail truck than anything else. I like to crawl rocks so I would like articulation and mild lift.
I went on a trial ride with my stock Bronco 2 and it did very well compared to the Jeeps and a such especially considering the failing Japanese 5 speed gearbox and dinky tires with the TTB front end. About 30-40,000 miles later I had the tranny rebuilt and they practicly poored the remains of the old bearings out of the tranny

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Ok, yeah I guess it would make sense to tell ya what I want to do with it. I will probably use it for on road driving mostly, however, I am very spontaneos and turn off on any dirt road that looks fun or interesting. So, I am planning on running 33s to 35s. I live in the desert so I am not building a monster mudder. I would like to build more of a trail truck than anything else. I like to crawl rocks so I would like articulation and mild lift. I went on a trial ride with my stock Bronco 2 and it did very well compared to the Jeeps and a such especially considering the failing Japanese 5 speed gearbox and dinky tires with the TTB front end. About 30-40,000 miles later I had the tranny rebuilt and they practicly poored the remains of the old bearings out of the tranny

What kind of traction device will you be running in your front and rearends? Limited slip or locker?

A 3/4 rearend should be very easy to find should you ever want to upgrade. Just keep in mind that you'd have to run 8-lug wheels and get the tires to fit. Running the same tire/wheel combo on all four corners is of benefit because you'll only need to carry one spare.

You can convert a dana 44 to an 8-lug as well, but not much is gained in terms of strength. The inner axles are still tiny dana 44 axles.

If you have a solid axle dana 44 up front and a 9" in the back and don't run anything larger than 35's, you should be very happy with what you'll be able to do. Since you mentioned desert, I would imagine you'll be running a less aggressive all terrain tire (as opposed to a mud terrain tire)?

I have a 80 F150 it has a 3" Tuff Country lift and clears 36" tires ( little rub when weel turned to lock but they are 14" tread width) I put a detroit in the back and a aulburn posi in the front with 456:1 gears and I can drive aroun most any thing its like driving a tractor!( keep it in 2wd to make it moor fun!) Been running it in trees rocks creekbeds gravel, only killed one wheel joint in the ttb.

I swapped in a 78 Dana 44 front in my 94 F1504x4 fairly easily, with minimum fabrication. If you need more info, email jlcsjh@aol