What is the difference?

[rsalter66]

I have a 78 F150 4x4 parts truck that I am thinking of pulling the coil spring / radius arm front suspension out of and putting that in my 76 F250 4x4 Hi-Boy to replace the leaf spring front suspension, I have already swapped in the 78's steering box because I blew the hydro assist ram
now the 76 has the HD-D44 l/p front and D60 rear
the 78 has the D44 h/p
can I swap gears between the two, I want to keep my 4:10's, I know I can swap the outters
I could always just weld on some wedges and save myself some trouble but I am looking into all options
selling the truck is not one of them!
but I am looking for a better ride and better articulation

 

[Lost]

I have seen several of these year trucks on net with coil conversions on front . I wish I had paid attention now. Sorry I'm no help .

But if you make A Rad arm and panard bar of sorts but it would work .

 

[Mil1ion]

I read about coils and axles,diffs

so what is the actual question here ?

 

[bucks77ford]

I think he wants to know if his 4:10 gears will swap from his D44 HD out of this highboy into the D44 from the F150.

I didn't think there was a "pumpkin" difference between the two. I guess, I would try to keep the D44 HD since it has the stronger and beefier hubs.

 

[highhorse78]

Hey Rick, the d44 hd has standard rotation gears and the reg d44 has reverse rotation. The swap is a no-go. What gears are in the reg. d44?

 

[bucks77ford]

I never thought about the gear rotation. Learn something new everyday.

 

[rsalter66]

I don't know what the gears are in the d44 yet, I haven't pulled it apart, I wont be doing any of this for awhile, I am having too much fun driving my truck as it is now, this is just for future reference, I have to get my 78 Bronco back together and up and running first so I don't go into with drawls
yes Buck you have the question right
so the housings should be interchangeable between the two? are the axles the same?
I just went and changed tires and had in allined and I have a negative camber on the drivers side like something is bent, it wasn't bad though

 

[Mil1ion]

Sifto, If you post the BOM number of both axles I can decode them and show you a parts list.

 

[rsalter66]

Thanks Heavy D, I'll do that, feeling a bit under the weather today but I will be at it this weekend, I got someone coming to buy my 460 and I need to go pick up my cap and tear down the M motor
alot to do and no ambition to do it????

 

[LEB Paul]

Yeah, what they said about the gears not swapping over.

Check out my thread in the offroad forum for info on swapping a leaf sprung axle into a radius arm setup. If you're dealing with a 70's d44 it will be easier because the driver side axle tube will give you more room to fit the c-wedges on for the radius arms.

 

[rsalter66]

yea but can I swap out the whole chunk from one to the other, or would that be a no because of the difference in pinion positions? hi + lo

 

[LEB Paul]

I'm not sure I understand the question.

The gears will not swap over, a high pinion R&P will not work in a low pinion axle as far as I know.

You can swap the whole axle over if you want to do the work for it.

edit: Oh! are you thinking like a 9inch that has the removable third member "chunk" ?? If so, that won't work because the d44 doesn't have a removable third member.. unless you want to do a lot of cutting and welding, but it really wouldn't be worth it. The low pinion d44 is pretty undesirable anyway, its weak and not an upgrade over a standard high pinion d44.

 

[highhorse78]

It is posible that your d44 hp already has 4.10 gears, as that was an option

 

[rsalter66]

That would be sweet, I will be checking that anyways, the parts truck had 44's on it at one time so it is also possible that they were swapped too

 

[grantpete]

Can you fabricate the hd 44 into the coil spring mounts and radius arm mounts then you can keep the hole axle?

 

[rsalter66]

yea I could but this has all changed since then so, all is good