My Solid Axle Swap build

hey guys. just got on here, and its seems pretty good, and what not...anyways, just figured i would post up my build thread on my 95 f150. it started out life as a leveled out 95 ford sittin on 31's with a independent front suspension. that just wasnt doing it for me so i decided a SAS was in order. front axle is a d44 out of a 79 ford bronco, and the rear is just a simple ford 8.8. both have lockers, and the goal of my "build" was to have a decent suspension travel. now.....when i did all my research and math, with what i was doing, 35's were going to fit the truck perfect. first i did the rear swap...the 35's fit perfectly. ok....move on to the front and after done with that the truck looked like a prerunner. it sat NOSE HIGH! i cant be having any of that..lol. what did it was the front suspension is meant for a 79 ford and the rear is meant for a 95 ford...with all the aftermarket parts on the front that changed my numbers up...anyways, instead of lowering the front i lifted the rear by doing a shackle flip. so now these 35's are looking a tad bit small, so when these wear out ill be going 37's. anyways, on to some pics of the truck before, during surgery, and after. i think you will see a tad bit of difference. ill do my best at putting them in order..


first off, how it was before. leveled out with 31's

and here are the transplants pre swap.

lifted the rear

then started tearing down the front! bye bye independent front suspension!


next i hung some coil buckets mounted springs and hung the front axle, and started doing some geometry...

next we flexed it without shocks or brakes yet to see where i needed to put my upper shock mounts

then brakes, and shocks were put on....this is the CLEANEST its ever been..lol. also in this pic, you can see the brake lines that come out of the frame on each side. believe it or not, even though they are extended, they werent long enough at full flex, so later on i swapped to a single center drop brake line and ran the lines along the axle.

fresh outa surgery with the old track bar (swapped for one beefier) and sporting the prerunner look i was talking about earlier.


and of coarse the next thing you gotta do is test out what youve put so much time and money into. so accordingly, i did a little flexing.




Next (a couple months later) my trans decided to take a shit. GREAAATT....fml. so i upgraded to the stronger zf5 trans out of a f350, and a different transfer case that enables me to run a jointed rear driveshaft which helps out on my driveshaft angle. tore both down, made new again, and installed. heres a couple of pics of that.

when i brought it home

and ready to be swapped!

and here it is with the refreshed t case.

and then its back on the road again. finally!


so in a nutshell there is my truck and the build thats gone on in the past years time. now......i need some people to wheel with!

awesome job man. this thing looks like something they would of built on spike's powerblock. i also want your shocks

haha thanks man. it has been a labor of love though. believe it or not, the whole suspension lift was done just in a weekends time by myself and another co worker. and the shocks are awesome, but im thinking of dual shocking the front end, but we will see. i got them from rustys offroad.

fishforlife2007 wrote:

it has been a labor of love though.

i know what u mean. i've spent countless hours doing numbers of things down to the stupidest little detail on my rig but it's all because i enjoy doing it. but i'm like that with everything, if i own it then i have to customize something on it to call it my own lol

glad we are on the same page here...lol

thats a nice truck

thanks man!

Really came out nice, makes it looks like a more solid truck aside from just better looking aesthetically.

thanks. since then ive upgraded to a sterling 10.25 in the rear and converted the front 44 to 8 lug. now running on military 37's

found a hole to park in
http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/552297_431225313604131_875068052_n.jpg