96 B4000 Front End Swap ?'s

[88RangerDanger]

Hey a buddy of mine just bought a 96 B4k with an 8" suspension lift. We took it down to get an alignment on it today and they told us the whole front end is screwed. The people who lifted it put 5 washers under the springs so those are bent, the angles are all wrong so ball joints and everything will wear very fast.

Anyways, my buddy wants to do a straight axle swap from a jeep. Has anyone done this or know of a place that kinda has a walkthrough or helpful tips? And if were changing everything out do we need match years or anything?

Thanks in advance for the help.

 

[cur10u5g30rg3]

I am new here but if I were looking for a an axle for that I would look into an XJ (Cherokee) front axle. You get a high pinion axle. Or you could look for a Dana 44 out of an older full size cherokee, but I don't remember if this one is a driver side or passenger side drop. The cherokee axle is 1 inch or so wider than the ford 8.8 in the rear, but it will have the same bolt pattern.

 

[88RangerDanger]

It's for the front axle not the rear.

 

[BLUE "B"]

He knows it's for the front end. When he was talking about the dana 44 being wider than the 8.8 he was talking about the trac of the wheels. For example if you swap in the dana 44 your front tires will be an inch or 2 out of trac from the rear wheels, which isnt alway a bad thing. Up to 85' the toyota pickups had a rear diff that was 2 inches narrower than the front one, and the reason for this was that if you were driving through snow or mud, it would give you some fresh snow or mud to get traction on instead of getting stuck in the ruts that your front wheels made.