James duff Dana 44 swap kit

[That_4.0_ranger]

Just picked up this 92 ranger with an 88 front clip and a Dana 44 and ford 9 swap, I was an unfinished project that I have “finished” as if any project is ever finished

but I have takin it out a couple times and noticed that I have a ton of droop in the front but not much up travel and was looking at there swap and noticed the coils are not very vertical especially the driver side but the axle is centered I’ll drop a pic of what I’m talking about

That is sitting at ride hight someone I talked to said the reason for no up travel is that the coil may be binding up and I was wondering if any one has done the swap and knows what I should do to remedy the not so vertical coils was thinking about just moving the lower bucket in a hair but then don’t know if that will cause a major weak point
And help or insight would be appreciated thank you in advance

 

[NakedDucks]

Space your upper buckets out about an 1” or so.

From the looks of it, they used a 78/79 front D44. The problem with them is that the radius arm wedges, and inner knuckles are all cast as one piece and then the axle tube is pressed and welded in. This means you can’t move the wedges unless you cut the tube.

76/77 D44’s didn’t have this problem as the wedges were welded on the tubes and could be moved.

So this makes you have to space the upper buckets to match the lower spacing. James Duff doesn’t tell you this…. Most likely bc they assume you use an early Bronco D44 which is already narrow and fits much more nicely.

So you options are:

-Space out the upper buckets
-Narrow the axle (tip, narrow the long tube)
-Find a 76/77 F-150 D44 housing and move the wedges.
-Find an early Bronco axle. You’ll need the inner axles, but you can use your current outers. Unless you find one with disc brakes…. Most years had drums.