Telling axles apart

[86MUDRCJ]

Is there a certain part of an axle that you can tell if it was coil or leaf sprung? Like the pads on the axle or can you take them off or weld them on. I'm sure it's been asked a bunch of times and I couldn't find a thread.Thanks in advance guys.

 

[Sunk]

Yes. A leaf sprung axle should have square perches, and a coil spring axle should have round perches. You can cut and re-weld the perches if they're the wrong type or in the wrong spot.

 

[86MUDRCJ]

Is there certain ones you can't take off? And I was thinking if I got an axle that was coils I wanted to put leads on it.

 

[AgPete139]

Is there certain ones you can't take off? And I was thinking if I got an axle that was coils I wanted to put leads on it.

No. With enough time and money, anything is possible.

You can take off the rectangular perches or the round perches on any axle. It's just metal that needs to be welded.

What axles are you looking to get? Are you wanting to swap out your 7.5" axle to an 8.8", 9" or what? Explorers have different 8.8" perches than a Ranger (spring over/under the axle).

If you want to swap out a good rear axle, find a 1993+ Ranger with a 4.0L. It will be the exact same width, without readjusting the spring mounts.

What axle do you have? Rockwells?

 

[86MUDRCJ]

What axle do you have? Rockwells?

how'd you know? lol no I'm wanting to throw a 9" or 10.25 at it. But I was referring to a front axle because I heard somewhere the perches were cast onto the axle.

 

[adsm08]

how'd you know? lol no I'm wanting to throw a 9" or 10.25 at it. But I was referring to a front axle because I heard somewhere the perches were cast onto the axle.

Well if you are sticking to RBV axles, it doesn't make a lick of difference, they were all the same.

What exactly are you trying to do again?

 

[86MUDRCJ]

What I'm trying to do is take a front axle and make it leaf sprung not coils.

 

[AgPete139]

What I'm trying to do is take a front axle and make it leaf sprung not coils.

Ah. OK. For the record, there have been quite a few guys on here, like Patov, that have made their rear axles coil-sprung.


As for the front, something like a D44 and switched to leaves is not a problem. If you are just going to throw it in, full width / shortened / or whatever, then you'll just have to measure where you want the new rectangular perches to be and burn them in.

You'll still need to do all the other things associated with a SAS, from leaf shackles to steering/pitman arm clearance.

Look around and search for other peoples build threads with solid axle swaps.

Youll find even more good info there.

 

[86MUDRCJ]

I'm gonna leave it full width. It might save Alittle time and alot of money.ill try and read up in some threads and see if I can't learn me somethin. Lol