Ford 8.8 W/ Truss build under $700

[Jacob Ochs]

First off I decided to swap out my Dana 35 for the 8.8 because one its stronger by far, two I'm 17 and its cheap I don't have a lot of money, and three it is arguably 20% stronger than the dana 44, and lastly it is a direct swap with minor modifications! It also has the 5x4.5 lug spacing. The only problem i saw was its shorter than the dana 35. But once it was said and done you can't even tell.

 

So to start the parts you will need this includes all new brake parts and the axle itself.

 

First off the axle itself I got from a yard called Mudd Duck Auto in St. Louis. It was from a 2001 Ford Explorer with 87,000 miles on It. They pulled it for me and had it in the back of my truck for 214 $ flat. I think it was a pretty good deal!

 

Brake parts:

Doorman part H38636 (4383929, 4636392) this is the rear center soft cable from a 1989-1996 Dodge dakota I got it for $15.00 but if you are not lifted you can get away with the stock line.

 

Dorman C93113 this is the parkibg brake cable. They cost $17.00 a piece so $34.00 total. Again this is if you are lifted.

 

Part No. SLC577 Rear right Caliper from Advanced Auto 39.99 w/ a $20 core.

 

Part No. SLC 576 Rear left caliper from Advance auto 39.99 w/ a $20

core.

 

Part No. H380528 X2 rear right brake hose $17.99 a piece Advance Auto, ill get to that later.

 

Part No. NB701 parking brake shoes $23.99 Advance Auto.

 

Part No. CNAD 858 Brake pads for the rear $15.99 Advance Auto.

 

Part No. YH145052 rear brake rotors $35.99 a piece.

 

I stole some of the brake parts from Alexia so credit to him!:)

 

Next Axle parts

 

Part No. 2-2-1379 Flange adapter for the U-Joints from Amazon $38.04

 

Part No. P4120074 Mopar high performance spring perches from Jegs $15.99.

 

U-bolts I got mine from Advance auto for $29.99 the part number is not specified on the website.

 

I reused and drilled out the factory spring plates for the 3.25" U bolts.

 

I used Iron Rock Offroad shock mounts for my shocks they were $18.00 Part No. IR-A_USM style C.

 

I used Rustys offroad shocks for $33.00 a piece but any shock you want to use will work depending on your ride height.

 

20$ for 75w-140 gear oil 2.5qt

 

And thats all for parts. I spent in total $678 thats including shocks. So $612 without shocks.

 

So to start when I bought the axle the first thing I did was drain the gear oil. Second I carefully cut off the spring perches and sway bar perches with an angle grinder. Next I welded the tubes to the differential housing. There is controversy wether you should heat up the axle before or not, but the way I did it is but it on four 3 ton jack stands two on each side evenly placed. Next I would weld 1 inch sections on either side until it was finished and let it slowly cool. That step is completely optional. Next I took out the old Dana 35.

I set it by my 8.8 to make fun of how small It was. After that I moved the 8.8 under the leaf springs with a furniture mover and set the perches on top and got the pinion angle set and tacked the perches in place. After we pulled the axle back out I fully welded the perches on. Next I started making the over axle truss out of 1/4 inch thick steel for the inner body. I used cardboard for a template. Then I welded 3/8 inch steel on top of the truss following the top of it! After that we welded the truss to the axle.

 

After this we put the 8.8 back under the leaf springs just to find out the spring perches interfered with the truss angle. :(

 

So we took the truss back out and cut down the corners to a new angle. We also drilled the holes in It with different hole saw sizes burning up 2 old drills in the process. Remember we don't have a cutting torch or plasma cutter it was made using an angle grinder. Yes it sucked.

After this we installed all the brake componets and bolted the axle to the leaf springs. Then we put the flang adapter on the 8.8 using 12x1.75x30mm bolts I picked up from a local hardware store for less than $2.99.

After this we started on hooking up the breaks. I used 2 passenger side soft lines because the driver side line has a T coming off the top that would not work with my brake setup. So we hooked up the lines to the calipers and welded a stud on the axle to bolt the lines to. Next from the drivers side we bent brake hard line to meet the dakota rear main line on top of the truss. Next we bent up the original hard line that came with the 8.8 to meet the dakota main line. While doing this I welded on the shock perches.

 

After this we had a parking brake issue. The parking brake cable did not have a clip to hook onto the factory parking brake. So we made on similar to this:

That fixed our issue.

Next came paint. That is self explanitory. We decided on a red/black sceme. here's how it turned out!

 

After this we filled the axle with the gear oil. While we were at this we removed the abs sensor and bolted on a steel plate with a gasket on It. After it was all done and the wheels were on the ground we bled the brakes and we were done! After a long weekend!

 

This is my first build thread so sorry for any errors and lack of pictures! I will post more up of my brake line setup when I get the chance. I hope I helped anyone with any questions. I figured ide post another 8.8 thread because all the ones I look at leave out the price for new brake componets. Thanks for looking! :)

[HOrnbrod]

Where is the axle vent on an 8.8?

[Jacob Ochs]

It is about 9 inches away from the carrier on the drivers side angled forward a bit.