JUNK YARD FORD 1 TON AXLE SWAP

[Gvellas]

I'm glad to hear you are happy with it. I'm looking forward to mine.

It isn't really important offroad for 99% of people other than very picky rock crawlers. It theoretically matters on road only during tight turns with enough velocity to cause a loss of stable turning. It is about making sure the tires stay in perfect contact with the surface below when you need them to without scrubbing... during a turn when you are counting on not slipping. For most of us jeepers, that means onroad in wet/icy/snowy conditions when we want to be able to make a decent turn without our axles being predispositioned to scrub tires at higher steering angles, making an already risky turn worse.

I'm not too worried about it. These axles never have perfect ackerman angle, since that is related directly to wheelbase and front axle width. The same axle and knuckle is used in multiple configuration lengths of superduty from shortcab/shorted to supercab/longed.

Ackerman, from what I understand, is a mechanical and positively variable inclination of steering angle of the inner front tire relative to the outer front tire. Driving straight ahead, both tires are parallel. As you turn one way, with ackerman, the inner tire will increase in turning angle relative to the outer tire. The harder you turn, the more the inner tire is turning tighter than the outer. If you were to plot the delta in turning angle between inner and out front tires against overall turning angle it would be a rising line from left to right as overall steering angle is increased. I don't know if it would be approximately linear or not, but you get the idea. The point is, this delta of turning angle between tires is only ever perfectly valid for one particular wheelbase and front axle width. Ford/spicer likely designed the acherkman for the d60 to be close to perfect for the most common truck configuration they sold, and were happy to use that ackerman angle across all of the other configurations as well.

It's not a case of you either have it or you don't. It's variable. You have some ackerman, it just likely isn't perfectly setup for our JTs, which is probably just fine except in extreme cases such as a 50mph turn in snow or something. I think just being cognizant of the concept and how the axle might perform is enough to mitigate any risk encountered. So long as it drives good.

You ever get your swap going or done?

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[DesertShot]

Oh yeah. They've been in for ~5 months. Still finishing up some loose ends and making tweaks, but so far they have been rock solid.

Still need to finish:
hydro assist
Locker wiring
Parking brake
Hydro bump pressure and position tweaks
Adjust the position of the front frame side track bar mount for maximum up travel
And a few other odds and ends.

Ended up buying Reid knuckles and using artecs high steer arm to get better ackerman angle. With the artec weld on, it just wasn't enough and you could hear and feel the extra on-road scrubbing of the tires in lower speed tight turns.

 

[TheSolarWizard]

Oh yeah. They've been in for ~5 months. Still finishing up some loose ends and making tweaks, but so far they have been rock solid.

Still need to finish:
hydro assist
Locker wiring
Parking brake
Hydro bump pressure and position tweaks
Adjust the position of the front frame side track bar mount for maximum up travel
And a few other odds and ends.

Ended up buying Reid knuckles and using artecs high steer arm to get better ackerman angle. With the artec weld on, it just wasn't enough and you could hear and feel the extra on-road scrubbing of the tires in lower speed tight turns.
How

Whats your offset on these wheels? Is it as close to the body and bumper as it seems ?

 

[DesertShot]

17x9 w/ 4.5" backspacing, 72" from W.M.S to W.M.S.

 

[TheSolarWizard]

17x9 w/ 4.5" backspacing, 72" from W.M.S to W.M.S.

thanks!
Build starting in just a few weeks now.
im going with 73.5” WMS on kingpins w/42s. Ive been singularly focused on using 0 offset wheels for scrub radius reasons but maybe I should just give in and do -12 to play it safe
I should be able to utilize the full travel on the ram. Same reason i’m going to a full chop bumper

looks pretty tight into the fender well assuming you’re perfectly centered.

GREAT PICS BTW

 

[Gvellas]

Oh yeah. They've been in for ~5 months. Still finishing up some loose ends and making tweaks, but so far they have been rock solid.

Still need to finish:
hydro assist
Locker wiring
Parking brake
Hydro bump pressure and position tweaks
Adjust the position of the front frame side track bar mount for maximum up travel
And a few other odds and ends.

Ended up buying Reid knuckles and using artecs high steer arm to get better ackerman angle. With the artec weld on, it just wasn't enough and you could hear and feel the extra on-road scrubbing of the tires in lower speed tight turns.

Dude, is that Moonrocks? Are you in Northern NV?
If so I live in Fernley and would love to link up sometime so I can check out your rig. I'm looking to go pick up my axles this weekend.

 

[IdahoRubicon]

This thread rules, and I wish it was getting more action.

 

[Gvellas]

This thread rules, and I wish it was getting more action.

Well I just picked up my axles yesterday with artec trusses and brackets and tone rings, and Rocksolid tone rings. I found a deal on marketplace. $2500 for everything. Brackets and tone rings are $1900 alone, so I scored, but had to do a 12hr round trip down past Salinas, Ca. to get them. I'll start another thread for my build soon.

 

[DesertShot]

Nice deal. Yeah, I'm in Reno. Pictures were prison hill in Carson.

 

[IdahoRubicon]

Nice Score! Super Duty axles bring a premium up here.

 

[TRAILJT]

Oh yeah. They've been in for ~5 months. Still finishing up some loose ends and making tweaks, but so far they have been rock solid.

Still need to finish:
hydro assist
Locker wiring
Parking brake
Hydro bump pressure and position tweaks
Adjust the position of the front frame side track bar mount for maximum up travel
And a few other odds and ends.

Ended up buying Reid knuckles and using artecs high steer arm to get better ackerman angle. With the artec weld on, it just wasn't enough and you could hear and feel the extra on-road scrubbing of the tires in lower speed tight turns.

Hey Bud hows it going. Did you ever come up with a solution for connecting a rear parking brake. Ive had my original cables zip tied up to the frame and never did anything about it. Let me know what you came up with please.

 

[DesertShot]

Not quite. I tried the universal cable from summit and was able to install it roughly. But I suspect the "throw" of the parking brake on the sterling is longer than the throw of the stock axle. All hooked up, the throw of the handle doesn't seem to pull the cable enough to set the brake.

I need to tinker with it more, perhaps it needs to be set just right to barely work. I also forgot to put the return springs on the cables on the axle end.

 

[IndyB]

I'm almost done with my build. Just need to button up a few small things. Drove over 3000 miles already without any issues.

Anyone have a picture of the rear modified ABS sensor bracket from Artec?

 

[nocoast_jt]

I'm almost done with my build. Just need to button up a few small things. Drove over 3000 miles already without any issues.

Anyone have a picture of the rear modified ABS sensor bracket from Artec?

Call Artec or hit them up in IG...they are pretty good about sharing their knowledge and pics!

 

[setexascustoms]

Anyone who has done this swap, how does it drive with the 3.6l? I assume you would run at least 5.38 gears. Is it tolerable, particularly on the freeway? I'm in Texas, so 80-85 mph cruising speeds are the norm. No towing and otherwise light rig.

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