fordpower 1

I have an 88 f150. i have an 8.8 rear in it now and am going to be swapping it for a dana 60. is there anything that i should know that might help me out. please give help if you have any this will be my first time changing a rear. thanks

Butchart

I did a swap about10 years back. I took out the 8.8 out of my 88 F-150 and installed the whole axle assembly from a 78 F-150, to get a lower gear ratio (3:50) for pulling my 5th wheel. Problems I ran into from what I can remember...the back plate bolt pattern was different, so couldn't swap them over, so that meant taking the brake assembly off the 88 back plates and installing it on the 78 back plates. The wheel brake cylinders bolt in perfect, that hasn't changed for years. Only other thing I can remember was turning the stablizer bar brackets around and making some U-bolts from redi rod to tie them to the axle. Oh, I also installed new U-bolts that attach springs to the axle. Its easier to just cut the old ones off. But that axle assembly was Ford, not Dana I installed. Also measure up to make sure the drive shaft will be correct length because the yoke length to the U-joint could be different. Check to make sure the shock mounts are in approximately the same place.