Willdozer

I have a junk axle in my 01 f150 factory disk bakes. I want to swap it out with a axle I have that's all rebuilt but it came from a 97 f150 with drums.
I would like to be able to swap whole brake system over from 01 to 97 but the flange in the tubes are different. 97 is narrower rectangle patern and 01 is bigger square pattern. Would it be ok to fab a bolt on adapter plate and if I do what type of metal should I use and should I offset the mounting point for bracket or stay flush with the stock flange. Not sure if there is a difference in gap between axle tube and axleshaft I'm thinking this should be fairly easy adaption but can't seem to find any Info on this idea. Aside from stupid hack job disk conversion kits made of nuts bolts and chevy brakes. For ridiculous 500bucks.... For crap that don't even fit right

Carcrazygts2

I would not swap to drums. Not only is the newer axle better but the hydraulic system is also different for the drums.

A7X

It's possible but you can mess it up quick if you don't do it perfectly... You can risk the brakes dragging or not functioning properly... dragging prematurely when you run out of guide pin etc...

You'd need to measure precisely where the mounting plate is relative to the axle flange as installed on the '01... There's very little room for error...

Messing around with brakes can be VERY dangerous and should be left to a professional...

I would rebuild the 01 axle and call it good... Honestly it'd be much less work and you don't have to deal with the risk of losing your brakes due to adapters with bends, offsets and weak points...

I myself have the abilities to do such work and also the ability to rebuild an axle... If I had to make this decision as you do here, I'd rebuild the '01 and be done with it...

You'd be downgrading all around... to smaller axle bearings, smaller pinion bearings, drum brake retrofitted to disc with possible issues... etc...

Rebuild the '01 housing and call it good...

If I HAD to (which I wouldn't) I'd cut the brackets off the axle tubes and start from square 1 fabbing new stronger than factory weld on brackets... But this is not a good idea when you have a good housing that needs to be rebuilt...

Willdozer

My axle with disk brakes is toast and about ready to explode. Want take disks of this axle to put on a good axle, but the good axle has drums atm.

Willdozer

Are suggesting the drum brake axle has smaller axle shaft bearings? If so then I definitely don't want the axle in anycase. I thought all 31 spline 8.8 where same for full size trucks except flanges and shock mounts

Willdozer

I also have a semi floating 7lug Serling with sakes exact brakes as my 01. Should I have driveshaft made and just equip that instead? I can't stand the thought of spending money on a 8.8 since I have had nothing but bad luck with all of them.

A7X

I assumed you were speaking of a 9.75...

Because, why bother with an 8.8? Why even try to put all that work into an 8.8 to make it work? Just as well source a 9.75 and shorten the drive shaft 2"...

Willdozer

Axle tag says 10.25 but externally they are the same as 9.75 I believe. Only reason I considering the 8.8 swap was it has a posi and that's nice. Plus it's been totally rebuilt maybe 30k on it. But if it's weaker than my stock 8.8 then I definitely pass up that option. I'll suffer with an open diff with the comfort of knowing I got strong axle. So 2inches shorter off driveshaft is good for 8.8 to sterling swap?

A7X

Swapping 8.8 for 8.8 would be fine... but not for the amount of work to swap the brakes correctly... the way you were talking about could be very dangerous or less dependable at best...

For the sterling, measure for yourself to be sure... Center of axle tubes to center of u-joint cap on both... Take the difference off the shaft... Also be sure to get the correct u-joint... a combination u-joint may be needed but no big deal...

Willdozer

The safety concern is the reason why I didn't just go ahead and do it. I was on the fence about it. I'm careful and would go to extremes to insure it's safest and most reliable I'm humanly capable. But I bought this 7lug because I wanted stronger axle since I had bad luck with 8.8s but the posi was tempting and knowing it was basically new axle. I had to atleast look into possibilities first. I am kinda hard on my truck and I'm sure I'll only end up breaking this 8.8. Thank you very much for your input!

As far as universals go the flange will bolt right to both 8.8 and sterling. Already worked that big out