Problem averted. Bought an '86 F150 for a winter truck.

 

That's a great idea, were you able to swap it out by yourself?

 

Yep just me and a buddy - he had a cherry picker so we just popped the rear end up by the trailer hitch. I also ended up swapping out my factory leafs with some F250 5 leaf packs, which allowed me to eliminate the factory rear blocks and maintain the same height, basically. I got the used axle for $150, used leafs for $50, and new U bolts from rockauto for $30. Then you can turn around and sell your rear axle and leafs and make some money back.

If you do it I would recommend taking the time to rebuild the brakes and changing out the differential fluid. It's easy to do it off of the truck on some jackstands. With the traction lock there are also clutch packs that eventually need to be replaced so keep that in mind as well.

 

Good stuff, I was planning to buy a differential and take it to a shop for install, but this is much much cheaper.

 

Here was my thread on the topic - not comprehensive but might help.

https://www.f150forum.com/f10/anothe...ld-not-344339/