Failed swap, SRW Aeronose axle into DRW Bricky

Ferdy Mint

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A couple of my sons spent hours yesterday trying to swap a long-pinion SRW Aeronose junkyard axle into a DRW Bricknose. The goal was to upgrade to long pinion and change gear ratio from 4.1 to 3.5 ratio. @Minty Ferd never tows and rarely carries more than a round bale of hay in the bed. And he has pinion walk.

The swap didn't work. Turns out old Minty was just winging it, had not looked here or elsewhere first for others' results. Doh. He might have found this FTE thread first. https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1393082-srw-to-drw-conversion.html

They ran into interference problems due to the narrower SRW brake shoes and backing plate locations. Everything else looked like it would line up when they measured spring pads, sway bar, brake lines, driveshaft etc.

Has anybody ever managed to do this swap? It looks to me like it would require machine work and welding. In other words, not practical. I told Minty that a much better plan would be to locate a DRW Aeronose parts truck with 3.5 gears in the pumpkin. But most all duallys come with 4.1 R&P. All our DRW parts trucks are 4.1 axle, like Minty's Bricknose.
 

Ferdy Mint

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Or @Ferdy Mint could look for a long-pinion DRW axle with 4.1 gears in it, and swap in the whole carrier from his donor 3.5 axle. It's time he learns how to set pinion lash and all that fun stuff anyway.
 

chillman88

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Took me a few minutes to figure out what the issue was. He's trying to keep it DRW then right?

As long as they're both 10.25 axles you should be able to swap the gears between the two. I THINK the gear housings are the same and the difference was the pinion and yoke but you may want to ask around to be sure.
 

Ferdy Mint

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It's the pinion and yoke that's matched. Housings will take either.
When a pinion is longer I think that means that the distance between its bearing surfaces is longer. Pinion walk on older Sterlings is due to the inner and outer pinion bearings being too close together. which eventually allows wear so the pinion is no longer aligned perfectly under load. The longer pinion has its bearings further apart. How could two different length pinions fit in the same case? I always thought the LP case was a little deeper on the input nose.

Or do I have it all wrong in my head? i'm not really a diff expert. I just have a good memory.
 
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Ferdy Mint

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Took me a few minutes to figure out what the issue was. He's trying to keep it DRW then right?

As long as they're both 10.25 axles you should be able to swap the gears between the two. I THINK the gear housings are the same and the difference was the pinion and yoke but you may want to ask around to be sure.

Yes he wants to stay DRW, for sure. He has a custom flatbed on there.
 

u2slow

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When a pinion is longer I think that means that the distance between its bearing surfaces is longer.
Not in this case. The longer pinion has more spline. It sticks out of the diff housing more.

Edit: and since pinion walk has been brought up... The more reason to use the solid pinion spacer. The crush sleeve is a weak point in stabilizing the pinion under high load. Had the problem on my 95 F350.

There's other wide Dana axles you can swap in from the cubevans and dodges. Perches do need relocation, but the dodge ones are common in 3.54.
 
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Ferdy Mint

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Not in this case. The longer pinion has more spline. It sticks out of the diff housing more.

Edit: and since pinion walk has been brought up... The more reason to use the solid pinion spacer. The crush sleeve is a weak point in stabilizing the pinion under high load. Had the problem on my 95 F350.

There's other wide Dana axles you can swap in from the cubevans and dodges. Perches do need relocation, but the dodge ones are common in 3.54.
Good idea. We have a 1999 E350 passenger and it has a D60 in the back. But I think it would take a D80 to match a Sterling in strength for use a Bricky dually. It's a 2wd truck so he doesn't have to worry about matching the front.

When you say cubevans and Dodges, which ones do you mean? I do see a fair number of older E box vans and buses for sale, often out in the field, grandpa died or dad retired, that kind of thing. Do they come with D80s? I don't know Dodges at all. We're Ford guys.
 

u2slow

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The Dana 70 and ford 10.25" are usually considered on par.

You won't find a 8x6.5" pattern D80 until at least 96 in the e-series, and 99 in the f-series (actually 8on170mm). There's still D70's mixed in though (e-series).

Dually pickups and most cube vans are in the 72-73" wide range. The e450 (70hd and 80) can be 76" wide.

94+ dodges (srw) are 70-71" wide. Needs to be diesel manual, or dually for the 80. Currently running with the 70" wide one with a 7' wide flatdeck.
 
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