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How to: Disc brake swap for your 8.8

30K views 5 replies 4 participants last post by  I Bleed Ford Blue 
#1 ·
Pretty simple swap if you can find the parts. 96+ Explorers came with a 31 spline 8.8 with disc brakes. Every bit of it is bolt on minus two things. First, the rotors are the wrong bolt pattern. And second, the hub on the F150 is larger than the Explorer.

What you need to do is find an F100 with an 8.8. They came with the same length shafts, but the hub similar to the Explorer. Then you need to remove the lug studs and do some minor grinding to the outside of the hub until the rotor fits. Then either redrill the rotors yourself, or have a shop do it.

Here is my full width 8.8 going in my Bronco II.

F150 8.8 and Explorer disc brake parts.


Stripped the axle down


Welded axle tubes and picked up a mini spool.



Also added a brace and threw some paint at it.


Stock F150 shafts and F100 shafts with smaller hub.


Explorer rotors, redrilled.



Under the truck


Any questions, just ask.
 
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#2 ·
hey hows it goin? hows this swap working out for you? glad to see someone has a way of doing this without the super expensive kit, i want to do this myself i do have several questions, how exactly did you drill out the rotors, they need to be perfectly centered correct? how and or did you connect the e-brake? what would i need to do that? how well does it stop/hold the heavier truck?
 
#3 ·
Since I am using Explorer parts on a Bronco II, the ebrake cables were pretty easy to hook up. Not sure how it would work with a full size Bronco.

As far as how well it is working, It brakes great. I had also upgraded my master cylinder to an F250 one. I used a hand drill to drill them out and went through 2 drill bits. They do not need to be perfectly drilled, just good enough to fit. It needs to be centered on the hub though.

If you go this route, you could take the rotors to a shop and have them drilled, and have the hub expanded to fit the stock axles. I would also suggest new ebrake cables since most lock up if not used for a long time.
 
#4 ·
I wanted to add something that I have been thinking about as well. You could get a rear disc setup from a 97+ F150 8.8. You will still need to redrill the rotors since it is a metric pattern. And you will be limited to 16" wheels and larger.
 
#5 ·
The 8.8 in the full size trucks never were disc brake. The full size disc brake axles are actually the 9.75" axle, and are metric pattern. The good news, is you can take a pair of rotors from an expedition, enlarge the wheel stud holes from 1/2" to 9/16" (a lot easier than drilling new holes) and just slide the rotor onto the 8.8 axle studs. I'm close to building a custom full width 8.8, but uses all stock junkyard parts on my project HWW. Stay tuned...

SVT
 
#6 · (Edited)
The 04 and up 150's all had 4 wheel disc brakes and trucks with the 4.2 v-6 and 4.6 v-8 had the 8.8 rear axle with 31 splines. And all 05 up mustangs with a v-8 got a 31 spline 8.8.

The mustang still uses the 5 x 113.4 mm (5 x 4.5") pattern while the 04 up 150's have 6 x 135 mm

So you could theoretically put 05 up mustang axles and brakes on an 04 up 150 8.8 as long as the axles are the same length.
 
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