Ford 8.8 / TJ bracket kit

Eddie Greenlee

Eddie Greenlee

TJ Addict
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Hey , I'm looking at all the bracket kits for the 8.8/tj swap and I'm just not sold on the truss part. Ya know I'm going to weld the tubes to the chunk and the brackets are even stronger than factory brackets. I'm not racing my tj so I figure the truss is over kill for me , and also the truss sticks above the chunk which would give less room for articulation and may even hit the tub before the axle hits the bump stop. Am I wrong thinking this?
 
I certainly would not bother installing a truss on it. Neither of my two TJ's rear Dana 44 with axle tubes that are smaller than the 8.8's ever bent on the extremely tough trails they have been put through.
 
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ok so ive looked at Barns, east coast diff. , and ruff stuff, They all look and sound just the same for the 8.8 axle , so i guess i should just pick who ever i want to support i recon. unless yall have a favorite i should consider. Notice that barns is least expensive, also ruff stuff has the welded bucket on the spring perch, and east coast has a bolt on bucket onto the spring perch .
 
Honestly, while I have no experience with this one, just go with whichever one you want to. I've heard good stuff about Barns around the internet, so that's always good as well.
 
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What about this company and bracket kit. A guy has one for sale and I can offer him a great price? Screenshot_20170621-075915.png
 
The Super 35 kit just bolts into your present Dana 35. It replaces the carbon steel 27 spline shafts with chromoly 30 spline shafts which are stronger than the Dana 44 30 spline and 8.8 31 spline carbon steel shafts. It also includes a locker, your choice of an ARB Air Locker or Detroit Locker.

Edit: No, the bracket kit would definitely not be the easiest way to go. It takes quite a bit of time and expertise to get all the old brackets off and the new brackets on and properly welded into place. That's a weekend-long job if you don't do it on a regular basis.

A Super 35 kit is just a bolt-in job, its new carrier only needs to have its backlash set.
 
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To me, the Super 35 pros vs the pros of the 8.8 outweigh the cons of the 35. So, the Super 35 wins for me.

It makes your Dana 35 strong enough for 35's. You can either buy a kit with 30-spline 1541H shafts that includes an ARB or Detroit locker, or you can buy the shafts separately and buy a 30-spline Eaton E-locker.

The 8.8 is a great axle but it takes so much work to put into a TJ that it isn't worth it in my opinion. The 8.8 can be built strong enough for 37's. The front Dana 30 and 44 can not. So, what are you going to do if you want 37's? Well, you'll never find a stock width front axle that works so you'd have to get a new rear axle to match the width of a full width front axle anyways.

Both axles are capable of 35's so it leaves you with picking what you want.

The Super 35 will bolt in, it will remain a c-clip axle, you won't have to do any fabrication of any kind for it to work, and you have the gear ratios available from 3.07 to 5.13. You can still convert it to disc brakes later down the road if your heart desires, or you can leave it alone. The downside (if you can call it that) is that the ring and pinion are weaker than the 8.8...but this has proven time and time again to not be a problem so I would not worry about it at all.

The 8.8 does not bolt in, the housing is offset, the tubes are larger yet still the same strength as the Dana 35 (35 tubes are thicker), the stock shafts suck (the flanges bend on 33's and 35's).

Not to mention, once you get an 8.8, you still have to build it. If you want a locker, shafts, and gears, you're looking at dumping another $2-2.5k into your 8.8 to get it to actually work how you want it to. The Super 35 does all of that for about $1.7k (price from my gear guy who is rather high with pricing: includes S35, ARB, and a regear to 4.88 for the rear, doesn't include front axle pricing), and you end up with an axle good enough for 35's with no fabrication required.

It's a bit of a no brainer to me. The other benefits are that you can build in stages rather than have to save up for everything and do it all at once. Both are good axles, the 35 will most likely be cheaper to get it set up with the same gears, lockers, and general capability.
 
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Brantley said:
To me, the Super 35 pros vs the pros of the 8.8 outweigh the cons of the 35. So, the Super 35 wins for me.

It makes your Dana 35 strong enough for 35's. You can either buy a kit with 30-spline 1541H shafts that includes an ARB or Detroit locker, or you can buy the shafts separately and buy a 30-spline Eaton E-locker.

The 8.8 is a great axle but it takes so much work to put into a TJ that it isn't worth it in my opinion. The 8.8 can be built strong enough for 37's. The front Dana 30 and 44 can not. So, what are you going to do if you want 37's? Well, you'll never find a stock width front axle that works so you'd have to get a new rear axle to match the width of a full width front axle anyways.

Both axles are capable of 35's so it leaves you with picking what you want.

The Super 35 will bolt in, it will remain a c-clip axle, you won't have to do any fabrication of any kind for it to work, and you have the gear ratios available from 3.07 to 5.13. You can still convert it to disc brakes later down the road if your heart desires, or you can leave it alone. The downside (if you can call it that) is that the ring and pinion are weaker than the 8.8...but this has proven time and time again to not be a problem so I would not worry about it at all.

The 8.8 does not bolt in, the housing is offset, the tubes are larger yet still the same strength as the Dana 35 (35 tubes are thicker), the stock shafts suck (the flanges bend on 33's and 35's).

Not to mention, once you get an 8.8, you still have to build it. If you want a locker, shafts, and gears, you're looking at dumping another $2-2.5k into your 8.8 to get it to actually work how you want it to. The Super 35 does all of that for about $1.7k (price from my gear guy who is rather high with pricing: includes S35, ARB, and a regear to 4.88 for the rear, doesn't include front axle pricing), and you end up with an axle good enough for 35's with no fabrication required.

It's a bit of a no brainer to me. The other benefits are that you can build in stages rather than have to save up for everything and do it all at once. Both are good axles, the 35 will most likely be cheaper to get it set up with the same gears, lockers, and general capability.
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The 8.8 that I have now is already set up with 410 w/limited slip (which I have 410 in front dana 30) all it needs is a bracket kit welded on. So I was thinking I could spend another 150.00 for brackets, 200.00 for sye and 250 for CV drive shaft and come out much cheaper and stronger. ?? 20170201_172145.jpg
 
Jerry Bransford said:
Which is not a negative with the stronger Super 35 shafts. Even the 8.8 is a c-clip axle. Once the shafts are strong enough, the fact it's a c-clip axle is not an issue.
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Exactly. I was just letting him know that it was a c-clip axle for informational purposes. Nothing wrong with strong c-clip axles at all. Few folks fail to understand too that the "evil" c-clips in the Dana 35 that they hate so much are still present in their 8.8's unless converted, too. :)
 
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Unless you have a 4.0 5-speed with 31's or a 3-speed with 33's, 4.10 isn't going to be ideal at all.

At the end of all of this, all you'll have is limited slip, non-ideal 4.10 gears, and stock 31-spline 8.8 shafts that love to bend at the flange where the wheel and brakes bolt on.

If you're fine with that, great, but personally if I was spending money I'd rather spend it to build it the right way than live with known flaws. That is a decision for you that I can not make.
 
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Disclaimer: I just got back into wheelin and it has been 25+ years since I was doing gears professionally.

But, I don't get the whole 8.8 thing. Is it because it is cheap to come by? It has a weak limited slip, isn't ridiculously strong, has an odd offset, and needs a bunch of fabrication to install into a TJ. Reason I ask is years ago we all built 44's, Ford 9", Dana 60, etc. The 8.8 wasn't even a consideration.

That said, if the S35 is going to do all you need for your wheelin style, why not? You could get it installed literally in a couple hours, less if the backlash sets up correctly the first time. Add an extra 1-2 hours if running an ARB for compressor and plumbing install.
 
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