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Aside from ease of availability, is there another reason why you want the full floater version of this axle?

There's a thread on performance truck.net where a guy made the 14 bolt/10.5" into 5 lug. If you have the machining capabilities, no problem. The factory brakes are fairly massive, however. I don't know if your wheels will clear. https://www.performancetrucks.net/f...-22/10-5-full-floating-14-bolt-6-lugs-528236/

And axle itself weighs somewhere around 450# with drums in stock form. It's heavy because it's meant to be worked. Think Mule vs Quarter Horse, LOL.

Another candidate is the 14 bolt 9.5" as was mentioned. It's a semi float design, but still plenty strong and they also made a lot of those. I believe you just need custom axles for your 5 lug, or modify them yourself. I'm not sure on the brakes. They'll clear 16" wheels and they are better than the basic 10 bolt brakes. They are still 6 lug, but they are a direct swap to the 10 bolt. I helped my brother swap one into his '90 C1500. He also swapped the front knuckles/hub/brakes and converted the truck to 6 lug.

I don't think a disc brake 14 bolt would be that much more difficult than a drum version. I think I read just the spring perches are a bit off between the two, but in the grand scheme of things, that seems like a minor thing if you have welding capabilities.
I was mainly going for the 14ff because of availability, and the safety appeal of a full floater.

I had not given much thought about the weight difference between the 10 bolt and a 14ff. When I did the leaf springs this weekend, a buddy and I easily moved the rear end around. I can’t imagine how much of a problem a 450 pound axle would be. That’s a big weight difference!

If I would go with a 14sf, what trucks would I be looking for? I can spot a ff rear end, but not sure what a sf rear end looks like.
 

stutaeng

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I was mainly going for the 14ff because of availability, and the safety appeal of a full floater.

I had not given much thought about the weight difference between the 10 bolt and a 14ff. When I did the leaf springs this weekend, a buddy and I easily moved the rear end around. I can’t imagine how much of a problem a 450 pound axle would be. That’s a big weight difference!

If I would go with a 14sf, what trucks would I be looking for? I can spot a ff rear end, but not sure what a sf rear end looks like.
Just look fo an 8 lug without the hubs sticking out on the center. 2500 trucks and SUVs with SBC in the GMT 400 ran those.

And of course, the 2500 6 lug had it in 6 lug version.

On the GMT 800, the non-HD 2500 trucks had those. 2500 suburbans with the 6.0 also had them.
 

454cid

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The long game on this truck is to piece together a sprint car engine, that will scream to 8700-9000 RPM. I have a few rotating assembly pieces right now, but a long way to go. Right now the 14ff is absolute overkill. I am trying to slowly build up the truck to handle that kind of abuse.

I would think you'd want a custom Ford 9 inch for something like that.
 
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I would think you'd want a custom Ford 9 inch for something like that.
That was the original thought, but with the parts shortage, that would be forever and a day. I would love to call up Strange Engineering for a 9 inch kit, but I would have to source my own brakes, which could take a long a$$ time.

 
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Just look fo an 8 lug without the hubs sticking out on the center. 2500 trucks and SUVs with SBC in the GMT 400 ran those.

And of course, the 2500 6 lug had it in 6 lug version.

On the GMT 800, the non-HD 2500 trucks had those. 2500 suburbans with the 6.0 also had them.
When you say, “without the hubs sticking out on the center” do you mean a flat axle bolt flange?
 

Erik the Awful

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Just a thought here, but if you're building a sprint car engine that will scream to 9000 rpm, you want to lose as much weight as you can out of the truck. A Ford 8.8" is probably the best bet for weight vs strength. According to some quick googling, an 8.8 weighs around 200 lbs. Both the 14-bolt and 9" weigh near 400 lbs. A couple years ago I bought a complete axle-to-axle 8.8 with disc brakes for about $150, and it came with 3.73 gears and a real LSD (not a gov-bomb) from Pull-A-Part. Just be aware that the Explorer rears are offset to one side - which is an advantage if you're wanting to build a narrowed rear, just nab an extra short-side axle and shorten the long axle tube.
 

MrPink

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the WMS measurement will be way off on the exploder 8.8 they measure 59.5" WMS to WMS, our trucks are 65" WMS to WMS for the 10 bolt.
 

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The 14-bolt, semi-float (9.5" ring gear) is stronger than a Ford 9". Face it, the Nine Inch is not popular because it's exceedingly strong, it's popular because they used to be dirt-cheap at the Treasure Yard, and it's easy to set up center sections with different-ratio gears so they can be easily swapped; and the aftermarket support built-up from there. You can get pretty-much any gear ratio you want. The 14-bolt SF is competitive with a Dana 60 for strength. The only drawbacks are the more-limited gear ratio options, and the C-clip axles; and even that's not so bad because the axle shafts are ginormous and the C-clips are similarly large and strong. A disc brake conversion DONE PROPERLY would allow the caliper to retain the axle shaft if there were a C-clip failure, or the shaft broke (Not likely...). In other words, a disc conversion NOT using shiity aftermarket flat-steel caliper brackets.

OTOH, how likely are you to break a 9.5" SF axle with a sprint-car engine? Rock-climbing, maybe. A high-rpm, no-bottom-end-torque engine...not so much.

I would--and did--jump on the 9.5" for my K1500. Of course, I bought the 6-lug versions, so they're a direct swap other than a conversion U-joint for my truck. The 11.x drum brakes are good enough for me.
 
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