First and Only (documented) H2 Solid Axle Swap!
 

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Superduty Dana 60 going in! Someone tell me if I’m allowed and I’ll post my instagram where I’m documenting it live on a story.
Don’t worry though there’ll be a write up here and a YouTube video at the end.

Goal is to keep the lift as low as possible while having enough travel to rip on the trails. Shooting for less than 4inches of lift, 10 inches of travel, a ton of articulation, an RTI score(flex ramp) of 830(jeep rubicon score), and better on road ride quality and drivability.

The truck with a 2 inch level hits the droop stop hard even on road, bump steers like crazy, is hard to align, has no caster, eats cv axles, and eats tires. It actually has a decent RTI score in the mid 500s. Granted if I left the truck stock height, it wouldn’t have most of these issues I know. But that’s no fun.

Not to mention it’s final ifs send off off-roading trip at Windrock this Thanksgiving involved two blown out lower ball joints, a blown out wheel bearing, cv boots cracking, a debeaded tire, and an even more blown up front diff. Safe to say I had a good time.

So far WFO Concepts and Accutune off-road have been extremely helpful with parts selection and ordering for the build. I don’t think I could recommend them enough. It’s nice to talk to someone on the phone who’s equally fired up about this stuff as I am.

Gavin, You never cease to amaze me with the endeavors with your H2! It's gonna be a Beast!

may be the angle of the picture, is the Dana 60 wider than the ifs?

Neal

Amazing, no way would I have the guts to attempt a job like that. Really anxious to watch the progress.

It’s just the angle of the photo. Axle isn’t underneath not sure what oem width of the ifs was but it is only 3/4 inch wider than the rear axle hub to hub.

Updates!

Sorry I’ve kind of left everyone in the dark until now but the swap is actually almost finished. As long as nothing else goes wrong. This writeup will have changes and additions later, but here’s what I have for now. For live updates my instagram is offroad.h2. It will be on the story.

Hub Conversion
First thing I had to do was find a way to get my 8x6.5 wheels to work with the 8x170mm ford hubs. My first plan was to 3d print a template and drill the hubs and rotors. This was way harder than I expected. Not sure if it was the crappy 3d printed template, crappy drill press, or my inexperience but it didn’t line up well at the end. Ended up just picking up some cheap 1.5 inch adapters and calling it a day.

IFS Removal
Next(the scary part) unbolting and cutting off all the ifs. No going back after this. I used a sawzall to cut the upper control arm tabs and both crossmembers where the lower control arms mount. I just cut the crossbar out of the front one but left the part where the sway bar mounts too. That way I can run one later if I need to or install the steering box brace made by WFO concepts. Once everything is cut, I used a few flap disks to clean up everything flush with the frame.

I recommend the Diablo 12 inch sawzall blades and Benchmark Abrasives(Amazon) 40 grit flap disks for quickly removing material. There seriously is nothing like these benchmark flap disks. it’s $25 for a pack of 10 and I only used 2 for the entire front section of the frame. They just keep going.

Make sure to unload the torsion bars before cutting or unbolting so you don’t die. On the note of safety I left the rear wheels on, chocked them, parking brake on and placed two jack stands right behind the first body mount behind the front wheels.

Frame Plates
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This was by far the hardest part of the entire project. I started with a cardboard template on the drivers side and tried to manually cut it out with a plasma torch. Found out that was a pain in the ass so I finished it with a cutoff wheel and a grinder. I cut vertical slits in the plates to make them easy to bend and contort to the lateral bends in the frame, welding them up afterwards to restore rigidity.

After a few days I had a piece I could call good enough. I then made better cardboard cutout of the plate to put on the cnc plasma table. I used the table to mark several points and plot them in onshape where I could make a few edits and cut it out for the other side. Much easier and way cleaner looking.

My coworkers looked at me crazy when I spent two hours figuring out how to plot points in a program but it beats the hell out of 2 days worth of grinding.

Crossmember
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I started out by unbolting the trans mount from the crossmember and using a large ratchet strap to hold the trans just barely up off the mount in order to make measuring for the new mount as easy as possible. Then I cut the entire crossmember out including the large tabs that are welded to the frame and ground it all flat.

To build the new crossmember I started with plates that cover the entire angled section where the tabs were. Tacked them in place and measured and cut some 2x4x.25 inch rectangular tube at the same angle so it fits snug between the plates. It’s important that the tube sits 1/8 inch from the edge of the rear of the plates and flush with the bottom. That way it can be welded sufficiently to the plate and there’s room for a trans mount bracket in front.

I then cut the tube 8 inches inward from the outsides and took 1/2 inch out on each side for the connectors for the removable center section. This is simply made of 1/4 plate with some bolts through it. The center section is offset 1 inch below the bottom of the frame while the outer sections are flush with the bottom of the frame. The reasons being I needed an additional inch to clear my np263s encoder motor that hangs down below. You may or may not have to do this with the stock 4484 case. I also wanted it to protect the transfer case from rocks since it hangs down about an inch below the frame from factory.

Lastly, I welded on the radius arm mounts and lower support gussets. The radius arm mounts are meant to hold a duraflex 7315 bushing. The lower gussets are super important because the tube is welded toward the back side of the frame plate and has little to stop it from being pushed backwards. Not pictured I also added two vertical top gussets on either side. Probably overkill but I figured it would help against landing on a rock or something.

Trans mount is pretty self explanatory, same location as factory. I don’t have a bender so every bent piece was cut on the cnc with slits at the bend line, bent in a vice and welded over on both sides.

I actually made a bad mistake when building this crossmember but it ended up being a blessing as you’ll see later. The axle side bushings are 35” apart and due to not measuring twice… I fully double side welded my radius arm mounts on at 34.5” apart. However I would do it exactly the same if I did it again.

Track Bar
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Im running the factory Ford track bar. It has a ball joint on the axle side and a rubber bushing on the frame side. The mount I made has a 3.75 inch drop from the frame to center of the hole and sits just behind where the old crossmember went. Just barely far enough away I can still get the nut on. I tacked it in place and tilted it further or closer to the frame to set track before welding it fully. Make sure to set your axle position front to back before setting your track. Moving the axle even a little forward and backward will change your track and where the mount needs to be welded.

The reason for doing such a large drop on the track bar is because of you much down travel I have and how I am setting up the steering and drag link. I’ll discuss that more later. But for now. Trust the process. At the moment I’m not sure if the factory track bar is going to be sufficient enough for this still, but setting up to use the factory bar gives me lots of bolt on aftermarket options I can run later.

I have so much more to write but it’s 1am and I have class in the morning. Please don’t hesitate with any questions. I love answering them.

Also if anyone can tell me how to change the title of this thread I would appreciate it. I can’t figure it out.

Looks good, thanks for sharing
Keep the updates coming, with pictures, we like pictures

Neal

Great pictures and it seems your knock it out. That's an amazing feat of engineering and fabrication. All you need now is a large sign that says Monster Garage. Even Jesse James would be proud!

Can't wait to see the final product, its going to be bullet proof to say the least. Thumbs up buddy!