so here is a little update on what i have been working on the last little while. it wasent really in the plan but it turned out to be a little bigger project than i thought. i wanted to change the gears in my truck because sense i have had the 22.5's on the low end was not really there and dident tow was well as it did. when i would tow my jeep to MOAB i would change the tires to some smaller ones ect. i did the math and 4.10's would be a perfect replacement for my 3.54's.
the problem is that there is a carrier break between 3.73 and 4.10's. and i dident want just an open carrier, i wanted to stay with the limited slip. so i called up randys ring and pinion and i was going to be like a grand in just the rear end for parts! so i stared lookin around thniking maybe i could find a dana 80 that was already set up with 4.10's that i could just throw in my truck.
the find: in my searching i found a pretty sweet deal on a dana 80. the guy said it was out of a late model ford 10 lug fire truck thing. well after runnin the BOM found out that it was out of a 96 chevy p truck. it was 10 lug but i had new 4.10's, bearings and carrier (Eaton Truetrac). it still had the gear marking compound on it. so i traded the guy some rock crawler parts and i had another dana 80.
the plan was to take the guts out of the 10 lug dana 80 and install them in the dana 80 that was in the back of my truck. :thumbsup: i wish it would have worked out that smooth but that was a no go
come to find out that the 10 lug dana 80 has 37 spline shafts and the 80 in the back of the dodge is only 35 spline. called around about getting some custom shafts made but the only people that could do it was like CTM. and it would have to be a double spline shaft and would be around $1300 bucks for the pair. scrach that idea. looked on dana's web site and found all the 37 spline shafts they made and none would fit for one reason or another.
the new plan: i really like the 10 lug dana 80. the hubs are huge, 37 spline shafts and that Eaton Truetrac is just sweet! so i decided to convert the 10 lug to 8 lug and install it in my truck. i would have to re-machine the 10 lug hubs to 8 lug, move the spring perches and install a wheel speed sensor on the housing. i am also going to use the rear brakes off the dodge on the the new 80. figure it should work out pretty smooth.
so after a lot of work its just about done. if all goes well today i will be driving it to work tonight to start breaking in the new gears.
