Well, managed to get the driver side suspension all buttoned up and installed. This sides bearings went on much better than the driver side. I fought with the spindle on that side for hours.
Waiting on tender springs for the front to show up from Eibach and I can bolt in the upper struts for good.
I was planning on just leaving the Dana 30 in the rear, but I just cannot do it, I am too deep in this project to cut corners now.
So last Thurdsay I called around with not much luck finding an 8.8. Did a little junkyarding and found a killer junk yard here in Eugene that had several 8.8's. I lucked out and found one with 3.73's and a limited slip, 31 spline and all. They even had another one next to it that I was able to pull the short side shaft out of.
Took a few days off and visited the coast with the wife, did some hiking (hard on the busted up knee) and had a nice few day break.
Got out in the shop early yesterday and got to work. Unloaded from the truck with the cherry picker and onto jack stands.
For those of you not in the know. This axle is from a 95 to 2002 I believe Ford Explorer, its too wide in stock form but has an offset center section. You can cut down the long side of it and run 2 short side axle shafts and narrow the rearend 2-7/8". These are a disc brake 8.8 rear axle and are very, very tough, 31 spline, factory limited slips and are very well supported by the aftermarket.
Tear down of anything removable from the housing ends.
Then the fun began. Even with a plasma cutter and good grinder this was a pain.
Void of all bracketry and cleaned up for the next steps. I followed a good write up and it worked out far better than anticipated.
Marked out a centerline for alignment, then got my hose clamps out, they make for a nice straight guide line.
Marked up and ready to chop out a section. I cut the end piece off first, trusty grinder with a cut off wheel worked better than expected.
I cut 2-7/8" out and it was perfect.
Ends of the tube got faced and beveled with an 1/8" land and got to jigging everything up to get tacked together.
I used 2- 12" long pieces of 3" C channel and 2 large metal clamps and a quick clamp to hold it together while I got the screw clamps on. It worked good. Clamped this way and tacked, then removed, rotated 90 degrees, re clamped and tacked again.
Once tacked together, I put everything back together to make sure I was able to get the C clips back in and the brakes on, with the shafts.
Everything looked great, tore down, and welded.
Reassmbled everything so I can measure for tabs to go on. Scott is burning out some new tabs that might work for me, hope to have them this week.
Fuel tank should be here today, might be able to get this under the car, fuel pump installed and lines buttoned up by the end of the week.
Rear brakes are ordered, e brake cables, diff cover, fluid, gaskets. Need to figure out some rear coilovers quickly.
Sean