Alright I got me a rear axle with 3.55 gears to replace my old one with 3.08s for two reasons, one I want the better gear ratio, two I swear mine has more slop in it than it should have and I just don't trust the friggin thing enough to keep her for to much longer. So I'm not wanting this to be one of those projects where I'm scratching my head and running back to the parts store to get more junk every 5 minutes sooooooo whats the best way to go about swapping it out? Any tips any tricks or any just plain obvious things?

 

Plenty of penetrating oil the sooner the better….

 

Agreed^^^^ put a healthy amount of pb blaster on the fittings and hardware. The only parts you may need are brake line fittings or new U bolts depending how rusty they are but it's never a bad idea to replace both IMO

Heres a step by step from my experience

Chock the front wheels. With no driveshaft it'll roll
Jack it up until both rear wheels are off the ground
Place jack stands on the frame just in front of the rear axle
Disconnect brake cables and e brake cable
Disconnect both brake lines (be prepared for brake fluid to come out!)
Remove driveshaft
Remove u bolts from the axle
Now the axle should roll out from under it

Reverse steps for installation

 

Use new U-bolts when you put the new axle in. Make sure you have some spare brake fluid. Might also want to change the diff fluid in the new axle.

 

Definitely pull the new axle's rear cover and check it out before putting it and finding a issue with it! A friend did not do that and found the ring gear was missing half of its teeth! After doing all the work.....

 

Take the "new" axle part and go thru it BEFORE it goes in the truck

New axle seals. pinion seal. Wheel seals, brakes, brake lines etc

 

Popped the diff cover off it last night before I went to the derby and looked at everything and spun it around by hand and everything appear to be in good shape. Had some diff fluid in it already but I drained most of it out and will be putting new fluid in just to be safe. Only thing is the brakes are shot all to hell on this axle (chips and cracks in the pads that would not pass inspection) so I'm gonna use the pads from the trucks current axle and get a fresh set of springs and what nots for it since the ones on the truck were never replaced once during its life, it only got shoes one time and honestly the old ones were in good shape and really didn't need a replacement. I was gonna swap the brake lines out for the ones on the truck anyways cause the ones on this thing don't look very healthy at all. Heck other than it looks like garbage I think this axle is in perfect shape and more than good enough for me and what I'll be using it for.

 

Alright so I'm kinda sorta stuck on the best way to remove the parking brake cables, I got the cable out of the big bar that both cables go into but the bracket where the black or thick part of the cable is where I'm unsure of how it comes apart. looks like a few metal tabs there but they don't seem to budge even with the help of Mr. screwdriver.

 

Small update, got the parking brake cable thing free I was just looking at it wrong was all but am now fighting the rubber brake line that goes to the separator block on the axle, other than that I'm ready to pull out the old and put in the "new" axle.

 

The rubber hose does NOT come out of the separator block. It is pressed in.

 

Alright so I figured out the brake line I just wasn't thinking right and got the old axle out and the new one in lined up and put the drive shaft in last night. Broke a brake like off thoigh by mistake but I got aome line today and me and dad are going to bend it up and put it on then finish swaping on my brake shoes on and tidy up a few other things and I will be ready for thefirst drive.

 

New issue, Turns out somewhere along the lines of putting things together we cross threaded one of the lines and messed up the T block on the axle and I'm now stuck replacing it, I need some advice as to the best way to get it off, she can stay down a while if I gotta to do other things but I want her back together so I don't end up losing items or misplacing important stuff and never finding it. Them lines are rusted together bad by the looks of things and I'm not liking the outcome thus far.

 

Alright so just to close up this post Me and the old man got the brake lines sorted out with little trouble and got the truck out for a test drive last night and she did perfect for me! She drives like a dream now, sadly for some odd reason I now have to kick my ignition timing down some because while cruising down the road in filth I heard it do it a few times and it did it real bad one time when I hit the gas, kinda weird because I would of though it would of done that sort of crap more with the 3.08's vs the 3.55's. No big deal though just kinda weird how that worked out.