6" Rough Country lift. Completed over the weekend. I rebuilt both the front differential (Dana 44) and a complete 8.8 rear end with 4.56's and had them ready to go when I lifted the truck. Worked out great!

Don't let anyone fool you. This project was brutal on the body since we didn't have a lift. Lots and lots of rolling around on the ground, handling heavy parts, chiseling out rivets, pressing out bushings, etc. I would say that I will probably never do this again, but I am glad I did it. I love this truck!

 

nice work man! must of cost a pretty penny no doubt but it will pay off! so wait. you did this over one weekend?!

 

I'm debating learning how to do gear swaps myself rather than paying someone. How hard was that part.

 

Here is how I see gear swaps. The very first thing to do is read up and FULLY understand what you are doing and how to do it right. Make sure you have all of the specs known or written down before you start. Also make sure you have all of the tools required to do it right. Give yourself plenty of time. That's how I see it. I plan to do mine. Not now though...

 

Thanks! The project in its entirety ran around $3000. That includes the kit itself, used front diff, rear end, gears, seals, bearings, new carrier assembly for the front diff, brakes, wheels and tires.

Yes. My brother and I did it over the weekend. Started at 7:30 a.m. Saturday morning and worked until 12:45 a.m. Then Sunday from 9:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.

It was brutal!

 

You are correct. Learn everything you can waaaay before getting into swapping gears. I wasted so much time in my youth on rear ends just because I was too lazy to actually READ!

Good thing about these 8.8's is that they are all cast from a master mold, so as long as you get proper pinion depth (by using the old shim that's under the pinion gear being replaced), setting backlash is just a matter of setting up your dial indicator and measuring correctly. It's really not that bad, but chances are you'll bust up your fingers a little bit from removing and replacing the carrier. If you get lucky, your carrier shims should fit right where they were removed from.

I had a harder time with the stupid drum brakes. Thousands of years of evolution and drum brakes were the best they could come up with.

The Dana 44 carrier was even easier to set up because the pinion shim isn't actually under the pinion bearing. The pinion shim sits beneath the pinion bearing race and is easily removed. However, the carrier shims are located between the carrier assembly and the pressed on bearings.

One last thing to keep in mind is carrier break. The carrier break for the Dana 44 runs from 2.73 - 3.92 and then 3.93 - 5.38 (or something like that). The point is, if you decide to rebuild a Dana 44 diff and your trying to install anything larger than a 3.93, make sure you have the 3.93 - 5.38 carrier. The smaller carrier will not work with these big gears.