Mountain_man
1/2 ton status
My old SF was making a little more noise so I decided to finish it. The rear was pulled from a wrecking yard for 250 bucks and was in great shape. Pulled the cover and shafts onsite and everything was great. No burnt or chipped teeth. If it was old they took great care of it.
My rear brake lines wouldn't come off the original one so I had to create new lines. After 3 broken flare fitting makers I finally got that done.
I also had trouble removing the stock spring ubolts. Really really bad shape and wouldn't come off. After an hour of persuasion they finally came off. Cleaned everything up and looked great.
Next problem came up with the U-joints. The clips came out easily but the new ujoints wouldn't compress correctly. I had to wait until the next day to buy a 6" C clamp to shade tree press the joints in. I also had roughly 1/2" more of my slip yoke sticking out after reinstall of the new axle so I might need to address that soon.
All in all a pretty easy swap however here is a list of tools I would suggest to others that you may or may not consider.
6" C clamp (6 bucks)
vice grips x2
Brake line bender (8 bucks)
Double flare tool (20 bucks) makes new flares incase you bend or break a line
15/16 impact socket (spring pack ubolts)
Breaker bar
torque wrench
big ass floor jack
4 jackstands (or more) something to put them on as well to give more height
scrap plywood (to roll the jack on with rear end if you don't have pavement)
ATF fluid (Tcase)
gear fluid (duh)
crowbar
BFH
large screwdriver
open end wrenches
and of course all the new parts you need:
Ujoints
black RTV
penetrating oil
Brake cleaner (great for cleaning up axles and old gear oil out)
Ubolts
brake shoes or just do the disc swap and make your life easier
3 big good friends to help you move this thing (I call it a hoist)
I hope this will help some of you considering the swap and actually making the jump to great axle. The perches were perfectly equal on mine (3/4 ton suburban one) only thing I really needed was to invert the shocks to clear the rear end. Enjoy and happy swapping.
My rear brake lines wouldn't come off the original one so I had to create new lines. After 3 broken flare fitting makers I finally got that done.
I also had trouble removing the stock spring ubolts. Really really bad shape and wouldn't come off. After an hour of persuasion they finally came off. Cleaned everything up and looked great.
Next problem came up with the U-joints. The clips came out easily but the new ujoints wouldn't compress correctly. I had to wait until the next day to buy a 6" C clamp to shade tree press the joints in. I also had roughly 1/2" more of my slip yoke sticking out after reinstall of the new axle so I might need to address that soon.
All in all a pretty easy swap however here is a list of tools I would suggest to others that you may or may not consider.
6" C clamp (6 bucks)
vice grips x2
Brake line bender (8 bucks)
Double flare tool (20 bucks) makes new flares incase you bend or break a line
15/16 impact socket (spring pack ubolts)
Breaker bar
torque wrench
big ass floor jack
4 jackstands (or more) something to put them on as well to give more height
scrap plywood (to roll the jack on with rear end if you don't have pavement)
ATF fluid (Tcase)
gear fluid (duh)
crowbar
BFH
large screwdriver
open end wrenches
and of course all the new parts you need:
Ujoints
black RTV
penetrating oil
Brake cleaner (great for cleaning up axles and old gear oil out)
Ubolts
brake shoes or just do the disc swap and make your life easier
3 big good friends to help you move this thing (I call it a hoist)
I hope this will help some of you considering the swap and actually making the jump to great axle. The perches were perfectly equal on mine (3/4 ton suburban one) only thing I really needed was to invert the shocks to clear the rear end. Enjoy and happy swapping.
