Dillema good possibly bad. Interchanging axles

[2High4U]

I just recently got in contact with an old aquaintance that bought my old truck that I converted to 2wd to 4wd and auto to sm465 it has 3/4 tons axles(14 bolt ff + switched the hubs to 3/4 ton on front). the douche bag got rid of the sm465 and made it auto again!
Anyways the point is he wants to change his back to 1/2 ton

So my idea was to just swap his to my blazer and my blazers axles to his truck.

Doesnt that rock!

I do have one question tho im low on cash so I cant buy anything new when doing this.

Will the conversion ujoint that i used on my old truck fit my shaft and will my ujoints fit his?

I want to jump all over this but cant afford to spend any money right now due to a job change.

What is your opinions?

by the way I have to do this in one day can it be done by myslef in that time frame? ( it has been a while )

 

[2High4U]

Well by the the number of responses im guessing it was a dumb question and I was looking into it too much. Probably will work I just paranoid to start this to find out half way through that its not going to work

 

[mechted]

it depends on the year range, if they are both pre 80s, i think it will work
a 73 blazer = probably a 12 bolt rear, and a 1310 (i think) series ujoint. If the other truck has the same shaft, then it will work.

However, how old are these ujoints? they dont last forever and dont really cost THAT much ~$30

Another thing to consider are ubolts: once torqued above 100 ft-lbs (torque spec is like 140-150) they really shouldnt be used again. so thats another ~$40 per axle

 

[2High4U]

The truck im getting the stuff off of is an 85-86 gmc originally a half ton now 3/4 converted with a conversion ujoint to fit the shaft and the 14 bolt.

My blazer ujoint is new and the one on the 86 has less than 500 miles on it with no wheeling so that u joint should be fine and the ubolts are fairly new too and I didnt tork them just ran um down tight with the gun.

Ive never heard that about the ubolts...

one way to check it is to take the u joints off and see if the fit the shafts on each truck right?

o well ill figure it out somehow cause i want that 14 bolt i used to have I totally rebuilt the damn thing and I know it was maintained by me also 3:73's will help a lil with gas until im ready to upgrade it more.

 

[resurrected_jimmy]

It should all swap out... get underneath with a tape measure and look at the driveshafts and u-joint's on both trucks before you start tearing into things and check it out

 

[bigbadchev84]

as far as the u-bolts go.......i wouldnt sweat it, i have heard that before but have always used the same u-bolts on countless rigs and so has everyone i know, the only reason i have ever seen anyone buy new u-bolts is because they were too short, with that said im sure someone has broken an old u-bolt, but im sure there are many more that havent, i say go for it, it can definately be done in a day, especially if you have an impact gun