I just had my 1 ton axles regeared before I installed them in my Blazer. I bought my gears through Randy's Ring and Pinion. I opted to go with the "U.S. Standard Gear" version. They're made by Yukon, but don't have the surface quality of the Yukon gears. As such, they're noisy. If I get above 60 MPH on the freeway, you can REALLY hear the gears whine. Doesn't bother me because my rig is a work truck and wheeler, not a DD. If it's a DD, I'd say go for some quiet gears for the rear and then go with USSG gears for the front axle. USSG is really inexpensive by comparison. Also, these gears "buzz" pretty loud when you're bouncing back and forth between the backlash of the gears and the throttle, like when you're just letting off the fuel, or just barely touching the fuel before the speed of the engine overtakes the gears. It's normal gear whine, but it's odd to hear. Sounds a bit like a semi-truck, if you've ever been next to one and noticed their gears whine. It's not loud enough to inhibit conversation in the cab, but you hear that it's there. Just something to consider, because USSG gears are significantly cheaper and equally strong to other high end gears out there.
I found that buying the install kits from Summit was a touch cheaper than through Randy's, but Summit has a store here in Reno, so I didn't have to pay shipping. You might find it breaks even with Randy's. By the way, Randy's customer service is the best of any company of any kind that I've ever used.
I would recommend getting the inner axle seals for your front axle, because those can only be replaced with your gears/carrier removed.
For what it's worth, I did a full install kit for the front axle and a partial install kit for the rear. This was partly because the interior condition in the Dana 60 was a bit unknown, where as the 14 bolt was well known to be good. Also, the 14 bolt is a simpler design, which made the full install kit a bit unnecessary.
Regarding the carrier questions: You can get a thick gear for your 14 bolt so as to not change carriers. For the front, there is one company on the East Coast that sells some thick gears for a Dana 60. They're the only one I know of. It was easier for me to just change the carrier because one was readily available. I've been cautioned against using spacers in the Dana 60. Here's the company's link to the 5.13 thick gear that I was considering:
http://eastcoastgearsupply.com/i-5831319-dana-60-5-13-thick-nitro.html You'll have to search and see if they offer one in your gear size.
About the spacer, 4x4HIGH says this:
A ring gear spacer is NOT a good idea. The spacer moves the ring gear further away from the carrier that is supposed to center the gear and over the years i've seen many issues when a spacer was used. It would be best to either buy a new carrier for 4.56-up or find an axle that is already 4.56 geared then do your gear swap.
Also, doing this yourself the first time around is generally discouraged. I paid a CK5er to do it for me and watched over his shoulder. LOTS of patience, time, some specialty tools, etc.
