rearend swap

[artcap9]

Hi everyone I want to swap out my current rearend. The entire thing (shocks brake drums, axels, housing mounts all). is there a writeup some place for that. I have been searching for the last hour and have found nothing. I have a 1997 4X4 with 4.10 rear end and the donor vehicle is a 1997 4X4 4.10. My current vehicle has a leak and has 242000 miles the donor vehicle has 6194 miles and no leaks. Thanks in advance

ARTCAP9

 

[4eigner]

6194 miles???

 

[artcap9]

Yes that's correct, I already swapped the engine and tranny all with the same miles

 

[Kryptoroxx]

I would just replace the axle seals and call it a day....diff gears last a long time before needing consideration.

 

[SlickmisterN]

Its pretty easy. I just did an E-locker swap.

#1 Drain Rear Diff. - 24mm Fill/Drain
#2 Jack up car on jack stands.
#3 Remove wheels.
#4 Remove 4 bolts sandwiching 3rd member pinion to the drive shaft I believe 12mm. Drive shaft will fall free.
#5 Next I removed the sway-bar I believe the 2 nuts are either 10 or 12mm.
#6 Upper control arms are 12mm and the lower control arms are 14mm I believe.
#7 Remove the pan-hard bar - 14mm socket
#8 Unhook the abs sensor wires that are clipped in 3 spots on each side.
#9 Remove abs sensors - 10mm bolt and pry out with flathad screwdriver.
#10 Remove E-brake cable mounting brackets ~6 12mm bolts and undo the cotter pin at each drum.
#11 Remove brake lines 10mm wrench and zip tie latex glove fingers to prevent drainage, ziptie to a high point.
#12 At this point the only thing keeping your rearend from rotating or dropping is the shocks. Remove those 2 bolts and TADA!!!! The whole assembly slides out!

If you think about it, it's really only like ~26 bolts. Took me and my friend less than an hour to remove it. I can post a more detailed procedure that combines Tq specs for reassembly if anyone is interested....otherwise just check out the sticky for Tq values.

 

[xcmtb83]

Unless it is an elocker I wouldn't mess around with swapping either.

 

[SlickmisterN]

Wait is your leak from the 3rd member pinion seal? Gasket seal? or one of the hub/axle seals. Cause if its just the latter you can replace it after step 3 above... 4 12mm bolts on each side at 53ft/lbs. Easy Peasy!

 

[artcap9]

Thanks for all the replys. A special thanks to slickmastern that is just what I was looking for. It is leaking where the drive shaft goes into the rearend but I am going to change out the entire thing anyway (new shocks, drums, upper and lower control arms ect...). When you have time I would appreciate the torque specs for the installation.

Artcap9

 

[artcap9]

I also plan to change the front if anyone has a write-up on that one. Thanks in advance


ARTCAP9