Solid Axle Swap BS Thread

yea man, that thing really heavy! Not worth trying to muscle it.

tranny jacks come handy for other stuff. I'm sure you will be use it again in the future.

 

I have the big red trans jack and i use the shit out of it! I keep my tool bag on it or strap my welder to it as a mobile welding cart when not lifting anything with it. Amazing the uses you will find for it.

 

I knew I'd seen that somewhere. I've decided to yank the crawl box out of Basketcase, swap it into my DD and do an LSx swap on Basketcase. I know the 4.0 isn't gonna make the power I need so might as well skip the bullshit and drop a mildly built LQ4 in it. It'll probably be mid 2017 before I have that money together but it can wait, I have plenty to do in the mean time

 

Sweet

 

You gonna go with V8 on that thing and keep that factory tcase? I think that's gonna suck with those big tires... I would keep the crawler or sell it and get an Atlas.

But it all depends on what you intend to use the rig for.

What kind of power to you need that the factory engine cannot suffice by the way?

For rock crawling, Even guys with V8 swaps and auto trannies have lower transfer case gears. Granted, they don't need to go Marlin Crawler ubber low style, but still.

Besides...an LS swap done right ain't cheap. Might feel on the wallet like you are doing another SAS LOL.

 

Agreed. Not really sure what power he's looking for but there's guys on second gens with 42s and stock tcase gears doing just fine (vancity4x)

An ls swap isn't going to make it to where you don't need lower gears in the tcase.

 

I'm a bit confused by your statement haha.

At the end of the day, for rock crawling, even with a big engine you need to have a gear reduction somewhere that is at at least bit deeper than factory...though not as low as you would need it with a smaller/weaker engine.

 

No, I'm gonna put a full Chevy Drivetrain in it. LQ4, 4l80e, and whatever tcase I can afford at first. Basketcase's factory drivetrain will become a backup to the one in my DD. Never hurts to have a spare everything around when your truck has 230k on it.

 

As for power. My DD, Black-N-Tan, had 4.56s and 37s (now 4.88s). With the 4.56 it struggled to pull itself up the mountains (on the street mind you) in Kentucky. I was using 2nd and first ALOT. I even put it in 4lo after a while. I've swapped to 4.88s since then and it seems to do better but I haven't been back to the mountains.

That said Basketcase has 4.88s now and I ordered 41.5s. 4.88s wont be NEARLY enough gear and I cant go much lower cause they just dont make them. I need more power. So rather than regear (A grand in labor) and spend the money to get the 4.0 hooked up and running, I rather cut the bullshit, rip the 4.0 out and drop in something I know will make the power I want. Not to mention sound awesome and be cool cause it hasn't really been done before in a second gen SAS.

It'll delay the build completion but I really don't care. I'm enjoying the build.

Now I'm off to the shop. About to cut the bullshit and chop my front frame rails off and replace them. Nothing like taking a torch to a months worth of work

 

Why not regear the axles... Feel like that will be a lot less headache...

 

They make 5.38s for 14bolts, how much lower did you need?

 

Yep^

If you need any lower you'd need a 9" or D60/70/80.

 

Nah man full drivetrain swap is way cheaper apparently.

 

Big block swap fuck it

 

I mean I'm a fan of the lsx... It makes loud noises... But if your crawling you need gearing, if your trying to rock bounce... Build a buggy...

 

I want a big nasty V8, cause 'Merica. That's pretty much all the explanation anyone should really need. It's a big nasty V8. That's like asking why you want a girl with a round ass or big tits.

Fabbed up new frame rails today and cut the front of my frame off. Pics to follow once my phone charges.

 

Mm titties

 

FUCK THAT SECTION OF FRAME

 

That will make your life WAY easier!! what did you use? 2x3x3/16?

I go for titties over round ass, no idea what that translates to in vehicle powertrain analogies.

 

2x4 3/16 with 1/8 fishplating on all sides, more to look awesome and show off Eddy's talent and look awesome, than any other real purpose. It's strong as fuck now though. The frame rails are lifted a couple inches to clear the panhard easier and the engine will be lifted as well (not that it's staying for long). Attaching it to the frame will be the trick, but I have a plan. I'm going to order a new core support then cut the mounts off of my old frame and weld it in to get that all lined up properly. In the end this will give me a much better product with more clearance for things like exhaust, tires, links and front drivehaft, with no rotten metal hiding underneath.

And I think that makes you a lightbars over lockers guy in the powertrain analogies but I could be wrong.

To further address that issue:

I can't imagine in the future thinking "Damn I wish I didn't have all this horsepower" But I can forsee thinking "Damn I wish this thing made more power" or "damn I wish I didn't have this 1/4ton gear box driving these 1Ton axles". Further out in the build I'd like to do something along the lines of a NP205 with a black box planetary doubler or something like that but we'll see.

I'm on the east coast and I see a lot of guys from the west coast replying about super low gears and crawling. That shits great, for the west coast were things are generally dry with lots of traction. But from what I've seen here, we deal with a lot of slick surfaces, loose rock, shale, mud and loose dirt. Crawling isn't always (even normally) an option in a lot of these environments. Sometimes you just have to put the hammer down and let'er eat so to speak. Ultimately you need to be able to do both. It makes much more sense to address the HP issue while the truck is apart and not running and before I spend money on gears, drive shafts, hoses, lines and other BS that I'd have to trash later. It's much easier to address gearing later in the build than horsepower. In a perfect world I'd be swapping engines right now, so I could adjust frame rails to clear headers and BS, but it's not a perfect world and nothing about this scenario is ideal. But I've been making it work and will continue to do so.

My crawlbox will go into my DD soon. I already have driveshafts made, ADD harness is around here somewhere as are the triple sticks. Pulling Basketcases heart will also give me a spare powertrain for that truck seeing as it has 230k on the ODO and will remain my DD for as long as I can manage it. I'll probably end up wheeling it for all of 2017 and hope it doesn't spit the Elocker rear out...again. One day it'll get a 14bolt rear, but one project at a time for now....

well really two at a time. I spent almost a grand this week on parts for that truck as well.