96 silverado sas swap

[silveradok1500]

I'm looking into doing a solid axle swap for my truck since my front diff just went out. Can anyone give some advice as to how I should go about doing this. Parts and what difficulty level this is to do it myself. I have been looking at ford Dana 44 axles but I want to keep my 6 lug rims. I'm trying to do this on a mild budget so what would be the most cost effective way of going about doing this?

 

[outalne94z71]

you use a ford axle but swap on 73-76 chevy dana 44 outer parts from the ball joints on out.

you can spend $700 on brackets and another $700 for steering from oru or you can do as i have shown others and use stock gm parts for hangers that you can get cheap from any junkyard.

before anything we need to know what wheeling you do and how big a tire you plan

 

[silveradok1500]

Would there have to be any special mods like custom drivelines for a 6 inch lift. Or could I just keep my stock driveline

 

[outalne94z71]

the rear will usually be ok with that low a lift, the front you need to modify exhaust and get a older solid axle style shaft with a double cardan joint in it

 

[silveradok1500]

alright, i put a 6in ifs lift on it a while back and had to mod the exhaust already. Also this may seem kinda stupid, but would i be able to keep the mounts where my ifs brackets are on the side of the frame. Just in case i had to convert it back to ifs for some odd reason.

 

[silveradok1500]

To answer your other question, i plan to keep my 6 lug 15in rims with 35 In Cooper Stt, and I do mostly trails, little rock crawling and a lot of mud. I would like to keep the same or decently close to the same ride i have with my ifs, but i was always having problems engaging my 4wheel drive and since my diff exploded i was thinking about upgrading to a solid axle to give more strength.

 

[Mschaffer92]

Sub'd

Sent from my camo'ed GS3

 

[outalne94z71]

To answer your other question, i plan to keep my 6 lug 15in rims with 35 In Cooper Stt, and I do mostly trails, little rock crawling and a lot of mud. I would like to keep the same or decently close to the same ride i have with my ifs, but i was always having problems engaging my 4wheel drive and since my diff exploded i was thinking about upgrading to a solid axle to give more strength.

a dana 44 is really not a strength upgrade over the 1/2 ton ifs, both are limited to 35's to limit wear and breakage on a fullsize truck


if you have spicer non greaseable axle joints it goes a long way in keeping it from breaking.

what kind of offset do your rims have? with a solid axle you need wheels that mount out far enough to clear the steering parts

 

[outalne94z71]

alright, i put a 6in ifs lift on it a while back and had to mod the exhaust already. Also this may seem kinda stupid, but would i be able to keep the mounts where my ifs brackets are on the side of the frame. Just in case i had to convert it back to ifs for some odd reason.

upper control arm mounts yes, the diff mounts and lower control arm mounts may need removal with that low a lift

 

[98slv]

stock GM hangers eh? I have yet to hear of this