88GMCtruck
I'm all 8-Luggy!
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I think either way you go you could easily end up spending just as much as the other. I do however see potential savings going with the Chevy axle via purchasing the 90 blazer. You'll have a lot of small parts as you say, and can sell off unused items to help re-coop the costs.
Touching on some of the points covered in this thread:
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Mostly just playing devil's advocate.
Personally, I wanted to keep mine all GM just because I'm that way and so few people seem to anyway. If I were to do another SAS, I would choose to still go with an all GM setup. Another goal of mine was to use as many factory parts as possible to keep costs low and make replacements easy to find. Both my drivelines, tierod and draglink hardware, springs, shackles, mounts, t-case and crossmember are off the shelf or easily modified off the shelf parts.
There are pros and cons to each. In either case, your going to gain a considerable amount of strength and articulation over what you have.
FWIW if you decide you go with the ford axle, I have a set of chevy outers (minus hubs) that is fitted with 18mm wheel studs to match the rear. I held on to them incase someone could use them.
Touching on some of the points covered in this thread:
Those that went with GM axle would you rather have a driver side drop and have better driveshaft angles?
No. I have no issues with my driveshaft. I'm running a stock 90 suburban shaft with the stops ground out. No travel issues or binding issues. And easily replaceable from a junkyard if damaged. I'm running 8" of lift.[the ford axle will] have a far better shaft angle, you can run up to 10" lift with the ford axle before needing a custom high dollar shaft(i used one from a 84 chevy 1/2 ton)
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Using the rear forward hanger from a 73-91 with the shackle works excellent on the inside of the GMT400 frame. Big $$$ saver.use chevy hangers so you are not paying that rediculous price for sky or oru hangers
Is a legitimate consideration. basically you have 2 options: use the passenger side shifter and cover the hole from your stock one (need to re-carpet), or make a cable/linkage for the stock driver's shifter. Here is mine, not the most elegant but it works as it should.fabbing the pass drop case to shift with your shifter is another issue that the ford axle avoids
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The passenger drop case sticks down, yes. It really isn't much in the grand scheme of things. On such a short wheelbased truck, your more likely to get hung up on the axles than ever hit the crossmember. My crossmember is a hybrid of a 77 K15 and my stock one for width.The tcase will be sticking below the frame to get a decent angle plus a new crossmember will be needed.
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TH350/700R4/4L60E are 27 spline. TH400/4L80E/SM465/NV3500/NV4500 are 32 spline. unless the blazer or truck were 3/4ton or a manual, my money is on the t-case being 27 spline and compatible with what you have now.another thing to consider is the input spline count on the tcase on the blazer, unless they already match.
...... Must be some voodoo magic I have going on here with my 52" springs..... My axle is centered in the wheelwell, in approximately the same location as the IFS was. The axle geometry is mimicing a stock 73-91 truck (just with longer springs). I did not have to cut my bumper either. It does rub under hard compression on the rear of the wheelwell, although that was fixed with some manipulating.do not run 52" springs you will need to fab hangers to hang them off the front of the frame so you lose your bumper brackets
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This is a good point as well, although with a good R&P set, good axles, etc, a low pinion setup will hold up just fine.HP is better on driveshaft angles and up front about 30% stronger due to the angle of the tooth mate and the resulting near lack of carrier deflection.
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Mostly just playing devil's advocate.
Personally, I wanted to keep mine all GM just because I'm that way and so few people seem to anyway. If I were to do another SAS, I would choose to still go with an all GM setup. Another goal of mine was to use as many factory parts as possible to keep costs low and make replacements easy to find. Both my drivelines, tierod and draglink hardware, springs, shackles, mounts, t-case and crossmember are off the shelf or easily modified off the shelf parts.
There are pros and cons to each. In either case, your going to gain a considerable amount of strength and articulation over what you have.
FWIW if you decide you go with the ford axle, I have a set of chevy outers (minus hubs) that is fitted with 18mm wheel studs to match the rear. I held on to them incase someone could use them.