Thread: Project LQ4 - V8 S10 - Sold.

Spent the morning crawling around under an Explorer at the Pull a part. Got rear end V2.0.



It's a 3.73 LSD. Thrust faces and fluid looked great. The brakes were even in good shape. I feel really good about this one. I learned my lesson last time. Inspect before you buy!

Can't decide if I want to:

A) Pay a "professional" to shorten it (≈$70)
B) Do it myself "sloppy style" (≈$10 / the cost of the angle iron)
C) Do it myself with fixture (≈120 / the cost of the fixture)

Many pro's and con's to each...

when did the rear go bad? or your not liking the gears its got?

Originally Posted by Scottydoggs

when did the rear go bad?

Ha! Kind of on day one. The rear that's in it now has gacked gears. Bought it that way. Probably got run dry and galled the drive faces. I didn't notice till the return period had expired. I had too much invested in it at that point to not use it, so I just ran it, knowing it would only be temporary. Like I say... Lesson learned.

or your not liking the gears its got?

That too. 4.10 is too short for a small tire light truck. City driving is fine, but highway speeds - that thing is really singing. 3.73 will be better overall for what I'm doing. A 3.55 LSD is what I really want, but that's kind of a unicorn. Also, I screwed up the pinion angle when I welded the spring perches on. I'll get a chance to fix that now, and ditch the angle shims. Got some 1" drop blocks to put in too.

Oh, and why am I replacing the whole rear and not just the gears, you ask... It's cheaper to do it this way. Even with the added cost of shortening. Guy quoted me around $400 to do a ratio change. Nope.

I'm hoping I can recoup some of the cost by selling the axles (got two shorties in there right now ), possibly the brake stuff, and the old rear. Even with bad gears, a shortened 8.8 should be worth a fair amount of money.

I'd say go with the "professional", because you can blame them if it doesn't work, and it's almost half the cost of doing it yourself with the fixture.

Plus that "professional" will probably know someone looking for a shortened 8.8

Well I got all the preliminary work done. Everything is cleaned up and I put a single coat of satin Krylon on the brackets, dust shield and calipers. It will be painted as an assembly for the second coat.








Next step is to chop off the spring perches and sway bar mounts.

damn them parts look new.

Originally Posted by Scottydoggs

damn them parts look new.

Maybe not new, but pretty close. The pads had a lot of meat on them, the rotors barely had a step, and the axle seals were not original. This thing definitely had a brake job/service in the not too distant past.

Thanks Matt! Yeah, there is still some value in the old rear beyond just the information I learned doing it.

The housing is stripped. I got the sway bar mounts and spring perches off with minimal gouging to the tubes. A little filler weld and a quick touch up with a flap wheel and they will look good as new. The perches need some cleanup to remove the leftover weld, and some adjustment with a hammer to flatten the spring seat. They opened up when I was hammering them off. Getting closer to making the critical cuts!

Tomorrow we cut! ...Maybe.

Tube is cut and squared. I made a trip to Industrial Metal Supply this morning to grab something/anything to use as a tube jig. Fortunately, I found some heavy channel in the remnant bin that is perfect. $8 for 5'. I only needed 16", but I'm sure I'll find a use for the rest.



Measurements are dead on. Wear from the oil seal confirms. Axle spins freely with no binding. I like it.



I'm going to re-check all my measurements and positioning of everything one more time tomorrow. Then I should be good to weld.

Also dropped $12 on this the other day.



The perspective is odd, but I promise, it fits.

Forgot to show it all blown apart.

Tube is welded, perches are welded.



It's no stack of nickels, but it's good enough for my dime.



Need to clean up some of the weld spatter, then I can put down a coat of primer.

Harumph.

Primered...



And painted...



Hoping to start reassembly tomorrow.

Begin...

almost looks like you know what your doing at this point lol finish up already, we need new vids........

Ha! Yeah. Very selective photo taking. I can fake it pretty good.

Well, the rear end is in place.



I worked just long enough to take the old one out and get the new(er) one in. I just wanted to be able to connect the brake hose to keep it from dripping. Also put in 1" blocks. Still going to be riding high, but that should bring it closer to level.

Rear end is fully installed. PCM is calibrated. Still need to top off the gear oil and adjust the track bars, but it's essentially ready to go.



Should be back to doing burnouts in the very near future.

Looks like rear end V2.0 is a success. No issues. Now that that's done, it's time to address the parking brake. I figure I can use the factory Ford 8.8 cable assembly and attach it to the S10 cable assembly under the cab. It's just braided cable after all. (Pictures when I get there). Just have to re-use the Ford cable bracket, after some modifications...



It will get welded to the S10 frame in the appropriate location for the geometry to work out.

Also, sold the 4:10 rear.



For $170.



That's going to fund the next step of the build... Trans cooler. More on that later. Thinking under bed with thermostatically controlled fan.

https://www.amazon.com/Tru-Cool-H7B-.../dp/B003TQ3BG2