After the unfortunate problem with the crack in my rearend housing I have been looking into swapping it out.  Well as of January 6th I've got a new housing ready to be built and go in for next season.  I made a trip with a few friends up to Tinley Park, Ill to pick up the 8.5in 10 Bolt from a fellow Listserve Member Mark Kruk.

(Here is the crack that has been welded in an attempt to stop the leaking)

Once Home the disassembly began.  This was a complete rearend with fairly new brakes and hardware.  It was an original 2.73 open rearend which I sent off to Liberty Sandblasting and for $25 they shot it down to bare metal for me.  Once it was back we spot welded the axle tubes to the center section and welded in braces to support the spring perches.  Then it got a light coat of primer to keep the rust away till I can paint it for good.

           

The new Drive train will be comprised of a 30 Spline Eaton Posi, 30 Spline Moser Forged C-Clip axles, and all new bearings, seals, ect...  Here are a few pics of the new Eaton unit with the bearings pressed on.

   

More work has been done on the rearend since I've last updated. The pinion has received new bearings along with matching races and a new seal and crush sleeve. The housing has been painted Cast Grey and is just awaiting the install of the gears and posi which will be in the next few days. I am almost ready to order the Axles and cover for the rearend to finish things off.

           

In the pictures above you can see the Stainless Steel Brake lines I got and the backing plates firmly attached with Grade 8 3/8x1in Bolts.

Today I received my 1in Hellwig Sway Bar. It is quite beefy and should work out great...although I may not be able to use my Lift Bars its about time for those to go anyways.

Now instead of taking the chance of ruining a crush sleeve I spent the extra money and got a Ratech Solid Pinion Sleeve from LPW Racing. Its comes with a solid sleeve and shims you put 3 shims in and torque the pinion nut to 125ft/lbs and check your drag. Then add/remove as necessary to get the desired result. This will happen tomorrow most likely.

The new MOSER axles arrived and here they are.  Quite the beauties... and a comparison of them to my stock one

               

With the pinion in I am waiting on some carrier shims so I can complete the posi install.  In the meantime I tackled some other issues like the exhaust leak near the O2 Sensor, and the transmission leaks.  After getting some parts sealed up I noticed the tranny pan leaked so off to ebay I went and picked up this beauty for next to nothing.

   

I got some shims and I was ready to get it all taken care of. I set the backlash and then ran the gears to check the gear patter and the pinion is to deep. So a local guy Tom is going to complete the install for me.

Well the rearend is back and ready to go in. After struggling to get it in place I got everything bolted up, axles in and she is finally on all 4. As soon as the weather clears up ill get it out and test the new setup.