Since my 4x4 hunting hasnt been going good at all I got looking around, and on ORU I found the solid axle conversion kit and thought thats an idea so I did some research seen if I could find any dana 44's and Gm 12 bolt rear ends at the junk yards and I can get both for 350 bucks. With most of the other stuff I need I figured it to come out to about 3000 Canadian to convert it to 4wd and a 6 inch lift, should I go for it?The ORU conversion kit looks pretty darn easy to install too.

 

well i guess it depends on what t case you use. if you use a pre 88 t case you can use chevy axles but if you use a 88 and later tcase you would be better off getting ford axles because of the location of the front drive shaft. and remember the transfer case will not just bolt up to the tranny you have now.

 

I researched this, I can get the transfer case from before 88 completly rebuild for 400$ and my tranny was carried over from the 87down models into the 88-90 models the transfer case WILL bolt right up to my tranny.My tranny is a4l60/th700r4 or a 4l60 E and the transfer cases bolt right up with a little adapter that costs about 50 bucks

 

that is true if you have a tranny from a 4wd.

 

dude you really need a 73-87 the money that your probably gonna have into that. already got the sfa, there cheap to buy and cheap to lift, those trucks are bad *** 2, you can get full spring lifts all the way around 6" for like $600

 

If you want to go with the half ton running gear then keep the 10 bolt you have now as it is wider and the same strenght as the 12 bolt. Also, do some more research on the solid axle kits, because ORU is WAY over priced IMO. Also factor in the fact that you will need to rebuild / regear the front axle, completely redo the steering, modify the braking system, and get driveshafts made. Lets put this way, I am almost done converting my 95 2wd into a 1 ton 4WD SFA, and almost $8000 US into it. A swap of this nature involves careful planning and VERY informed decisions.

 

8000 mind writing a price list of what money was spent where? As I said before I live in Canada in a region where it doesnt take very long for cars to start to rust, and its very hard to find a good shape 87 below chevy/gmc let along a 4x4.

 

Why would the transmission need to be from a 4 wheel drive?, its the same transmission used on some of the 4x4s

 

its a little thing called a output shaft

 

Ok, I dont know a whole lot about the transmissions and transfer case, but what is different about the output shaft? Is it easily modified/replaced so a transfer case will bolt up?