More pics soon. Axle: $167 with drums, at Pick-N-Pull, on any normal-price day, includes core charge. This was a '78 Dodge D200, but late-'70 F250s also work about the same. Pinion yoke: $50-80, new, delivered. The Mopar 7260 yoke can't be adapted to the GM with just a conversion u-joint, because such a joint doesn't exist. so you can do 1310, 1330 or 1350. 1350 is strongest. E-brake cables: my car was factory 4-wheel discs, and the cables that came with my D60 were damaged. New replacements are $50 each. ` Brake lines: Use the rubber hose from the car, use the hard lines for the axle, get 2 adapter fittings from metric to standard. Brakequip makes plenty. Driveshaft: shorten and re-balance: $150 or so. Better yet, get a custom 3" x 0.083" at a minimum. But that adds cost. Torque arm: 2 small cuts with hacksaw, drill 2 holes in the axlehousing webbing, make a couple of spacers, a few hammer blows, a couple of gussets, and some spot-welds: cost me nothing, but you can do it yourself for $20 if you can borrow the welding equipment for free. trailing arm brackets, spring brackets: free, cut off your original axle, weld to D60. Getting this right is the hardest part. But the new tubes being exactly 1/2" larger simplifies things, just be careful to cut the brackets exactly 1/4" out from the stock tubes. White-out helps. So does taking the safety guard off your angle grinder. Use a 1/8" cutting disc. Measure everything before attacking the stock axle. Grinding the leaf brackets off the D60 is rather easy. Wheels: mine were free, they're the original 16x6" ( or 16x6.5" ? ) from a '79 Chevy C-20 Camper Special. But a quick search on Summit Racing's website turned up these probable candidates: http://www.summitracing.com/parts/USW-84-7880PL/ Proportioning valve: $5 at PnP. All that adds up to less than half the cost of ordering a complete new bolt-in Strange S-60. The difference is weight: this weighs at least 50% more. But if you aren't worried about another 100 pounds... Lastly for now, mine is 4.10:1, 30-spline, non-posi, with drums. I got on Pirate4x4.com and scored a good used 3.54:1 gear set for $30 shipped. There are plenty of options for later upgrading to 35-spline, for under $300, not counting the cost of a 35-spline posi. Those are about the same cost as a new Eaton for your stock axle. But there are more choices. And if you're running a 35-spline D60 under a third-gen, then doing a "Lincoln locker" becomes a possibility. Further, there are bolt-in 12.5" disc brake kits, using '77 K-20 front rotors and Cadillac rear calipers, which should be fine for pre-PBR rear disc cars like mine. This will save nearly 50 pounds by itself, but adds about $350. However, if the drums need overhauled, then subtract that cost from the $350.

 

Arguably the most challenging part of any axle swap is the torque arm, but mine was very easy. Here's what I did: hang on, 6 more pics

 

next 3 pics:

 

And today's final 2:

 

I have not done this in a third gen yet.

I DID do it in a 1st gen, helping a friend in Indiana a few years back. We got a Dana 60 semifloater (yours looks full floating to me) from an F250, about 1983 or so in the pick your part yard. We got rid of the 8 lug stuff by calling one of the axle companies (can't remember which, maybe Moser?) and buying custom axle shafts in the right bolt pattern. We adapted GM rear drum brakes, too.

Can you take some farther off shots of the torque arm stuff? I'm having trouble seeing exactly what happened there.

Thanks!

 

Mine is full-float, since I'm rigging this car to tow gooseneck and fifth-wheel trailers. Semi-float are more likely to be 35-spline. It will be a few days before I can un-bolt the assembly for more pics. First, I found some steel tubing that just fit over the stock bolts. I wanted 0.188" wall thickness at a minimum, feeling certain I was not likely to find much thicker. I wish I knew exactly what I ended up with. Next I found the angle iron, and cut 2 lengths to set inside the stock torque arm. Then I cut the tube for a tight fit. Next I cut the 2 tubes in exact half. Then I tried the tubes on the axle, and found a surprisingly easy fit. Next I needed to subtract the thickness of the webbing. I Sharpied 2 tubes "upper", and measured an upper with a lower both on and off the axle webbing, after cleaning the dirt away from the webbing. The difference is how much I cut away from the uppers. Notice that on the stock 7.5", the torque arm is perfectly in line with the pinion centerline, but slightly below it. I thought the big FF D60 might need it to be even lower, especially with the anticipated loading. You could try taking half the difference off each of the 4 tubes. Then I gathered some washers, and mocked-up the whole deal on the torque arm, so I could mark the angle iron for drilling. This probably should have been done before cutting the 2 tubes in half. So, with the holes drilled, mock it up again, install the bolts, and snug them. Followed by spot-welding the tubes to the angle iron. Next was un-bolting, to try it on the axle, no torque-arm yet, just the bracketry I'd fabbed. The first thing I found was the points of interference, which necessitated using a metal-cutting 1/8" x 4.5" disc on my angle grinder. That fixed, I was able to chuck in a new 1/2"? drill bit to start the new holes. Flip it over and repeat. Then starting with a 1/8" bit, drill in steps. I don't think one of those cone multi-bits will work for this. Holes drilled, another mockup without the arm, looked close enough to try the bolts. That worked out for me, so I tried the arm. Bolting the rearmost was easy, I could tell the angle would be wrong, but I needed to see where to cut the horizontals for bending the vertical. The bending took a 2 pound baby-sledge, but no heat. And it got interrupted several times, having to stop and grind more clearance for the D60. Installing the front bolt and tightening both had it ready for figuring out how to make up for the cutting of the horizontals. My solution looks bad, but seems adequately strong. The front end of the arm may be a bit more forward than stock, but if you are going to section it, that should be done at the forward end, where the stresses will be less. I have plenty of clearance at stock ride height, but I will get a few pics with the stock bumpstops directly on the axle, no springs. I didn't do it before, because it was only just yesterday that I got the gas tank re-installed. I'm no fan of Moser, I prefer Dutchman, if they've survived the recession.

 

lots of clearance