I've been looking at all my possibilities for rear end swaps for my 7.5 open 10 bolt. I've looked at all the moser rear ends, the hawks 8.8, and s60 but none of them are really in my budget. I know i want a 9" rear and i can get a complete truck rear end for cheap. My question is, has anyone fabricated their own 9" to fit in a third gen with STOCK suspension geometry and placement?

 

I built a 9 inch for a 3rd gen many years ago. I used a truck housing and used the brackets off of a 3rd gen 10 bolt. I don't remember how the brackets for the torque arm were built, but you can buy these from some of the after market rear end companies. I think I only had to shorten one side of the housing to get the pinion offset and total width correct. You are still going to have to buy new axles.

 

That is exactly what I plan on doing. Did you write anything down or take pictures when you did yours?

 

No, I built it for a customer many years ago. I don't remember much about it.

 

I did the same for mine. If I remember, I made a stair step style stand and had one rear above the other. Used some steel to put the pinions in line with each other and transferred the brackets from one to the other. For the torque arm I used some 1" steel rod and drilled/tapped for 3/4" bolts and welded the rods on to the housing similar to what one of the manufacturers do. Then I made a bracket that bolts on and covers the gear set. It came out that I could use the factory torque arm but required that I notched out a couple of the fins on the gear case. I'm not real proud of that because it takes away from the strength. If I had to do it again I would have tapped the bracket to use 4 bolts instead of the 2 long ones like the factory used.
If you do it yourself, plan on an adjustable torque arm because it will take a lot of work to get the pinion angle correct in order to use a 1-piece arm.