Just finished up, took a little longer than I had wanted but I was taking my time. Its raining or else i'd get some pictures, primed and painted it gloss black and it came out pretty good. Took it around the block real quick but didn't wanna get into it too much with the wet roads, but its nice to have both tires spinning for once . Only potential problems I see are that my ABS light is now on, and it feels almost like my rear tires are out of balance a little at times but I think I might've just switched up the drums. I'll be sure to post another update tomorrow when it dries up! Just couldn't hold in my excitement

 

Just wait till you actually use the 4:56s to get up to highway speed. You are going to flip out. Pretty soon you will see threads about the re-gearing and think people that havent yet are R-tarded. Trust me.. been there and bought a t-shirt.

 

thats what i'm hoping for .

I think I may have figured out what the hop in the rear end is. It sounds almost like my E-brake, or maybe even the regular rear brakes are sticking or atleast partially engaged. On the 9.75, the E-brake cable on the driverside was a little longer, and with the spring stetched I think I had it partly engaged. I'll try to get some pictures up tomorrow so hopefully I can get this figured out

 

You are going to love it man.. Hope you get it all figured out

 

agreed.

hope everything works out with the brakes and cant wait to see pics. im gonna have to paint my frame and stuff over summer.

 

Cool man! Can't wait until I get my gears. What did you get the 9.75 out of?

 

thanks guys.

jake, the first time I painted my undercarriage it made a HUGE difference. Its getting a little dirty again now, but it still helps to clean up the overall appearance of the truck

dnasty, I got it from a mechanic who had the axle on his 2WD for about 4k miles. He basically rebuilt most of the axle and added a Ford LS, but before he sold the truck he swapped the axle out for a stock one. It also had new brake pads and such which I was looking to replace anyways so its been a win-win so far

 

what about your front axle? are you going to regear it too? did you get the driveshaft length sorted out?

 

Yeah I'm gonna regear the front too after this semester is over, for now I'm just going to make sure I keep my hands clear of the 4X4 switch. I had to get the driveshaft shortened about an inch and an eighth and it seems to sit right where it did with 8.8.

 

Dang man, you must have the discipline of a "gawd" to not touch your 4X4 switch....

If it were me, I would disable it altogether by disconnecting the switch or a vacumn line so that I wouldn't blow my front end up by accident

 

haha I was going to just remove the front driveshaft but the bolts weren't budging at all even with an impact. I don't use my 4WD as much as I used to but i'll probably end up doing one of the two just incase the switch gets bumped or something.

 

I was gonna suggest just undoing the connector on back of the switch but I seem to remember reading somewhere that 97-98 has the wires going right into the switch-no connector

Maybe see if the **** comes off like the headlite switch ****

 

I JUST did a 4.10 swap on my axles (guy did a GREAT job too) and the sound/vibration could be the E-Brake cable rubbing on the inside of the tire... Mine was rubbing while on the lift, driver side, but not on the ground - since you have wider tires that could be the culprit...

By the way, I hope you like the 4.56's. So far I'm loving the 4.10's but only have maybe 100 miles on the gearset so far. They're still running pretty hot too, but quieter than stock! Gonna put on a Mag-Hytec at the 500 mile lube swap...

 

Have you gotten on the highway yet?

Why don't you just pull the fuse for the 4x4?

 

what are your guy's rpms on the freeway at 65mph? 75? I have 34's and a 4.6 and looking to regear and rebuild by ls in the next few weeks. I am trying to decide between 4.10's and 4.56's and leaning towards the 4.10s so it doesnt rev too high on the freeway