Springs and the drive shaft would be specific to the vehicle the rear end comes out of.

And yes, I think you should be able to clear the disks easily with the 16 inch wheels.

You might want to ask the scrap yards you call about the swap. Sometimes you find guys there that know a lot about the compatability of the parts. Keep us updated, as this sounds like it will be an interesting project.--DIY

 

It's my understanding that everything should be a direct swap with no mods needed at all. As far as the wheels, I don't really know. I have 16 inch rims and disc brakes, but the rotors/calipers may be bigger on a 9.75 than an 8.8. Somebody else is gonna have to answer that one.

 

I just went out and checked mine. I have the stock 17" wheels and it looks like there,s at least 3/4" of clearance all the way around. Should fit fine, besides, don't some of the expys have 16"s on them? Just make sure you get a rear end withthe same lug stud size and placement. 97-99 some have 12mm lugs and some have 14mm.--DIY

 

im almost positive you have to have 17in rims

 

Yeah i believe your right, I just went and compaired measurements on my 8.8 to another 9.75 and everything was the same. So now i have to do some checking around for one.

 

Now what years did they go with the disc brakes? The year that i just compaired was a 9.75 but it was on a '97 w/ drum brakes

 

I can't find it now, but I thought I remembered reading that the 97's and 98's had disks on the Lariats and then in '99 it became standard equipment for the XLT. Not sure where i heard that though.--DIY

 

I also have a '97 that I would like to put the 9.75 with discs into, but I heard that when changing over from rear drums to discs that you have to replace the master cylinder, as the reservoirs are different sized.

 

As long as the master cylinder doesn't have to move more fluid to the rear disks than it would to the drums, the reservoir shouldn't be a big deal, you just might have to let some out of the lines when you compress the calipers to avoid running the reservoir over and keep an eye on it as the pads wear down since you might have to add a little.--DIY

 

Well If the reservoirs are different thats an easy fix, you can bolt on the proper sized one. Im not to worried about that. What i am worried about is the whole ABS thing. Will i run into any problems with that?

 

That and i would like to find out about the possible need of bigger wheels to clear the brakes, which i hope you dont.

 

Ok, here again I have never attempted this swap before so all I can do is speculate, but here's what I found.

Just from looking around online at parts suppliers, the master cylinder doesn't seem to be different. There aren't different listings for trucks with or without disk brakes. The only distinction is whether the truck had speed control. So from the looks of it you should be ok on the master cylinder.

The other thing I looked for was the driveshaft. One of those threads said something about the driveshafts being different, but I'm oly seeing different part numbers for different years and whether you had the 4R70W tranny of the A40D or the manual trans. Again, I've never done this but there seems to be no different part numbers for a driveshaft based on whether you have an 8.8 or 9.75.

Wish I could help more, but I've never attemped this swap and I can't find anyone else who has either. Not sure why not though, it seems like a logical thing to do. Let me know if there's anything else I can do to help.--DIY

 

Look for a wrecked Lariat, I had a 97' with discs on the rear. It had a 4.6 with 3.55 L.Slip.

 

Things are looking more and more promising but i still wonder about the ABS, does it use that same setup that a drum setup uses with the ring for the sensor bolted to the ring gear?

 

I worked at an auto salvage yard for a couple weeks and (if I remember correctly) all the 8.8s and 9.75s had the same ABS setup, regardless of whether it had drums or discs. That doesn't mean that there are no exceptions, so take it with a grain of salt. I was just thinking though, do you think that the ABS gear on the 9.75s is bigger/has any more teeth than the 8.8? What I'm getting at is if the 9.75 has more teeth could it cause your ABS to act up? Just a thought.

Also, the driveshaft should match up with no problem. The flange on all of these rearends has 8 bolt holes (only 4 of which are used) and the bolt pattern is always the same.