So...knowing that the 12B wasn't going to last in there, I picked up a D60 from a friend that had swapped it out of his rock crawler. It has been converted to big bearing 9in. axle ends with chevy discs and came with 2 sets of 35 spline Moser's. (no carrier or R&P) Thinking Trak-lok and 3.52s
A couple hours with the torch and grinder took care of the old brackets and it's ready to go to the machine shop for shortening.
I'm planning on just narrowing it to the stock 62" WMS to WMS...but how cool would it be to narrow it a bit more, tub the rear, widen the ralleys, and stick some meats in there...now would be the time