Today I drug my other rearend out from under the workbench.
Its a 14 bolt cab and chassis unit out of an 80 model truck. Inside is very sanitary and its a 4.10 ratio with a locker. That should give me a significant improvement in highway manners over my current 4.56 ratio unit. I don't really know why, but I've had this rearend for a long time sitting under my bench. I had no use for it, but since its so heavy, I just left it sitting under there without dragging it out and selling it. I'm very glad I didn't. When this truck came along, it kind of completed the circle of karma that I just happened to have a pretty damn rare bolt in differential for my truck.
I'm not proud of this picture since its such bad quality phone snap, the rearend is now up on jack stands in the middle of my shop. Its bone crushing heavy so I didn't lift it up and put it on top of the workbench or anything.
I tore the ends off of it to get a working plan on what it needs to be ready to install. Looks like just normal wheel cylinders, shoes, seals, and a couple of hubs lock washers.
Off to Rockauto and 93 dollars later I have tons of new stuff on the way. I went ahead and sprung for new spring kits and adjusters too. Basically I shot gunned it like I usually do.
Notice I like to shop the Rockauto close outs. That's a damn cheap price for name brand brake shoes.
This is one serious set of brakes. 13 inches by 3.5 inches.
So now I clean and detail parts till the Rockauto delivery fairy shows up. I hated to spend nearly 100 bucks on rear brakes, but I guess that's the cost of doing business nowadays. I did go for real premium parts and not cheapies though. No more than I drive this gas hog the new rear brakes will probably last beyond my life time.
And, another great surprise. I was trolling Summit Racings website the other day trying to dial in the cheapest price on my tires. A little survey window popped up. I took the survey ( very positive reviews) and basically forgot about it. Then today I get an email from them thanking me for completing the survey the other day and telling me that they're mailing me a 25 dollar gift card as a token of appreciation. Said I should have it in 4-5 days. When it gets here, I'm probably gonna use it to order my tires. On the BF Goodrich Commercial TA tires I want, Summit is right in the mix on prices compared to the other big mail order places. That added 25 dollar gift card should make them the cheapest total price, and seal the deal in their favor over Discount Tire Direct and Tire-Rack.