Finished!
Long overdue update:
I finally bolted the replacement rear end in a week ago; between a sinus infection, rainy or hot weather, and parenting responsibilities I just hit one road block after another. Actual time processing the old one out and the new one is was probably about 6-8 hours (had several small periods to get things done)
My 'heavy' jack stands were too short to reach and support the frame rails ahead of the axle to I had to build some 2x8" platforms from some old porch joists I had available. These were assembled with 2" screws in the criss-cross pattern you can see, ~15" square so they had almost 4x the footprint of the jack stands themselves.
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Process was pretty straight forward overall, in addition to the various tools and a floor jack you'll want at least one additional pair of jack stands.
- Remove the spare under the rear tank.
- Brake the rear wheel lugs loose and chock the front wheels, release the e-brake.
- Jack up the rear end and place the jackstands on the platforms, locating them under the frame rails on both sides. Remove rear wheels if you are inclined.
- SLOWLY lower the jack; because of the height involved, the jack will try and walk the truck forwards (if jacking from the rear) so keep an eye on the jack stands and be certain they aren't trying to tip forward as the jack lowers. I found that a minimal space between the stands and the frame rails was best for preventing this.
- Once the jack is lowered and all the weight is on the stands, the rear wheels (if you left them on) should be off the ground.
- Give the truck a good shake and make sure everything feels safe and very solid, correct if there is any uncertainty since there is risk of serious injury or death if the truck falls on you.
- Remove rear wheels if not already done so.
- Put the transmission in neutral and disconnect rear drive shaft u-joint. Mine was already undone from having been towed.
- Disconnect parking-brake cables (have fun with that rusted adjusting nut...) and get them completely unclipped from the rear of the vehicle.
- Disconnect speed sensor, I pulled mine in the process of dealing with the parking brake cables since they were clipped together in several places.
- Disconnect rear sway bar if equipped. I went ahead and dropped it off the axle and the truck just to have it out of the way since it was being transferred to the new unit anyways.
- Disconnect the rear brake lines, grab a pickle jar to let that fluid drip into once disconnected or it makes a mess. Unclip/remove the rear axle breather tube as well while you're there.
- Grab the floor jack again and unhook the lower shock bolts, I had to use the jack to relieve the pressure enough to drift the incorrect bolts through all the holes.
- Support one end of the axle and remove the 4 nuts on the shackles, make sure to mark the orientation of any removed springs/brackets as you remove them. Once unhooked, support that end on a spare jack stand. Repeat on the opposite side, but be aware that once you unbolt the axle from the springs and lower it enough the locating hardware is clear it will want to roll forwards to point that heavy yoke towards the ground so maybe put a block of wood under that or yet another jack stand before you let it down any.
- Wrestle/roll the axle out once you safely have it on the ground, be mindful of the drums as they may try to roll/slide off depending on how you move it.
- Installation is essentially reverse of removal with the added process of bleeding the brakes, adjusting the brake cables, and making sure to double check all hardware is torqued to spec.
Not quite finished but good enough for example, note the busted exhaust hanger.
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Since I had an axle from a later year (again, huge thanks to IDIoit, typ4, and towcat for helping line that up) I got to play the combination u-joint game, turns out the old driveshaft takes a 1.062" x 3.62" with retaining clips while the new ('96) rear saddle wanted a 1.188" x 3.62", awesome.
I went ahead and changed the engine oil and put in a powerstroke filter (had to massage whatever line that is right in front that would rub otherwise until I had good clearance to be safe), bled the brake fluid until I was getting new clear fluid at all four corners, dropped the transmission pan and found the previous owner did infact completely change the fluid so I put in a new filter and bolted that back up. Finally, I put in mechanical oil and temp gauges so I'd have some actual reference to engine status beyond EGT. I considered a transmission temp gauge, but intend to convert it to manual this fall and won't be running heavy until then, so it seemed like a waste. I have a voltmeter to install as well, but don't have a mounting option for that yet; need to get a 3-4 gauge pod to mount over the instrument cluster.
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Went for the test drive today, everything went great!
Gonna take it on a couple miles of highway later and see how it goes, then top off all fluids, recheck a few bolts to be safe, and drive it a couple weeks to see what else comes up. Turns out that with fresh fluids all around and good bearings in the rear end it actually has respectable acceleration for its size.
Next thread will likely be about making the AC work again once I diagnose where the issue(s) are there...
