Starting the overall replacement of front suspension today :-) drop time.

[PaPaStewySnipes]

Went ahead and got a new finned diff cover, $35 with screws and gasket from Amazon, priced normally at 125, amazon warehouse deals has great deals on returned items. I never buy items that are damaged but have been open boxed and repacked in original packaging. You can get steals if you do a simple search. Will be replacing rear diff cover with this deeper cover with a drain plug, polished and 3 times the thickness to prevent leaks if I happen to catch something on my diff from the drop. Will give part number and fitment review after install, it is a spectre cover. I hear of mixed reviews on thier products. I used their 4' SS flex fuel line kit I got from AWD for $10 on sale to hookup my edelbrock fuel log, only used 5" of line for now amd kept rest steel from fuel pump. Was good quality and no leaks.

[PaPaStewySnipes]

Here I am, About to pull axels, have to carefully remove the retaining rod and pull clips and will be on my way after removing old brake lines out of my way. Any tips or advice shoot it at me. This is my first time to do a rear disk conversion from a drum set up. If I can be any help to someone else ask away. My fluid needed a change badly, gears look good, where do I look to see what gear ratio I have for my rear end, I believe it is stock 2.73 gears.

[Mike C]

3.08 was the most common for 350 v8 auto trucks. Same with 400 BB in a 1/2 ton. At least in 71-72.

3.73 was most common in the 6 cylinder. The numbers will be stampled on the ring rear OD. Clean it of and look you will find something like 41:10 which would be 4.10. Also should find GM part # and a date stamp.

2.73 wasn't very common until later in the '70's.

[PaPaStewySnipes]

Thanks, my passengers side of axle was clean, bearing smooth and seal good. Checked inners all were in good shape. Driver side of axle toob was full of junk and not clear and clean as other side of diff. Going to clean it out and replace the bearing and seal. Would a bad seal be the cause of this since it is on one side, seal did not look so bad. Have an ok picture to show what I am describing.

[Ironangel]

Running and/or sitting long periods of time with low gear lube will cause those bearings and seals to dry up and go bad. A full diff housing allows for the lube to partially fill each axle tube with gear lube before reaching the bottom of the fill hole. It's important to be on a level surface when you check or fill the diff so both those bearings get lubed. It's also important to check the vent making sure it's open and not clogged. You can see in the pic that that bearing was dry, "bad juju!"

[PaPaStewySnipes]

Vent was clogged and I went ahead and replaced bearing and seal on drivers side. Cleaned out all the junk I could. Coming along and going to try to finish breaks today. Still need to order e brake cable and bend my rear lines.

[PaPaStewySnipes]

Put new outer bearings and seals, cleaned that junk out as good as I could, cleaned diff out with some brake cleaner and installed the axles and brake kit. Came out good. I inspected the shafts for wear where the outer bearing rides, you want to look for a groove, and if their is one you would want to replace with a repair bearing and seal combo that relocates where the bearing rides on the shaft to save your self from doing a replacement of the shaft, if there is obvious heavy wear I would replace the whole shaft and bearings. My shafts were smooth where bearing rides so I simply replaced with 16 roller bearings. Differential cover is a spectre 60769, came with bolts, finned and much thicker and larger to hold a bit more fluid. It fit well and has a drain plug if anyone is interested in replacing theirs on a leaf 12 bolt. Got off amazon on sale, I'll give it a thumbs up. I have 307 gears by off the tooth combo stamped on ring gear, included a chart below I dug up off the forums if someone else may need it for references. I saw no signs of metal flakes or wear so simply will refill with some 80/90 Lucas. Wilwood rear d154 brake kit is an easy install. Will need to buy their parking brake line or fab up a custom setup with proper clevis to mount to backing plate. The d154 ebrake rotors use a wilwood 330-9371 clevis or lokar EC-81FC style clevis. I can possible get replacement rear cables and make it work with those clevis, will update. Need to measure appropriately first. On to bending some rear lines and jumping on fixing the trans speedo leak.

[Hotrod_TX]

Any more progress on this project? Would love to see pics of the final ride height and stance.