[HAULIN' IT]

Ryan, Great back story on the car! There is a couple things I noticed in the last photos you posted that concern me so I thought Id take a few minutes to explain what I see. First, The in-board mounts on the axle should have the bolts parallel to the ground (like you had them on the 8.8 rear). The way the are now, all of the motion as the suspension travel happens, has to be in the front mounts...rotating the pinion toward the ground as the vehicle hits a bump & shoving it up/back on re-bound...defeating the benefit of the 4 link design of keeping the housing/pinion very close to level throughout the travel. Also the rod ends are going to try to rotate on the threads as the suspension goes through its travel in an effort to minimize the binding. If you loosen the jamb nuts, mark the tubes & ends, then move the suspension up & down...you will see this. The problem here is that it will be trying to loosen/tighten one end or the other on every bump. The bolts on the housing should be set up parallel with the front ones (from an aerial view & behind) so the bolts are "axles" for all of the rod ends.

Is that rear out of one of those early '60's stub-nose Econoline vans or something with the pinion a couple inches off to the Rt. when the wheel flanges are centered under the car? Lorne