1 hour to locate and install perches and shocks?
That is asuming that the housing is cleaned stripped sanded and D/Aed. Welding tubes to the center section is a 8.8 must. Installing new seals and bearings while you are in there?
Anyone can throw an axle conversion together, it does however take skill and know how to set pinion angles, plumb and install the new brake lines for the disc conversion, not to mention welding the perches.
When we do a an axle swap it all looks and works like brand new, not like a junk yard axle was swapped in by folks in a hurry to save a buck. 2 K is on the cheap side, but if you feel confident that they will warranty the job and make right any problems? By all means. Also if tire size is kept to 33-35" tires max and the trails are not super crazy, the d30 will live for years, making the rear 8.8 swap worth doing.
SD
Well I stated 1 hour shop labor IF he carried it in because I based this on the fact that it only took me about 20-30 mins to take measurements for a more complex install involving lower control arm brackets, upper control arm brackets, t-bar bracket and coil buckets off the old axle and translate that over to the 8.8. Pinion angle was also measured off of the old axle with a basic magnetic angle finder I got at Homedepot and since I had no vibes at my lift height with my old axle it work perfectly on the 8.8. Another 10-15 mins grinding off the old perches and shock mounts on the 8.8 (I would imagine that it would take just a few minutes for a shop with a plasma or torch cutter) so as you can see doing this swap was NOT brain surgery and even more so if it's going to be done for a basic leaf spring set up.
The list I provided were the BASICS for what is needed for a swap to be done on an 8.8. Aside from the axle that I got for about $100, EVERYTHING else was new. For my set-up, my rear disks on my D35 were new along with the brake pads and since the calibers were also in good condition I swapped it all over to the 8.8 as it was a DIRECT FIT since the 8.8 was already set-up for disks (unit from a 98 explorer. I did replace the seals and bearings, and took the axle to have the gears set up (Superior Gear brand with Timken carrier & pinion bearings) at a reputable gear shop that have done three vehicles for me so I know they do good work and it ran me $175 in labor, and that's in the SF Bay Area so I would imagine that it would probably be less expensive in other parts of the country. To sum it up, I've had this set up for almost 2 years running it hard, locked and with 35's with ZERO problems, leaks, whines, vibes or anything else so I know my swap was not done haphazardly to "save a buck" as it was so eloquently stated. I just knew what I was doing, did my research and proceed intelligently, so stating that it can be done for less than $1K is WELL within the realm of possibility. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" />
Fred R.
