I'll have to do this in phases because it will only let me attach 10 files at a time.
In response to this thread I posted:
www.gmfullsize.com
The idea is to do a solid axle conversion on my 2001 Tahoe. We use the Tahoe for dirt road camping, It needed new tires, and we wanted to go with bigger tires. And bigger tires means a little lift too.
The victim:
I found an axle that seemed to be a good enough candidate. An 8 lug Dana 44 from a '90s dodge, it was for sale for $100, but the guy kept jerking me around on when he would be available, and to apologize he gave it to me for $50.
I knew the outers were different than the standard Dana 44s. This one had a broken u-joint which i didn't care. I originally planned to cut off the inner Cs and weld on standard Dana 44 inner Cs. And then use standard D44 outers so that was no problem.
I picked it up and brought it home and as I stared at it in the driveway i though "hey, that looks similar to the chevy unit bearing..."
So I grabbed my trusty harbor freight digital caliper, and started measuring. And every single measurement kept coming out to within a couple of thousandths here or there. The mounting bolt spacing, the diameter where it slides into the knuckle, the distance from mounting flange to u-Joint...all of it. They both use the same 33spline axle, with the same diameter shoulder at the base of the splines. The Chevy's shoulder is a touch taller so the hub is machined about 0.100" deeper for the shoulder. So the dodge axle fits the chevy, But the Chevy axle in the dodge doesn't quite bottom out.
Next came getting some hubs and actually trying it. It totally worked
So at this point I'm all in on seeing how easy this will actually be.
So I head to the Junkyard, with a tape measure. And it looks like the dodge frame rails are 1/2" wider than the Chevy at the coil spring mounts. I planned to plate the frame after cutting off all the IFS stuff, and so that would easily make up the 1/4" per side that I needed. Plus the Dodge uses a simple shock mounting that meant one less thing to weld on the frame.
But junkyards won't let you bring in anything that throws sparks, so using my cordless grinder to cut off the dodge coil mounts was nixxed before I got through the door. That only left my Sawzall. the only way to use a sawzall was to cut the whole frame all the way through, and take those chunks home to cut the brackets off. It took a couple hours and I destroyed the front half of that truck lol.
The Idea was to use chevy 6 lug brake rotors, I measured, and there was no way to re-drill either the 5 lug, or 8 lug dodge ones and have it work.
But the chevy rotors have a very different offset, and 305mm diameter verses the dodge 295mm. And the dodge caliper bracket was cast into the knuckle, so spacing the caliper out to be centered on the chevy rotor wouldn't work.
But as I looked around the 2000-2001 ram D44 used a 307mm rotor, and those knuckles used a bolt-on caliper bracket.
I figured 1mm per side difference would work, and being bolt on would allow me to space out the caliper as needed using spacers. So I went to the junkyard and pulled 2000 knuckles, calipers, and brackets.
I take the factory dodge Control arm mounting holes and weld on chromoly weld washers to prevent wallowing.
I left the old ball joints in, to protect the holes, and capped off the axle tubes with expansion plugs, and vent tubes.
And then sent all the parts off to be sandblasted. I know that seems a bit premature, but I was going covid-stir crazy and the tahoe was still being driven nearly daily. So this was all i could do to keep busy
In response to this thread I posted:

Should I start an SAS build thread?
I wanted a low C.O.G. solid axle conversion on my '01 Tahoe that stayed 6 lug, retained ABS and auto 4wd. The whole "covid-can't go anywhere" thing made me want to go for it. Should i do a build thread? I started tearing it apart 2 weekends ago. Here's about as far as I've gotten doing it in...
The idea is to do a solid axle conversion on my 2001 Tahoe. We use the Tahoe for dirt road camping, It needed new tires, and we wanted to go with bigger tires. And bigger tires means a little lift too.
The victim:
I found an axle that seemed to be a good enough candidate. An 8 lug Dana 44 from a '90s dodge, it was for sale for $100, but the guy kept jerking me around on when he would be available, and to apologize he gave it to me for $50.
I knew the outers were different than the standard Dana 44s. This one had a broken u-joint which i didn't care. I originally planned to cut off the inner Cs and weld on standard Dana 44 inner Cs. And then use standard D44 outers so that was no problem.
I picked it up and brought it home and as I stared at it in the driveway i though "hey, that looks similar to the chevy unit bearing..."
So I grabbed my trusty harbor freight digital caliper, and started measuring. And every single measurement kept coming out to within a couple of thousandths here or there. The mounting bolt spacing, the diameter where it slides into the knuckle, the distance from mounting flange to u-Joint...all of it. They both use the same 33spline axle, with the same diameter shoulder at the base of the splines. The Chevy's shoulder is a touch taller so the hub is machined about 0.100" deeper for the shoulder. So the dodge axle fits the chevy, But the Chevy axle in the dodge doesn't quite bottom out.
Next came getting some hubs and actually trying it. It totally worked
So at this point I'm all in on seeing how easy this will actually be.
So I head to the Junkyard, with a tape measure. And it looks like the dodge frame rails are 1/2" wider than the Chevy at the coil spring mounts. I planned to plate the frame after cutting off all the IFS stuff, and so that would easily make up the 1/4" per side that I needed. Plus the Dodge uses a simple shock mounting that meant one less thing to weld on the frame.
But junkyards won't let you bring in anything that throws sparks, so using my cordless grinder to cut off the dodge coil mounts was nixxed before I got through the door. That only left my Sawzall. the only way to use a sawzall was to cut the whole frame all the way through, and take those chunks home to cut the brackets off. It took a couple hours and I destroyed the front half of that truck lol.
The Idea was to use chevy 6 lug brake rotors, I measured, and there was no way to re-drill either the 5 lug, or 8 lug dodge ones and have it work.
But the chevy rotors have a very different offset, and 305mm diameter verses the dodge 295mm. And the dodge caliper bracket was cast into the knuckle, so spacing the caliper out to be centered on the chevy rotor wouldn't work.
But as I looked around the 2000-2001 ram D44 used a 307mm rotor, and those knuckles used a bolt-on caliper bracket.
I figured 1mm per side difference would work, and being bolt on would allow me to space out the caliper as needed using spacers. So I went to the junkyard and pulled 2000 knuckles, calipers, and brackets.
I take the factory dodge Control arm mounting holes and weld on chromoly weld washers to prevent wallowing.
I left the old ball joints in, to protect the holes, and capped off the axle tubes with expansion plugs, and vent tubes.
And then sent all the parts off to be sandblasted. I know that seems a bit premature, but I was going covid-stir crazy and the tahoe was still being driven nearly daily. So this was all i could do to keep busy