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I made a stop at Fred's on Saturday to drop off the scales and found these guys fixin' on Paul's Dana 44, getting it ready to be swapped in the car.

Family bonding....in the best way possible!!

With enough snow to remind us of how we grew up.......except that you all have heated garages now.

We just use portable heaters there. Old school fumes and headaches. LOL

-BP

Today we finished with the bushing replacement on the rearend, and it got close to two quarts of fresh synthetic 75-90 rear diff oil and a tube of posi additive. Next week we'll make a plan and start getting after taking the old Dana 36 out.

-BP

I can almost smell the K1 burning in the heaters and the gear oil.....!!!

I bought some Harbor Freight wheel dollies to help up spin this thing around in the garage. They worked pretty well with no issues.
Before we put the car on the dollies we put it on the scales for the first time since the engine swap. In this scenario it had a full tank of gas too. The pictures with my legs in them are with me sitting in the driver's seat. The balance is pretty amazing. I can see me moving the battery from the LF to the RR eventually, but probably not until next winter.

-BP

It was 3124lbs before with almost a full tank also...

-BP

There’s a nice compartment on the right side behind the seat where the battery could fit. Interesting after the changes you made how well balanced it is. Like no A/C and the LS have to be taking weight off the front. The 44 adds a little to the back also

Today got the car up on blocks and stands. We pulled the complete exhaust off, my favorite front two bolts from the torque arm, the rear shocks, brake calipers, and sway bar end links. I think next week will likely be able to get the rest of the assembly out of the car in one unit.

-BP

At this point there is only the two batwing bolts holding the assembly in the car, and they are loose. Next weekend it will come out and we can swap anything we're going to swap before we put it back in. The Dana 44 assembly does not have ABS provisions, so whatever the piece is that holds the hubs in place is called, will likely get swapped, along with all the brake parts. We put new hubs in those too, so we know they're good to go.

-BP

The assembly is now out and on the floor. Definitely going to need the shorter driveshaft and a yoke swap. We also got the exhaust bracket moved from the old torque arm to the new shorter one that never had one.
Next will be swapping the hub mounts from the old assembly to the new one, and likely new ujoints for the current half shafts.

-BP

The assembly is now out and on the floor. Definitely going to need the shorter driveshaft and a yoke swap. We also got the exhaust bracket moved from the old torque arm to the new shorter one that never had one.
Next will be swapping the hub mounts from the old assembly to the new one, and likely new ujoints for the current half shafts.

-BP

Newbury Auto Parts swapped in four new u-joints into the original '87 half shafts, and moved the yoke and u-joint from the longer shaft to the Dana 44s shorter one. We were able to move the parts from the '87s rearend assembly over to the Dana44 to make it up to '87 specs as far as the ABS is concerned too. Basically the hub mounts. Next week will be just a couple minor tasks before we try to get it at least mounted up under the car again. A couple more sessions should get it on the road again.

- BP

Back to the weight of the car discussion. The 3124lbs that we weighed the car at initially, did not include the hitch assembly. This got added after the fact. I just looked and the hitch is about 23lbs. Making the real before weight closer to 3147 lbs. So the real weight loss from L98 to LS1 is about 60lbs. Not as much as I thought it would be, but still noticeably lighter.

-BP

You think the Dana 44 is gonna be heavier than the 36?