Hey guys, I have just started a 350 swap. I am putting in a Chevy 700r4 tranny and I want to know what rear end I should put in it. The plan is to have a sport truck, something I can drive daily but still have fun driving. Any suggestions?

 

Leave the rear end you got in it now, they are stout as hell. Another good one would be the ford explorer 8. rear but yah Ive seen 400WHP put to a stock rearend and take it like a champ. Atleast get a LSD for it though!

 

The stock 7.5 will live if you never get traction. Swapping in an 8" Toyota axle will last through a lot of abuse but will still fail eventually. If you want to get serious drop a Ford 9" in it with off the shelf narrower shafts in the correct bolt pattern.

 

I have been looking into ujoint conversions, yoke conversions. I thought about driveline splices. It all sounds very complicated and expensive. What I am looking for is the easiest, simplest and hopefully cheaper way of doing this. Could I use an s10 axle assembly to make an easy swap?

 

For the cheapest and easiest I would go with an 8.8 diff out of a gen 2 (96-2000) Ford Explorer.

http://www.toyotaminis.com/forum/suspension-chassis-40/ford-8-8-install-5308/

You'll get disk brakes, a stout diff, the same wheel lug pattern and from the look of the write-up it almost drops in.

As far as yoke and joint conversions go: just take good measurements and take them to a place that makes driveshafts and have them make it with the connections you want on them. It'll cost a little more, but will be done right and fit like it should.
As for the s-10 diff: I can't imagine it being much different from the 8.8 except the spring and shock mounts maybe being in different places requiring more fab work to move them into place. Also, the s-10 runs a 4 on 4.75 wheel lug spacing as opposed to the toyota's and ford exp 4 on 4.5, so you would have to run two different wheel patterns on the truck or convert the front ot the back to make them the same.

 

Thanks for the tip, I will go with the ford 8.8 for sure. Sounds easy and exactly what I am looking for.