LUVTruck.com

My axle on my 76' rwd Luv has had it, I was going to replace it with another Luv axle but my uncle recommends finding a rwd S10 and swapping that axle into my Luv. Has anyone done this? Is it a good thing to do??

_________________
Shawn
'76 Luv Isuzu
'74 Luv 350

That's a good way to deal with it. You can find one that has a little taller ratio gearing so the motor will be better suited for the hwy. Also replacement parts are more readily available for the S-10 axle. If you upgrade to a bigger motor later on, The S-10 axle will suit it just fine. The swap itself is pretty straight forward. Getting line fittings adapted isnt hard to do. The bigger situation is having a driveline built to fit the new assy. The difference in width isn't worth deaking with. Who knows, you might like the wider stance overall.

_________________
Previous setup: 4.1 Buick V-6/TH 350
Current setup: 400 Small Block Chevy V-8/TH 350
9" ford rear end/short bed/blue
What do Water, Electricity and Humans have in common... They all travel the path of least resistance.

sorry to thread jump.....but when you refer to taller gear ratios, what are you refering to, I know the stock LUV rearend is like a 4:10. doesnt' taller gears also increase mileage?

_________________
If everybody grows up with high self-esteem, who is going to dance in our strip clubs?
What's going to happen to our porno industry?
These women don't just grown on trees.

Yes, taller gears increase mileage. Taller gears are lower numbered ratios. The stock Luv gears are shorter ratio/ higher numbers. I have a Ford 9" axle setup with 2.75 gears (taller gears/ lower numbered ratio)
Stock Luv axle with 4.10 or 4.56 gears( shorter gears/higher numbered ratio)
Going with taller gears will affect acceleration but the trade off is that it will keep pace with traffic at a lower r.p.m. on the hwy.

_________________
Previous setup: 4.1 Buick V-6/TH 350
Current setup: 400 Small Block Chevy V-8/TH 350
9" ford rear end/short bed/blue
What do Water, Electricity and Humans have in common... They all travel the path of least resistance.

Sorry Blue Meanie, had to clean up the multiple posts!!!
Guess I should have checked this post sooner!!! Tilted

_________________
Previous setup: 4.1 Buick V-6/TH 350
Current setup: 400 Small Block Chevy V-8/TH 350
9" ford rear end/short bed/blue
What do Water, Electricity and Humans have in common... They all travel the path of least resistance.

Holy 7 posts Batman!!!!!

HAHA!
did you have a finger spasm when hitting the submit button?

_________________
03Cobra

I am very adamant about getting a correct axle upgrade and i WILL be heard!!
Honestly though, i kept getting an error message when i was trying to post the reply. I assumed that it didn't post so i kept trying. It loaded 7 times so the info must be correct, right?

_________________
Previous setup: 4.1 Buick V-6/TH 350
Current setup: 400 Small Block Chevy V-8/TH 350
9" ford rear end/short bed/blue
What do Water, Electricity and Humans have in common... They all travel the path of least resistance.

I need to do an axle upgrade to mine as well, but I've heard a lot about the ford 9 inch rear end.. Will the S-10 rear axle hold up to rough handling with a 350 sbc? One post will be fine..

depends on which one you get.... the safe answer is that its best if you bone up and just get a 9" as it will be bullit proof but if your adimant about getting an s-10 rear axle know that most s-10s have a 7-1/2 and 7-5/8 rear end. This is the same rear end put int he modern lt1 and ls1 f-body cars. But theya re known to break with abuse....so be leary...

A few s-10s came with the GM 8.5" rear axle. actually an s-10 owner had to order just the right powertrain components to get this axle and most dont even know they have one. But if you can find an s-10 from the 98+ vintage that had the L35 HO 4.3L v6 with the 5spd manual tranny it will have the 8.5 in it. The easy way to ID one is that the 8.5's pumpkin is round where the 7-5/8" is very much oval in shape.

the 8.5 should handle quite a bit of abuse, probably whatever a mild 350 could toss at it but the safe answer is to shell out the cabbage for the ford 9" as it will be virtually indestrustable...

clear as mud?

_________________
I TOOK UR MOM DRAGGIN LAST NIGHT
Bagged 84 Pup
Bagged 53 F100
stock 72 Citroen DS19

Actually it was great, though I am curious how you narrow an axle from a 9 inch ford? Or rather, who do you get to do it, a machinist shop? Any clue as to how much that is?"

Is there any axle with taller gears that can just bolt in, with no fabbing, or low cost fabbing?

my friend has a luv too and he bought a early model jimmy/blazer/s10 10 bolt rear end that had 4.11 gears(cuz it was a 4x4 model) and it has limited slip. this rear end went under his 81 luv 4x4 2wd conversion truck in 2 hours. the leaf spring seats are the same width on the s10 axle as the luv.

another thing about those s10 rears. they have a 7.5 inch ring geaqr which makes them sort of weak whn you have power on em. another thing, s10 rear end has a lowers ration of 2.73. im guess if you had this kinda ratios youd have really goo top end and sm pretty good MPG.

This is quote I found on the net about the 7 1/2 rearend.FYI
I have a 1989 28 spline S-10 rearend under mine.



10-Bolt Update:

I had a conversation with Richmond engineers a few months ago on the reliability of their 7.5" ring & pinion. I wanted to know if it could hold up to 400 horsepower and they said, essentially, no. Actually, they said that 400 horsepower was "pushing it", but that a stud girdle would help greatly in preserving gear life. Richmond claims that the biggest flaw with the 10-bolt design is the flexibility of the case. When under heavy load, the pinion walks up the ring gear face, and forces the case apart. This totally throws off the gear alignment which causes premature gear failure. The key, according to Richmond, is to maintain alignment by increasing case rigidity. They claim that a stud girdle, like the one offered by Summit Racing equipment <http://www.summitracing.com>, or the TA Performance piece offered by Fast Toys <http://www.fasttoys.net>, will "essentially double" the gear life of a differential used under high load conditions. A stud girdle is a very stiff cast aluminum differential cover, with studs that extend to the load bearing caps. It ties the rear of the case to the bearing cap surface, greatly increasing rigidity.
In any event, Richmond said that the useful power range of a 10-bolt stops at 400 horsepower. Further conversations with Steve Spohn <http://www.spohn.net> along with Phillip Reddy <http://www.fasttoys.net> concur with this assessment. They have both experienced failures when power increased above 350 HP, especially under launch with a modified suspension and drag racing slicks.

not all are 7.5 - 7-5/8

read my post above

_________________
I TOOK UR MOM DRAGGIN LAST NIGHT
Bagged 84 Pup
Bagged 53 F100
stock 72 Citroen DS19

we use the Extreme rear end on our luv

_________________
PSN=Big Bad Barstow
NCRW Gaming Clan
My FaceBook

might want to take a look at a toyota rear end from a 4x4. 6 lug and about the correct width(55" 79-85, 58" '86-95), and they have an 8" ring gear(if you pull a third member from a V6 pickup, it's even stronger) that can take at least 250hp

only problem is that they're sprung over from the factory, but you can change that with some welding