Curing the Ills of an 88.....

[MississippiSlim]

So every one knows the locker system is different on an 88 (and 89 right?) And I have already had to scavenge junkyards to find a replacement for one of mine. I know they make a conversion kit (pricey, though). My question is, if you had a donor vehicle (read FREE) from another year, why coulnt you swap the front ends?? Would this be extremely difficult? Would it work without alot of other mods?????? Anyway, just a question!

 

[Yardape]

HUH?

 

[MississippiSlim]

The Locker/hub mechanism on 88's (and maybe 87's?) are different design, can't just replace with a warn locker. It is a tophat locking thing anyway, they arent interchangeable and they **** IMO. A conversion kit so you can swap to warns is like 600$ If you had a front end (whole TTB setup from another year) Why couldnt you just swap it out?

 

[MississippiSlim]

I see the "Front end" term might be the confusion...I dont mean the body I mean the running gear....

 

[Yardape]

I had no idea they were different, are you sure your not confusing auto hubs with manual?

 

[Yardape]

I have an 89 and I have the warn premiums that I had on my 90. They were not differentat all. Oh yeah and I originally got them off a 95

 

[DirtDevil]

the hubs on the 87s and some 88s are different than all other years. The top hat design instead of the normal design. Yes you could just swap out the entire front end. HOw much work, i don't know, but its doable.

 

[Yardape]

Thats interesting, I never knew that. Anyone have a picture? I am curious to see what it looks like.

 

[wtfdissux]

I have an 88 with the ***** the owner to the wall setup you are talking about (locking hubs are about 800)

they were late 87 thru mid 88 only thank god

all you need to do is find a donor you will need both front axles knuckle spindlerotor manual hubs and all bearings and seals it took me about 2 hours in the cold to do it and is not hard at all the local 4x4 junkyard charges me 200 for the whole front end including all above plus the d44 rad arms and ttb

 

[KJEfting]

I think you threw everyone off by saying "locker" instead of "hub."

 

[Yardape]

Anyone have a picture, I want to see what you guys are talking about

 

[BLADE262US]

Very easy to do if you have complete front end . Support by the frame right at the radius arm brackets , remove radius arm nuts , 2 center axle pivot bolts , front drive shaft , coil spring retaining strap at top of spring , sway bar links and shocks and slide it out , Put the new one in the same way . /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />

 

[Yardape]

Do you actually have to go that far into it? Can't you just strip it down to the spindles and re-install the new parts?

 

[BLADE262US]

Probably could just change the steering knuckles but then could end up replaceing ball joints needing the special tools and all that if he has a complete front end from a donor truck that is in good shape then I would do it just as described if it were mine especially if on a budget . /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />

 

[wtfdissux]

blade is right yes all you need is the knukles (spidles are bolted to the knukle also the brake rotor/hub assembly and outer axle ends) but if going that far it is easier to take complete front end saves time on dissassembly and reassembly and is a better job if your doner is in good shape

or just spend 800 for the complete kit from JBG