The d70 in the truck is in need of another rebuild. there is a little over 300k on the truck. PO had records of the rear being done in the past. I have seen where someone here did a dodge d80 transplant. are my d70 and a 2nd gen d80 easily interchangeable?

 

I put a Dana 80 in mine 4 or 5 years ago. It was a weekend job, plus a day for the drive shaft mods. They are slightly wider and larger in diameter so the mounts need to be slightly modified. E brake cables were easily spliced.

 

I just COMPLETELY rebuilt a D80 out of a 96 3500. It fit right in to my 93 W350 with only modding the shock hangers and shortening the drive shaft 2". I haven't yet hooked up the e-brake cables. My test run was a 275 mile trip home and I have put about 200 more on it sense. Depending what truck you have is what depends on what year and model you get a D80 out of.

 

I'm in the process of doing this myself and had a question on the e-brake cables. Can I re-use the 70's cables coming out the inside of the backing plate to junction of main cable at left framerail on the Dana 80 rear? You can just use the 70's u-bolts on the 80, but where is the best place to buy a set or should I just have a spring shop make me new ones using an old u-bolt as an example? Thanks.

 

If you have the ability to work steel, I just made a new top of spring plate, drilled holes for the u bolts and the spring center pin, then get new u bolts that have the nuts pointing up, I always hated the stock set up with the nuts on the bottom in harms way.

For the parking break I used the 1st gen cables (new from Rock auto cheap!!) drilled a hole in the backing plate so it fed in from the front, pressed the pin that holds the parking brake actuator out and turned it around, there is also a bit of hammer work involved to make it fit the opposite position, but it will work. You have to move the paking brake actuator plate from the rear position to the front, I do not know if you can just buy one somewhere or what will fit if you do not modify the D80 piece.

 

The e-brake hole where the cables go into the backing plates are larger on the D80 and wont work. I'm in the process now of finding out what year truck to get a new D80 set from. They are not sold by length but, by year, make, and wheel base.As for the u-bolts I would NEVER reuse old ones. You should up grade to 5/8 also at this time, our trucks came stock with 9/16, and have a spring shop make you a set. The length is going to be different. You are going from a 3" tube to a 4" tube. I set the rear under the truck and took a measurement. I "think" it was 2" longer for each thread but, I'm not 100% sure. Also you are going to have to have your drive shaft shortened, mine had to be 2" shorter.

 

As far as the spring mounting plates that are located on the bottom of the factory Dana 70 what would be the best to use when installing a Dana 80? I just looked today and you obviously can't reuse the stock 70 mounting plates because of the difference in 3" to 4" axle tube diameters. Should I just use a set of 2nd GEN lower mounting plates and get new u-bolts bent to match and then install the 80 in place? Do 94-02 trucks use 5/8 size u-bolts? Still not sure how I'm going to mount shocks to it as I don't have a welder or a torch.

 

I'm also looking for information on the Dana 80 swap. I have a '98 club cab dually parts truck that I was thinking of using the rear end in my '92 W250. Does anybody know the different widths of the various 2nd Dana 80's compared to the SRW 1st gen? I can deal with the spring saddles and such, but if it's ridiculously wide, I will have to sell or trade for a SRW Dana 80.

Anybody taken these measurements before?

 

Found this thread in a search, so I dug it up . I might be doing a d80 swap into my w350 drw, the d80 im looking at has 3.55 gears. I think mine is a 3.54. Would there be a big enough difference to hurt anything? Or will it work ok? thanks

 

the difference is so little it won't matter.

 

I have been searching to do this swap when I find a W350, does anybody have pictures of their swap? I was hoping to see how to do this.

 

Old thread I know, these are dims I personally measured:
2000-2002 disc brake SRW Dana 80 (hybrid) from 2500 manual trans trucks are ~71.625" WMS to WMS, and so are the 2000-2002 disc Dana 70 behind autos.

Dana 80 DRW from 3500 pickups are around 72 3/4 WMS to WMS regardless of drum or disc

I haven't measured these, but I've read that DRW 80 C&C chassis are ~68" (don't need to fit 48" plywood between the wheels on a flatbed)