I just had a guy quote me 8.5 hours for doing a rear-end swap on my dodge 2500 v10. Many of the guesses on how long it takes hover around 3-4 hours. Seems crazy high to me what do yall think?

 

Seems high but everyone's out to get you. Shop around. Do you mean gutting and getting new gears or swapping the whole axle assembly?

 

Swapping the whole assembly. Ok I was just making sure that I wasn't crazy. I found a guy who is looking to charge 300-400 and that seems much more realistic.

 

It would be good to see what the estimation book says for that swap job. If you call around, I'm sure you can get shops to tell you the hours estimate for them to perform the job. It does seem a bit high for a total differential swap of a like for like differential (the yokes on the front of the diff are the same and the brake lines won't snap off when loosening them, along with the U bolts being in good shape and re-usable). If not, I can understand the estimate being a bit higher. In addition, the brakes have to be bled and hopefully the rear brakes are in good shape, too.

 

I dunno what changes may have occurred with 3/4t MY's but I easily had that long into adapting a pre-'00 9.25 into a 2000 MY 1500

By the time I worked out the u-joint, parking brake cables, backing plates and tone ring plug differences it was a fair bit of work. All the differences are not insurmountable but they're not plug 'n play so they take some time.

 

I swapped my '96 Dana 60 drum brake rear out for a 2000 Dana 60 disc brake rear. The U bolts and the spring plates on the old rear were rusted out and needed to be replaced. I had to swap out the tone ring sensor for the earlier year model, so that the swap would remain plug and play. Installed the rear sway bar that I had purchased used for that rear, too. Also, installed all new brake lines and had to bleed the brakes. The job was straight forward, but I suspect that I had more than 8 hours in the job of installing it on the truck.

 

Speaking of u-bolts, make sure the tubes have not been eroded under the spring plates on your replacement rear. This is very common and a significant problem.

It kinda mostly works until you disturb the spring plates. As it is, they fill up with dirt and literally the erosion of the tube itself, so all vacant space is "filled". Once you remove the plate, clean everything up and put it back together you wind up with gaps and air space where there shouldn't be.

You can weld up and grind down a tube if it's not so bad as to be significantly structurally compromised, but it's a fair bit of work and you need to go slow to not warp the tube....or as my buddy says, "Preloaded for abuse!" (with positive camber)

I'd also drill a drain hole (centered) in your plates before putting them back on.

 

The drain hole in the mounting plates is a very good idea. After a heavy rain, I've noticed my rear end mounting plates are full of standing water.