Welded rearend

[bobracing]

After my Lock-wrong experience, I didn't want to go that direction again so I welded the GM 9.5 that is sitting in the Blazer now. Welding the spiders is not the best mod but not near the worst either. Offroad it works great and surprisingly driving down the highway I really like it too but in town it really brings the suck. For an off-road only rig, this is a great cheap modification.

So after looking around the GM 9.5 has very little support besides Eaton, so you get to pay for the big names Detriot, True-Trac, E-locker. After some searching, found a place overstockdiffparts.com where they were selling a GM9.5 E-locker for 100 less than anyone else. Turns out it's Randy's ring&pinion, guess it's their "dump" site. To my surprise they also gave free shipping.

Monday afternoon I order (about 4:30) and by Wed. at 5 this is on the porch.

[79chevy39.5's]

i take it you only stayed 9.5 to keep six lug?

[bobracing]

I did upgrade from a 12B to the 9.5 and yes, the 6 lugs had a lot to do with it. Another is width, matches the front better doesn't have that narrow rearend look now, seems to track a little better too. Then the physical size, don't need a plow to run 35s. The 9.5 is plenty strong for what I intend to do with it, street, snow, & mild trail.

[bobracing]

Well it's only been a month, but finally got a weekend off to hide in East Pasco.



Looks like it was good idea to change it out anyways.


A few things to remember, the instruction say drill a hole in the left front. Ummm, no, drill it in the left top, this way you can actually get the wires in the hole and the anti-rotation bracket will fit correctly. The other problem, the anti-rotation bracket was missing, so I got to make one.




I checked the backlash before and after, it was about the same, within spec and the Azer made it home 20 miles last night, must be sorta close. The GM 9.5 has a threaded thrust washer for pre-load which is nice too.

[79chevy39.5's]

nice ive often considered the elockers as i think one could be trail fixed easier than arb, and they seem to be cheaper than OX (my personal favorite except the price tag) but currently have zero selectable lockers in my stable (have both welded and auto (lockrite and spartan)) I have to think my next purchase on the locker front will be a elocker for my dana 60

[bobracing]

Problem with the e-locker is they don't support it over "stock" tires. Got to looking and the H2 came stock with this axle and used the metric 34+ish tire. Figure that tire was close enough to a 35 I won't have any problems. Something look out for if going that route.

At this time I'm going with Zip locker for the Jeep when it comes time for that rig.