Fabworx's Solid Axle Swap Kit On A 1998 Chevy Tahoe - Solid Axle Weekend

19. Though shock hoops are not included in the kit, Fabworx can bend you some hoops to weld onto your frame should you want them to.

20. Bryan and Forrest worked as a team to get the shock hoops and lower shock tabs on to allow us to run 12-inch-stroke F-O-A shocks. They covered the shocks with tape to protect them from getting scratched or spattered with weld beads.

21. Unfortunately a few things did not arrive in time for the build. One of those things happened to be the steering arm and spacer that Fabworx literally fabricated from scratch. No they do not sell these parts, and if you ask them to build you a steering arm it's going to cost you. At the same time Fabworx made and attached a draglink using '73-to-'87 draglink ends and a Superlift pitman arm at the steering box.

And since we ordered the shocks a week before our build, F-O-A couldn't build them in time for them to be ready in a week. You might notice the sweet take-off shocks that we borrowed to drive home on. Luckily, Fabworx had their own set of F-O-A shocks at the shop so we could at least fab up the correctly-sized shock brackets.

22. We got a used Ford Dana 60 front axle for $750, which is about half what they were going for a couple years ago when the economy was better. We also picked up an eight-lug 3/4-ton 14-Bolt rear end for $200. We could have modified our front axle with an aftermarket 6-lug hub kit and kept the stock rear 10-Bolt, but that would have left us with a weak C-clip rear end and would have cost more than the $950 we dropped on the two used axles. Billy helped our friend Mike sand, clean, paint, and prepare the axles to be laid under the truck. By the way, make sure you start with a 3/4-ton single-rear-wheel 14-Bolt rear end so that the spring perches match up to your rear half-ton factory setup.

23. Though the 14-Bolt fits the spring perch widths perfectly, remember to order some U-bolts ahead of time since the 14-Bolt axle tubes are a larger diameter than the original 10-Bolt's axle tubes.

24. With the rear axle in place, Forrest welded on some of their Fabworx shock tabs to the axle.

25. Forrest also made some custom upper shock tabs to locate into the original upper shock locations. He welded these brackets straight onto the frame.

26. After Fabworx finished the majority of the build and we accomplished our all-night drive back to Southern California, we still had some things to do. The rear springs weren't quite ready, so we had temporarily kept the blocks for the drive home. We would also still have to get a front driveshaft, match gear ratios, and install our shocks before the trip to Moab.

Luckily, F-O-A works fast and our online-ordered shocks were at our door the day after we got back from Fabworx. We had our 2.5 12-inch stroke smooth-body remote reservoir shocks on the truck in no time since Fabworx had already built the correct mounts for them.

27. With no knowledge of the condition (or ratio) or the gears inside the used axles when we bought them, we ordered up some 4.88:1 gears, install kits, and differential covers from G2 Gear and Axle. We likely had matching 4.10 gears in our front high-pinion Dana 60 and rear 14-Bolt, but we were going to need to regear the axles at some point to account for the 37-inch tires and we were able to pick up the gears, the install kits, and the aluminum diff covers from a local 4 Wheel Parts store that had them in stock.

28. It's a long story, but we found out that our gear guy had not started either axle three days after we had dropped off the truck (gears should only take one day to do, anyway). We won't bother to mention names, but it goes without saying that we sped over there as fast as we could, ripped the truck out of the shop's yard, and headed to some good friends at Jeeps R Us. Though this was no Jeep, we knew Larry Garcia could handle the gear swaps since he had just put the same Dana 60 and 14-Bolt package under Matilda, our giant fullsize project Cherokee.

Larry worked late that night, but he got the G2 gears and install kits into both axlehousings for us. Thanks again, LG!

29. The G2 covers really topped off the builds. They looked nice, helped with cooling, and were better-priced than a lot of aluminum diff covers we've seen.

How Did It Work Out?
We honestly couldn't be more happy with the way this truck is working. Well, that's not entirely true-we'll have to address the front ABS brake issues soon. But otherwise we're stoked at what's been turned out. Though we had to go out for some testing before the G2 gears were installed, the truck worked really well in the dirt, and the F-O-A shocks and Atlas leafs worked on the Fabworx build really well. There was a lot of flex, but no need for a sway bar as it kept fairly level through corners. Once we had the gears installed the truck really seemed to scream. The 37-inches tires and Liquid Metal wheels we got from Discount Tire didn't seem to add much drag at all with the new gear ratio.