Sounds great, keep us posted.


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Suggestion,

Make sever blank posts so that your entire build can be on the front page...

 

Nice! Looking forward to seeing how this goes for you. I'm pretty sure this will be in my future as well. :cheers:

 

Here are some more pictures showing the 8.2" going in and finished assembly.

 

You can see that the truck has a bit of rake at the moment. These aren't the best pictures and I will try to take some more today but I hope that with the combination of the springs settling a bit and the addition of a 1/4" Wheeler's spacer up front, I should get a little more of an even stance.

 

Rear end cleaned, painted, and ready for install.

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Swap is Complete!!!! Earlier posts updated with pictures and info!:bigthumb:

 

Nice setup, Thanks for posting and Good Luck with it. BTW, How much did the 8.2 diff set you back?:cheers:

 

I was lucky enough to have a business partner(dockbox) who was upgrading to a hi9, Omegas, and a MT long travel rear end. Aside from the Icon coils, all of this stuff is low mileage take offs from his 2011. This swap basically cost me the price of the gear oil, and axel seal, and the Icon coils... so maybe $300? I haven't seen to many 8.2s up for sale yet so I'm not sure what the market price is for them. I think they are about $3-4K from the dealer but not positive. I am also running the t-case from his 2011 due to an unfortunate incident at Barnwell.

 

Sweet, Very good deal. It's good to have friends.:rofl:

 

I'm curious, what does the 8.2 give you more than the original ? Honest noob question.

 

The 8" Rear ends, especially the early builds are prone to breakage. The ring and pinion just don't seem to be able to withstand the torque and horsepower of the engine. This seems to be the case more with those who use their vehicle in off pavement situations vs the daily driver. The 8.2" was added to the 2010+ models to correct this issue and give the FJC a sturdier platform. Some people with the 8" have never had an issue, myself included, but others have replaced the ring and pinion three and four times. I had the option to upgrade for relatively little cost so I jumped on the opportunity. For me this was just a pro active move since it seems to be one of the last things in my drivetrain that I haven't broken.

 

So from the pictures it looks like you swapped over the complete assembly with the axle housing and everything. Is it not possible to squeeze the 8.2 3rd member into the older housing?

 

To the best of my knowledge it is not possible. The whole housing has to be replaced. The way I understand it is the 8.2" third member is larger than the 8" and it will not fit. I also think that the 8.2" has an extra brace on the third member that causes fitment issues. This is just my understanding and by no means gospel. I have never opened one up to determine the actual difference myself. If someone else with more hands on knowledge wants to chime in to agree or correct my ignorance please do.


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The Swap is Complete! Yesterday morning we started the process of swapping out my 2007 8" rear end for a 2011 8.2". In the process we also added some Metal Tech extended brake lines, Icon 3" Overland series coil springs, and some Icon 2.5 piggybacks. The 8.2" rear end that I used did not come with axles so we had to reuse the axles from the 8". The whole operation took about 6 hours and aside from a blown axle seal it was all just a plug and play operation. I test drove it yesterday and this morning for about 30 miles and everything works just as it should. A few added perks from this operation is that it has totally cleared up the thud/bump at start and stop as well as some other not so pleasant noises. The rear end sits a bit higher than the front now due to the coils but other than that I couldn't be happier with this set up.

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One of the more aggravating parts of this process I'm told is disconnecting/reconnecting the e-brake. Since we were reusing the axles we decided to keep the e-brake connected and just disconnect the cable mounts to give us enough room to remove the axles and set them off to the side until we needed them for install.
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More pics below

You said: (((reuse the axles from the 8")))
I am talking about the Axel Shaft, Is it the same! 8.0 vs 8.2
I am know, wsipping my old 8.0 to 8.2like you.

And my old shaft better than the one in 8.2, I just wanna make sure ?