Picked these up for the mechanic, gave him a boot in the butt last week to get on my axles. Supposed to rebuild over the next few days, we will see.


Rebuild kit for ifs

Rebuild for rear

 

When I swapped to the ZR2 axle in my 4 door Blazer, I didn't need to change anything regarding the yoke or driveshaft length. It was a perfect fit on mine, but I have read that some other ZR2 axles use a different u-joint, so you may need to change out your u-joint for one that adapts between the two.

On that same swap, I went from drums to discs in the rear, and I didn't change out any other brake components other than the park-brake cables. My experience was that braking performance was increased by the swap from drums to discs. Do be really careful to not let the brake fluid reservoir run dry or you'll lockout your brakes. You may also need to rebuild one of the brake line supports. On the ZR2 axle I used the support for the driver side brake line was part of the axle adjustment bar that I did not use.

 

This is VERY helpful info. Thanks!

 

No pics but progress. Front diff is getting put back together. Just dropped off the iron case from a good rinse at the car wash. Thinking of painting it white before it goes under. Same as the rear axle.

On to waiting a little more... faster progress when I finally get a house lol.

 

I forgot to update!

Both front diff and rear axles are together. Rear is not fully tightened, as we are transferring some parts from this one over.

Was gonna try and paint them before install, but not gonna happen lol. Hoping to get them in before the weekend of the 8th, but might be after.

Then the 4x4 axle will get rebuilt for the sonoma.

 

Good luck Don. I'm interested to see how it goes for you.

 

Thanks!

Mechanic has a hoist, so ill be able to get pics and details when done...

Holidays this weekend, so blazers getting dropped off after next Tuesday.

Gonna borrow mom's jimmy and do work on it.

 

Couple of small things to finish bolting it in, but everything is under the truck!

So the front diff is in, no alterations needed.

Rear axle is in with the yoke that came with the axle, it fixed the fact that the shaft was moved when the lift was installed.

No modifications were needed for the axle to go in!

Final up date on the zr2 swap tomorrow when I get the truck back lol


Front cast iron diff from zr2

Rear zr2 axle. Showing new wheel position.

 

So I didn't have to swap anything for the axle and diff to go in...

Having the lift, I do have to do the following:

- Install diff drop bracket, diff didn't dropped enough for the angle of the cv axles and they bind

- replace ebrake cable on drivers side. Cable gets snug when axle is flexed. Could be caused by the add a leaf with the extra 2" on the lift

I would double check with how much play you have, the yoke on the read diff is extended a little. A non lifted blazer would need to have a non balanced yoke, or the original one they had.



So much room! And no spacers!!!!!


Oh and the gears are well worth it too!!!!!

Edit:

Balance yoke

 

So did you go from 3.42 to 3.73 gears? I really noticed improved driving experience when I swapped in the ZR2 axle and went from 3.42 factory to the 3.73 gears in the ZR2 axles running 31" tires.

On that note, I'm running 32s (265/70/17) on my Sonoma now, and am kind of wishing I had 4.10 gears.
I miss the lost low end torque with the taller tires.