i am looking to swap my 7.5 out for a 8.8 with l/s and 4.10 gears out of another ranger, but the ? is i think i have 9" drums but can i get an axle with 10" without causing any problems. i have the stock 15" steelies if that matters. i am going to pull the drums tonight if i get time just to double check the size

 

I don't see there being a problem with the larger brakes. I'm pretty sure the master cylinder is the same regardless of the axle. I know that the rims will clear the drums so that's not an issue. You'll just have a stronger axle with better brakes.

 

it will go right in, your rims will also be fine.

check out my SAS thread, i just put one in my truck.

 

You'll have to swap ebrake cables if you want to keep your ebrake... which means taking apart one side of your 7.5 and one side of your 8.8.... the cables are different... the 8.8 is a bigger cable

 

umm, no..

my truck came with a 7.5 in it and i just swapped in an 8.8 with no problems.
i used my old ebrake cables and the hardlines for the brakes.

i also went from the 9" drum to the 10" drum when i did the swap.

 

Hmm... maybe it was just my truck then... I went from a 2000 7.5 axle to a 2002 fx4 axle... The e-brake cable was bigger on the 02 axle... I had to swap them out... Not a hard task, but still I had to swap them out...

 

Probably because the 2002 FX4 axle was a little different than a standard Ranger 8.8. The 2002 FX4 axle was the 31 spline as far as I know. And any other Ranger 8.8 is just 28 splines. So a little bit different. Oh by the way, 2003 and up FX4 Level 2 had the 31 spline axle as well.

 

thanks guys, thats just what i needed to know. Now its just getting the money together, that is unless anyone wants to donate to my swap