Howdy All --- been digging through both the posts here and used parts yards for about a year now and it looks like I may have found a reasonable candidate to replace my buses dually rear axle.
Wanting to keep the original 20" wheels while having more gearing options makes it tricky, but from what I have seen and measured, a Dana 80HD just might do the trick. They came on '91 - '02 Chevy & GMC trucks and have the same 10 lug, 7-1/4" pattern as my bus but the center hole is a half-inch larger in diameter. That means boring out all my existing wheels to fit the rear, then making adapters so they will also work on the front. Not too scary and I have several spare rims, "just in case".
The newer axle is actually a 1-Ton, but is rated higher than my original. It also comes with big disk brakes, which is great, but also makes me wonder about how or if the stock disks & calipers might clear the old rims. Relocating the spring mounts seems the easiest part of the whole job but that too remains to be seen.
Size-wise, the Dana appears to be about 66-1/2" wms to wms while as near as I can tell, the stock rear end is about 66" so width should not be an issue.
These rear axles sell complete with brakes in the $1000 buck range here which seems pretty reasonable given that the Dana 80 has a solid reputation. And, they are commonly found with 4.63 gearing which would be just about a perfect match for my engine/tranny combo.
If anyone here has any wisdom, opinions or experience with this combination, I'd love to hear it before I jump off the deep end. Thanks in advance.
