1500 rear axle swap

RussellSeichepine85 · September 28, 2019

Hi there I have 2006 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 ex cab 2wd 5.3 v8 and I'm having problem this the rear axle its gu5 g80 drum brakes its make noise when I give it gas around 25 to 35mph and then goes away so I'm trying find answer on swap it out with higher gear ratio and update to disc brake and I found a 08 chevy Silverado gt4 g80 with disc brake and want know if it will work and etc I know you have tune the computer of the gear ratio etc can anyone help me out on what axle will work for my truck? Thank you

swathdiver · September 28, 2019

I believe the track is about an inch wider on the GMT900s so the donor you mention would be a little wider.

RussellSeichepine85 · September 28, 2019

So should stay around 99 to 2006 years then?

davester · September 28, 2019

or early '07. GM/Chevy switched to GMT900 models mid-year.

RussellSeichepine85 · September 29, 2019

So any 2wd or 4x4 axle from 99 to 07 will work? How do you know what channel you have on abs?

CamGTP · September 29, 2019

Yeah it could be a 2WD or 4WD.

There is no ABS plug in on the rear axle, not that I remember anyway.

SierraHD17 · September 29, 2019

Gmt800 rear ends don't have anything abs on them. It wasn't until the 900 series trucks that they started with rear wheel speed sensors. You can put the rear end out of an 88 to 98 4x4 in a gmt800 truck if you want to move the spring perches.. did that with a buddies truck because he wanted to run a 9.5" 14 bolt.

RussellSeichepine85 · September 30, 2019

So if the truck has drum like the its does I can upgrade to disc axle without any problem from 99 to 2007 2wd or 4x4 right? And let say I cant find one but find a diff that 3.73 can I just drop it in the old drum axle? And a guy told me that drum to disc will not work bc of braking system is that true I have look under my truch seen just one line going to the back and strip into 2 on the axle

davester · September 30, 2019

Don't know what mods might be required for swapping from drum to disc. Might need a different master cylinder for the disc brake, ABS setup might be different, emergency brakes might need different cables/setup. And you also want a 1500 axle, as the 2500/3500 axles are different as well (at least bolt pattern for wheels, but could have other differences as well).