front diff torque arm mount fabrication

[oddball101]

It's a '00 AWD 5.0 going into a '01 2wd ext cab edge. The edge doesn't have the front differential rear mount (torque arm mount) and I need to get it welded on. Can I just bolt up the front diff with the two existing mounts, drive it to the shop to weld on the third mount (without the front driveshaft attached) and then just swap the rest of the front drivetrain over?

I am thinking since it is the edge model, all I'd have to swap is the front diff, the knuckles and then the CV axles.. right?

 

[oddball101]

So many voyeurs out there but no speakers.. I suppose I'll throw up some pics to illustrate.

**Note**
These are not my pics. These are pics from various threads I have been reading and off hand I do not know who originally posted them. On that note, BIG THANKS!!

front diff in


front diff out


You can see where the rear mount for the front diff is here in the pic above and the rear torque arm in the pic below.


front diff


You can see what I am talking about by comparing the pics of the front diff placement. I want to have the front and rear drivetrain stuff installed before I before I put the 5.0 and 4r70w in.

Can anyone confirm that I can just attach the front diff "without" CV axles and knuckles on my 3.0?

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

I'm not familiar with this style front but.... if the driveshaft isn't hooked up then there isn't any torque being applied from that end, and same if you don't install the axles. However I'm not sure about how that would affect the knuckles/bearings/etc. I just pulled the axles on a fwd neon and in the book it said to use a bolt of the proper dimension in place of the axle. I couldn't see where that would do anything on that car, maybe the same can be done to your truck. Is there anything said about this in the manual?
Good luck,

Richard