I decided I'm gonna get a spool for my Dana44 rear, just need to find one a the best possible price. My axle comes from a J10 pickup, is there anything special I'm gonna need for this job? Can it be done in the parking lot?

If you get one of the mini-spools, it can be done w/o removing the carrier or re-setting up the ring and pinion. A full spool will require the r/p to be re-set up. I don't see why you wouldn't be able to do in a parking lot.

<font color=blue>pbm</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Knowledge is Power, but Ignorance isn't always Bliss!</font color=red>

I think I'd rather get a real spool, not the mini... I've heard about replacing bearings and needing shims because the spool might not be a perfect fit, is this true?

My spool didn't need to be reset. although you will need a press to get the bearings off and on the spool.
If your looking for a cheap spool, their avg of 150-200
you can get a cheaper one though, through lincoln, they can be as cheap as 10$, if you have a friend that knows how to set it up for you. Just clean your carrier out of gear oil, and weld it up. It will give you the same effect, and 1/2 the work.

JR
"Some People Live An Entire Lifetime And Wonder If They Have Ever Made A Difference, But The Marines Don't Have That Problem" R. Regan

you will need to check your backlash on your spool when it is installed you may get lucky and it will uses the shame shims as your current setip and you may not. it's just like if you put a full detroit in it... you will have to go through the setup process. i have a buddy who put a spool in the dana44 rear under his samurai and we got it from randy's r&p. it was $189 i think. it works awsome. for a trail rig it is definatly the way to go in my opinion.

brian wilson
80 cj5 "high 5"
stretched to 100" wb
vortec350/4L80E/d300/d60fr/14br/detroits/4.56/38's