Drone637 and I have discussed doing this build for quite a while, although we didn't think of using Gen 2 third. We even have a couple 9" spools for the project. Not having broke a rear axle has allowed us to keep putting it off. Now we will have to pick up a Gen 2 third.
The "windows" in the Gen1 would probably get awful thin with the bigger cross pin holes considering you have to drill them. That and the fact that they use "pins" to hold the crosspins meant more drilling into the crosspins themself.
Thanks for the information. How about a shot of the rest of your Tracker?
It's not much, but i wheel it and have beaten it up over the years. Here's a pic wheeling an obstacle last summer.
Did you look at going with cut-to-fit rear axle shafts from a Mustang? It looks like they are probably the right size to be able to avoid using a custom axle shaft.
What did your total axle length end up being?
When I say "custom" I mean I took some junkyard ford axles to a local guy and he resplined both for $100. Which is fair price I would guess, but I'm sure this service would vary from market to market. The cut-to-fit range from $180 ea axle, or I think summit has a private label for like $250 for the pair. The problem I saw was the 5x4.5 bolt pattern with the cut-to-fit. I guess you could run spacers/adapters or different wheels. I never have.
You can often get "custom" axle shaft lengths from moser, strange, or other axle suppliers. I priced strange starting at $325 (pair). The stronger the alloys the more the price.
A quick tape measure length for Overall (WMS-WMS) was 57.5"
I did wheel it harder for the first time last weekend, and rear held fine. I only managed to break some more front CVs which is common for me, and expected..... I'll probably finally start some different options on upgrading those or changing some things around up front.
