Truck is a 77 W200 with a 90s Dana 44 front axle. I picked up a 70s Kingpin Dana 60 front axle last weekend. I have 8" suspension lift so it was previously suggested for me to cut the axle ends off, rotate the housing to get the correct pinion angle, and weld them back on. I may buy a jig and do it myself or I may look for a shop locally to do it; I haven't decided.

I'm assuming I need to use shims, at least on the passenger side, as I don't see how to rotate the housing without using shims since the passenger side leaf spring mount is part of the center section. For those of you that have already done this, how did you figure out how thick or what angle of shims to put in the front to rotate the housing to get the proper angle? I know how to set up a driveline and what angle it needs to be from setting pinion angles on rear axles in cars and reading on pirate 4X4 what the angle needs to be. Are shims with that much of an angle even available? I just don't want to buy the wrong angle shims.

Also, I'm assuming the axle I bought is currently a full time front axle as there are no lockouts on it. Can I just add manual lockouts to it?