indeed you will have to grind a few teeth to get the cross pin past the ring gear.. as far as strength goes though, dont let the cruiser stuff fool ya. its tons strong..... a rear 60 series cruiser axle with a proper traction bar should handle 37-39s all day long hammering on it.. a good buddy who i helped set up the 5.29s in his hj-61 with a rear full floater rear axle has beat on his truck for years now and hasnt had a problem yet.. he just disassembled his rear diff to re-gear to 4.88s and the gears are still in ok shape.. i believe his truck weighs in at around 7000 pounds fully loaded when he goes on his expeditions... the key here is to make sure that traction bar is installed. there definitelly has been known to be a few broken cruiser pinions out there without one...
as well, you are gonna realize what a pig it is to put that cruiser drivetrain in your truck and not have it hang down a whole bunch.. the cruiser tranny and splitcase is wide and big and makes it tough to get that tucked up under those pickups... i originally tried mocking up a 3b diesel and 5speed/splitcase under my 82 pickup and without a whole pile of cutting and hacking i went with pickup stuff.. this being said i really want someone to prove me wrong and do this swap and do it well...
