bye 8.6" axle, hello 10.5" axle

[gottaswapup]

Finally time to start living up to my name, I'm swapping up to a better rear axle assembly. The truck is an '06 Sierra 1500 WT, 2wd, std. cab, long box. It has a 4.3L V6, 4L60E, and 3.23:1 10-bolt. It has stock steel 17" 6-lug wheels on 10-ply LT245/70R17E tires. It is for vacation use. It does okay hauling the 16-foot camper trailer, but we also have a slide-in camper, the kind with a bed above the cab of the pickup. This past summer I loaded that, and drove it 8 miles to the scales. 7,400# is 1,200# too heavy, but the 2500s were rated to 7,700#, so I knew what to do. No, not trade trucks. Especially since having the camper on there had no effect at all on the front ride height. I measured and re-measured.
So yesterday I got a 14-bolt rear axle assembly from my local branch of LKQ Home, for $500. It has 84,000 miles on it. For $100 more, I coulda gotten one with 75,000 miles. I chose 4.10:1 gearing, since they weren't listing any with 4.56:1 gears. I was expecting the 8-lug pattern, but wasn't sure about the brakes. I got discs, but my truck came with drums. The axle is from an '03, so I'm expecting the spring pads and shock mounts to be in the correct places, and the overall width to be very similar to the 10-bolt.
The reason for this thread is to detail how I resolve the issues of different bolt patterns, and different brakes. I expect to finish this thread by July 4, 2010.