Drivetrain advice for engine swap

Yes all 8 ¾ are the odd bolt pattern. Axles have gone way up to 300 bucks.
Looks like good bearings will run you another 100.
And if you don’t do the axel change, you get stuck with the skinny obsolete brake shoes.

I’ll try and get my 8 ¼ swap pictures scanned into digital this weekend and send it to you
When I documented it years ago all I had was 35mm camera.
I was going to send it in to Mopar Muscle but never got around to it.
It is a good swap. You get the large bolt pattern and a rear that actually fits the car.
Junkyards should be cheap. I used a donor cop car for my engine, trans and rear.
So I had it already.
Just hit the welds of the perches with a high speed and then air chisel the things off. Then re-use them.
I show the tools to use in the pictures and how I set the pinion angle. That information is in the Sheppard chassis manual. But I think you could just use the original locations for that. Just move them out to the correct width for an A-Body. I actually put the rear up on the springs and tacked the perches in position. I used the car as a jig.
Then took it out and welded down to get a good weld.
I used a wire feed. You don’t need a lot of heavy stuff.
I think a Diplomat is an M body? And an F body is the same width flange to flange.
But I’m not sure off hand.
I run 15 inch tires too.