Replacing gear ratio, what's quicker ?

[Val]

Which is faster to replace, gears inside differential or complete rear end from another truck.

I replaced a complete front end from a damaged truck, but gear ratio is 410 while rear end is 353. I've never disassembled a differential.
I can swap complete rear end, but if it's quicker and easier I can open and swap gears.

[Lawn Cher']

If you have a helper for muscling the axles around, it is much easier to swap the entire rear end than to properly set up gears.

[w_huisman]

3.53? That sounds like an odd gear to me. Don't see it listed, but there is a 3.55. Have you looked at the RPO list in the glovebox?

[jstand]

Get a new set of u-bolts to save time and aggravation and swap out the whole rear end.

Unless there is some pressing reason (better style or design) to keep the rear end that's in the truck, swaping out the whole rear axle is a lot easier. Even alone, if you keep the tires on you can roll it around and then use a floor jack to lift it into place. I've done them alone in less than a day from start to finish. i think the toughest part is freeing up the brake lines and bleeding the brakes.

[w_huisman]

keep in mind that Val is talking about a dualie rear-end.

[Val]

Thanks guys.

Actually I am not talking GM here, I bought another truck to "play" with and it's a.....Dodge....

I just wanted an input from the pros, I can swap rear end, but I don't feel confident opening a differential.

[jstand]

Originally Posted by w_huisman

keep in mind that Val is talking about a dualie rear-end.

Oops, missed that...

It may not be a one person job (at least not an easy one), but still preferable over trying to swap gear sets.

[Semi-crazy]

There are four main things that you have to set-up with a rear end,
Pinion Depth
Backlash
Pinion Bearing Preload
Carrier Bearing Preload

It can be quite time consuming to rebuild the rear end and requires some special tools for measuring the depth and backlash as well as a press for the bearing in most cases.


The rear end in my borther in-laws ford recently blew apart so I was going to rebuild it. That is until we stopped by the junkyard yesterday and they had three Sterling/Ford 10.25 axles complete for 200 each. The gears and master install kit would have been around 350 with shipping and with the truck being an old around town thing, you can see for the quick install and money saving ability we took one of the complete axles.


Val,
what year, motor, and trans are in the dodge you talking about? For the most part it will either be a Dana 60, 70, or 80 rear end, unless it is a really old or brand new truck. Those Dana axles can be more expensive than the Sterling/Ford 10.25 and the 14 bolt in the GMs that are a "dime a dozen" because there are a lot out there.