you guys have been awesome! alot of good advice. it does have the dana 44 up front and the 9.25 in rear, so the tag under the hood reads. like i said, i dont think anything has been "upgraded" .

 

Hey guys.. Well I finally got it done.. Put the new gears in my baby and he runs and drives GREAT!! I actually have some power now.. . and i got the ball joints in with no problems.. I did have to change out the carriage too.. ok so it wasn't completly problem free but it wasnt as bad as i thought it was gonna be..hope everyone is well..

 

so did you do it all yourself or have a shop do it ? what gear ratio did you go with ?

 

I did the work myself.. Its a satisfaction thing..lol.. I went with the 4.56. Let me say it has so much more power behind it now. When I step on the gas pedal it will now squeal tires instead of chug a lugin.

 

You replaced both rings and pinions yourself? Really? Did you check the gear mesh (contact pattern) and shim properly? What did you use to get the carriers out?

 

and what size tire do you have now? what did you have before?

 

I can't wait to hear her answers to my questions. I have a feeling her satisfaction may be short lived.

 

I took the bolts out, and as silly as this may sound i took the front one by knocking it out and used my fingers for the other. then put the new ones back in. As far as tires size goes, I had 265/75R16 and replaced them with 37x13.50x16. ok ok if my satisfaction is going to be short lived then its mine to short live. I did take it to a shop and have it looked at after the job was done, turns out I did everything the way it should have been done.

 

Turns out you didn't. Pinions and ring gears are matched sets. You can't just replace a ring gear and go on your merry way, and if you replaced the pinion gear and did not set the backlash and contact pattern correctly, that axle is a grenade waiting to go off. Before you accuse me of being a sexist pig and only going off on you because you're a woman, anyone that has been here awhile will tell you I have made this same argument to almost anyone that thinks they can do axle gearing on their own without ever having done it or knowing what's involved. Some things are simply not suited to DIY and if you are clueless about axle gears then that's something you should let someone who knows what they're doing handle. It is a lot more than just taking out one gear and replacing it with another. There are people who seek out and listen to advice and there are people who think they know it all. The latter often find things cost more when you live that way.

 

I have also read on multiple forums and talked to some vetran mechanics who wont do gears because they are one of those things that you have to set up right and be shown how to do right... if not it will work ok in the beginning but your gears will get chewed up or grenade fast on you....
I just paid like $800 a couple months ago to have my rear end rebuild because things werent done right by whoever changed the gears to 4.56 (only time I took my truck to someone else to work on besides myself so far)...It was done before i bought the truck but the po thought they were stock gears so im assuming the owner before him did it so who knows....
Just saying bottom line while I think Miami son could have relayed his message without coming off so cranky about it (He deals witha lot of crap here and that wears at ones nerves fast so I sympathize) Hes right some things are tricky to do right and easy to do wrong..this is one. I myself wouldnt attempt doing them unless I had someone experienced to oversee and help.