blacksmithtech

As usual I am the last one to the party! - I just found Zuk's site and write ups for diff installs.

It looks like he is not taking any work right now and I was wondering if there is anyone else picking up that work? His detail is amazing and now I feel like I missed out!!

Any one else that this forum recommends? Near Illinois would be great - Thanks for the time -

Homeless dog & truck

I can do diffs but I am heading for AZ this week if you want to come to where its warm but I can tell you it really isn't that hard IF you take your time ,have a dial indicator and common sense. Try it yourself I'll coach ya if need to.

MudHippy

Like he says, get out your dial indicator, dial caliper(or micrometer), torque wrenches, and the FSM. Make yourself a little spanner tool to set your CBPL(Carrier Bearing PreLoad). And get to work. It's EASY! You CAN do it!

http://personal.utulsa.edu/~nathan-b...35differen.pdf

blacksmithtech

MudHippy - thanks for the pdf - I have the FSM and toyed with the idea of doing it myself but was stumped on how to press out the pinion cause I don't have a press (yet).

Homedog - might take you up on that offer of help - thanks!

Having never done one I am a little apprehensive but now I might try it and see.

Any other needed tools to do this?

Homeless dog & truck

You don't have to press on the pinon just the bearings but you can do that with a piece of pipe and hammer. Using the pipe as a punch over the shaft. Same with the side bearings . I did have a bearing seperator to remove the old bearings . And yes you need to make a simple spanner wrench. The biggest $$ is in a torque meter to measure the bearing preload. I have a Snap on that costs $285 I found it on ebay for $150. You can't use a torque wrench as in the clicking type. Old style torque wrench with the pointer will work but the rotateing force is only 22 INCH lbs so its a specific wrench for this. Drop a dime if need help. Homedog

muddpigg

iTrader: (1)

I haven't had good luck with "shadetree" gear installs. Everyone says the samething its so easy, yet and installer error is most common failure to a gear setup, unless you've got an extreme situation ie:Ftoy, 44" tires,.... ZUK has done 3 difs for me. Two were for simple check ups as they were set up by other guys, guys that said it was so easy. Both those difs would have had short life spans if ran due to installer erros.

Really it boils down to time and money. My free time is limited and worth the extra $200 to be done once the right way. If you have lots of time to do it over and over to get it right. Get a set of gears with unlimited warranty and have a go and hope the gears grenade before a bearing does.

just my $0.02

Blue_petersen77

i've been searching a bit around here but can't find an answer to a specific question.

i was thinking about regearing to 5.29's. i do a little mud slinging and trailing but i also thought that regearing might give my truck a little more speed per rpm on the interstate.

would bigger gears give me more speed? or would it kill my off-road capability?
eventually i plan on lifting a couple more inches and maybe SAS WAY down the road... but for now i'm just looking for more speed out of this truck without having to change too much.

eventually she's going to be a full trail rig, but for now, it's still my dd.

just baby steps lol.
if anyone has any info or pros/cons, please hook me up.


thanks guys!

MudHippy

5.29s are about as low as they come. Higher numbers equal lower gears. Lower gears will give you less wheel speed per rpm. You will gain torque output, the same as if you were to shift the transmission or transfer case into a lower gear. You can have more torque or more speed, you can't have both.

wvboy

It seems that you are looking at gearing backwards. The higher the gear number, the more RPMs you'll turn to get the same speed. With 5.29 gears. it takes 5.29 revolutions of the driveshaft to get 1 tire revolution.

I know the link is from a heep site, but its good info.

http://www.jedi.com/obiwan/jeep/misc/gearratio.html

MudHippy

Make it easy on yourself. To find out which gears will give you what speed at what rpm, use a calculator. Your 5th gear/OD ratio is .838, 4th gear is 1:1(or 1 for the purposes of the calculation). That's if you have a manual transmission, which I've assumed you do. If it's an automatic your 4th gear/OD ratio is .705, 3rd gear is 1:1(1)
http://www.richmondgear.com/streetcalculators.html

Blue_petersen77

Ok thanks! I've apparently been looking at it all bass ackwards. I'll have to re-evaluate the whole situation.

Thanks again, I knew you guys would come through

dropzone

iTrader: (6)

also check out some of Zuk's write ups at http://gearinstalls.com/

brian2sun

Lower gears will reduce your maximum top speed for each gear because your rpms will redline sooner. However, when you aren't talking about top speeds, there will be plenty of situations where you will get more speed out of lower gears. For instance, I climb a 6,000 ft. elevation in ~15 miles a few times a week. Before my gears, the road was too steep in most spots for my auto's 3rd gear to handle it and the rpms would be very high when it shifted into 2nd gear to get more power. That made me either go very slow in 3rd or make the tranny shift between 2nd and 3rd about 20 or 30 times in that 15 mile road. Lower gears made it so now my tranny's 3rd gear rpms are in-between the "old" 2nd and 3rd gears. So now the tranny can stay in 3rd the entire way up the mountain (because it has more torque behind it) and it goes up ~5-10 mph faster. My tranny isn't having to shift nearly as much now so it's not having to work as hard either.

Gears will help off road, not hurt. The thing that will suffer is your freeway cruising will be a few hundred rpms higher which may force you to drive 65 instead of 75 (depending on if you have a manual or auto, tire size, extra weight, etc..).

blacksmithtech

Thanks for the info folks - I have been camping out at that gearinstall site for hours !

etc.

It maybe because of the difference in rear ends (GM 10 bolt 8.5), but I've always been told to have a professional do it. And the people who venture off and do it themselves always comeback with regrets and a little less in there pocket.

In all seriousness, if you're installing any kind of money into this deal, find a professional to do it.

muddpigg

iTrader: (1)

That's cool it worked out for you. But facts are facts. If you got the equipment, time, and money plus can afford having your rig down. Then go for it. I don't have that luxery and as you pointed out not any shop can build Toyota gears. As for "America being dumber and dumber" speak for yourself I work in two profession and drive a beat up 4rnr cause I want to not because I have to. Some folks have to compare the cost vrs time of doing certain jobs for themselves so if you are going to have someone setup gears have the best do it not just anybody who claims to be able to setup gears.

MudHippy

Basically boils down to this:

If you've ever set gears up, then you know how stupidly simple it really is.

If you haven't, then you don't.

Those are the facts jack!

Case closed!

muddpigg

iTrader: (1)

^^Your right

So if you have the time, money, tools, and space to do it. Than rock on, no aurgument. If you don't than its cheaper to pay someone who knows what they're doing and not worry about it.

No matter how simple it is anyone who measures gear lash and bearing preload with fingers turning the pinion is not a qualified gear installer. Anyone who pays that guy to setup their gears is going to learn the hardway. So if your paying for a setup go with a reputable installer.

MudHippy

Who said anything about measuring gear lash and bearing preload with fingers turning the pinion? And BTW, yes, if you want to get a rough idea of what you're dealing with that's the way you make a preliminary check. BEFORE you go tearing the diff apart for no reason. You think ZUK's never checked for excess play in a pinion before? YEAH RIGHT!!!! You'd be wasting you're time if you didn't. It's a VERY effective way to make a health check of a differential still installed on a vehicle. In fact, it's THE ONLY way to do so.

Do you want to know who trains all those "reputable installers"? NOBODY! They learn by reading the manual and doing it. There's no special training or any minimal experience required. Get the book, get the tools, and do it! You'll be a beginner when you start you're first setup, and an EXPERT when you're through with it. It's NOT FRICKEN ROCKET SCIENCE!!!

And I can GUARANTEE you it won't cost you ANYWHERE NEAR as much money as paying someone else to. Dial indicators, dial calipers, torque wrenches, and spanner wrenches are CHEAP!!! It's called ebay or Harbor Freight.

Brenjen

I'm a fairly competent shadetree mechanic. I've built two rear diffs (Dodge), the first one I did for myself blew in a week & I do mean blew...it scattered hard & with a loud bang & one was still on the road when my friend sold his rig. It's very important to get it absolutely perfect, diffs don't have much forgiveness for sloppy work or errors like some other things do.