my biggest problem yet, anyone else run into this?

this is really pissing me off! I got the old pinion bearings out in one piece, ground out the center to make them slip off for setting up the new gears and locker. put the new races in the housing, old bearings slipped on the new pinion in the housing. new ring gear and side bearings on the Zip locker and found out they will not fit in the housing. You can see in the picture that the 5.29 gears sit almost 1/2 inch taller! All my parts were from Trail-gear as well as the assembled front hi pinion Zip locker with 5.29s. I rechecked all the part numbers to make sure I got what I ordered and that they were listed for my 1995 v-6 rear end.


Does anyone know what the punch line is to this joke? do I need a different locker or a different gear set?

 

PM Zuk...

 

Is your original diff a factory 4.88? I believe those had an offset pinion and a thin ring gear. Definitely ping Zuk and get his input. You might need a different housing, but Zuk will know for sure.

 

Yes Cory, I just counted teeth and it's a 4.88 I sure wish something on the Trailgear site would mention something like that! It's enough to piss off the pope! especially since I'm in Alaska and can't just go around the corner to get parts. My lift, rear bumper, high pinion front, rear locker, ring gears and setup kit all came through a distributor in Anchorage about a 6 hour round trip from here. It's also been taking a couple of weeks to order stuff in since I'm too cheap to pay shipping.

 

I'm on my phone or else i would try to find some info for you. I thought i read somewhere on gearinstalls.com that you just need the right bearings to regear the factory 4.88, but i dont want to get your hopes up. Browse Zuks site, pm him, or email him, he knows the answer for sure. Either way i guess you have to wait for parts. Best of luck.

 

I sent a PM to Zuk yesterday

 

I still haven't heard from Zuk, but what I have found from Trail-gear is that my stock gear ratio of 4.88 is very rare in north America and that the pinion is offset with a thinner ring gear just like coryc85 mentioned. They are willing to cut me a deal on a new housing, but I bought parts planning to build it myself and save a few bucks. That savings is gone and I should have bought it pre-assembled with a warrantee. I sure wish their website had mentioned that not all 8 inch v-6 housings are created equal and none of their 5.29 ring and pinion sets will work in the 4.88 housing. I'm ready to eat nails and s#!t cadillacs!

 

Sucks you didn't do your research. Check out erikBs site or the faqs page.

http://home.4x4wire.com/erik/diffs/
https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f116/rearend-swap-194364/index2.html#post51260014

Cool, you got a deal on housing.

 

It sucks that I did tons of research and didn't run across this pearl of wisdom. with thousands of posts to search it is difficult to find this information even when you know what to search for. thanks for the links.

 

That is a crap shoot. I knew they existed but don't think I'd seen the difference to compare. Thanks for the pics.

Guess I shouldn't mention the video comparing Yukon Zip to ARB.

 

sucks that the company he bought the parts from didn't ask the right questions.

i'd be looking for another tg parts distributor.

 

You did notice I'm in Alaska right? I'd have to check again to be sure, but I think the choices are rather limited.

 

Well, one consolation is that you can put your factory 4.88 3rd back together and sell it in the classifieds and make back a little bit of your money.

 

Go buy a V6 3rd for 50 bucks from a wrecker or Craigslist and installs your setup into that instead. The factory 4.88 is so rare and your new gear set works in all of the other V6 diffs. Most people don't have your problem because finding a 4.88 factory diff is nearly impossible anymore. Put it all back together and you can sell it for 3-400 bucks.

 

Greentree Fab in Anchorage where I got all my trail-gear stuff has offered to give me a used housing, it's much appreciated. I can't resell the 4.88 housing as a working diff. the first thing I did when I tore it down was remove the pinion bearings and ream them out slightly until they were a slip-on fit so I could use them for setup on the new gears. that was before I realized there was an issue. also not much market around here and I doubt anyone wants to pay shipping from Alaska when they can go with a standard housing much easier.

 

That's cool the TG dealer is working with you. Really if you did an SAS and gear swap and this is the biggest set back. You did better than me. Looking forward to seeing your rig complete. Hope to someday to get up to your part of the country. Wife says only to visit not to live, well not if I get my way

 

it sure wasn't the only setback, I found out my front axle was older than what I thought and the bolt holes for the new vented rotors needed to be drilled and tapped for larger bolts, then the bolt heads (after market generic from the parts store) ground down to a smaller size so I could get a socket on them. that burned up most of a day, but it's all together and nothing else appeared different.

 

I saw pics on your build thread, looks good. Didn't see shock hangar. Did you go hoop brackets, ford towers, or homebrew?

 

The trail-gear lift comes with hoops for the front that I am still mocking up, the rear will be a homebuilt cross-member.

 

I pieced mine together. Used to wheel a lot of off chamber trails so wanted lower lift. I achieved that but have little up travel. I pushed the hoops up as high as possible about 3/8" from fender well. Need to replace shocks with some longer ones, can run 19.5", but currently have 17" shocks.

was in 4wd parts in San Antonio buddy took me into shop to show me an SAS they were redoing for a customer. Story was another shop SAS'd his yota. Other shop used standard style hangar in front but for the rear spring mount had used a rear suspension front hangar. So spring had no shackle just hard mounts to frame front and rear. Only flex rig had was tire sidewall flex. Really wish I'd snapped a picture, you'd get a good laugh.