Hey guys. New to the site - been here many times, but finally registered so I can ask the experts a couple questions.

First of all, I have a '93 F-150 4x4 with 3.08 gears and an open rear diff. I have a basic mechanical understanding and access to tools, and am wondering what it would take to switch the front and rear gears to 3.73's and put on a rear locker or limited slip. Is it fairly easy? Or would I be better off swapping in entire units from a salvage yard? What would an estimate of cost be?

Second question - one of the manual hubs is shot, and I see that there are a lot of rebuild kits available; how challenging is this to do?

Thanks for the help!

 

you would be better off getting a whole unit for sure for the rear. the front id pay somebody to put it in

 

I would see about finding the axles with gears at a salvage yard...and adding the lockers...getting the axles from a salvage yard will be cheaper and also installing them yourself...

around here you can find axles in the salvage yard for about 100.00each and you swap them yourself...adding the lockers is pretty easy and straight forward and most dont require pulling the gears...only the spiders...

Now going the gear swap is going to be more expensive..the cost of gears and the knowledge of changing them...you will need some specialty tools to make sure they are clayed in right or they will whine and can eat themselves in a pretty short time if the lash isnt set right...

if you pay to get it done it can be upwards of 800.00 per axle with parts and labor...unless you can find someone who can do carriers and do the swap for you...it is VERY important to make sure the installation is done right especially on a vehicle that will be worked alot...

Ford did have F150s with lockers from the factory...I have a bud with an 95 f150 with a 302 and his truck has 3.55s with lockers front and rear...

 

You will be hard up to find axles with 3.73s in them in a junkyard. 3.73s were not a factory available open. 3.55s should be easy enough to come by though.

 

Thanks guys. I talked to another mechanic friend and it sounds like the four of you are in agreement. I think I'm just going to put in a locker for additional offroad and winter traction, and simply deal with struggling to tow loads ( but get better mileage when just cruisin' ). Plus I'll be saving myself a lot of time and aggravation, not to mention money...

In the mean time, what's the collective opinion on rebuilding manual lock hubs? Easy to do, or is it just as well to get a new set? If the rebuild kits come with instructions, then I guess I'd kind of like to try

 

I still think you should swap to 3.55s. 3.08s to 3.55s is a pretty good jump. If you are gonna have it apart to install a locker anyhow, you might as well. Your cruising mileage won't hurt much, and towing ability will be much better. Also, you could grab a 3.55 third member from an bronco or f150, and have the locker put it, and your truck wouldn't be down at all while it was getting installed. Then you could swap in that third member, and the new rear with 3.55s at the same time.

 

For your hubs...I would go buy a set of the warn lock outs. Everything in the hubs isnt really that hard to work on, as long as you have a snap ring plier you'll be fine. I think you can get a set of the warns for 100 bucks

 

GI Joe- would the third member swap basically amount to removing the old third member and plugging in a new one? I've never worked on this sort of project before, so i'd be using more determination than skill. If I can get front and rear 'members fom the salvage yard for a couple hundred bucks then I'd give that a shot, just as long as it doesn't require addressing the problems mentioned by Dr. Bowtie...

 

The front third member can be unbolted and it drops out. as a complete unit, gears installed. For the rear axle, you'll need to find one with the ABS plug. 87-96, i believe. And you'll have to swap the entire axle out for that. the 8.8" doesn't have a removable third member.