Hello all!
I just went to ~34" tires on my 4wd 2004 5.4L F150 w/ 5.4L. When I did this, I did so with the intent of regearing some time this year to 4.56s.
That's all well and good, but I have a few other things that I'm looking to do to the truck and would like to save a few bucks while regearing if possible.
I've heard that pulling the axle and front diff could help offset labor costs a bit.
I also considered pulling diff covers and cleaning off any RTV and old gasket.
Is there anything else I can do to make things run smooth? I don't want to go cheap, but I want to maximize my usage of a shop's skilled labor and not pay them $100/hr to scrape RTV off of the diff for a half an hour.
Also, if anyone has a good shop recommendation in southern California, specifically Long Beach area, I'm all ears.

 

A shop will typically charge flag time on any labor so those extra few steps likely won’t save you any money on labor and if you did it. The totals won’t amount to much as most of the labor is actually working inside the differential, not pulling the covers. That’s just my experience.

 

If you take the axle to the shop that will save them time in removal from the vehicle.

You aren't going to save any money by scraping RTV yourself.

 

They don't remove the axle housing to do a regear. They put it up on a lift and work on it at eye level. I bet they'd be pissed having to deal with a loose differential.

 

I suppose that is a good point.
I thought they would want it on a bench to set up backlash.
Oh...that's the carrier though. Never mind....!

 

You really shouldn't give people financial or mechanical advice if you don't know what you're talking about.

 

I did end up getting one quote from a shop near me. They quoted $1000 for both axles and an ox locker install if I left them in the truck, $900 if I removed them. Definitely not worth the effort.

After swapping on the wheels and tires, I’m honestly not that unhappy with the setup. Im definitely going to try a tune before I put in new gears. Locker is a must still...