I was tossing around 4.10's and 4.56's back in Aug or so when I did my gears. The guy who did them is out in Calhan. He had a set of 4.10s on hand and wasn't sure how long it would take him to get the 4.56's at the time. I moved up to a 295/70/17 and did the 4.10's and an Eaton Truetrac in the rear. With as much driving as I do on the highway, I'm thankful for the 4.10's on the flats, but there's not a day that goes by when I'm driving that truck on any real hill that I'd wished I went with the 4.56's. I should've been more patient and willing to wait for the gears, live and learn.

 

Thanks for the input, Chris_H. Sounds like I would need to consider 4.56 the starting point if I do 35s.

 

i dont think thats a locker for the front diff, thats just your accuator to engage the front diff.

 

That's just the actuator to engage the front axle. Back in the olden days, we had to get out and turn ***** on the front axle to couple the hubs to the axle, the thing you are showing is what we have today that couples the hub to the axle. In theory, one could have the hubs locked all of the time, even in 2WD, and all that would happen is that the front diff would be driven by the tires, but this takes extra gasoline that the CAFE standards frown upon. The OP is asking about locked differential, where both tires turn at the same speed at all times when the vehicle is in 4WD, you are showing the hub locks that have nothing to do with the diffs at all.

 

All the recent talk about diffs got me thinking more about whether I can do this work myself. The 1AAuto video makes it look easier than the Ford manual does, but they also seem to be cutting corners (e.g. not setting the pinion nut with a torque wrench). It looks like I could save up to $2k if I did it myself (even with new tools), and that's some serious motivation to try! What are some other good resources (videos etc.) to review?

If I do R&P and a diff case at the same time, that should make the job easier, no? How much different is the job on the front axle - easier, harder, about the same?

@Chris_H What shop did you use in Calhan?

 

Let me see if I can dig up his information. I had it all on the old phone and it doesn't look like its there any longer on the new one. He specialized in Ford gearing and doing 8.8 swaps on Jeeps. I got the truck back home, drove it the next day and had some humming and eventually howling type noises coming from the truck. The faster I drove, the louder it got. Assumed it was the gears so I got a hold of him and sent him a video of it. He came and picked it up with his flat bed, took it back and checked everything, said it all looked good and it wasn't the gears, it was the u-joints. He didn't charge for hauling it from my house to his (65 miles) and for looking it over to make sure it wasn't the gears. I'll try to track him down for you if I can.

Of course as soon as I posted this I found his site: http://www.sffcustoms.com/home.html

 

Thanks a lot, I am going to call them on a few things for my truck.

 

COS - PM me with what you find out, if you don't mind. Calhan's a fair poke, but if I decided to let go of the cash, I could always trailer my car up there and then drive it home

 

Yeah that was the biggest issue for me, taking back roads from my house was almost 1.5 hours each way. But he was $1500 cheaper than the shops around me, so the inconvenience ended up being worth it. Still wishing I'd have gone with the 4.56's!

 

I cannot speak to the fronts, but I did the rear alone, save for the piņion nut. The torque of about 400 lbs took two guys on a cheater while I held the brake. I did get a kit w yellow paint to insure the contact was proper.