lifted97

So 99% sure I blew my rear end on my 97 f150 with the 8.8 rear end. Was at a stop light and gave it gas and a loud noise and just a bunch of grinding. Had to use 4wheel drive to get home. I going to order 4.88's but do I need a new carrier with upgrading from 3.55's to 4.88s.

A7X

There are no carrier breaks in Ford corporate axle so you won't need a new carrier unless it got chewed up... Take the cover off and see what the damage is before you place your order...

01f1502wd

ouch that sucks. same thing happened to my jeep buddy, he lost the carrier gears and the ring n pinon were still good.

garbill2003

Agree see what damage you have first

Kdawg_69

+1 and when you buy the new gears make sure to buy the new center pin cause when i first bought my new 4.56s i didn't and just to make it work i made my stocker work for it but when i finally got the new pin it was completely different then what i was expecting and it made it so much nicer and easier to remove axles if you have too

lifted97

Pulled it apart and it looks like every single bolt came out of the big gear.... Don't know how I managed that but nothing got messed up in there. I think I'm going to just regar to 4.88s

Kdawg_69

damn man that sucks but about the only way that happens is if someone forgot to put the right thread locker on the bolts that hold the ring gear on and you got lucky that is all that happened anyways hope everything goes good for you and are you going to regear yourself or have some one else do it for you

lifted97

Yeah, It could of been a lot worse... I had just got into town from going over a 4600 elavation pass. so it could of happened up there at the top lucky I had just got into town. And a buddy and I are going to do it. He geared his SAS ranger to 5.13's front and rear and he has done other gearing. I'm just going to do the rear for now until I can afford the front. Plus its that time of year I don't really need the 4wheel drive for a while

Kdawg_69

ok just some tips, tricks, and lessons learned from doing my gears on the 8.8

1 make sure to get that new center pin when you order the gears you won't need it in the front but you will for the back

2 when your installing definitely take your time with it don't rush otherwise the same thing will happen again then you'd be really screwed

3 when installing that new center pin put it in right after you install the spidergears and your limit slip bracket type thing in the middle that is if you have the limit slip axle but even if you don't make sure to put that center pin right before you put on the ring gear other wise with the new ring on you won't be able to put the new center pin in

and if you get stuck let me know at vennesken@yahoo.com and i'll do my best to help you out brother and by the way that is a nice truck you got

lifted97

Hey man, I really appreciate it! I'm ordering the gears today and I'm going to try and get it done next friday night