Gear swap price

[76YETI]

Thinking of swapping my 3.50 gears to 4.11 gears. 9” rear, Dana 44 front. I have a 5.0, c4, 33” Tire’s. shop quoated ”you are probably looking around $2000 parts and labor for the whole job front and rear. That would be gears, bearings, fluid, and labor.” Good price? Thanks

 

[SteveL]

Doesn't sound bad. Out here its like $800 per axle in labor plus parts.

 

[Broncobowsher]

For a shop doing 100% of the work, drive it in and drive it out, that sounds about right.

 

[metal1]

800-1000 4 is a pretty good price but ask about who the manufacture is there are a lot of Chinese clone drive train parts out there now

 

[Pa PITT]

When I sold parts I ordered my gears from Randy Ring & Pinion .

 

[metal1]

I had a driveline shop for 15 yrs and Randys is the only place I got my diff parts from and they have all types from a house brand on up to what ever you want

 

[NC-Fordguy]

I usually do the labor for free for folks I know, club members, friends, fellow wheelers but I make them get their hands dirty. When I do charge it's 4 bills labor per axle.

This is also the time if you want traction devices to get it installed.

I've used just about every brand out there and haven't noticed much quality differences out there. I do notice that quite often the cheaper brands quite often leave out things like pre-load shims or don't give the better options in the shim counts.

When you have the nine done go to a crush sleeve eliminator kit. It will add 40 or 50 dollars to the costs and pays you back especially if you wheel your truck.

 

[Broncobowsher]

The rabbit hole can go deep. Axle splines do wear. If they are getting thin and you are looking at a traction adder it makes sense to go 31 spline. This is the time to do it, when everything is apart. That way you are not paying labor twice, only the cost of the parts. And everything is new.

Unless you know expect some unexpected. Need a brake job? When they say "bearings" they are quoting the differential bearings, not wheel bearings. So that may be needed as well.

You can save a little money on the rear by pulling the 3rd member out yourself and just bringing that in to them. Bring it home, put it in, and drive it over for the front axle.

 

[BGBronco]

I have a '76 302, C4, 3.50 gears, 33s ... What do you gain from going to 4.11 with your set up? Thank you.

Thinking of swapping my 3.50 gears to 4.11 gears. 9” rear, Dana 44 front. I have a 5.0, c4, 33” Tire’s. shop quoated ”you are probably looking around $2000 parts and labor for the whole job front and rear. That would be gears, bearings, fluid, and labor.” Good price? Thanks

 

[okie4570]

You'll like the 4.11 with the 33" and your setup. If you've got the space, tools, time and Youtube, they're not bad to work on yourself, the 9" is really simple, the Dana 44 a little more involved.

 

[Broncobowsher]

I have a '76 302, C4, 3.50 gears, 33s ... What do you gain from going to 4.11 with your set up? Thank you.

It will feel like you just gained about 150HP
The transmission will be happy and live much longer by running much cooler.

Remember that 4.11 gears were a factory option with tires much smaller than 33s. 4.11s pretty much get you back to stock with what 3.50 gears and stock sized tires would be. So it will drive much more like it was originally engineered to drive like.

 

[Timmy390]

It will feel like you just gained about 150HP

This ^^^^^^^^^

Tim

 

[Rustytruck]

On the front axle if your not adding traction aid then you can keep the original carrier if you order thick cut gears. That will save you a little coin. When I did my gears from 3:5 to 4:11 for 33" tires it was the best thing I did for the truck next to Hydra boost and disc brakes.

I went with Trutrac up front with thick cut gears and Detroit soft locker in the rear carrier, gears and installation kits all came from Randys ring and pinion. Just don't run synthetic gear oil until after the new gears break in. Follow normal break in procedures. Worse thing you can do with a brand new gear set is drive 400 miles to the Rubicon and drive the trail and then drive home with out breaking in a new set of gears. A friend of mine got to do his gearing twice by doing that.

 

[76YETI]

Thanks for all the feedback!

 

[SteveL]

Another shout out for randy customer service

 

[Tugross302]

For you guys that have 4.11’s and 33’s and a C4. What is your Rpm’s at 70 mph. Mine with 3.50 is 2800

 

[Rustytruck]

At 70 I am very close to 3000 rpm. With peak torque with the anemic 1974 california 302 just right where it needs to be. With peak torque close to 4000 rpm it needs all it can get. My motor has the cam timing advanced ar the crank 4 degrees when I changed the timing chain so it isnt exactly as stock but much closer to federal spec. Im running inital timing close to 12 degrees insted of the stock 6 degrees.