Put gears in before lift on late model

[Ray Lobato]

Well I got my locker and the rear gears put in today, but it took them 5 hours to pull the front diff out of the truck. They had to take just about the whole front portion of the lift off just to get the front diffy out. The gear guy told me that he wouldn't put gears in another modified 95+ Explorer again. Oh Well. Now the guy that put the lift in is going to have to put it all back together again, because the gear guy doesn't feel confident enough to put it all back together. I'm probably gonna have to take out a loan out before it's all done. He did say the the new locker looks real heavy duty and looks like it should last a very long time.
If you are thinking about putting a lift on your 95+ model, then maybe you should think about putting in the gears before you get the lift or have the front diffy go to the gear shop before you put the lift all together since you will have to drop it out in order to put the lift on anyways. Just a word of warning.

 

[tdavis]

Wow, that sucks.

And I thought the dana35 TTB crap was a royal pain to get gears done on..

Congrats on the gears and locker!

 

[Rick]

What kind of front locker did you end up with Ray?

 

[Ray Lobato]

Rick,
Sorry to report that there is no locker for the front. No one makes one. I would have to replace the whole front with something else, but don't know what....yet.

Tom, actually they said that normally it would have taken only about 2 hours, but with all the lift kit stuff that they ahd to take out, it took them 5 hours instead.

 

[felsmann]

Ray, thanks for the tip. I am sure that should help others planning on the lift. I was thinking about that the other day. I am planning on swaping my gears and putting a rear locker as well (If I ever get my sarn clutch fixed!)

Most likely I will take the truck back to the shop that did the lift, since they do gears as well. Another thing that sucks about how they did my lift is that they welded the tranny cross member. This means that when they drop the tranny for work, it is a mjor pain in the ass!!

By the way what locker/gears did you get? What gears did you have before?

 

[Ray Lobato]

Hi Juan,
I hope you don't have too many problems getting your front gears put in.
I got 4.10:1 gears put in with a ARB locker in the back.
I had 3.55's and that really sucked with the 33's. Hopefully I will get back some lost mileage.

 

[felsmann]

Thanks Ray. I have 3.73 now and thinkiong to go to 4.56 I wanted 4.10 first but I was told I would not be able to notice the difference. Would 4.56 be to low?? (for a mostly street driver)

Also, is your ARB the newly redisigned or the classic one? How much was it? if you don't mind me asking.

Thanks,

 

[GJarrett]

Ray, I'm getting 16.5mpg in town and 19.5 on the highway @65-70mph with my 4.10 / 33" tires, but I figure that roof rack/lights and extra ton of armor you've got on the bottom will have to cost you 1.5-2mpg, thus I estimate you'll get around 14.5 city/17.5 hwy with your new setup. I remember hearing one of the Ford guys at Moab mention that 400lbs weight on an Explorer is supposed to cost 1mpg. What are you getting now?

[Edited by GJarrett on 12-18-2000 at 07:58 PM]

 

[Ray Lobato]

Juan,
The whole thing, gears, locker(the new redesigned locker),compressor, and alignment cost me $1800.00, and they gave me a break on the labor. I do however have to put the compressor in myself. There is a definate differance between the 3.55's and the 4.10's. More power and alot less shifting.

Gerald,
I brought it home tonight and before the gear change I would use almost half a tank to get from Salinas to home. It took a little less than a quarter of a tank, so I can see a definate improvement. I let ya'll know after a couple of tanks of gas and after the breakin period. I'm sure the rack and lights and armor aren't gonna help, but I would be happy with 17MPG highway.