Re-geared 8.8, do I need the tone ring

[fordpickupman]

So I got the 4.88s and tru-track installed in the rearend of my ‘94 Explorer yesterday. I realized I had forgot to transfer the tone ring over from the original carrier. My explorer is an automatic. The ABS has been deleted. Do I need this tone ring for my automatic to shift correctly? I’ve searched some, but can’t find any information that applies to this vintage of Explorer.

 

[boominXplorer]

You need it for abs but not transmission (until 98). You might be able to slide it over the carrier without taking the ring gear back off if you wanted to install it.

 

[fordpickupman]

Thank you for the quick reply. I was thinking that I didn’t need it, but couldn’t remember for sure and didn’t want to have to tear back into it after filling it with new gear oil.

I’m excited to get this thing back together, going from 3.27s with 35s to 4.88s.

 

[boominXplorer]

Wow that's going to be like adding 150hp! Yeah I wouldn't bother installing it if it's already sealed up and you deleted the abs already.

 

[410Fortune]

I do not have tone ring in my 88, no abs and the vss is in the t case
I had a bad spider gear, some teeth went flying around inside the case and the tone ring was chewed up. So when I had the ARB installed many moons ago no tone ring

Less rotating mass!
All is well

 

[fordpickupman]

As thick as the new ring gear is I’m thinking it picked quite a bit of rotating mass. Lol.

My previous gearing experiences were with Dana 60s and 80s. This explorer stuff is cute comparatively. Lol

 

[fordpickupman]

I got the ol girl back together last night and drove it to work this morning. 4.88s are way better. The trutracs pulled through the 6” of slush nicely. I’m pretty happy with them so far.

Speedo is off about 13% which I figured it might be that much calculating tire sizes and gear change. I need to pull the speedo gear and see which one I have.

 

[fordpickupman]

I live 6 miles from the highway at the end of a gravel county road, I have about 1 mile that I have to blow the snow off of. As you can imagine, I only blow the snow when it gets impassable. Yesterday it rained all day so we had about 8" of slush to traverse to the house. The last portion of my driveway is pretty steep. We usually get stuck in the last 10' of the steep section when the slush is this deep. Last night I ground to a halt in that section. So I dropped it into low gear and hammered down. The increased leverage of the 4.88 gears and the 4 wheel peel provided by the Trutracs allowed me to scratch on up the driveway and park in the car port.

I'm pretty stoked with how well they work. They are so smooth that I haven't felt them engage yet, but all 4 tires are spinning so I know they are working.

 

[410Fortune]

It is great to see improvements like that allow you to get in and out
We are wearing chains at my house, the slush is too deep and its still raining!! All I want for X mas is snow! slush is the sucks

 

[fordpickupman]

I’ve been told for years to leave the ftont axle open. That it’s sketchy locked up when slick.

So far, in the snow it’s been awesome. It pulls the front end around instead of the rear end pushing it straight.

I couldn’t resist Motobilt’s Black Friday sale and bought a diff cover to complete the upgrade.

I also eliminated the front C-clip.