So wait... what? I'm so damn confused, pardon my french! But how come everyone says I need to look in my glovebox to see what gear ratio I have and find a "match" to replace it with???

That's what I don't understand, people talk about changing gear ratios on 2nd Gen trucks but then I'm told I HAVE to find a matching set? When you say a matching set from a junkyard, do you mean rear AND front?

I just don't know what to do, I haven't even opened the differential to look at whats broken or locked up or WHATEVER.... but from what I hear, it's an absolute *cough cough* to change out these gears in the diff! I want to just be able to buy the whole dang axle and be done with it, but it's looking like I'll pay 2-300+ bucks!

When you say find a matching set, are you talking about a STOCK set? If so... check this post. Supposedly, 4.10's are as close as I can get.... https://blazerforum.com/forum/genera...ar-ratio-5801/

 

No, just call around to junkyard/salvage/U-Pull-Its and ask if they have a matching set of 4.11 gears for your truck.

Matching just means that both the front and rear gears match.

BUT if you just want a temp fix you can get just a rear axle and take your front driveshaft out. This is what I have done since I didn't have the money to get 2 axles but I needed to be back on the road ASAP. Your rear axle should be easy to swap out. For me is was just 4 U-Bolts, but I'm not sure how the new axles are set-up so I can say its going to be as simple as mine was.

Yeah sorry, the correct gear ratio is 4.10... not sure how that 1 got in there lol.

 

i would start by opening your diff and look for whats messed inside.
there is 10 bolts around the cover (15 mins to remove)
there is 4 bolts inside holding the diff in the housing (10 mins to remove)

its free and you may find your problem is less expensive/hard to fix than you tought...

 

I got you now.

The rear axle is still just that, take off the tires, unbolt the drive shaft (u joints) and 4 U bolts. It pretty much falls out I believe, with the exception of brake lines and such.

I don't mind keeping the gears I have now, I just need to find a matching (to the front) rear axle and gears. The truck is stranded at my work right now, so I won't know what I have in there until tomorrow. I have a guy who has a rear axle for sale right now with the 3.42 gears, but it has disc brakes instead of drum brakes (which is what I have)! I think if it turns out I have the 3.42's I'm just going to buy that and convert my drums to the already attached disc brakes on his axle for sale ($250). Later, I'll swap swap the front and rear to the before mentioned 4.10/4.11 gears.

With the 10 bolt stock rear differential and stock front differential, can I just swap out the gears? And if so, how much and how difficult is it to do? I'm just worried about messing something up in there, I need the easiest solution possible right this second.... as THIS is my daily driver.

 

Yea, I'm going to do that as well... all tomorrow after work. I'm going to find out exactly what's going on in there and exactly what ratio my truck is currently running. If it's a mess inside that diff though, I'm going to grab that other axle!

 

Alright cool, so just be sure to have a nice breaker bar and maybe a rubber mallet. Those nuts are sometimes hard to get off and the U-bolt might need some coaxing to come out.

I'm not too sure about swapping just the gear assembly, I opted for the easy option and just swapped entire rear ends. But I think I've seen a How-To around somewhere.

But if it were me and I aboslutely needed to be on the road, I'd go ahead and get the 3.42 axle and take out your front driveshaft, ad do the whole disc brake swap thingy, I'm sure its not that hard. And then whenever you can afford to buy 4.10 gears for both axles just swap out the gears.

 

Why would I need to take out the front driveshaft if my truck is currently running 3.42's?? Or are you just saying that IN CASE it's not? If it's running another gear ratio, I'm not even going to buy that 3.42 with the disc.... I'm going to shop around for a matching one, so I can still have my 4wd. And as stated in my previous post, I'm going to look around in there tomorrow as well. For all I know, it could be just a spider gear bound up or something. I maybe able to just fix it, depending on how it looks in there of course

 

Well yeah, if you've got 3.42s then you won't need to take out the front shaft. But check out and see what's wrong, hopefully its easily fixable and doesn't require any money and sweat. lol

 

Oh, it'll require sweat.... already has and I haven't even taken the cover off yet!!! Money.... it ALWAYS requires $$$$$$$$$$$$

 

nothings free in this world

man you make me want to change my rear to an g80 thanks..... haha