Hey I have a rear differential question. A while back my k-5 had a 3.73 rear gear and the spider gears broke on it, so we swapped it out for a 3.08 rear gear. Well she is making the noise again so am going to be swapping out rear diff's again. I was wondering if I could take a front diff and put it in it's place? Any help will be great.

 

Alot of looks with no answer, so am figuring am not describing it right. What I want to do is take a 3.08 front differential and use it in my rear end. I was wondering if this is possible or do the front and rear have differences.

 

is your front dif still the original 3.73 gear if it is i would go back to the 3.73 in the rear it is a common gear you can find them in most 1/2 ton trucks and s10's and sorry im not sure if the splines are the same in front and rear ive never had a front dif apart to compare them but i would think they would be different but not sure but i do know you want the same gears in the front and rear if you use your 4x4 cause you could trash your transfer case

 

What are you drivin'? I know you said that it's a K5, but the year affects the course of this discussion. There was an overlap in the use of 12-bolt rears throughout the years with the 12-bolt being used thru '81 on the K5's. If you have a 10-bolt front & a 10-bolt rear, there are some things that can be used. It appears as though GM used 28 spline 10-bolts for both front & rear axles thru '88 when they switched to 30 spline front & rear. Having the same spline count helps the cross-over.

 

It's an '87. 10 bolt rear. Yeah I have the 3.73 still in the front just haven't used 4x4 since the swap so we wouldn't tear it up. The junk yards in Pensacola have slimmed way down after cash for clunkers. But never thought about an s-10 having that gear. Thanks for the help.