chevy diffs

z71MudDog · March 22, 2012

i dont do much climbing or ock driving mainly jus t mudding

ChevyTech77 · March 22, 2012

Playing in the mud puts high demands on drivetrain pieces. VERY high demands. If I were building a true mud truck I wouldn't be caught dead showing up for the show with less than a GM 10.5" ring gear full floating rear axle with a Detroit locker and a Dana 60 front axle with either the factory open diff or an ARB Air Locker. Pick your gear ratio from there dependant upon tire size.

z71MudDog · March 23, 2012

i roll on 33 12.50's

ChevyTech77 · March 23, 2012

33x12.5's?? And you're worried about strength?

I ran 33x12.5's on my 12 bolt rear, 10 bolt front 1/2 ton axles with an Auburn L.S. diff and open front rolling 4.10 gears for YEARS in the mud, sand, general trail use and pavement without one failure. That was WITH my 370hp/480lb/ft 406 small block in the engine bay. Granted, I built both of those axles from scratch, by myself, with nothing but the best quality parts but I didn't even have any fancy aftermarket axle shafts in them or anything. Keep in mind as well that my 33's were only for street and sand dune use. In the mud, I ran 35x12.5 Super Swampers and again, still never had one failure. If you plan to keep the 33's do yourself a favor then, keep the truck light, keep the 1/2 ton axles and put good internal pieces in them instead of running the heavy 1 ton axle assemblies. Even on 35's as long as you aren't rock crawling or doing pro-stock style 2 gear burnouts on the pavement a set of 1/2 tons, especially with a nice set of heavy duty axle shafts and good diffs, will last just fine.

z71MudDog · March 23, 2012

im not worried about the heavy axles just the right ones so i can go faster than 5mph in 4x4 without my diffs binding up an blowing up.it has two sets of diffs in it.just wanna know either the stock specs or if i can rip some out of a k5 different year at the junk yard.i dont prefer rock crawling.im a mud man...mud gets me wet

unless i get an 8 inch lift ill get 35's but 6 inch and 33's are the right fit for now

ChevyTech77 · March 23, 2012

Then yeah, pull the covers, count the teeth on both gear sets front and rear, find out what you have and install a matching gear set in the axles you have before spending the big money.

z71MudDog · March 24, 2012

i heard people say pull the plate and start counting but they never said anything about counting the teeth..ill try that thx

txab · March 24, 2012

i heard people say pull the plate and start counting but they never said anything about counting the teeth..ill try that thx

What did you think they meant for you to count?

z71MudDog · March 24, 2012

i don know they jus said to count...

herm0016 · March 24, 2012

you can count rotations of the drive shaft vs. the wheel to figure it out also.

TRCM · March 25, 2012

Shoot, why count teeth. The numbers will be on the side of the ring gear....like 41 10 which means 41 teeth on the ring gear and 10 on the pinion, which is a 4.10 gear set

even in mud, you need to get the same ratios front & rear

z71MudDog · March 25, 2012

if i do the drive shaft rotations how do i tell the ratio when im done...ive never done this yet

Prokopchuk_9 · March 26, 2012

Man just pull the covers off! They will all be marked, you can count turns but that's a PITA. Just pull the covers off that way you can inspect the "posi" I'd bet you 5 bucks the "posi" rear end is a BIG ass glob of weld inside the spider carriage. :-) we call those "lincoln lockers" ahahah