Those are some different looking ball joints, but I'm used to looking at king pins and tie rod ends lol.

 

Yeah they go in the center of the double cardon housing. You have u joints on either side and this thing in the middle to help flexibility.

 

Yeah I almost bought the new assembly, but I didn't want to spend the extra money and mine wasn't messed up so I figured I'd save the 35 bucks. So hopefully I won't have to change it again though since this was my second time doing it!

I'm thinking about tackling gears in my diffs.... but that is probably something way over my head. I have 3.55 gearing with "33's" (really 32.5's) and would like more power/potentially better mpg (back in the proper powerband), but I don't know if I am capable of changing out the gears.

 

I don't remember what i paid for my thing but i don't think it was super expensive.

I too have to deal with my gears eventually, from what i learned doing the rear end if it is a 9 inch, won't be easy. you have a whole third member to remove instead of a diff cover like the D44. Either way though it won't be fun. I don't even know where i will go with my gears, i have 3.55's in the front and 2.73's in the rear. I assume going to 3.55's would be best but i don't know too much on gears. I do know that 2.73's make it feel like the motor isn't a v8 but more of a v6...

 

Hmm yeah my diffs are 8.8. I don't know how the gear ration of your transmission is, but with the M5OD, lots of people say to have at least 3.73, or preferably 4.10 gearing for 33" tires. If you have 35's and only have 2.73, I think your truck could benefit greatly with a lower gear ratio like 4.10 or 4.56.

I really want to get a higher gear ratio, but I think I will wait until I get another vehicle, like that Camaro I was talking about (possibly an 80s corvette, something cool and cheaper that can get 20+ highway when driving reasonably.) That way, if the lower gear ratio negatively affects my gas mileage, it won't bother me as much as it would if I had to depend on my Bronco as a daily driver with a 50 mile round trip every day like I do now.

Eventually I'll get new heads and a cam too, but that too will have to wait until I can leave my Bronco out of commission for a while while I work on it!

 

I see i see. I always imagined lower gear ratio ment lower number... It's still a little confusing but when i get to that point i can learn what i need to. For the 8.8 it should just be a diff cover so it shouldn't be too bad. Since my front end is 3.55 i will probably go to that. UNLESS something happens and my front end needs new gears..

 

Dylan, I'm right there with ya, I always get very confused when talking about gear ratios with high and low gear, the way I remember it is if you got a low number it's high, and a high number it's low. I still get confused with it though lol.

 

Yeah. So with a low gear like 4.10 does that mean the gears are longer before shifting? Or is that like shifting into a lo gear on a transfer case. It makes the shifting faster with a lot of torque.

 

Kind of, it'll probably rev a little or a lot higher before getting to the shift point lol.

 

Lower gears will give you higher RPM at lower speeds, this will affect torque and acceleration possitively, but it will reduce the top speed. A proper gearbox can counter this effect, they also have internal gears and those come into factor, that's why an Overdrive is such a desirable feature.

 

I see. I have a standard C-6. I think sticking to 3.55 would probably be best. I don't mind a loss of top speed too much as long as i can still hit 65 for freeway purposes. Since i have my 35s i usually don't go over 55-60 due to speed shakes and the road grabbing my tires and moving me.

 

Man with 273:1 and those big tires I'm surprised it even takes off lol, with 3.55:1 you would probably get way better gas mileage.

 

Yeah, it feels like it has the power that my v6 ranger has. Which isn't a bad thing but it almost isn't enough to burn out. And i know this motor could spin even these tires without a problem if everything was how it should be, but thats not the case. Someday i will get the gear change done, i just need to find a backup vehicle to drive and the money for it. Heck brand new gears maybe the way to go instead of junkyard ones. Though i don't know how difficult it is to change gears from the third member rather than just changing the whole thing.

 

Yeah... I want to change to 4.10s in my Bronco, but everything I've been researching is pointing me in the direction of having a shop do the instal and to not attempt it myself... Either that or I can get a front and rear axle with 4.10s and swap my axles for that. I don't know how to swap axles though. I don't know if, since I have my 3" lift, any welding or special things need to be done to change out an axle, or if its just as "straightforward" as bolting/unbolting things up. If no welding or adjustments have to be made, I may look at axle swapping, but otherwise I may have to save up for a shop to give me 4.10 gears someday. Then I have to save up for edelbrock heads and a cam! I'll probably do that myself though.. but that leads me to:

I still need another backup/commuter car too but it has to be cool! I just wish the 70s mustangs were cheaper, that way I'd get one of those and maybe swap in a fuel injected 5.0 or something so it gets decent mileage. Otherwise everything is pointing towards the third generation camaros, but I suppose I'll see for sure when I get to test drive one.

 

My dad put a 3.91:1 gear ratio in a 9" rear, in our garage by him self. Under a car jacked up. It's not too terribly hard, but that's also not the first time he's done that stuff haha. Don't buy junk yard rear end parts, who knows what the condition the parts are, but that's just my opinion .