I have 1/8 inch of play in my pinion up/down and left/right. I want to rebuild my differential. I plan on keeping it stock and simple. If aftermarket parts are similar and better to upgrade then I can do that. I am assuming it will cost a bundle to take it to a transmission place to have them do the job. I emailed 3 places to get a quote on sunday at 5pm and none of them called or emailed back. I have been busy working on days and have not had much time to call for quotes. I am pretty sure I can do it myself. I want to replace the pinion, pinion bearing, pinion seal, ring gear and axle bearings. I am basically looking for a replacement kit. I am pretty sure I have the 10.5 inch sterling. I have to look at the tag on the differential to find out what the gearing is. I am thinking 3.55 or 3.73. I have the 5 speed, manual transmission. I have already purchased the lube gear oil. Mobile 1 synthetic 75-140.
Please Advise.
Dwayne

 

Randy's ring and pinion should be able to get you everything you need. You'll need a master install kit and the gear set. Around 600 or so in parts. Or a shop that does it all the time that you can trust to set it up properly should be around 1000.

 

Well, I haven't checked into the parts yet, but I did just pick up the Ford special tools to completely tear down and rebuild that 10.5 rear end. If you want to make a road trip to Bastrop....

 

I found a place that rebuilds rear ends that said 800$-1000$. That was Turner Automotive. A guy from AAmco recommended Turner Automotive because he specializes in Ford differentials. Two other places jerked me around and tried to get me to bring the truck in to inspect it and wanted to charge 2800$ at Butler Automotive and 2700$ at Sandy's 4x4 all in the Augusta, GA area. All I asked for was a rebuild and they could not give me a simple quote to rebuild. I looked at the ring and pinion kit and the install kit with all the bearings, seal, bolts, loctite, sealant etc and it was close to 650. I can afford 800-1000$ to have someone that specializes in ford's to do it.

 

1fixitman: Dude! I am jealous that you have a 5-speed. The low gears in the 5-speed mean you can run lower ring and pinion ratio gearing in the differentials. As I have stated many times, I really want to change my 3.73s back to 3.55 (or 3.08 or isn't 3.37 the current F150 gearing?) I strongly suggest that you log in and read the stuff written by Dave Whitmer who is the MPG Forum moderator on Powerstrokenation (basically his experience is low RPM means high MPG):

"Gearing does not affect road load, but reduces the engine frictional HP and accessory parasitic load at a given road speed. Engine frictional HP is the power necessary to make the engine turn without making any net power to the flywheel. It is somewhat of a misnomer – most engine bearings are plain bearings which have very low mechanical friction. Most of this HP goes to pumping air through the engine. For International and Cummins engines (and most engines in this class, I’d bet) engine frictional HP goes up proportionally with RPM between 1000 and 2000 RPM and increases with the square of RPM above 2000. Looking at engine frictional HP curves I’ve seen for the International 444 engine, my engine need 12 HP less to make itself run at 1325 RPM than at 2000 RPM. That explains the 3.0 <ACRONYM title="Miles Per Gallon">MPG</ACRONYM> improvement I got over a 3.73 R&P.

Gearing is tough to do. This involves changing the ring-and-pinion set to a numerically lower ratio. Most guys go up in ratio to compensate for big tires but lower ratio R&P sets are rare. I have a 3.08 gear set, but I don’t think they are commercially available anymore. 3.55s can be had, though. I’d expect a 1.0 <ACRONYM title="Miles Per Gallon">MPG</ACRONYM> improvement for a truck that had 3.73s (the most common) and somewhere between 1.5 and 2.5 for a truck with 4.10s. "

PM Dave. He has a 5-speed with 3.08 gearing. It will take a while, but he will get back to you.

My van came with 3.55 gearing which I didn't fully appreciate until I foolishly took the advice of the 4x4 converter to go to 3.73s and I have seen my mileage drop since. According to PMs from Dave the 7.3 has enough torque to power 3.55s no problem and, quite frankly, that was my experience.

I am toying with the idea of doing the ring and pinion change myself as well. I wrote something on that process to Christof13T(?) a while ago. If I can find it I will insert it here. Basically you just need a dial gauge, some bluing, an OEM manual and the patience of a saint. Patience is required because you need to take everything apart to add even a fraction of a mm to shift things. And you use up a non-reusable crush waster every time you do it. But when I took my differential cover off last year I noticed that the differential shop that did my work apparently didn't have that kind of patience because my pinion gear is not running in the center of my ring gear! WTH!!! So, if I have someone else do the work, I will insist on looking at the pinion/ring gear contact before it leaves the shop.

Oh BTW, transmission shops in my experience don't do differentials. They will just add a $1000 for the headaches and sub it out to a true differential shop. Same thing with your local Ford dealer. They will likely not do the work. In Sacramento which is a rather large city, there are only two differential shops that I know of. And a buddy of mine who had a ring and pinion gear changed out at the "best" one has a slight howl. So, go figure.

Nicmike: Please do a write-up with pictures. As far as I can tell from my searches you will be going where no FTE Brother has gone before!

 

Tim, I'm going to rebuild and re-gear to 3.55. What sucks is I have a 4x4, and I'll be having to re-gear the Dana 50 on the front as well. Fortunately the Dana 50 is a little cheaper to get the parts for than the Sterling 10.5. I will document it well when I get it done this next year. Gotta save my pennies for a while...

 

Dwayne,

What were the symptoms that led you to chose to rebuild the differential?