My '83 Bronco has 3.08 gears and I want to upgrade to 4.10/4.11s. I was planning on buying front and rear ring and pinion sets from Bronco Graveyard along with some other parts since I will be going there anyway the first weekend in May for their show/swapmeet and would like to save on shipping and just get everything at once. My bronco has a D44 front and 8.8 rear.

I am not sure which brand to get for either front or rear.
For the fronts they have;
USA standard 4.10
SVL 4.11 and
Yukon 4.09

For the rear R&P sets they have;
USA standard 4.10
SVL 4.10
Yukon 4.11 and
Motive Gear 4.10

Has anyone heard any good or bad about any of these or had experience with them? What would you recommend? The only ones Ive heard of are Yukon and Motive Gear. Are the others a quality product?

Also most of the the gear ratios are one number off. Do they have to be the same front to back, one off front to back or does it really matter?

Sorry for the rambling post but just have noobie re-gearing questions.

 

4.09/4.10/4.11 are all close enough it won't matter if they are like that from front to rear. It would matter though if the rear was say 4.56 and the front was 4.10.

In my truck I currently have Yukon 4.10s, but I bought mine from Ring and Pinion of Oakland off of Walton Blvd. They have ~4,000 miles, haven't done any serious off road stuff yet but they seem to hold up nice.

I know a lot of guys recommend Detroit lockers or Aussie ARBs.

Also don't forget to come say, "Hi" at Broncorama!

 

Thanks for the info. Cant afford a locker. I have a rear 8.8 31 spline Limited slip center section I was going to put the 4.10 ring and pinion on and use in the bronco. If all goes well I should have my '84 F150 at Broncorama. My dad and brother are also going. Planning on bringing some stuff to sell too. Driving this truck down.

 

Keep in touch, I might sell you my axles in my 96' after I do the swaps.

 

what engine, transmission and tire size are you planning to run?

you could run a lower cost gear up front due to it not being used as much. know that you will also need a new carrier up front to accept 4.09's and up. out back i would run Motive or Yukon.

 

Kemical I got a gearing question. How come off roading we need a close gear ratio front/rear but you go see those guys doing mud drags running 100 point mismatch front/rear. 6.17/7.17

 

Will do. Thanks

Thanks for the advice. I didn't even think of it not fitting the carrier. Should have done more homework. The Bronco is going to have a 390 FE with a C6 and will probably run 35s.

I have an explorer 8.8 limited slip 3.73 with disk brakes. For now I think I'll use that limited slip center section for the rear and order the matching 3.73 front ring and pinion. Those will fit the carrier, correct? When I can find a carrier out of an F250, I upgrade the rears to 4.10. I would also like to adapt the disk brakes from the explorer axle to my bronco axle.

 

I believe anything under 4.10 fits the carrier. I'll have to look it up though.

 

Thanks. Are you going to have your Bronco at Broncorama? Mines currently a rolling chassis.

 

According to this site, it looks like 3.73 gears will fit in the small carrier.
http://www.differentials.com/technic...carrier-breaks

 

3.73's will be to high of gear for turning 35's even with that 390/C6. Also your 83 should have a ford 9" in which case i would keep that and upgrade. the Explorer 8.8 wont fit and has the wrong bolt pattern.

you also have a fun undertaking trying to get the 390 shoe horned in there as it wasnt an option in the 80s which i am sure you know. What motor is currently in there? i like the old FE's frankly they are best kept in the 70's year trucks. a 5.8 or even a 460 will drop into your 83 far better and both are lighter and will produce more power with far more aftermarket available.

 

Don't know if he saw your question but I can answer it. The difference gives more bite in the front and greater frequency to tire lugs ripping at the mud in front to pull through while the rear is converting all that power into torque to keep the truck powering through. These guys are also typically running much stronger t-cases (read as "not chain-driven") and/or they have incorporated either a viscous coupler or a differential (like the NP203 t-cases had) that will allow the front and rear axles to spin at differing RPMs without stretching or snapping the drive chain/gears.

Our Broncos (and a good many other light trucks) were not equipped with either such devices which means that if you try to run axle gears that are that different, one axle will try to pull much more than the other and since everything up the driveline is spinning at THE SAME RPM, you will cause instant carnage usually in the T-case. This is also why there is such strong advise AGAINST engaging 4WD on dry pavement. Even a very small difference in axles ratios (like the 4.10-to-4.11 difference found between the 8.8 and the D44 axles) where there is no "give" between axles (i.e. dry pavement) has the potential to at the very least stretch a T-case drive chain. On wet pavement, mud, sand, etc, there is enough "give" or "slip" between axles that this concern is negated.

 

Well, I may just wait on gears all together for now since I don't think its going to be done before the deadline I set. Something else may come along this summer so I think I'll hold off.

Nope, my '83 has an 8.8 rear axle. I was only going to use the center section out of the explorer axle because they are both 31 spline. I would have to redrill the rotors to adapt the disk brakes to the bronco axle. Need to do more research on that though.

The bronco already had an FE in it when I bought it. Here is a build thread I started a little while back.
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...o-buildup.html

 

yes i remember that thread now.

 

To add to what Greystreak said, If you notice most "boggers" run smaller front tires than rear so effectively you are running close to the same ratios. But you dont have near the sprung weight. Lets the truck transfer the weight to the rear end on launch, much like the early years of funny car which was called "AFX= Altered Factory Experimental" Hence the name "Funny Car" because of the way they looked.