Front Differential Rebuild & Gears
 

Well my front diff finally shit the bed @ 140k. I've been reading up on all the different gear manufactures and have no idea what to go with. I need pretty much everything inside the differential, including a new ring & pinion. Any advice on what to go with would be great. Rebuild kits I'm finding are all around the 80-120 range and gears have been anywhere from 180-500ish. I'm not looking to go the super cheap route but I also don't have a ton to spend on it either. Thanks in advance fellas.

Why not just pickup another one from the scrap yard. It will probably be cheaper in the long run.

If I could find one in a salvage yard with 4.10 gears and without the electronic 4x4 motor I probably would. But those two things narrow my selection down quite a bit unfortunately :(

I should have mentioned that this is in my awd SS. Unless theres something that I dont know about the standard 4x4 front diffs. I've seen a few how-tos on rebuilding them and some had an electronic motor on the side (im assuming the push button or auto 4x4 trucks?) I thought it was all done through the transfer case and that the front diffs were all the same minus different gearing of course.

Oh...yea, that makes it harder. I have seen guys activate the actuator so the diff is in 4wd then just unplug it so it stays that way, cheap awd diff. The diff is open so yes the magic is done through the transfer case.

Yeah that's what I was thinking, that it would be a bitch to find a replacement. I did a quick search on a couple of national used parts sites and found a couple with close to 100k miles on them and they still wanted 500 bucks. Closest one was in Houston (about 200ish miles from me) with 88k miles for 550. To me, I can buy a rebuild kit, gears AND pay someone to rebuild it for close to that or just a bit more. So really I think a full rebuild will be the best way to go to avoid the headache of hunting a decent used one down.

But if you have any recommendations on gears I'm definitely open to hearing them! :)

Look up dallas differential. They r off 30 ans Sylvian. I bought my motive gears frome them. They also install too. Iv hurd good reviews on them also. Good luck

I had looked into Motive gears but couldn't find that they make a factory 4.10 ratio. Closest I could find with them was 4.11. Ill give them a call tomorrow though and see what else they carry and check pricing. Thanks.

You can still use the center section from a 4WD in place of your AWD unit by swapping over your one piece passenger side axle and axle tube. The only thing you have to watch out for is the earlier 4WD units didn’t have the groove machined into the side gears in the carrier to retain the stub axles that the AWD axles require. You can just swap those over as well, but that sort of defeats the purpose of trying to pick up a unit you can just swap in and go without having to open it up. Of course if you needed a housing to rebuild while you’re still crunching around with your current diff, it would be a good option, as they are way easier to locate.

On my box it said 4.11s. They should be the same as 4.10s. I counted the teeth on ring and pinion and it came out to 4.10. I think diffrent manufacturers call them 4.11 or 4.10

They are the same ratio. I only sell motive gears and I would highly recommend them.