When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
I'm not sure, I think they do for the 14b but not for the front 8.25ifs. Part of my goal is to trade off the 4.10 front to someone with a good condition diff with my gear of choice so if 3.55 is a rarity I don't want to struggle to find a swapper.
What would you consider the biggest downside to the 3.42 gears? Is it just the feeling of power loss due to a lack of torque multiplication with the gears? That's my biggest fear about swapping too high, but I think a slightly stronger motor with the blower actually turned up passed 6 or 7psi will negate the feeling of power loss.
If it's utterly terrible I suppose re-gearing wouldn't be that terrible. I'm fairly confident I can do the rear myself so I'd just have to find another sucker to swap diffs with.
the front isnt hard to regear either, honestly. Probably worth the effort so you can slap new bearings in it too
My biggest concern on the front was if there are any special tools required to rebuild it. Also If anyone knows of a book or guide to rebuilding the front 8.25 or rear 14bolt 9.5sf please post it up.
The new rear axle means this thing will finally have "built" driveshafts. Does anyone have a recommendation on how they should be built? I'll probably have a 1410 pinion in the rear but the rest I really don't know.
I think my Tahoe has a 4" steel shaft but Idk what wall thickness.
What would you consider the biggest downside to the 3.42 gears? Is it just the feeling of power loss due to a lack of torque multiplication with the gears? That's my biggest fear about swapping too high, but I think a slightly stronger motor with the blower actually turned up passed 6 or 7psi will negate the feeling of power loss.
If it's utterly terrible I suppose re-gearing wouldn't be that terrible. I'm fairly confident I can do the rear myself so I'd just have to find another sucker to swap diffs with.
That’s really all it is. Your extra power should definitely help but I prefer a little extra getting.
like i recently told Dan,
after driving 5 months with the 4500 in front of 4.30s & 33s, i'd decided to regear to 3.42s for my cammed 5.3 to get a little bit of 1st gear back & be able to drive faster than 65 on the interstate without basically lighting my wallet on fire (honestly went from 20mpg @ 60mph to 13mpg @ 75mph).
with 3.42s & 35s, the extra torque of the blown 6.0 would make up the difference over 33s, give him a little bit longer use of 1st gear, and still keep him at the bottom of the powerband on the interstate without bogging it down (like 3.23s or 3.08 would do while giving him a full 1st gear).
Looking for a better comparison since I haven't drive my RCSB in months I ran the numbers for my Tahoe which has 3.42s and a 31" tire. I like the 3.42s in the Tahoe but if they made a higher gearset for the AXN 9.5 I would have gone even a tad higher like a 3.08. Just to really drop the highway rpm since its a DD and I'm weird I like to keep it out of OD on the highway (since that's what burned up my NV3500 and gave me PTSD) 4th @ 75 is around 2,800.
Anyway the Tahoe is geared 12.1% higher than my RCSB is with the 4.10s and 33s.
31/3.42 - 12.1% than 33/4.10
Which means the 35/3.42 will be 12.2% different than the Tahoe which I feel will really be good. I found someone local to buy all the 10bolt parts already which is awesome. I just hope the gears and duragrip look okay.
New window who dis? Finally ditched the slider that got broken into twice. I hate sliders but I also hate lack of window tint. Now when I do all the other 100 things it needs I can bump some beats and not have window rattle.