I am setting up the 12 bolt and planning on running 5:38 gears, this will get me the gearing and the axles for pretty cheap until I can afford to get the 60/70 combo with the gears I want.

Currently the 12 bolt has 3.07's in it, and I know that I will need a different carrier to run the lower gears. Then last night a buddy mentioned that they make a spacer that goes between the ring gear and the carrier to pretty much make the higher ratio carrier as thick as the lower ratio carrier. Is this true?? Where can I find one of these bad boys??

If it's not true, where can I find a lower ratio carrier. I have looked at the local pic-n-pul and no luck. :( Damn...anyone got one they want to get rid of? Prefferable an open carrier.

Thanks for you help!

Chris

Yes it's true and I've seen the spacers on Ebay for $10.

Yeah, they make them, but think of it as a guillotine for your ring gear bolts, not for high HP applications, but then, it will prolly break right before your 12-bolt axle shafts do anyway.

Originally posted by 4Bangler
Yeah, they make them, but think of it as a guillotine for your ring gear bolts,

bingo that is the kind of opinion I was looking for. I will keep looking for the carrier instead of running that spacer piece.

Thanks!
Chris

Try DTS, they have the correct carrier (4 series) and I see they list the spacer, so some people must use them. I also see that the only 5.38 gear listed through them is a Richmond gear, whoa, stay away from that junk, I'm surprised they even list it, everyone I've talked to at DTS had te same opinion of Richmond gears, garbage.

Originally posted by GloNDark


bingo that is the kind of opinion I was looking for. I will keep looking for the carrier instead of running that spacer piece.

Thanks!
Chris

Most gear compaines make thick gears which is the same as running a spacer, but the gear is thicker instead!

Thick or thin gearsets usually only jump one or two ratios past the carrier break, in this case, only down to 4.88, I've always thought that the axle manufacturer made the carrier break for a reason, so maybe the extra thick gear isn't a good idea. I've run them a few tiem with no problems.

A friend of mine machined a spacer so he could use one of the many 3 series Dana 44 Trac-loks he had laying around with the 4.88's in the front of his Bronco, then when he went to swap in a different housing (tube popped) all of the ring gear bolts snapped coming out, the bolts had sheared nearly 1/4 of the way through, if the ring hadn't been such a tight fit (we had to heat it and freeze teh carrier to get it on) I think he would have spun the gear right off. Of course that's a full-size 6000lb Bronco with a 429 on giggle gas that runs 13's in the quarter on 35's and eat's 9" rears for lunch.